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I tre volti della paura

Note: this synopsis is for the orginal Italian release with the segments in this certain order.Boris Karloff introduces three horror tales of the macabre and the supernatural known as the 'Three Faces of Fear'.THE TELEPHONERosy (Michele Mercier) is an attractive, high-priced Parisian call-girl who returns to her spacious, basement apartment after an evening out when she immediately gets beset by a series of strange phone calls. The caller soon identified himself as Frank, her ex-pimp who has recently escaped from prison. Rosy is terrified for it was her testimony that landed the man in jail. Looking for solace, Rosy phones her lesbian lover Mary (Lynda Alfonsi). The two women have been estranged for some time, but Rosy is certain that she is the only one who can help her. Mary agrees to come over that night. Seconds later, Frank calls again, promising that no matter who she calls for protection, he will have his revenge. Unknown to Rosy, Mary is the caller impersonating Frank. Marry arrives at Rosy's apartment soon after, and does her best to calm Rosy's nerves. She gives the panic-struck woman a tranquillizer and puts her to bed.Later that night as Rosy sleeps, Mary gets up out of bed, and pens a note of confession: she was the one making the strange phone calls when she learned of Franks escape from prison. Knowing that Rosy would call on her for help, she explains that she felt it was her way of coming back into her life after their breakup. While she is busy writing, she fails to notice an intruder in the apartment. This time it is Frank, for real. He creeps up behind Mary and strangles her to death with one of Rosys nylon stockings. The sound of the struggle awaken Rosy and she gasps in fright. The murderous pimp realizes that he just killed the wrong woman, and slowly makes his way to Rosy's bed. However, earlier that night, Rosy had placed a butcher knife under her pillow at Mary's suggestion. Rosy seizes the knife and stabs Frank with it as he's beginning to strangle her. Rosy drops the knife and breaks down in hysteria, surrounded by the two corpses of her former lovers.THE WURDALAKIn 19th Century Russia, Vladimir D'Urfe is a young nobleman on a long trip. During the course of his journey, he finds a beheaded corpse with a knife plunged into its heart. He withdraws the blade and takes it as a souvenir.Later that night, Vladimir stops at a small rural cottage to ask for shelter. He notices several daggers hanging up on one of the walls, and a vacant space that happens to fit the one he has discovered. Vladimir is surprised by the entrance of Giorgio (Glauco Onorato), who explains that the knife belongs to his father, who has not been seen for five days. Giorgio offers a room to the young count, and subsequently introduces him to the rest of the family: his wife (Rika Dialina), their young son Ivan, Giorgio's younger brother Pietro (Massimo Righi), and sister Sdenka (Susy Anderson). It subsequently transpires that they are eagerly anticipating the arrival of their father, Gorcha, as well as the reason for his absence: he has gone to do battle with the outlaw and dreaded wurdalak Ali Beg. Vladimir is confused by the term, and Sdenka explains that a wurdalak is a walking cadaver who feeds on the blood of the living, preferably close friends and family members. Giorgio and Pietro are certain that the corpse Vladimir had discovered is that of Ali Beg, but also realize that there is a strong possibility that their father has been infected by the blood curse too. They warn the count to leave, but he decides to stay and await the old mans return.At the stroke of midnight, Gorcha (Boris Karloff) returns to the cottage. His sour demeanor and unkempt appearance bode the worse, and the two brothers are torn: they realize that it is their duty to kill Gorcha before he feeds on the family, but their love for him makes it difficult to reach a decision. Later that night, both Ivan and Pietro are attacked by Gorcha who drains them of blood, and then flees the cottage. Giorgio stakes and beheads Pietro to prevent him from reviving as a wurdalak. But he is prevented from doing so to Ivan when his wife threatens to commit suicide. Reluntantly, he agrees to bury the child without taking the necessary precautions.That same night, the child rises from his grave and begs to be invited into the cottage. The mother runs to her son's aid, stabbing Giorgio when he attempts to stop her, only to be greeted at the front door by Gorcha. The old man bits and infects his daughter-in-law, who then does the same for her husband. Vladimir and Sdenka flee from the cottage and go on the run and hide out in the ruins of an abandoned cathedral as dawn breaks. Vladimir is optimistic that a long and happy life lies with them. But Sdenka is reluctant to relinquish her family ties. She believes that she is meant to stay with the family.Sdenka's fears about her family are confirmed when that evening, Gorcha and her siblings show up at the abandoned Abby. As Vladimir sleeps, Sdenka is lured into their loving arms where they bite to death. Awakened by her screams, Vladimir rushes to her aid, but the family has already taken her home, forcing the lover to follow suite. The young nobleman finds her, lying motionless on her bed. Sdenka awakens, and a distinct change is visible on her face. No longer caring, Vladimir embraces her, and she bites and infects him too.THE DROP OF WATERIn Victorian London, England, Nurse Helen Chester (Jacqueline Pierreux) is called to a large house to prepare the corpse of an elderly medium for her burial. As she dressed the body, she notices an elaborate diamond ring on its finger. Tempted by greed, Nurse Chester steals it. As she does, a glass tips over, and drops of water begin to splash on the floor. She is also assailed by a fly, no doubt attracted by the odor of the body. Unsettled but pleased by her acquisition, she finishes the job and returns home to her small East End flat.After returning home, Nurse Chester is assailed by strange events. The buzzing fly returns and continues to pester her. Then the lights in her apartment go out, and the sounds of the dripping water continues with maddening regularity. She sees the old womans corpse lying on her bed, and coming towards her. The terrified woman begs for forgiveness, but she ultimately strangles herself, imaging that the medium's hands are gripping her throat.The next morning, the concierge (Harriet White Medin) discovers Nurse Chester's body and calls the police. The investigator on the scene (Gustavo de Nardo) quickly concludes that its a simple case and that Nurse Chester "died of fright". The pathologist arrives on the scene to examine the body before it's taken away and he notes that the only sign of violence is a small bruise on her left finger, mostly likely caused when someone pried a ring from her finger. As the doctor makes this observation, the concierge appears distressed, as she has apparently took the ring from the dead Nurse Chester, and is further distracted by the sound of a fly swooping about in the air....Boris Karloff makes a final appearance as Gorcha riding on his horse as he concludes the three tales of fear and tells the viewers to be careful while walking home at night for ghosts and vampires have no fear. The image pulls back to actually reveal him sitting on a prop fake horse with a camera crew and various crewmen moving branches around to simulate the scene of riding through the forest from the Wurdalak segment.

cult, horror, gothic, murder, atmospheric

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Dungeons & Dragons: The Book of Vile Darkness

Two thousand years ago, Nhagruul the Foul, a sorcerer who reveled in corrupting the innocent and the spread of despair, neared the end of his mortal days and was dismayed. Consumed by hatred for the living, Nhagruul sold his soul to the demon Lords of the abyss so that his malign spirit would survive. In an excruciating ritual, Nhagrulls skin was flayed into pages, his bones hammered into a cover, and his diseased blood became the ink to pen a book most vile. Creatures vile and depraved rose from every pit and unclean barrow to partake in the fever of destruction. The kingdoms of Karkoth were consumed by this plague of evil until an order of holy warriors arose from the ashes. The Knights of the New Sun swore an oath to resurrect hope in the land. The purity of their hearts was so great that Pelor, the God of Light, gave the Knights powerful amulets with which to channel his power. Transcendent with divine might, the Knights of the New Sun pierced the shadow that had darkened the land for twelve hundred years and cast it asunder. But not all were awed by their glory. The disciples of Nhagruul disassembled the book and bribed three greedy souls to hide the pieces until they could be retrieved. The ink was discovered and destroyed but, despite years of searching, the cover and pages were never found. Peace ruled the land for centuries and the Knights got lost in the light of their own glory. As memory of the awful events faded so did the power of servants of Pelor. They unwittingly abandoned themselves in the incorrect belief that the Book of Vile Darkness could never again be made whole.Now, the remaining pieces have been discovered, and an ancient evil is attempting to bring them together and restore the relic and the evil it brought. But at the same time a potential new paladin has been named to the Knights of the New Sun to attempt to renew their power to fight this evil. But, to do so, he may need to go against all that he has held dear, risking more that just his own soul in his quest to destroy the evil that surrounds him at every turn.

violence

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The Shop Around the Corner

Matuschek's, a gift store in Budapest, is the workplace of Alfred Kralik (James Stewart) and the newly hi Ed Klara Novak (Margaret Sullavan). At work they constantly irritate each other, but this daily aggravation is tempered by the fact that each has a secret pen pal with which they trade long soul-searching letters. Romantic correspondence is sent back and forth, and while Alfred and Klara trade barbs at work, they dream of someday meeting their sensitive, caring and unknown pen pal.Christmas is fast approaching, and the store is busy. Alfred had been with the store for some time, and has always been treated well by Mr. Matuschek (Frank Morgan), but lately his attitude has changed. Alfred is at a loss, and Matuschek avoids any explanation, finally telling Alfred that it would be best if he left. Stunned, Alfred accepts his last paycheck and says goodbye to everyone, including Klara. For once they are civil to each other.A long awaited meeting of the secret pen pals was planned for that night, and Alfred having just lost his job has no desire to go. Finding he can't fight his curiosity, he wanders to the restaurant where they'd agreed to meet and peeks in the window with his fellow employee. Of course, Klara is there waiting for him, with the chosen book and wearing a red carnation they'd agreed to use as a signal. Realizing that he'd been wrong about her all along, and that his irritation with her was actually masking his attraction, he finally enters and goes over to her table, but does not reveal his true reason for being there although he is aware she will be hurt that her pen pal doesn't show up. Alfred, hurt by her rudeness, finally leaves, knowing that she will wait all night for someone who is no longer coming.Meanwhile, back at the store, Mr. Matuschek has a late-night meeting with a private detective. He knows that his wife has been having an affair with one of his employees, and was convinced it was his trusted friend, Alfred. The detective however tells Matuschek it is in fact another employee and, heart-broken over his wife's infidelity he retires to his office. The delivery boy, returning late, enters and prevents Matuschek shooting himself with a pistol. Collapsing in grief and shame, Matuschekis rushed to the hospital.The next day Alfred visits Mr. Matuschek in his sick bed, where he asks for Alfred's forgiveness and puts him back to work, now as manager of the store. The delivery boy is rewarded with a raise to a store clerk. Klara arrives at work late, obviously heartbroken after the failure of her correspondent to materialize last night. When she finds Alfred in the manager's office she doesn't believe him and when she discovers it is true she faints in the middle of his office. Later, as she is resting at home, Alfred pays her a visit, and while he is there her aunt brings her another letter from her secret pen pal that explains his not being at the meeting because he saw her there with Alfred. Relieved about the misunderstanding she swears to Alfred she'll be back at work in the morning. Alfred is obviously working on a plan to reveal himself to Klara.Christmas Eve is here, and everyone works through the day. Mr. Matuschek has nearly recovered from his sickness and stops by to see how things are going, and when the final tally is made, the store has had its best sales day since 1928. Delighted, he hands out bonuses to all, and takes the new stock boy out for Christmas dinner. Alfred and Klara are getting ready to leave, and she has another date with her mystery pen pal, but Alfred delays her with a few questions. She's never yet seen him and doesn't even know his name but is convince end she will be engaged when she comes back to work. He tells her that the mysterious pen pal stopped by to see him earlier, and he is in fact fat, bald, older and unemployed and quite willing to live off Klara's income. Alfred reveals himself when he puts a red carnation in his lapel and suddenly eveything becomes clear to her.

romantic

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Mr. Holland's Opus

Glenn Holland, not a morning person by anyone's standards, is woken up by his wife Iris early one bright September morning in 1964. Glenn has taken a job as a music teacher at the newly renamed John F. Kennedy High School. He intends his job to be a sabbatical from being a touring musician, during which he hopes to have more "free time" to compose. However, he soon finds that his job as a teacher is more time-consuming than he first thought.As he arrives at the school for the first time, he meets Vice Principal Wolters, who comments on his Corvair, the model of car the Ralph Nader wrote a book about. Inside the building, he meets Principal Helen Jacobs. Having got off to an awkward start with both of them, he goes to the music room and meets his students for the first time. The students are dull, apathetic, and mostly terrible musicians. At lunchtime, he meets the football coach, Bill Meister, and strikes up a friendship with him. At the end of his stressful first day, Glenn and Iris talk about their future. If everything goes according to plan, between his paychecks and what she made with her photography, he should be able to quit in four years and go back to his music, including composing.Glenn notices one dedicated but inept clarinet player, Gertrude Lang, and starts working with her individually. He continues attempting to teach the class about music and continues working on his music at home as time passes. Grading papers gradually replaces working on his own music during his home time, much to his chagrin. After several months, Glenn grows exasperated when it seems that none of his students have learned anything from his classes. Gertrude, despite diligent practice, does not improve her clarinet-playing. Glenn's exasperation is further compounded when the Principal Jacobs chastises him for not focusing properly on his students. She has noticed that he is even happier to leave at the end of each day than most of the students. Later, Glenn expounds his frustration to Iris, who then informs him that she's pregnant. Glenn is dumbstruck, and his muteness upsets Iris. To comfort her, he tells her a story about how he discovered John Coltrane (his favorite musician) records as a teenager, the point being he could get used to this turn of affairs.After some soul-searching, Glenn decides to try some unconventional methods of teaching music appreciation, including the use of 'Rock and Roll' to interest students, demonstrating to them the similarities between Bach's "Minuet in G" and rock-and-roll in the form of the Toys' "Lovers Concerto". For the first time, the students are interested in the class, and Glenn appears much happier as he relates this to Iris as they assemble a crib. Their apartment is getting more and more crowded, and Glenn suggests that they get a house. Iris is overjoyed, even though it means using their savings and Glenn sacrificing his summer vacation, which he intended to use to work on his composing, in order to make extra money teaching Driver's Ed. Glenn does right by his family but he knows he can forget about getting out of the teaching gig for the foreseeable future.Continuing his new, unorthodox teaching methods, he finally gets Gertrude, who was on the verge of giving up, to have a breakthrough and become a more skilled clarinet player. She rediscovers her joy of playing, and the now-competent band go on to play at the 1965 graduation. Summer vacation begins, and Glenn follows through on his plan to teach Driver's Ed, having a series of near-death experiences at the hands of new drivers. Glenn and Iris move into their new house. Soon, we see the Driver's Ed car once again, except this time it is Glenn himself driving like a maniac, breaking every traffic law - so that he could get to the hospital to see his newborn son, Coltrane ("Cole") Holland.Glenn's unorthodox teaching methods do not go unnoticed by Principal Jacobs, or Vice-Principal Wolters. They, along with the conservative School Board and the parents of the community, are hostile to rock-and-roll. Glenn is able to convince the principal that he believes strongly that teaching the students about all music, including rock-and-roll, will help them appreciate it all the more. The principal and vice principal also hand him a new assignment, to get a marching band together for the football team. Glenn is at a loss with this concept, until his Bill Meister agrees to help, in exchange for Glenn putting one of his football players, Louis Russ, in the band to allow him to earn an extra curricular activity credit, which he needs in order to stay eligible for the sports teams. Louis knows absolutely nothing about music, but takes up drums. He has trouble keeping time and always finds himself out of place with the rest of the band.Later, Glenn and Bill are chatting while playing chess. Bill, a bachelor, wants to know about Glenn's stories of debauchery as a traveling musician, but Glenn doesn't want to talk about the past, as he is a different person in a different time. Glenn instead tells Bill he is pessimistic about Louis Russ. Bill encourages him to keep trying. Much as he worked with Gertrude earlier, Glenn starts working one-on-one with Louis, helping to get a feel for the tempo of music. After some hard work, Louis gets it, and later, he marches with the band in the local parade, much to the delight of his family.Immediately behind the Kennedy band in the parade is a fire engine, and its deafeningly loud horn catches everyone by surprise. Iris looks into Cole's stroller to check on him, but the noise hasn't awakened Cole - the boy is deaf. The revelation drives a wedge between Glenn and his son, as it seems that his son cannot understand what he does. A more somber Glenn teaches his students about Beethoven, the deaf composer.Time passes, and we see a montage of events from the late '60s, as Glenn picks away as his composition a little at a time and watches Iris work with Cole. We stop again in the early '70s, with Glenn still directing his high school band. Cole is old enough to enter school. Because of her mounting frustration with her inability to communicate with Cole, she insists on sending him to a special school for the deaf, whatever the cost. The three of them visit the school. Glenn winces at the cost, but they enroll Cole and set about to learn sign language themselves, though Iris puts more effort into it than Glenn.Apathetic students still go through Glenn's classes, and one of them, named Stadler, is stoned. Glenn is chewing him out when Glenn receives bad news. He tells Stadler to meet him on Saturday. On that day, they appear at a funeral. Louis Russ has come home from Vietnam after being killed in action. Coach Meister is there, and he and Glenn mourn. At the end of that academic year, Bill reveals that he finally has a steady girl-friend, and Principal Jacobs retires from the high school, praising Glenn for what he has done.We see another montage of events, this time in the 1970s. Glenn continues teaching Driver's Ed in the summer. We see the class of 1980 being welcomed back, suggesting that it is now September 1979. Glenn and Bill Meister team up to help the Drama Department, when it is rumored that funding may be pulled. Glenn and Bill tell Wolters, now the principal, have an idea to be certain the school will make money rather than lose it; it will be a musical revue of Gershwin classics. During auditions for the musical revue, Glenn becomes entranced and interested in a talented young singer named Rowena Morgan. At home, the teenage Cole comes home and tells Glenn about the science fair, which Glenn missed. Iris is fluent at sign language now, but Glenn is still only fair. Iris reproaches him for spending so much time with the school projects and the students while neglecting his own son. Glenn is frustrated, realizing that his own musical composing has been on the back burner for 15 years now.Rowena visits Glenn at a diner, where he has gotten into the habit of going to get out of the house and have someplace quiet to work. Unknown to Iris, Glenn writes a small piece that he titles "Rowena's Theme," and takes an interest when Rowena states that she wants to leave town and go to New York to sing professionally. Glenn's life at home is still strained. Iris agrees to come to the school play on Saturday, because she had a meeting with Cole's teachers on opening night (Friday).The school revue arrives at last, and is a big hit, playing to a packed house. In the audience we see Coach Meister wearing a ring (he married the woman we saw earlier), and Sarah, the drama teacher, shows Principal Wolters something on a new invention, a handheld calculator (presumably, showing him how much gate money made it into the school coffers, as Wolters looks impressed). After the revue, Rowena comes to see Glenn in the auditorium, and she tells him she intends to pursue her dream of singing by going to New York the very next night, after the second and last performance of the revue. Glenn is taken aback. Rowena hints that she'd like Glenn to come with her. Glenn goes home and looks at his photo album, looking at pictures of his family and pictures of his old life as a traveling musician, now half a lifetime in the past. He is tempted to leave everything behind and go with Rowena to restore his old life as a musician. However, he realizes he is no longer the same person as he was then. He visits Rowena at the bus stop and sees her off, giving her the names of someone in New York who will help her find lodging. Glenn watches her depart, and goes home, content in his love for Iris.The timeline then shifts to late 1980, when John Lennon is killed. Glenn goes home and finds Cole working on Glenn's old Corvair. When Cole asks what is wrong, Glenn tries to explain, but then gives up, feeling that his son wouldn't understand John Lennon or his music. This infuriates Cole who (through Iris), explains that he does care about Glenn and knows about John Lennon, but that Glenn does not seem to be at all interested in communicating with him. Cole berates his father for putting so much effort in to teaching his students and very little towards him, calling him an asshole in sign language as he stalks off. Glenn then makes an effort, and even provides a concert at the high school, which also features lights and other items to enhance the show for deaf members of the school where Cole attends. Glenn, having become somewhat more proficient in sign language, even does an interpretation of Lennon's song 'Beautiful Boy,' dedicated to Cole. Later, Glenn discovers Cole listening to records by sitting on the speakers and feeling the vibrations through his body, and they can start healing the rift between them, even as Glenn's composition continues to gather dust.Time passes. It's now 1995. Glenn goes to see Principal Wolters, who announces that Art, Music and Drama have been cut from the school curriculum, and Glenn would be out of a job shortly. Glenn, who has become a cynical old man, tells Wolters that to cut the fine arts would lead to a generation of students who would be proficient at reading and writing and math (maybe) but would have nothing to read or write about. Wolters offers to write Glenn a reference, but Glenn, who is now 60 years old, fully recognizes the futility of the gesture. His working days are over and he knows it. Then he looks up at the picture on the wall of the long-departed former Principal Jacobs. He says Jacobs would have fought the budget cuts, and he will too. Glenn pleads to the school board to reconsider, but they refuse.At home, Iris reads a letter from the now-grown Cole. He has become a teacher himself, and was considering an offer from a university for the deaf in Washington, D.C. He also has taken Glenn's old car, the Corvair that we saw at the beginning and that Cole was working on in his teens, and jokingly writes that he will never give it back. Despondent, Glenn walks through the school on his last day, and he talks to Coach Bill, whose job as football coach is safe, though he can't be far from retirement himself. Glenn figures that he will bring in some money teaching piano lessons on the side, but he's unprepared to be forced into early retirement.On Glenn's final day at the school, Cole shows up driving the Corvair. School's out for him, too. Glenn is surprised when Iris and Cole lead him to the school auditorium, where they have organized a surprise going-away celebration for him. He sees many of his former students in the audience, including Stadler, the pothead from years before. Arriving next is Gertrude Lang, the clarinetist who Glenn helped in the 60s, who has since become the state's governor. Gertrude thanks Glenn for his dedication, and Glenn is very moved. He is moved to tears when she gives him a baton and asks him to conduct his own composition, which she had got hold of. The curtains open and a band, filled with more of Glenn's former students, is assembled and ready to play. Governor Lang picks up her clarinet and takes her place among them, and they play, for the first time, the musical Opus that Glenn had been picking away at for three decades.

inspiring, romantic, stupid, feel-good

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Scarface

In May 1980, a Cuban man named Tony Montana (Al Pacino) claims asylum, in Florida, USA, and is in search of the "American Dream" after departing Cuba in the Mariel boatlift of 1980. When questioned by three tough-talking INS officials, they notice a tattoo on Tony's left arm of a black heart with a pitchfork through it, which identifies him as a hitman, and detain him in a camp called 'Freedomtown' with other Cubans, including Tony's best friend and former Cuban Army buddy Manolo "Manny Ray" Ribiera (Steven Bauer), under the local I-95 expressway while the government evaluates their visa petitions.After 30 days of governmental dithering and camp rumors, Manny receives an offer from the Cuban Mafia which he quickly relays to Tony. If they kill Emilio Rebenga (Roberto Contreras) a former aide to Fidel Castro who is now detained in Freedomtown, they will receive green cards. Tony agrees, and kills Rebenga during a riot at Freedomtown. The murder of Rebenga was requested by Frank López, a wealthy, politically astute man who deals cars and trades in cocaine, as Rebenga had tortured López's brother to death while still in Cuba many years earlier.After getting their Green Cards, Tony Montana and Manny Ray find work as dishwashers in a corner sandwich/taco shop. Some weeks later, a López henchman and underboss, Omar Suárez (F. Murray Abraham), the man who contacted Manny for the Rebenga hit job, offers Tony and Manny a low-risk job of unloading marijuana from a boat from Mexico to arrive in Miami the following night for $500 each. Tony insults Suárez by turning down the job over the little money they will receive, and demands at least $1,000 for the work. After an altercation, Suárez sets Tony up on another job to purchase two kilograms of cocaine worth around $25,000 a piece from a Colombian dealer, named Hector The Toad, a medium to high-risk job for which Tony and Manny will receive $5,000 for their work.That weekend, Tony, Manny, and two other Marielitos in his crew whom they met in Freedomtown, Angel Fernández (Pepe Serna), and Chi Chi (Ángel Salazar) then set out to meet "Hector the Toad" (Al Israel) at a seedy motel on the boulevard in Miami Beach. While Manny and Chi Chi wait in the car on the street, Tony and Angel go up to the hotel room to meet with Hector. The meeting does not go smoothly, as Tony grows irritated with Hector, who is slow to give him the cocaine in exchange for money. Suddenly, Tony and Angel are double-crossed by the Colombian. It becomes apparent that Hector does not intend to sell Tony the cocaine he has; he only wants to steal the money Tony has been given to purchase the product. To convince Tony to give over the cash, Hector dismembers Angel in a shower stall with a chainsaw. After Angel is dead, Tony, about to suffer the same fate, is saved by Chi Chi and Manny who arrive in the nick of time to gun down Hector's henchmen. Manny receives a minor bullet wound in his shoulder when his Uzi sub-machine gun jams. Hector escapes but Tony vengefully confronts him in the street and shoots him dead in the middle of the crowded Ocean Drive (the now famous Miami South Beach boulevard). Tony and his crew then get away with both the cocaine and the money before the police arrive.The following night, Tony and Manny meet López (Robert Loggia) at his house for the first time where Tony impresses Lopez with not only the return of his cash but with a gift of the cocaine, a prize from the botched rip off. Frank immediately hires Tony and his crew into his criminal hierarchy, a representative of a Cuban mafia. But during this initial get together Tony also meets Lopez's lady, the blond and beautiful Elvira Hancock (Michelle Pfeiffer), who will eventually become the source of tension between the two men. Taking Tony and Manny out to a local nightclub, called The Babylon Club where Frank frequently attends, Tony and Manny see first-hand the high standard of living they have come to acquire. Though Frank actually warns against these excesses, Tony is seduced by them regardless. Thus, Tony Montana begins his rise through the ranks of the Miami cocaine underworld.Three months later. Tony Montana attempts to make amends by meeting with his estranged family. It is implied that Tony's father, a former U.S. Navy sailor, abandoned the family when Tony was little. Since then, his mother (Miriam Colon) and younger 19-year-old sister Gina (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) have been living in Miami. Tony shows up at his mother's and Gina's house one evening, fashionably dressed, and offers them $1,000 in cash for financial support. Gina is overjoyed to see her older brother whom they have not seen for five years. But Tony's mother has only scorn for him since he turned his back on them many years ago for the quick and easy life of crime back in Cuba, and wants nothing to do with Tony, and she is too full of pride to accept his money despite being financially stricken. But Gina, who idolizes her brother, follows him outside where he slips her the money secretly. Gina tells Tony that she wants in on the flashy life that he has going for him. Tony's love for Gina is clearly genuine for she's the only person that he trusts, and is also very protective of her. Afterwords, Manny makes a comment to Tony about how attractive Gina is, but Tony angrily warns him to avoid courting her.Several months later, Tony is sent to Bolivia to help Omar set up a new distribution deal with Bolivian kingpin Alejandro Sosa (Paul Shenar), since Frank is having legal troubles that preclude him from leaving the country. Though Tony was supposed to let Omar do all the talking, Omar proves to be a poor negotiator, prompting Tony to step in and save the deal. They seem to negotiate a deal that, on the surface seems favorable to both sides, but Omar insists that Frank would not approve. Sosa then sides with Omar on this and suggests that Omar use his phone to call Frank. A few minutes later, Sosa hands Tony binoculars, and he sees two menacing assassins, Alberto the Shadow (Mark Margolis) and the Skull (Geno Silva), execute Omar by hanging him by the neck from an airborne helicopter. Sosa reveals that Alberto recognized Omar as once being an informant for the police several years ago, and he has a zero tolerance for disloyalty. Tony insists that he never goes back on his word, and that he never trusted Omar. Sosa agrees to bring Tony on board with him as his North American distributor of cocaine and other drugs. But upon their agreement, Sosa sternly warns Tony never to betray or double-cross him in any way.Upon his return to Florida, Tony is chewed out by Frank for overstepping his authority as well as hearing about Omar's death. Tony explains to Frank that for a price of $18 million to pay Sosa for the manufacturing and transportation costs, they will receive 2,000 kilograms of cocaine from Bolivia for nationwide sale and distribution which will earn them $75 million over a period of one year. Frank is worried because he does not have the many millions to pay Sosa for the cocaine, but Tony says that he is in tight with Sosa and he has established a "credit line" with him as well as work out a payment plan where they will pay Sosa $5 million up front and the rest in monthly installments. Plus, in case Frank comes up short a few million, Tony will earn the money needed through his own street contacts. Frank angrily tells Tony that he did not negotiate a good deal, for Sosa merely tricked him into thinking he did. Tony replies that it's time for them to "think big," and to expand the cartel for nationwide distribution of cocaine. With them as the main North American distributors and wholesalers of the Sosa cartel, they will make millions and become the biggest cartel in the continent. Frank warns Tony that Sosa cannot be trusted and that he will sooner or later turn against them for any slight deviation or compromise of his business. Frank orders Tony to stall his deal with Sosa for the time being. Frank then promptly tells Tony that ambitious drug dealers, such at himself, who want too much and crave money, power and attention, do not last long in the business. Tony leaves shrugging with indifference and strikes out on his own.(Note: Frank López's two warnings about Tony's greed and Sosa's violence will be later proven true.)After this incident, Tony then seeks out Elvira to whom he makes an unexpected marriage proposal. She is shaken by this, but agrees to think about it. Frank López is none too happy when he hears about this and decides to take out Tony.At the Babylon nightclub that evening, Tony is approached and shaken down by a Miami police detective, named Mel Bernstein (Harris Yulin). He proposes to "tax" Tony on his transactions in return for police protection and information. Tony is distracted by the sight of Gina dancing with a local drug dealer. He follows the two to a restroom stall where he berates Gina for her promiscuous conduct. He asks Manny to take her home. On the way Gina admits she is attracted to Manny. Manny wards her off, mindful of Tony's extreme protectiveness.Back at the nightclub, Tony is attacked by two gunmen but manages to escape, killing them both despite being wounded by a gunshot to his left shoulder. Suspecting Frank sent Bernstein and the hitmen, Tony asks one of his bodyguards, Nick The Pig, to call Frank after Tony arrives at Frank's office at 3:00 a.m. that very night and inform him the hit failed. Tony, Manny and Chi Chi visit Frank at his car dealership back office, who is with Det. Bernstein. Nick calls Frank, who confirms his involvement by playing the call off as Elvira telling him she'll be late home. When it becomes apparent that Bernstein (who is armed) will not help him, Frank begs for Tony's forgiveness, saying that he can have Elvira and ten million dollars in exchange for sparing his life. Tony will have none of it, and Manny coldly executes Frank. Bernstein insists that he could be a valuable ally for Tony, but Tony disagrees, and kills him too.His problems apparently solved, Tony begins a profitable relationship with Sosa, marries Elvira, buys a new mansion complete with surveillance cameras and numerous luxury items, and Tony even sets Gina up in business with her own beauty salon. Manny and Gina soon begin a romantic relationship, but they keep it secret from Tony who had firmly stated to Gina that he does not want her dating anybody.As Tony's business grows, so does his cocaine addiction and paranoia, and he begins to spiral out of control... the beginning of the end. His wife, who becomes further addicted to cocaine, becomes bored and emotionally distant. Tony's banker informs him that laundering the increasing flow of drug money has become increasingly difficult, so he will be charging higher fees, up to 10%. A Jewish mob boss, Mel Seidelbaum (Ted Beniades), contacts Manny, offering his assistance. However, as they are cleaning out the money, Seidelbaum reveals himself to be an undercover cop and arrests Tony. After posting a $5 million in bail, Tony's corrupt lawyer, Sheffield, tells him that although he may get him cleared of the corruption and money laundering charges, Tony will probably have to serve at least three years in prison for tax evasion. Manny suggests that he take it, as the American prison system is nowhere near as harsh as its Cuban counterpart, and the right legal loopholes could trim the sentence down to six months. However, the strung-out Tony yells that he would rather die than spend a single day in jail.After hearing about Tony's arrest, Sosa, not wanting to lose his main distributor, steps in to intervene by offering Tony a way out of going to prison. He calls Tony back to Bolivia where he introduces him to his cocaine "board of directors" a group that includes a sugar baron, Bolivia's military chief, and a mysterious American named Charles Goodson (Gregg Henry). We assume he is a corrupt CIA officer because Sosa guarantees that the IRS will not be able to send Tony to jail. But this help comes at a price. A Bolivian journalist is attempting to expose the ongoing corruption in the Bolivian government involvement in drug trafficking, and his crusade is beginning to hurt Sosa and his partners. Sosa will be sending Alberto to New York assassinate the journalist, but he needs Tony and his crew to provide some extra muscle. Tony is clearly disturbed by the assassination since it is against his custom to kill a man whom he sees as a civilian, plus Tony has never killed anybody who didn't wrong him personally. But seeing no other options, Tony reluctantly agrees to help Sosa with the hit.In the meantime, Tony's marriage with Elvira finally ends when after a bitter altercation at a local restaurant, she finally expresses her contempt for him and the lives he had led her on, and walks out of the restaurant, and out of his life. Tony, punch-drunk on cocaine, tells the restaurant's other patrons that his existence is necessary since society needs a man like him to call a criminal. Tony also informs Manny to look after things while he travels to New York on business (but he doesn't tell him about the Sosa assassination deal.)Tony, with his henchmen, Chi Chi and Reuben, and Alberto travel to New York City and Alberto places a bomb under the journalist's car in with the intention of detonating it outside the UN building before the journalist addresses the General Assembly and exposes Sosa's cartel. But Tony has second thoughts when the journalist unexpectedly picks up his wife and children. Tony, saying that the team was only supposed to kill only the journalist, shoots Alberto to prevent the journalist's family from being killed. When authorities later discover the unexploded bomb underneath the journalist's car, they realize that an execution had been planned and increase the amount of security protecting the journalist. Sosa is now the primary suspect and Sosa vows to get even with Tony.Returning to Miami, Tony discovers that Gina and Manny (who opposed the trip to New York) have disappeared. Tony has long harbored an apparent unnatural obsession for his sister and is overly protective of her for reasons that he may not understand himself. Tony visits his mother again where she angrily tells him about Gina's descent into an immoral life and accuses him of corrupting her with his flashy lifestyle. After getting Gina's home address from Mrs. Montana, who doesn't know who else lives there, Tony goes to the house in nearby Palm Grove. Much to Tony's surprise, Manny unexpectedly opens the door in his bathrobe. Tony then sees Gina in a night gown at the top of the stairs. Enraged that another man has obviously slept with his sister, Tony shoots Manny dead. Hysterical, Gina reveals to Tony that they had just been married and were going to surprise him. Tony, riddled with guilt, has Gina taken back to his mansion.In revenge for Tony's failure to kill the journalist, who has now exposed Sosa and his partners to the world as drug lords, Sosa sends a Latino mercenary hit squad (the size of a large platoon), to Tony's mansion to kill him that very evening. Sitting at his desk snorting from an enormous pile of cocaine, Tony realizes and regrets what he has done to his best friend. When Tony is contemplating his actions, Sosa's mercenaries breach the main gate at Tony's estate and quietly begin to kill all the guards around the mansion. At the same time, a distraught Gina, wearing only an unbuttoned sleep shirt and armed with a revolver, enters Tony's office to confront him with the truth about his feelings for her. She now realizes that Tony loves her in an unnatural way and demands, at gunpoint, that he make love to her. She begins to shoot at him while demanding he take her. A Sosa assassin hiding on the balcony, thinking Gina is shooting at him, leaps in and riddles her with bullets. An enraged Tony throws the man off the balcony and kills him with his sub-machine gun creating a storm of chaos at the mansion. At this point, the mercenaries, robbed of the element of surprise by the gunshots, swarm in to attack Tony's mansion from all directions.As all his men are being killed, Tony, still delirious from the cocaine, leans over Gina's dead body begging for forgiveness, at the same time the mercs break into the mansion, Chi Chi opens fire with an Uzi as he falls back and ends up banging on the door to Tony's office (it has been locked from the inside by Gina who was planning to kill Tony). Unfortunately, Tony does not seem to hear him. Chi Chi is shot in the back and Tony sees it on the security cameras.As the hit men prepare to storm his office, Tony finally snaps out of his drug-induced state, arms himself with an AR-15 assault rifle with an under-mounted M203 grenade launcher and blows down the door. A huge climatic gun battle begins as Tony takes position atop the grand staircase and guns down dozens of Sosa's men who try to storm the balcony. Tony is hit a number of times by return fire, but he keeps shooting. With most of Sosa's men dead, Tony, strung-out on drugs, defiantly yells out at the assassins, not realizing that the Skull has sneaked into the room behind him. The Skull shoots Tony in the back with a 12-Gauge shotgun. Tony falls off the balcony and into a reflecting pool at the base of the grand staircase. In the final shot, as the Skull and the few surviving assassins look on, Tony Montana lies dead... face down in the reflecting pool which is located below a large brass globe that says: THE WORLD IS YOURS.

cruelty, murder, dramatic, cult, violence, atmospheric, action, romantic, revenge, sadist

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A Single Man

George Falconer (Colin Firth) approaches a car accident in the middle of a snow-white scenery. There is a bloodied man there and he kisses him. He wakes up: he was dreaming about the moment when his partner of 16 years, Jim (Mathew Goode), died--though he was not there with him because Jim was visiting his disapproving family on his own. George remembers the phone ringing on that fateful day, when Jim's cousin told him about the fatal accident, and how George was not welcome to attend the funeral, because of the family's homophobia (common for the period and later). George remembers breaking down to Charley (Julianne Moore) that day, his best friend from his life in London, who had also relocated to LA; once briefly sexually attached to George before he was completely honest with himself, she may still feel attracted to him.George showers and dresses. It's November 30, 1962, the eve of the Cuban missile crisis. Though British, he is now a professor of English at UCLA. He is depressed, never having recovered from his loss; and when he leaves for work, he packs a gun in his briefcase.He tells his cleaning lady Alva (Paulette Lamori) that she has always been wonderful - in spite of her having forgotten to take out the bread from the fridge. George hugs her, which leaves her utterly confused.On campus, George notices a couple of students, chain-smoking Lois (Nicole Steinwedell) and a boy. One of the secretaries (Keri Lynn Pratt) tells him that she has given his address to some nice new student; it turns out to be this boy, Kenny Potter (Nicholas Hoult), who talks to him after class about the speech George has just given out in the classroom concerning minorities and fear. Kenny discusses recreational drug use with Kenny who tells him that he had never heard George express himself so openly in class as he had that day. He buys George a pencil sharpener as a token of gratitude for George's talking with him.George phones Charley, who is dressing for the dinner they have planned at her home. George gets into his car, and picks his gun after having cleaned up his office. However, Kenny appears once again, and invites him to go for a drink, observing George's depression and having noticed that he has cleaned out the desk in his office. George tells him it will have to be some other time. He goes to the bank to pick up various things from his safe deposit box, and when looking at a photo of his deceased lover, recalls a conversation with him on the beach.After buying some bullets, he goes to a convenience store. There, Carlos (Jon Kortajarena) bumps onto him, breaking the bottle of Scotch he has just bought. George buys a new bottle of Scotch and they talk. They smoke a few cigarettes and drink a bottle of gin together. George leaves, refusing Carlos' offer of company, saying that this is a serious day for him and that he's trying to get over an old love.At home, he puts on a record and remembers a conversation with Jim while each one was reading a different book on a couch. He pretends shooting himself as practice for later that night, but in a semi-comic scene, can't find the best position in which to accomplish it. Charley calls to remind him of their dinner plans, which he grudgingly attends after leaving a note and some money for Alva. They dance and talk about London, life, Charley's ex-husband's abandonment, and she offends George by suggesting that they might have had a "normal" life together if he hadn't been a "poof." Charley says George doesn't look well, reminding him of the heart attack he suffered near the time of Jim's death. Charley tries to convince George to spend the night at her home, but he leaves.The scene flashes back to 1946 when Jim and George had met when at a bar. Jim was on leave from the Army, right after the second world war. Returning to1962, we see George returning to the same bar, near his home; now a quiet place where he asks for a Scotch.Kenny has followed him there. They talk and then go to the beach and swim naked. They go to George's place. As George's forehead is bleeding, Kenny tends to it, and sees in the medicine's cabinet a nude photo of Jim. George sees Kenny strip off his wet clothes, but does nothing. Kenny says that he and Lois are not romantically involved. Not unlike George and Charley in the distant past, Kenny explains that they had a brief sexual liason. Kenny and George do not have sex, and Kenny stays on the couch, given the very late hour.George wakes in a few hours, and finds his gun under Kenny's covers and removes it, locking it up as Kenny sleeps. When he returns to bed, George dies of a heart attack, seeing the image of Jim kissing his forehead.

romantic, queer, flashback

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Baise-moi

Baise-moi tells the story of Nadine and Manu who go on a violent spree against a society in which they feel marginalized. Nadine is a part-time sex worker, and Manu a slacker who does anything—including occasional porn film acting—to get by in her small town in southern France. One day, Manu and her friend, a drug addict, are accosted in the park by three men, who take them to a garage and gang-rape them. While her friend struggles, screams, and fights against the rapists, Manu lies still with a detached look, which troubles the man raping her, who soon gives up. When her friend asks Manu how she could act so detached, she replies that she "can't prevent anyone from penetrating her pussy", so she didn't leave anything precious in there. Manu then returns to her brother's house, and does not tell him what has happened, but noticing bruises on her neck, he realizes. He gets out a gun and asks Manu who was responsible, but when she refuses to tell him, he calls her a "slut" and implies that she actually enjoyed being raped. In response, picking up the discarded pistol, Manu shoots him in the head. Meanwhile, Nadine returns home and has an argument with her roommate, whom she strangles and kills, before leaving with their rent money. Nadine suffers another emotional setback when she meets her best friend, a drug dealer, in another town, but he is shot and killed while out obtaining drugs with a prescription she forged for him. Later that night, having missed the last train, Nadine meets Manu at the railway station. Manu says she has a car, if Nadine will drive for her. They soon realize that they share common feelings of anger, and embark on a violent and sexually charged road trip together. In need of money, the girls hold up a shop and also kill a woman at a cash machine. In a stolen car, they are pulled over for a random check by police, whom they kill. Another woman, who was also being checked and saw the murders, flees with them. The women stay over at their new friend's house, whose brother provides the address and details of an architect with whom he has had trouble. The women trick their way into the architect's house and kill him. Finally, after this spree of murder and sexual activity, the two women enter a swingers' club. One of the patrons makes a racist comment to Manu. The women kill most of the patrons there, and use a gun to anally penetrate the racist man, finally shooting him. The pair discuss what they have done, and agree that it has all been pointless because nothing has changed in them. During their spree, the duo's crimes are reported by the press, and become a point of fascination for the entire country, with some people actually supporting them, and others afraid of them. When Manu enters a roadside tire shop to get some coffee, she is shot by the shop owner, who is then shot by Nadine outside. Nadine takes Manu's body to a forest and burns it, before driving to a beach. With tears in her eyes, Nadine puts the gun to her head, intending to commit suicide, but gets arrested by the police before she can do so.

gothic, cruelty, violence, cult, revenge, sadist

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Flightplan

Kyle Pratt (Jodie Foster) is a propulsion engineer based in Berlin, Germany. Her husband David (John Benjamin Hickey) died from falling off the roof of an avionic manufacturing building, and now Kyle and her six year-old daughter Julia (Marlene Lawston) are flying home to Long Island to bury him and stay with Kyle's parents. They fly aboard a passenger aircraft, an Elgin 474, which Kyle helped design. After falling asleep for a few hours, Kyle wakes to find that Julia is missing. After trying to remain calm at first, she begins to panic, and Captain Marcus Rich (Sean Bean) is forced to conduct a search. Kyle walks the aisles, questioning people, but none of her fellow passengers remember having seen her daughter. One of the flight attendants calls in to the airport they just departed from and, shockingly, the gate attendant says that they have no record of Julia boarding the flight. In addition, according to the passenger manifest, Julia's seat is registered empty. When Kyle checks for Julia's boarding pass, it is missing.Marcus refuses to allow the cargo hold to be searched because the searchers could be hurt if the plane shifted due to turbulence. Both Marcus and the other crew members suspect that Kyle has become unhinged by her husband's recent death, and has imagined bringing her daughter aboard. One flight attendant Stephanie (Kate Beahan) is exceptionally unsympathetic. Faced with the crew's increasing skepticism regarding her daughter's existence, Kyle becomes more and more desperate. Because of her increasingly erratic, panicked behavior, air marshal Gene Carson (Peter Sarsgaard) is ordered by Marcus to guard and handcuff her.Later on, Marcus receives a wire from the hospital in Berlin. It says that Julia was with her father when he fell off the roof, and she also died of internal injuries. Kyle furiously denies that, consistently claiming that she brought Julia aboard. The crew now believes she is delusional and she is brought back to her seat by Air Marshal Carson. A therapist (Greta Scacchi) on board tries to console her, causing Kyle for a moment to doubt her own sanity until she notices that a heart Julia had drawn earlier on the window next to her seat is real. Kyle is emboldened and convinces the therapist to let her use the bathroom. With her handcuffs now removed, she climbs into the upper compartment and sabotages the aircraft's electronics, deploying the oxygen masks and interrupting lighting. Some passengers brawl with the red herring Arab passengers on board. She uses the chaos to take an elevator to the lower freight deck. She desperately searches for Julia and finally opens her husband's casket to which she emotionally breaks down. Carson finds her and escorts her back.Kyle makes a final plea to Carson that she needs to search the plane upon landing. Carson considers for a moment, then "goes to speak to the captain," against flight attendant Stephanie's command (they are landing), leaving the audience to momentarily believe he is sympathetic. Instead, he sneaks back into the freight deck to remove two small explosives and a detonator concealed in David's casket. He then climbs down to a part of the avionics section, revealing Julia is sleeping (presumably drugged) with her coat and backpack that no one could find. He attaches the explosives to the side of the platform and arms them. At this point, it is revealed that Carson, Stephanie, and the coroner in Berlin (Christian Berkel) are the antagonists and part of a conspiracy. Carson tells the captain that Kyle is a hijacker and is threatening to blow up the aircraft with explosives hidden in the un-X-rayed casket unless the airline transfers $50,000,000 into a bank account. It is revealed that the conspirators killed Kyle's husband and abducted Julia in order to frame Kyle. Carson tells an unnerved Stephanie that he intends to blow up the aircraft's avionics section, killing the unconscious Julia, and leave Kyle dead with the detonator in her hand.After making an emergency landing at Goose Bay Airport in Goose Bay, Labrador, the passengers exit the aircraft as the tarmac is surrounded by U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents (though the airport is properly Royal Canadian Mounted Police jurisdiction). As the captain is leaving, Kyle runs to speak to him with Carson in tow. The captain demands she give up her charade, revealing Carson's deception. Quickly playing the role of hijacker, Kyle demands that Carson stay on board and the crew disembark.As soon as the plane's door closes, Kyle knocks Carson unconscious with a fire extinguisher, handcuffs him to a rail, and takes the detonator from his pocket. Stephanie comes out of hiding and Kyle screams "she's in avionics isn't she?" Carson quickly regains consciousness and fires at Kyle with a concealed gun, sending her running. He chases after Kyle shooting, until she locks herself in the cockpit. He reveals his conspiracy to talk her out. She opens a hatch door to the upper level and throws out a binder to fool him. Carson hears the upstairs thud and leaves. Kyle exits and encounters a guilt-ridden Stephanie slapping her palm with a large flashlight. Kyle talks her down and punches her out. Stephanie panics and flees the plane, abandoning Carson who looks on.Kyle during this time searches avionics and finally finds the unconscious Julia. Carson soon follows, and while searching, tells her how he gagged and dumped her daughter into the food bin. He disparages the people aboard who would never care enough to notice. Carson points his gun to where Julia lay before, but they're not there. He turns around and sees Kyle carrying Julia, escaping through a small door with the detonator in hand. Carson shoots at her as she closes the door. She detonates the explosives, killing Carson. The compartment she and Julia hid in was non-combustible, which keeps them safe. Kyle, carrying Julia, exits via a cargo door. Everyone watches in shock and amazement as Kyle carries her daughter out onto the tarmac.Later in the passenger waiting section of the airport, Marcus apologizes to a seated Kyle holding Julia in her arms. Stephanie is led away by FBI agents and more agents approach Kyle, asking her to identify the morgue director in Berlin who has been detained. She carries Julia still unconscious through the crowd of passengers, silently redeeming herself. One of the Arab passengers (Michael Irby) helps pick up her bag, a symbolic act of respect and forgiveness. Before loading her daughter into a van to take them away, Julia wakes up and sleepily asks "Are we there yet?" as they drive away. In this movie appears Christian Berkel who will later play the role of Fritz Shimon Haber in Haber.

mystery, suspenseful, action, murder, flashback

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Little Caesar

Small-time Italian-American criminals Caesar Enrico "Rico" Bandello (Edward G. Robinson) and his friend Joe Massara (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.) move from New York to Chicago to seek their fortunes. Rico joins the gang of Sam Vettori (Stanley Fields), while Joe wants to be a dancer. Olga (Glenda Farrell) becomes his dance partner and girlfriend at the local taxi dance club.Joe tries to drift away from the gang and its activities including running several speakeasys and illegal gambling casinos, but Rico (whom the gang now refers to by his nickname 'Little Caesar') makes him participate in the robbery of the nightclub where he works. Despite orders from underworld overlord "Big Boy" (Sidney Blackmer) to all his men to avoid bloodshed, Rico guns down crusading police crime commissioner Alvin McClure during the robbery, with Joe as an aghast witness.Rico accuses Sam of becoming soft and seizes control of his organization. Rival boss "Little Arnie" Storch (Maurice Black) tries to have Rico killed, but Rico is only grazed by a bullet during a drive-by shooting. Rico and his gunmen pay Little Arnie a visit, after which Arnie hastily departs for Detroit. The Big Boy eventually gives Rico control of all of Chicago's Northside.Some months later, Rico becomes concerned that Joe knows too much about him. He warns Joe that he must forget about Olga, and join him in a life of crime. Rico threatens to kill both Joe and Olga unless he accedes, but Joe refuses to give in. Olga calls Police Sergeant Flaherty and tells him Joe is ready to talk, just before Rico and his henchman Otero (George E. Stone) come calling. Rico finds, to his surprise, that he is unable to take his friend's life. When Otero tries to do the job himself, Rico wrestles the gun away from him, though not before Joe is wounded. Hearing the shot, Flaherty and another cop give chase and kill Otero. With the information provided by Joe, Flaherty proceeds to crush Rico's organization.Desperate and alone, Rico retreats to the gutter from which he sprang. A few weeks later, while hiding in a flophouse, he becomes enraged when he learns that Flaherty has called him a coward in the newspaper. He foolishly telephones the cop to announce he is coming for him. The call is traced to the phone booth where Rico is. He runs from the police and hides behind a large billboard. Refusing to surrender, Flaherty personally shoots at the billboard with a tommy gun. Ironically, the billboard shows an advertisement featuring dancers Joe and Olga. The police walk around the billboard to find Rico dying on the ground who with his last breath mutters, "Mother of mercy... is this the end of Rico?"

violence

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Savages

The movie begins with a video being shot of men with their hands tied behind their backs. An enforcer, who we learn later is Lado (Benicio Del Toro) wears a skull Lucha libre mask and runs a chainsaw.Next, there is a shot of an attractive young blonde woman named 'O' (short for Ophelia, played by Blake Lively) as she narrates in a voice-over. The love of her life is two men: Ben (Aaron Johnson) and Chon (Taylor Kitsch). To her, Ben is like warm wood, the idealistic Buddhist; Chon is steel, the baddhist. O is in a polyamorous relationship with both men, and the three live together in Laguna Beach, California in a luxurious cliff-side house for which Ben paid with cash. Ben and Chon are high school buddies. Ben went to Berkeley and majored in business and botany. Chon was a Navy Seal with tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. One day, lounging on the beach, Ben asks Chon where you can get the best weed. Chon replies Afghanistan, and during a tour there, smuggles out hashish/marijuana seeds from which Ben grows in a greenhouse, using his scientific knowledge, cannabis with a THC yield of 33%, "the best in the world." They met O when they hired her to help with managing the greenhouse. Ben is the businessman who runs the production and distribution and handles 99% of the business, while Chon handles the 1% (enforcement). Ben's philosophy is to provide what people want, but Chon is the realist in seeing the money made from marijuana. Ben does a lot of humanitarian work, and sells to marijuana clubs and dispensaries, for medical usage, but most of the money is made from selling on the street, where it goes for about $6,000 a pound.After making love to O, Chon sees on his computer an e-mail. The e-mail has a video of Lado kicking around the decapitated heads and reads: "These guys were stupid. Be smarter We need to talk." O and Chon greet Ben returning from a volunteerism trip to Africa. Chon and Ben discuss the business. Ben wants to give up the business to the Mexican cartel as he wants to go into philanthropic ventures such as making $10 solar panels, and he admits he's afraid of the cartel. But Chon argues that selling would show weakness, and once they do this, the cartel would usurp their whole lives.We see Lado and his 'gardening crew' carry out a hit. Lado accosts a middleman (Shea Whigham) in his home. The middleman pleads forgiveness and promises an even better deal than paying up. He calls El Azul (Joaquin Cosio) (Spanish for The Blue), a cartel head honcho, to connect him with Lado, but Lado shoots the middleman and has a teenage cartel-member-in-training, Esteban, shoot the middleman's wife, while El Azul is on the phone, enraging him. The gardening crew smuggles the bodies out of the house in trash bins. We learn that El Azul is a former inside man with the Baja cartel, the cartel Lado works for. The head of the Baja cartel, Elena Sanchez (Salma Hayek), had a falling-out with El Azul, and now El Azul is encroaching on the Baja cartel's territory, threatening to take over her position.Meanwhile, Ben and Chon meet with Dennis (John Travolta), a corrupt DEA agent on Ben and Chon's payroll. Dennis tells them about the Baja cartel: they want Ben and Chon's market to fill a market they don't have. Dennis urges them to take the deal instead of decapitation; he reminds them that times are changing and they need to adapt. Dennis is sympathetic to them because his wife has cancer and Ben provides him with cannabis to ease the effects of her chemotherapy.Ben and Chon go to a hotel room and meet with Alex (Demian Bichir), the representative for Elena. The meeting is secretly video-recorded by Lado, with the video feed shown to Elena in her Tijuana compound.Alex lays out the deal: a contract of three years of working together, during which the cartel will learn Ben's horticulture methods while providing vast distribution networks and the operation in a safe haven on an Indian reservation that the cartel owns. (The Indian reservations are considered out of U.S. jurisdiction.) During the meeting, Chon badmouths the cartel's products by saying "I think, basically, you want us to eat your shit and call it caviar." Ben and Chon step out into balcony to discuss. We see that a formidable security apparatus, a team of Chon's ex-Navy Seal friends, who have sniper wares trained on the hotel room, backing them. Chon had planned to take out Alex and his men, but Ben talks him out of it. Ben and Chon reach a decision. They will turn over their business to the Cartel, but not join them. The cartel is not happy. (Apparently, no one says 'no' to the Baja cartel.)Fearing the consequences of their decision, Ben meets with his money guy, Spin (Emile Hirsch), an ex-Goldman Sachs banker who launders and invests the marijuana company's money. Ben wants to set up funds to disappear for three years in Indonesia. Ben, Chon, and O have dinner and discuss the plan for their new lives. Unbeknownst to them, they are being watched in the restaurant by Lado's crew. The three celebrate by getting high in their beach house and having a threesome. Lado sits in the car, spying on them. He calls Elena to update her on the situation. Elena says she needs Ben and Chon to join her for their expertise. Hearing about their living situation, she found their weakness: O.The next day, the three prepare to leave for Indonesia. O wants to do a last minute shopping trip and Chon assigns someone from the security team for her. O is driving to South Coast Plaza (an upscale mall in Orange County), but one of Lado's men intercepts the bodyguard and kills him. They tail O. In one scene, O is shopping next to a girl who is talking on a cellphone, answering her mom's questions about college life. Her mom turns out to be Elena.Returning home but not finding O, Ben and Chon hear a chime indicating a Skype call, and to their horror, see a live web feed of the kidnapped O. Elena, her voice masked, reprimands the boys for not complying with the deal. To redress the insult of the cartel's product during the meeting, Elena has Chon put a gun into his mouth, indicating she will tell Lado to cut off two of O's fingers otherwise. She almost gets Chon to pull the trigger but stops him at the last minute, telling him this will clean up his mouth.Elena tells Ben and Chon to deliver 300 pounds of their marijuana in five hours to show compliance. They get the product and race to Chula Vista. They arrive just in time despite being almost pulled over (and Chon almost having to kill the highway patrolman). Lado and his men take their car. Ben and Chon drive back in Lado's truck, which contains the suitcase of money (they paid in full, Ben and Chon note) and a cell phone. Elena calls, her voice unmasked, and tells them that she will hold O hostage for one year to make sure they comply with all of her demands. Chon argues with Ben that they have to fight to get O back -- the cartel members are savages who will kill them anyway. But Ben just wants peace and O back.Ben and Chon meet again with Dennis, who tells them about the conflict between Elena and El Azul. Chon strong-arms Dennis into getting data on Elena and the Baja cartel from the DEA. He is able to get 60 days of financial transactions, encoded onto two credit cards. Dennis also tells them that two of Elena's sons and her daughter (Magdalena), are dead. Back in their company HQ, Ben and Chon have Spin and his experts look into the financial data on the computer. From it, they trace Elena's financial routes. They figure out that one of her real-estate holdings, a trailer house, is a drop off point for the cartel's business. Ben decides on a plan to pay to get O back. He and Elena negotiate to a $13 million ransom. They decide to hijack the drop to get the cash for O's ransom, and make it look like El Azul hit the cartel.The hijacking gets underway. Wearing masks, Chon and his team of ex-Navy Seals blow up the front car in a convoy with IEDs. When the men from the trailer retaliate, an ex-Navy Seal member takes them out with RPG rockets. Chon forces the men out of the car carrying the cash by putting a grenade in the gas tank. He takes the briefcase from a man scrambling out of the car. Ben is horrified by the killings. One of the cartel members is about to shoot Ben, but Chon shoots the member in the back, spraying blood on Ben's mask. They take the money and get away. Alex and Lado arrive to assess the damage, which is 3 million dollars gone and seven men dead. Lado urges Alex not to inform Elena of the loss because he wants to recover the money and rectify the situation himself and because he fears Elena.Ben and Chon get a message to have Ben meet with Alex and Lado. Alex and Lado interrogate Ben to find out their whereabouts during the hijacking but Ben plays it cool. He insinuates that it could be Lado's men. After Ben leaves, Alex decides Ben and Chon don't have the balls for the attack. He suspects El Azul but Lado isn't so sure.We see O at the shack where they are holding her. She is being watched over by Esteban. Her living conditions are bad: one of her legs is chained to a chair, she has a bucket for bathroom and sleeps on a spring bed in a cage. She pleads into the surveillance camera and gets to talk to Elena, and begs her for some concessions. Elena asks O how long she has been using. Since 8th grade, O says, not that her mother cared. Later we see Lado feeding O a steak, and later, giving O a drug fix, and her getting high. O is also given access to a laptop to send a fabricated email to her mother so she won't file a missing persons report on O. Afterwards, Lado tells Esteban, don't look at me like that (because we see later in the movie Lado shows O a cellphone video of him raping her while she was high).Elena's daughter, Magdalena (Sandra Echevarria) is seen having sex when she is interrupted by a phone call. Her mother is on the line, informing her that she is coming to California to visit. Elena gets on a private plane to the Indian reservation in order to avoid U.S. customs. Lado will follow her later, bringing O with him. Before boarding the plane, Lado tells Esteban that he's proven too sensitive to handle the work and proceeds to shoot and kill him.Upon arrival inCalifornia, Lado brings O to Elena. Elena immediately informs Lado that she knows about the hijacking, and chastises him for not telling her. She threatens Lado, telling him to recover the money and he informs her that he didn't tell her because he was trying to get proof that Ben and Chon were behind the hijacking.Ben has Spin fabricate documents and hack into Alex's bank accounts to frame Alex as the mole to El Azul. Ben confronts Lado with Alex's dossier in an effort to take the heat off of him and Chon. To save himself, Lado visits El Azul and makes a deal to work with him.At a posh spa, Elena and O have dinner during which we learn that Elena inherited the business after her husband was killed. Her twin sons and brothers are also killed, leaving two children who resent her and do not want her in their lives (her daughter and a third son). Elena tells O she likes her, but won't hesitate to kill Ben and Chon. When O remarks that only she can 'get Ben and Chon together,' Elena scoffs, telling O that her love story has a serious problem: Ben and Chon must love each other more than O because otherwise, they wouldn't share her.Later, Lado brings Ben and Chon to see Alex being whipped. The torture is video-fed to Elena who forces O to watch once he 'confesses.' Under the threat of his family being harmed, Alex confesses to working with El Azul. He begs Elena for forgiveness, citing the names of her husband and children. Lado douses Alex with gasoline and anoints Ben to be the executioner. To go through with the falsehood, Ben ignites Alex on fire. O watches in horror.The next morning, Ben and Chon walk along the beach where they discuss the night's events. Chon tries to justify what Ben did by referring to the Dalai Lama, but Ben brushes it off. Instead, he tells Chon that during Alex's plea to Elena, Alex swore on Magda's life; meaning that Elena's daughter is alive, and that Dennis knew this and hid it from him and Chon. They make a plan that will work even faster than accumulating the money for ransom: kidnap Elena's daughter and trade her for O.Lado pays Dennis a visit at his home. It turns out Lado also has Dennis on the payroll. Lado questions Dennis on the culprits behind the hijacking and Dennis assures him it was Azul. Lado informs Dennis that it can't be Azul because he's working with him now instead of Elena. Under threat, Dennis reveals that the hijackers are Ben and Chon, but that they are going to give the $3 million to Elena and not Lado. To head off Elena, Dennis tells Lado to kidnap Magda and sell her to Ben and Chon. Dennis is incredulous to learn that Elena is on U.S. soil.Dennis meets with Ben and Chon, who chew him out for giving them away to Lado. The boys offer Dennis the $3 million they stole in exchange for Magdalena's address. They kill her bodyguard, who is sitting outside her dorm in his car, then move inside, tying up her boyfriend and kidnapping her. Wearing masks as a show, they Skype with Elena and show a shivering Magda, tied up and stuffed in an ice box. Elena meekly agrees to their demands. At the end of the talk, O informs Elena that she knew her boys would come for her. Elena slaps O, then screams at everyone to get out. She drops to the ground, rips off her wig, and breaks down.Lado and his boys take O into another room, where she is chained to a chair. Lado makes everyone else leave the room, then he shows her the video he took when he raped her while she was drugged. She spits in his face, but he enjoys it, wiping himself off on her hair.Elena's SUV and Ben and Chon's SUV meet in an open field with their hostages. On the mountain ridges, each group has their sniper team in position. Elena steps into the open with O and releases her. O runs to Ben. Ben and Chon release Magda to Elena, who is told by her daughter that she will never speak to her again. Before Elena returns to her car, she asks Chon who the rat is. Chon smiles and nods toward Lado, who blows back a kiss. Elena turns around to shoot Lado, but Lado draws his gun and shoots her first. O, who was handed a gun by Ben, makes her way to Elena and wants to kill her, but relents when she sees Elena is already dying. Elena begs O to help Magda escape. O glares at Magda briefly before hustling her to safety.A massive shootout is underway. Each group's sniper team shoots at each other, taking out some members of each team. Chon kills Elena's bodyguards and Ben and Chon converge on Lado, hiding behind the SUV. Ben shoots Lado three times in the back, but Lado turns around to shoot Ben in the throat. Lado sprawls on the ground, severely wounded. O shoots Lado dead for revenge, and erases his phone. O rushes to Ben, seeing his wound is lethal. As O cradles Ben, Chon pulls out a syringe and injects Ben, O, and then himself with drug overdoses. They die in a triple suicide. "That's the perfect ending," O narrates while looking into the sky as she dies.But wait... Rewind, as O mentions that this was just how she imagined it.What really happened, as O narrates, "was more of a fuck-up than a shootout." After Elena steps out into the open and releases O, Lado retreats to the car and drives away. A helicopter and DEA agents led by Dennis swoop in to arrest Elena. The DEA agents disarm the sniper teams and arrest everyone (including Ben, Chon, and O).O narrates as we see a montage: Dennis is grandstanding on TV about Elena's arrest and the progress on the war on drugs (Indian grounds are still U.S. grounds he says); Elena goes to prison for 30 years, while Ben and Chon, who have enough information to put Dennis away, are released after a few weeks in a holding cell after Dennis said that they were confidential informants. Lado and El Azul form a new cartel to take over the vacuum left by Elena.After their release, O says that she, Ben, and Chon all vanished. Montages are shown of them living new lives in Indonesia, Africa, and other parts of the world. A few scenes show that they continue to remain in touch and get together, but most of the scenes strongly imply that for the most part, they've all gone their separate ways-- as O narrates, perhaps it's true that three people can't all be equally in love. She says that one day, perhaps they'll return to their pot business in Laguna, but for now, they live simple, even primitive lives, like 'beautiful savages.'

revenge, neo noir, murder, violence, flashback

tt1615065

Mitt liv som hund

The action takes place in the years 1958-1959 in Sweden. Troubled 12 year-old Ingemar (Anton Glanzelius) gets into all sorts of trouble, which bothers his mother (Anki Lidén); Ingemar does not know that his mother is in fact terminally ill. When he and his older brother become too much for her, they are split up and sent to live with relatives. Ingemar ends up with his maternal uncle Gunnar (Tomas von Brömssen) and his wife Ulla (Kicki Rundgren) in a small rural town in Småland. Gunnar and Ingemar bond over Povel Ramel's recording of "Far, jag kan inte få upp min kokosnöt". In the town he encounters a variety of characters. Saga (Melinda Kinnaman), an assertive tomboy his own age, likes him, and shows it by beating him in a boxing match. Among the more eccentric residents is Fransson (Magnus Rask), a man who continually fixes the roof of his house, and Mr. Arvidsson (Didrik Gustavsson), an old man living downstairs who gets Ingemar to read to him from a lingerie catalog. Later, Ingemar is reunited with his family, but his mother soon takes a turn for the worse and is hospitalized. He and his brother go to stay with their uncle Sandberg (Leif Ericson) in the city, but his wife thinks the boy is mentally disturbed. After his mother passes away, he is sent back to Småland. Mr. Arvidsson has died in the interim; Gunnar and Ulla now share the house with a large Greek family. Gunnar welcomes him and consoles him as best he can, but the house is so crowded, he has Ingemar live with Mrs. Arvidsson in another house. Meanwhile, Ingemar becomes the object of contention between Saga and another girl. When they start fighting over him, he grabs onto Saga's leg and starts barking like a dog. She becomes upset by his strange behavior and gets him into the boxing ring. During the bout, out of spite, she tells him that his beloved dog (which he had thought was in a kennel) was actually euthanized. This, along with his mother's death, is too much for him and he locks himself inside Gunnar's one-room "summer house" in the backyard. While secluded here, Ingemar reflects on the death of his mother, the loss of his dog and a changing world. Ingemar uses the experiences of others and of his own personal loss to reconcile a life which is sometimes tough. Throughout the film, Ingemar tells himself over and over that it could have been worse, reciting several examples, such as a man who took a shortcut onto the field during a track meet and was killed by a javelin and the story of the dog Laika several times, the first creature sent into orbit by the Russians (without any way to get her back down). The film ends with the radio broadcast of a famous heavyweight championship boxing match, between Swede Ingemar Johansson and American Floyd Patterson. When Johansson wins, the whole town erupts with joy, but the now-reconciled Ingemar and Saga are fast asleep together on a couch.

cult, prank

tt0089606

The Brood

At the Somafree Institute, Dr. Hal Raglan humiliates his patient Mike by saying: "you're just a weak person. You must have got that from your mother. It probably would have been better for you if you had been born a girl!" On the dimly lit stage, Raglan demands a demonstration of anger, and Mike reveals angry red blotches covering his torso. The audience gasps. Raglan announces that this is psychoplasmcis; the physical manifestation of mental rage by the appearance of the welts on one's body.Meanwhile, Frank Carveth collects his nine-year-old daughter Candy from a 'Private Guest Room'. Candy wears a red coat with fur trim and hood. Bathing her, Frank finds bruises and scratches on her back. He drives to the Somafree Institute to confront Raglan and demands to see his wife Nola, whom has been committed there. Raglan refuses. Frank accuses Nola of abusing their daughter and says he will stop Candy's next visit. Raglan threatens legal action if Frank withholds a vital part of Nola's treatment. Frank then goes to his lawyer, Al Resnikoff, who tells him that Nola has a stronger legal position despite the fact that she is committed to a mental hospital. Frank says that he will do what he has to. He takes Candy to her maternal grandmother, Juliana, who seems highly strung out.Back at the institute, Raglan goes into Nola's room (play-acting as Candy) and he asks her why she hurt her daughter Candice. Raglan/Candice says: "Mummies don't hurt their own children". Nola sobs that they do. She tells Raglan that her own mother was "fucked up and bad". Raglan encourages her anger by telling her: "Go all the way through it, right to the end."That evening at Juliana's house, she investigates a noise in the kitchen. Food, juice, glasses and dishes are thrown all over the floor. She is bludgeoned by what appears to be a small child wearing a red hooded raincoat with fur trim. As Candy watches from behind a door, small claw-like hands leaves bloodstains on the banisters. The next morning at his workplace, Frank is informed of Juliana's murder. Police psychologist Dr. Birkin tells Frank so encourage Candy to remember what happened, a breakdown is possible if she doesn't remember. "These things tend to express themselves in one way or another" says Dr. Birkin.At the institute, Raglan speaks to Nola as her father. She quickly gets very angry saying: "You shouldn't have walked way when she hit me." Red welts appear on Nola's forehead as she speaks.At the local airport, Frank and Candy meet Barton Kelly, Nola's estranged father, who has come for his ex-wife's funeral. On Resnikoff's advice, Frank visits Jan Hartog, an ex-Somafree patient taking legal action against Dr. Raglan. Uncovering a row of tumors on his neck, Hartog says bitterly: "Raglan encourages my body to revolt against me. And it did. I have a small revolution on my hands and I'm not putting it down very successfully."Back at the institute, a drunk Barton Kelly arrives and is furious when Raglan will not allow him to see Nola. Meanwhile, Frank arrives at Candy's school where her teacher, Ruth Mayer, sits with her. Candy invites Ruth to dinner at her house. That evening, Ruth arrives and has dinner with Frank and Candy. A little later, Barton calls Frank from Juliana's house, saying he needs Frank's help to see Nola. Frank leaves Ruth babysitting Candy, who picks up a book to read which is titled 'The Shape Of Rage'. Raglan's book on Psychoplasmics.At Juliana's house, Barton is alone when the same small figure wearing the hooded red raincoat emerges from under his bed and batters him to a very gory death with a pair of paperweights. Frank arrives a few minutes later and finds the body. The strange-looking "child" jumps on him like some aggressive animal, clawing at him until it suddenly falls off his back to the floor and seemingly dies. Frank picks up the phone to call the police. Back at Frank's house, Ruth Mayer answers a phone call from Nola calling from the institute, who then goes in a berserk rage when Ruth answers the phone and suspects that she is having an affair with her husband.At the police station, Frank gives his statement and then meets the pathologist who performed the autopsy on the mysterious 'child creature' that attacked him where the doctor tells him that the creature died simply because: "it ran out of gas". Or more likely "its batteries expired". The pathologist points out that the creature has strange eyes, no sexual organs, and no navel. "This creature has never really been born... at least not the way human beings are born" says the pathologist.Raglan (as Ruth Mayer) speaks to Nola, Raglan/Ruth says that Frank will divorce Nola and marry her. The jealous Nola screams to leave Frank alone. When Frank gets home from the police station, Ruth leaves in a hurry. He finds Candy cowering in a corner of her bedroom after a nightmare. He tells her that the 'thing' is dead.The next morning, Raglan reads about Barton Kelly's murder. Taking a gun from his desk, he instructs his assistant, Chris, to get all the patients out of the institute. Meanwhile, Frank visits the hospital where Mike is now a fellow patient of Hartog's and is told that Nola is in fact the only patient at Somafree. Mike becomes angry about being dumped by his "daddy", his face becomes one giant red sore.Frank takes Candy to school. In Ruth Mayer's art class, two 'children creatures' in pastel coats with hoods pick up wooden hammers and beat Ruth mercilessly to a gory death. Alerted by a boy's cries for help, Frank enters the classroom to find Ruth dead, and Candy gone.At the institute, Raglan wakes Nola. She relates a dream that Candy was coming back to her, and says she doesn't feel threatened by Ruth Mayer any more. At the same time, Candy is being led along a snowy highway by the two creatures.That evening, Mike turns up on Frank's doorstep raving about: "the disturbed kids in the work shed. The ones your wife's taking care of." Frank drives to the Somafree Institute where outside Raglan pulls a gun on him, saying they'll kill him if he tries to take Candy away from them. In a long monologue, Raglan tells Frank that the child creatures that have been doing all the killing are Nola's children. "Nola is not their surrogate mother, she's their real mother." They are the Brood; the parthenogenesis 'children' of Nola's rage. Over the past year-and-a-half Nola's psychoplasmics have manifested into these children which carry out her bidding whenever she's in an angry mood. Raglan tells Frank that Candy is locked up in the attic where the Brood are being kept, and that if he wants Candy back, Frank must go to Nola to convince her that he wants Candy back to live with him. If he can do that, the Brood will be neutral so Raglan can go into the attic and take Candy, if not... the Brood will attack as long as Nola is in a rage.While Raglan waits outside the attic door where the Brood are being kept, Frank goes to Nola's room. He finds Nola rocking back and forth, wearing a white robe bathed in light. Nola wakes from her trance-like state and seems happy that he has come to see her. Frank says that he wants to be back with her. (Note: throughout the entire movie, Nola is only shown from the chest up which is apparently to hide something). At this point, Nola throws back her white robe, revealing an umbilical cord and external sac on her abdomen. The years of the welts that have appeared on her chest have merged together to create this womb outside her body as an incubator for the Brood that she produces. Frank recoils in horror and disgust.In the attic, Raglan quietly enters where all the sleeping Brood lie in their bunk beds. He finds Candy in one and picks her up to carry her out. Just then, the Brood stirs, sensing Nola's mounting anger.In Nola's room, she tears open the sac, removing a bloody 'infant' which she licks clean, as an animal might after having given birth. Frank's true feelings towards all this become apparent to Nola and her rage erupts.In the attic, the Brood finally become active, leaping on Raglan, who manages to shoot a few of them, but he gets overwhelmed and beaten to death by the Brood. In Nola's room, she angrily tells Frank that she would see Candy die then let him take her away. Upstairs, the Brood then turn their attention to the petrified Candy who runs and locks herself in the closet room in the attic, but they break through the door to grab at her. Frank attacks Nola and strangles her to death with his bare hands to save Candy when he hears the noises coming from the attic. When Nola stops breathing, all is suddenly silent.Frank goes upstairs to the attic to find all the Brood dead outside the room where Candy locked herself in, realizing that the Brood died without their mother's connection. Raglan is also dead nearby having been beaten to death and lying next to a few of the Brood he managed to kill before being overwhelmed. Candy is quivering in a corner of the room and Frank enters picks her up and tells her that he is taking her home. As Frank drives home with Candy, she seems to have withdrawn into a state of shock and cannot speak. Frank doesn't notice two raised lumps on her left arm... signs of her inner rage. The welts suggests that eventually like mother, like daughter...

cult, psychedelic, murder, violence

tt0078908

Cassandra's Dream

Brothers Terry (Colin Farrell) and Ian (Ewan McGregor), who live in South London, were raised by a weak father Brian (John Benfield) who runs a restaurant, and a strong mother Dorothy (Clare Higgins) who taught her sons to look up to their uncle Howard (Tom Wilkinson), a successful plastic surgeon and businessman. The brothers buy a sailboat at an oddly low price, despite its near pristine condition. They name it Cassandra's Dream, after a greyhound that won Terry the money to buy the boat. Knowing nothing of Greek mythology, they are unaware of the ominous antecedents of this name—the ancient prophetess Cassandra, whose prophecies of doom went unheeded by those around her. While driving home from a day's sailing in a borrowed car, Ian crosses paths with beautiful actress Angela Stark (Hayley Atwell), with whom he becomes infatuated. Terry has a gambling addiction that sinks him deeper in debt. Ian wishes to invest in hotels in California to finance a new life with Angela. To overcome their financial issues, they ask Howard for help. He agrees to help them, but asks for a favor in return: they must murder someone for him. Howard faces imprisonment for unspecified crimes and his future is threatened by Martin Burns (Phil Davis), a former business partner who plans to testify against him. Howard asks his nephews to get rid of Burns, and in return he will reward them financially. After initial reluctance, the brothers agree. They make two zip guns, untraceable and easily destroyed. Lying in wait in Burns' home, their plan is foiled when Burns arrives with a woman. Their resolve shaken, they leave and agree to commit the murder the next day. The next day, they succeed in carrying out the murder and later destroy the guns. Ian is content to move on as if nothing happened, but Terry is consumed by guilt and begins abusing alcohol and other drugs. His behavior frightens his fiancée (Sally Hawkins), who tells Ian about the situation and that Terry believes he has killed someone. After Terry confides that he wants to turn himself in to the police, Ian goes to Howard for advice. They agree there is no alternative but to get rid of Terry. Ian plans to poison Terry during an outing on the boat. Ian can't bring himself to kill his own brother, and attacks him in a fit of rage. In the chaos, Terry knocks Ian down the steps into the cabin, killing him. The boat is later discovered adrift by the police, and the audience learns that Terry snapped and drowned himself after killing his brother. The last shot is of Cassandra's Dream, still in beautiful condition despite the tragedies it set in motion.

tragedy, dramatic, murder

tt0795493

The Last Emperor

Arrival. A train pulls into a station in North China. It's 1950. Soldiers are everywhere. The train is a prisoner transport and all who depart from it are war criminals.The prisoners are hustled into the station building to wait. After a short while, four prisoners suddenly get up, congregate across the room, and worshipfully prostrate themselves before a well dressed, bespectacled man (John Lone). The venerated man looks around uncomfortably. Guards lead the four worshipers away. The man retreats to a bathroom and locks the door behind him. After filling a sink with hot water he slits his wrists and plunges them into the water.A short time later the prison governor (Ruocheng Ying) goes to the bathroom door. Finding it locked the governor pounds on the door, repeatedly shouting, "Open the door!" Inside the bathroom, the venerated man, prisoner, war criminal, watches his blood cloud the water in the sink. The man's name is Pu Yi. He is the last emperor of China.The Emperor of China, 1908. The sound of the governor's pounding and shouting transports Pu Yi's thoughts to a time, 42 years earlier, when mounted soldiers similarly demanded entry to his family's estate. By command of the Empress Dowager Cixi, three year-old Pu Yi (Richard Vuu) has been ordered to the Forbidden City, the seat of power and abode of Chinese emperors. As the boy sobs, Pu Yi's mother (Dong Liang) hands him over to his nurse, Ar Mo (Jade Go), saying, "My son is your son."When the procession arrives in the Forbidden City, Pu Yi and his father (Basil Pao) are given audience before the dying Empress Dowager. Her last official act is to proclaim the boy to be the successor of the previous emperor, who has died that very day. "Little Pu Yi. I have decided that you will be the new Lord of Ten Thousand Years. You will be the Son of Heaven." With those words, the Empress Dowager dies. Pu Yi turns to his father and asks if they are going home. Without reply, his father prostrates himself before his son.Shortly, Pu Yi is seated on the imperial throne in the Hall of Supreme Harmony. He is being invested. As the imperial seal is imprinted on the proclamation, Pu Yi bolts out of the hall and into the huge courtyard beyond. Thousands of government officials and household servants are arrayed in ranks in the courtyard and in the square beyond. To rhythmic chants and commands, they all kowtow to the new emperor in a seemingly endless series of prostrations. When they are done and silence finally arrives, the sound of a cricket reaches Pu Yi's ears. The High Tutor (Victor Wong), makes the cricket a gift: "Ah. See? He is kowtowing to Your Majesty. Now he can be the emperor's cricket."Later, the boy emperor is attended by court eunuchs. They bathe him and entertain him while the imperial physician (Zhendong Dong) checks his stool. Ar Mo arrives and Pu Yi flies into her arms exclaiming, "I want to go home!" That night Pu Yi and Ar Mo are in bed together. She sings him a lullaby.Failed Suicide. The remembrance of Ar Mo's lullaby is interrupted by the prison governor. He is slapping Pu Yi's face. "Where am I?" the adult Pu Yi asks from where he lies on the bathroom floor. "In the People's Republic of China," the governor curtly replies. Pu Yi's suicide attempt has failed.The prisoners are trucked to the Bureau of Public Security Detention Center in Fushun. They are given supplies and the rules of conduct. As Pu Yi sits on the plank bed in his cell later that day, his brother, Pu Chieh (Guang Fan), arrives.Brothers, 1914. The sight of his brother launches Pu Yi into another recollection. In it, eight year-old Pu Yi (Tsou Tijger) is paid a visit by his family. Though he has not seen them since his coronation, Pu Yi doesn't seem very interested and must be prompted by the High Tutor. As seven year-old Pu Chieh (Henry Kyi) kowtows to his brother, Pu Yi callously steps over him and, calling for Ar Mo to accompany him, approaches his mother's curtained sedan chair. Perfunctorily, he inquires of her health and, when the curtains part, admits that he does not remember her face. Their father ignores Pu Chieh's shout of "Papa!" and abruptly departs. Pu Chieh is being left in the Forbidden City to serve as companion to his brother.Pu Chieh tells his imperial brother that if he comes home Pu Yi can play with his three sisters and two friends but Pu Yi says that he never leaves the palace. Then the emperor shows his brother a game that he does play. It's follow the leader as, at a run, the two boys lead the imperial entourage in circles. Pu Yi next takes his brother to a lake where, while Pu Chieh dawdles, Pu Yi casually stokes Ar Mo's breast and then suckles it in plain view and to no apparent surprise or disapproval. Later, the two boys have a trifling dispute that leads to a revelation. The dispute is over whether Pu Chieh is wearing a color of yellow that is reserved for the emperor. When Pu Chieh tells his brother that he's not the emperor anymore, that there's a new emperor, Pu Yi tries to disprove his claim by commanding a eunuch called Big Foot (Liangbin Zhang) to drink a bowl of green ink. After considerable pause and with much apprehension Big Foot drinks the ink, but Pu Chieh doesn't accept that as proof and persists. He leads his brother to the top of a newly constructed wall built to divide the northern residential section from the rest of the Forbidden City. Pu Chieh points to a man riding in a car below claiming, "He's the president of the republic."Pu Yi is shaken. When he descends to street level, he asks the High Tutor if he is still emperor. The High Tutor replies, "You will always be the emperor inside the Forbidden City, but not outside. Outside", Pu Yi is informed, "China is now a republic, with a president."Seeking solace, Pu Yi searches for Ar Mo but she is gone. He is told that she has been sent away to promote a more healthful environment.Prison Orientation. Pu Yi and Pu Chieh, prisoners number 981 and 920 respectively, together with hundreds of other war criminals are assembled in the prison yard. The prison governor briefs them. They are expected to face the truth by writing autobiographies in which they confess their crimes.In his office following the orientation, the prison governor unwraps a parcel to reveal a book titled Twilight in the Forbidden City, written by Reginald F. Johnston. He turns to a section near the middle of the book and begins reading.Education, 1919. Reginald Johnston (Peter O'Toole) enters into the emperor's service as tutor during the turmoil of the 1919 May Fourth student movement. Years of deferential laxity have left fifteen year-old Pu Yi (Tao Wu) ignorant, naive, and more than a little arrogant. Johnston immediately sees that to have influence he must be the emperor's friend, not his vassal. For his part, Pu Yi uses Johnston as his only source for genuine information about conditions outside the Forbidden City. Johnston gives Pu Yi a bicycle upon which the emperor attempts an escape. When that fails, Pu Yi tries a rooftop escape and fails again. When Johnston determines that the lad needs spectacles, he must threaten to publicize the pathetic facts of the emperor's captivity to coerce the Lord Chamberlain into allowing the emperor to wear them.Marriage, 1922. The government decides that Pu Yi is to be married. He is shown a series of pictures of teenaged princesses from which he presumably can reject - it is only the government that will select the empress. Pu Yi, however, chooses to have a secondary consort, and in the matter of a second wife, he can do the choosing. He chooses twelve year-old Wen Hsiu (Jun Wu).After the wedding ceremony, he is seated on a bed with Wan Jung (Joan Chen), the empress that has been selected for him. He removes the kai t'ou that covers her face to discover that despite being so old - she's two years his senior - she's gorgeous. As Wan Jung covers Pu Yi's face with kisses, attendants begin removing the royal wedding clothes but Pu Yi stops them. Wan Jung asks whether he would prefer them to be a modern couple. When he doesn't respond, she takes his silence for assent. They shake hands, say goodnight, and Pu Yi leaves.Testimony. The prison governor has apparently stopped reading. Pu Yi is taken from his cell to a wainscoted room where he is to confess his crimes. He is told to first write his name. Since he has been given only chalk and the floor is slate, he writes his name on the floor. His interrogator (Ric Young) establishes the ground rules and then begins by asking Pu Yi why he thinks he's there. From Pu Yi's response and his autobiography one might think him an innocent bystander to China's recent history. The interrogator figuratively throws both Pu Yi's response and his autobiography back into his face. He demands serious confession. A scribe (Hongchang Yang) is ready to take Pu Yi's testimony. The prison governor has entered and sits at the rear of the interrogation room.Trivial Confession, 1923. Pu Yi begins his confession. He recalls sitting on a golden armchair espousing reforms. He cuts off his queue, the woven ponytail that signifies Manchu domination, the cutting of which was, until recently, treasonous. He then replaces the Lord Chamberlain and proposes an audit of the imperial storerooms. That night the eunuchs burn the storerooms to prevent discovery of their thefts. The next day, Pu Yi expels the eunuchs with the help of republican troops.Inadequate. Pu Yi finishes his trivial "confession" staring at his name on the floor. The prison governor asks about the Japanese. They all passionately want to know about the Japanese. How and when did Pu Yi's friendship with the Japanese begin?Expulsion from the Forbidden City, 1924. Pu Yi continues his testimony. The imperial family is playing tennis in a courtyard. Shots are heard in the distance. Suddenly, the courtyard is filled with troops of the warlord Feng Yuxiang. One of Feng's captains (Xu Tongrui) gives the imperials one hour to leave the Forbidden City. They are to go into guarded exile at Pu Yi's ancestral estate. Johnston suggests that he could arrange asylum in the British Embassy.As Pu Yi leaves what for him has been a gold encrusted prison for the first time in sixteen years, he's quiet and strangely apprehensive. The imperial family departs my motorcar as the five-color republican flag is raised over the Forbidden City.Explanations. The interrogator points out that they didn't go to the British Embassy, but to the Japanese Embassy. Pu Yi explains that the Japanese were prepared to help, that they have an emperor nearly his age, and that, since he is Manchurian, many Chinese consider him to be an alien. He presents these facts to explain why the imperial family went to live in the Japanese Concession in Tientsin. He further explains that he was not in the pay of the Japanese, that he had to pay his own way in Tientsin by selling family treasure, and that he dreamed of going to the West.The Playboy, 1927. Pu Yi relates the casual good times in Tientsin. It was a cosmopolitan city with a large international community. At a dance party, a tuxedo-clad Pu Yi briefly sings Am I Blue? flanked by a jazz band that bizarrely wears blackface. He finishes the song and rejoins the dancers. The grown up Wen Hsiu (Vivian Wu), his secondary consort, dances with an American while Masahiko Amakasu (Ryuichi Sakamoto), Pu Yi's Japanese patron and co-conspirator, looks on.While they dance, Pu Yi and Wan Jung discuss where they want to live. She favors Monaco but he prefers San Francisco. She asks if they're really going this time.The American dancing with Wen Hsiu sees the imperial couple and asks who they are. Wen Hsiu identifies them as Henry and Elizabeth - Pu Yi and Wan Jung have taken Western names.As they drive to their residence in the Japanese legation after the party, Wen Hsiu announces that she wants a divorce. Henry chides her saying that no one can divorce him. Shortly after they arrive at the residence Wen Hsiu leaves never to return.Later that night Eastern Jewel (Maggie Han) arrives. In her bedroom, she and Elizabeth engage in small talk and then Eastern Jewel produces an opium pipe. As she prepares the pipe, she casually explains that she works as a spy for the Japanese Special Service Bureau. Elizabeth naively confides in Eastern Jewel. She shares her worries about Henry and his relationship with the Japanese. Henry has sent his brother, Pu Chieh, to a military academy in Tokyo, and Amakasu speaks incessantly to Henry about Manchuria. Elizabeth doesn't trust Amakasu and she doesn't trust the Japanese.Henry appears and greets Eastern Jewel as "cousin." He is still upset by Wen Hsiu's departure. Eastern Jewel stokes the fires of Henry's discontent by informing him of the recent desecration of the tombs of their Manchu ancestors by Kuomintang troops. Henry is left speechless.Questions. The interrogator grills Pu Yi about whether he collaborated with the Japanese in their transformation of Manchuria into the puppet state, Manchukuo. He points out that Pu Yi arrived in Manchuria within a month of the Japanese conquest. When Pu Yi insists that he was kidnapped, the prison governor intercedes. The governor asks if Pu Yi remembers Mr. Johnston.Farewell, 1931. Pu Yi tries evasion by relating the day that Johnston left China to return to England. After their farewells, Henry Pu Yi watches from the car as Johnston walks to the gangplank of the waiting ship. A small Chinese orchestra plays Auld Lang Syne on traditional Chinese instruments.Contradictions. The prison governor dismisses Pu Yi's evasion. He counters Pu Yi's claim of kidnap by reading aloud contradictory quotations from Johnston's book. Pu Yi calls Johnston a liar and points out that his old tutor had left China years before the putative kidnapping. At a nod from the interrogator, the scribe goes to the back of the interrogation room and opens the door to admit Pu Yi's former valet, who is also a prisoner. The interrogator resumes by pointing out that, in his autobiography, the valet had written that he packed Pu Yi's luggage the day before his master's "kidnapping." Holding up the two conflicting accounts the interrogator exclaims, "These two stories don't fit, do they?" When the valet tries to make excuses, the interrogator angrily throws the books at them.Opportunity, 1932. Pu Yi privately recalls the true events surrounding his "kidnapping." Though it is obvious to Elizabeth that the Japanese are using him, Henry asserts his hereditary right to rule Manchuria. He must find a way to use the Japanese. "There can be no Manchukuo without me," he asserts. Even when faced by protest from his faithful old High Tutor, Henry proves that he's still an arrogant spoiled brat by bringing up every petty complaint that he has been harboring against the Chinese. "China has turned its back on me," he rages. He plans to take his opportunity to rule, no matter the circumstances or the consequences. Pu Yi is in the hot embrace of megalomania.Time and Truth. The prison governor leaves Pu Yi and his former valet looking at a 1934 copy of Time Magazine that displays a military portrait of Pu Yi on its cover with the words "Emperor Pu Yi" below.The Emperor of Manchukuo, 1934. The sight of his picture on the cover of the magazine carries Pu Yi back to Manchuria. The Japanese have decided that, having served as Head of State for the past two years, Henry Pu Yi is now to be emperor of Manchukuo.Henry arrives at his outdoor coronation wearing the traditional robes of the Qing Dynasty. With Japanese officials looking on, he bows to the four points of the compass. Then, as the imperial seal is pressed to the instrument of coronation, Eastern Jewel congratulates Elizabeth. "You're an empress again," she brightly exclaims. She then enthusiastically confides to Elizabeth that she wants to bomb Shanghai. "I hate China," she tells the newly restored empress. "I hate you," Elizabeth replies sullenly. From the sidelines, Amakasu snaps photos.At the coronation ball that evening, Amakasu supervises the filming of the festivities. Elizabeth and Eastern Jewel arrive stoned on opium. The Japanese Army High Command is also present. General Ishikari (Hideo Takamatsu) congratulates Henry on behalf of the Japanese Emperor. During this ceremony Elizabeth hides out on the second floor balcony. Amakasu turns his camera from the military pomp to film Elizabeth. He stares at her with stony eyes, then follows her with the camera as she descends to the main floor.While the orchestra plays a Strauss waltz, Elizabeth does not join the dancers. Instead, she sits at the end of the hall and eats daffodils from a flower arrangement. She stares vacantly as she stuffs the poisonous flowers into her mouth. Nearby, Henry's brother, Pu Chieh, introduces his Japanese wife, Princess Hiro Saga, to various dignitaries. Pu Chieh is wearing a full-dress Japanese uniform. His wife is pregnant.When Henry is told of his wife's eccentric activities, he leaves a meeting with the High Command and confronts her. Elizabeth tells her puffed up husband that he's blind to the reality of his situation: that Amakasu is the most powerful man in Manchukuo, to which Pu Yi scoffs. When she asks why he doesn't make love to her anymore, Henry says that it is because she has become an opium addict. She tries to tell him how easily opium can be obtained in Manchukuo but Henry doesn't want to hear it. She then asks to have a child. "You must have an heir." Henry changes the subject by bringing up their invitation to Tokyo. He tells her that he's decided to go alone. When she says that she would never go to Japan, Henry angrily tells her to go to her room. As she leaves, she sarcastically raises a toast to the new emperor. "Ten thousand years to His Majesty the Emperor!" Henry abruptly stands in the face of her affront, but as the toast is picked up by the assembled guests a smile crosses his face.Elizabeth saunters out of the ballroom as the toasting continues. She's followed by Eastern Jewel. Back in Elizabeth's bedroom, Eastern Jewel passes the opium pipe to her. Then, as Elizabeth stares dejectedly, Eastern Jewel rolls down Elizabeth's stockings and proceeds to nibble on her toes. Elizabeth again tells Eastern Jewel that she hates her. Unsaid is that she hates all Chinese who collaborate with the Japanese. Unsaid is that she hates herself for putting up with the sham existence that her life has become.Servitude. Back in the prison, the governor spies on Pu Yi as the former emperor bullies his cellmates. They had served him in the Forbidden City and they continue to serve him in prison. The governor orders Pu Yi to be moved to a different cell, one that will humble Pu Yi.In the new cell that he is to share with five other convicts, Pu Yi is sternly told what chores he is expected to do. He will be disallowed any privileged position here. Pu Yi turns to the door and summons a guard. "I've never been separated from my family," he says. "You'd better get used to it," the guard replies. When he turns back to look at his cellmates, he recognizes them. They were all government officials in Manchukuo.Welcome Home, 1935. The sight of his cellmates carries Pu Yi back to Manchuria once again. He is returning from Tokyo. Dressed in military uniform, he reviews his troops when he is introduced to Colonel Yoshioka (Fumihiko Ikeda). Behind the colonel stands Mr. Amakasu. The colonel has disarmed the imperial guards. He informs Henry that there have been many changes made while he was away.Henry pushes the colonel aside and enters his palace. He asks for his Prime Minister and is informed that the Prime Minister has resigned and has moved to a monastery far away. When Henry asks who it is that is telling him, the man identifies himself as Chang Chinghui (Shu Chen), Minister of Defense.Flanked by the flags of Japan and Manchukuo, Emperor Henry Pu Yi leads a meeting of his council. To his right sit his Japanese advisers, facing the flag of Japan. To his left sit his cabinet, facing the flag of Manchukuo. Before him awaiting his signature lies an edict that would appoint Chang Chinghui as the new Prime Minister. He refuses to sign and instead launches into an idealistic speech about mutual respect, equality, and independence. Upon mention of the name "Manchuria," Amakasu on the Japanese side so violently stands up that his chair jumps back. As Henry attempts to continue, the rest of the Japanese side stand up. They turn and stiffly march out of the council chamber. Then, as the Emperor of Manchukuo once again tries to continue, Chang Chinghui abruptly stands up followed by the rest of the Manchukuo side. They turn their backs on their emperor and fall in line behind the Japanese, marching briskly out of the room. Henry's government has been undermined by the Japanese while he was visiting Tokyo. Henry is left addressing an empty council chamber. As his voice trails off and he slowly sits down, the emotion drains from Henry's face as a new, old realization strikes him. He is back in a new Forbidden City of his own making.At the state dinner following the disastrous council meeting, Elizabeth informs her husband that she's pregnant and that the father is Manchurian. Just then, Colonel Yoshioka and Mr. Amakasu enter. Yoshioka carries the edict that Henry refused to sign in the council chamber. Henry once again refuses to sign it. Amakasu insists that Manchukuo must, by rights, pay the cost of its occupation, that Japan's beneficent protection is not extended out of a sense of charity. Henry evades the issue by walking across the room to stand behind his wife's chair. He announces that he is to have an heir. Amakasu looks at him impassively. He tells Henry that the Japanese are aware of the situation. He writes on a scrap of paper and replies, "This is the name of the father." With the paper in hand, Yoshioka faces Elizabeth across the table. He tosses the paper on the table in front of her while loudly proclaiming, "His name is Chang. He is your driver." As Amakasu scolds the defeated emperor, Henry signs the instrument that appoints Chang Chinghui as Prime Minister. Elizabeth stands as Amakasu picks up the document. Turning to face her, Amakasu triumphantly proclaims that "The Japanese are the only divine race on Earth." She turns away and begins to leave as he continues. "We will take China, Hong Kong, Indochina, Siam, Malaya, Singapore, and India!" Amakasu pursues Elizabeth across the room shouting, "Asia belongs to us!"The scene changes to a close up of Chang (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa) as he waxes the emperor's car. He stops when he feels a gun put to the back of his head. The gun fires.Regrets. In the prison yard, the governor lectures Pu Yi on the technique of silently urinating into a bucket so as not to wake his cellmates. Pu Yi turns to look at his former valet, silently beseeching him for support. The man responds by angrily leaving the yard exclaiming, "You still think I'm a servant, don't you?"When he's back in his cell, Pu Yi denies that anything has changed. "You are all pretending." His cell leader tells him to shut up, that they are working for a new China. As the cell leader summons a guard, Pu Yi is struck by the man's sincerity. He sits on the side of his bed repeatedly muttering, "I let it happen."The Puppet, 1935. Elizabeth gives birth but the doctor (Jiechen Dong) murders the baby by fatal injection. Meanwhile, in an office emblazoned with heroic murals, Amakasu supervises as Henry signs an edict making Japanese the official language in schools. After the signing, the doctor enters and tells Henry that the baby was born dead. Regarding Elizabeth, he prescribes a clinic stay "somewhere warm." Eastern Jewel enters and informs Henry that Elizabeth has already left.Henry runs to catch the departing Elizabeth but, in a reprise of attempted escapes from the Forbidden City, soldiers close the gates upon his approach. From a second floor balcony, Amakasu and Eastern Jewel watch the pathetic Henry walk back to the palace. They hold hands, fingers entwined.Consequences. The prisoners are in the prison auditorium. A newsreel showing diving Japanese fighter bombers is being aired. It begins with the words "With Manchukuo now firmly in their grasp, the Japanese soon controlled most of North China." The newsreel continues to chronicle the Sino-Japanese war commencing in 1937 and the atrocities committed by Japanese forces. When Pu Yi sees his image in the newsreel, he rises from his seat and remains standing, staring agog as the film goes on to show the piled bodies of the victims of Japanese biological experiments conducted in Manchukuo followed by scenes of opium processing and consumption.Capture, 1945. The sound of Japanese Emperor Hirohito's surrender broadcast in the newsreel takes Pu Yi back in time once again. Eastern Jewel sits beside a radio. She listens to Hirohito's surrender broadcast as in a trance, but she lurches at the crack of a gunshot. Amakasu has shot himself in the left temple. Head down, Amakasu's blood spreads across his desk.The Manchukuo palace is being evacuated when Elizabeth returns from exile. She has gone quite mad. She spits in the faces of the Japanese soldiers. When she reaches Henry she pauses and stares at her husband as though she can't quite figure out who he is. She twitches uncontrollably and then shuffles on aided by her nurse.Henry is being hustled along by Colonel Yoshioka who wants to beat his way out of Manchuria ahead of Russian soldiers, but Henry delays. He turns and follows Elizabeth. He watches as she spits on Amakasu's corpse. Then, with eyes glistening, he follows her as she ambles to her bedroom. She pauses at the bedroom door allowing him to approach and then, without looking directly at him, she shivers and goes through the door. Inside, she turns and vacantly gazes at Henry as she closes the door. Henry is left standing outside the door, shattered. At the end of the hallway, Yoshioka is adamant. "Now!" he shouts.As the hanger doors are opening, the twin-engine escape plane is warming up. Colonel Yoshioka, Henry, and Henry's principal ministers are aboard. Yoshioka hears distant shooting and looks out through the windscreen to see Russian paratroopers floating down to earth. They have been captured.Responsibility. The prison governor leaves his office and enters the compound. The prisoners are scattered throughout the compound playing ping-pong, except for Pu Yi. Pu Yi is tending his flower garden. As he works the soil, the governor stops and faces him. The governor castigates Pu Yi for admitting to crimes that he couldn't possibly have known about, the biological experiments, for example. When asked why he signed every accusation hurled against him, Pu Yi breaks his silence and matter-of-factly replies, "I was responsible for everything." "You are responsible for what you do!" the governor honestly counters. He continues. "All your life you thought you were better than everyone else. Now you think you are the worst of all!" Referring to his suicide attempt in the railroad station, using words fraught with past implications, Pu Yi says, "You saved my life to make me a puppet in your own play." He puts down a watering can, turns, and intently addresses the governor. "You saved me because I am useful to you." Stunned that Pu Yi has come so far without fully appreciating the worth of an ordinary life, the governor asks, "Is that so terrible, to be useful?"Reformed, 1959. The prisoners are arrayed as a chorus, singing. They finish the song and sit down. A motion picture cameraman is filming. The prison governor is on the stage at a microphone. Pu Yi's name is called. As he walks toward the stage, Pu Yi hears a prison official read the proclamation that releases him from prison. He is handed the proclamation and, as the governor shakes his hand, he hears the governor say, "You see? I will end up living in prison longer than you." They smile warmly to each other as their handclasp lingers.Freedom, 1967. Pu Yi leaves the Beijing Botanical Gardens where he works as a gardener. He has been free these past seven years for the first time in his life. He smiles a lot. On his bicycle ride home he stops at an open air market. His brother, Pu Chieh, is there. Up the street a large group of young people approach as a parade. They carry banners and pictures of Chairman Mao. A twelve piece accordion band leads the way. The young people are chanting and waving little red books. They are Red Guard. In their midst, a group of dunce hatted, revisionist lackeys are being herded along. Among them is Pu Yi's former prison governor! Pu Yi goes up to him. He tells the nearest Red Guard that there must be a mistake, that this is a good man. The guardsman tells Pu Yi to fuck off. "But what has he done?" Pu Yi asks. "He's been accused," the young man replies. The guardsman turns to face the governor. "Confess your crime," he commands. "I have nothing to confess," the former prison governor replies. Pu Yi's former keeper is then repeatedly forced to kowtow.Pu Yi tries to talk to the Red Guard but they frog march him to the side of the street and push him to the ground. As Pu Yi lies on the asphalt, the lackeys are hustled ahead. Their former place on the street is now occupied by a flag waver and a troop of schoolgirls. The schoolgirls march around in a choreographed display while singing a stirring patriotic song.Pu Yi leaves the street and visits the Forbidden City. It is near closing time. Shadows stretch across the courtyard in front of the Hall of Supreme Harmony. He enters the building in which he held court so very long ago. Magically, he is alone. He looks up at his former throne, then steps over the decorative rope that demarcates the line beyond which the public is not to go. "Stop!" a small boy cries. "You are not allowed in there!" the boy shouts as he runs toward Pu Yi. When the boy asks who he is, Pu Yi replies, "I was the emperor of China." When asked to prove it, Pu Yi climbs the steps to the throne and recovers a cricket cage. He hands it to the boy. The boy descends the steps and pops the top off the cricket cage. He then turns back as though to ask Pu Yi what it is, but Pu Yi is not there. He has disappeared. The boy runs back up the stairs, looks around, and then stares at the cricket cage he holds. An elderly cricket crawls out and onto the boy's shirt.Heritage, today. A tour guide playing a synthesized version of Yankee Doodle Dandy leads a horde of American tourists into the throne room. She explains that this is the room where emperors of China were crowned. "The last emperor to be crowned here was Aisin Gioro Pu Yi," she announces. "He was three years old. He died in 1967."Ed. Notes: The film makers slightly altered the time line of Pu Yi's early life. Re, The Emperor of China, 1908: Pu Yi was only two years of age when he was invested. Re, Brothers, 1914: The wall, from which Pu Chieh points to the president of China and which is clearly under construction, was actually constructed in 1912, thus, Pu Yi would have been only six years of age and his brother would have been five. Re, Education, 1919: Pu Yi would have been only thirteen years of age and his brother would have been twelve. Wan Jung was nicknamed Elizabeth at the American missionary school in Tientsin which she attended as a girl. Pu Yi was jocularly nicknamed Henry, after Henry VIII and as suggested by Pu Yi's relationship to Elizabeth, by Reginald Johnston. Pu Yi's Manchu clan name was Aisin Gioro (Gold Clan) but he would not have been called Aisin Gioro Pu Yi as clan names are not used in that manner. Pu Yi's name is also often spelled "Puyi". Pu Chieh's name is also often spelled "Pujie". After leaving Pu Yi's service in 1924, Reginald Johnston became commissioner of the British Weihaiwei lease located at the end of the strategic Shandong Peninsula until that prefecture was returned to China in the autumn of 1930. Eastern Jewel (Dongzhen) was the courtesy name for Yu Aixinjueluo (or Xianyu) of the Manchu Aisin Gioro. She was a Qing princess and a distant relative of Pu Yi. She was raised in Japan where she was called Yoshiko Kawashima. (Sources: Numerous Wikipedia articles from both English and Chinese sites and the Encyclopedia Britannica.)

murder

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My Life So Far

The film tells the story of how the Pettigrew family, living in their family estate Kiloran House in Scotland, deal with changes brought by the end of World War I, told through the point of view of one of the Pettigrew children, Fraser (Robert Norman). The family is headed by the maternal grandmother MacIntosh (Rosemary Harris), affectionately known as "Gamma", whose decisions are to be obeyed without question. Gamma's son Morris (Malcolm McDowell) left home to build a career for himself and succeed as a well-to-do businessman; while her younger daughter Moira (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) followed the traditional route - she fell in love with Edward Pettigrew (Colin Firth), gave up a promising chance at becoming an opera singer, settled down at her family estate and raised a large family. Edward is a typical country gentry of his time - owns a minor business (turning sphagnum moss into medical dressings), a pious man and defender of traditional values (gives a speech at every Sunday service), loves and listens only to Beethoven and has a passion for inventions and mechanical improvements all over the estate. All of which are laughed at by Morris, who lives in London but comes back to visit often, as he is competing with Edward to inherit the estate after Gamma passes away; the two can barely conceal their loathing for each other. Edward does not appreciate and resists waves of new changes in the world, but the harder he tries, the more things fall apart. Morris and his beautiful and charming French fiancee Heloise (Irène Jacob) introduce jazz to the children ("the sound of the devil speaking" according to Edward). An emergency landing brings the eldest daughter Elspeth's (Kelly Macdonald) first suitor - French show pilot Gabriel Chenoux (Tchéky Karyo). Fraser discovers grandfather MacIntosh's book collection in the attic, and as an act of rebellion against Edward, sets out to read them all. Without guidance, he misunderstands the definition of "prostitution", and believing it to be a business term, suggests to all guests at Morris and Heloise's engagement party that Moira, Heloise and Gamma should go into prostitution to enhance the moss business. Worst of all, Edward finds himself drawn to Heloise, and makes a pass at her prior to the wedding. While passing out food during a curling game held in her husband's honor, Gamma falls through the ice into the lake. Although she is pulled up immediately, she dies of pneumonia soon after. Gamma's will leaves the estate to Edward, leading to the ultimate altercation between Edward and Morris at her wake. Edward boasts that Morris has lost more than the estate to him, causing Moira to finally confront him and tell him that she has been aware of his affair with Heloise all along. It takes months before Edward's efforts finally win back Moira, and the family settles back into its old routine. On a Sunday morning, all Pettigrews are heading to church, except Fraser. Edward finds him relaxing in a chaise longue in the library, a cognac glass filled with milk in one hand and a lit cigar in the other, swaying his head and body to a gramophone recording of Louis Armstrong's "On the Sunny Side of the Street" (a secret gift from Heloise). Instead of being thrown into a fit of rage, he smiles and closes the door, leaving Fraser to enjoy himself.

flashback, autobiographical, home movie

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

Hours after the end of the previous game and the death of the traitorous General Shepard, the remnants of Task Force 141 (TF141) Captain John Price (Billy Murray), John Soap MacTavish (Kevin McKidd) and Prices pilot/informant Nikolai have fled Afghanistan to a safe house belonging to Nikolai's allies. Soap is critically wounded and the whole team is wanted for war crimes they didn't commit. Shortly after they arrive, forces under the command of Ultranationalist terrorist Vladimir Makarov (Roman Varshavsky) attack to try to kill them. Nikolais best soldier, a man named Yuri (Brian Bloom) , joins the team and helps Price and Nikolai evacuate the team to safetyMeanwhile, in New York City, a Delta Force unit named Team Metal is activated. The team is led by a squad leader code-named "Sandman" (William Fichtner) and Sgt. Derek "Frost" Westbrook . They are tasked with taking out as Russian jammer tower on the roof of the New York Stock Exchange which is preventing American air attacks. The team fights it's way through the city, into the trading floor and up onto the roof where they destroy the tower. They are evacuated from the roof by a Blackhawk gunship and they fight their way to safety, destroying several Mi-24 Hind gunships along the way. The American Air Force then establishes air superiority over the city. Next, Team Metal rendezvous with a team of Navy SEALS to infiltrate a Russian Oscar II submarine being used as a command vessel. They force it to surface and take control of the boat. Sandman and Frost use the sub's weapons against the Russian fleet in the harbor and then escape the vessel. These twin American victories, together with victories in the Washington DC area (from the previous game) prompt the Russians to evacuate the United StatesTwo months later, Russian President Boris Vorshevsky proposes a ceasefire. He heads to a summit meeting with the American Vice President in Hamburg, Germany. This action enrages the hardliners in his government and they side with Makarov. The President's plane is hijacked on the way to the summit by Makarov's forces and the President is captured. Makarov demands that Vorshevsky give him the nuclear launch codes, which he refuses.Makarovs actions prompt TF141 to take action. Yuri's intelligence reported that Makarov was moving some cargo from Sierra Leone to Europe. Makarov was using a local militia as security and building his weapons in Africa. TF141, consisting of Price, a recovered Soap and Yuri sneak into the village. They investigate the factory, only to find it abandoned. The militia then attacks, both with technical and Mortar teams. TF141 neutralizes the enemies and heads to the militia HQ, a local church. They are able to eliminate all the enemies there but they just miss the shipment. Information at the militia headquarters reveals that Makarov was smuggling WMDs using a company called Fregata EnterprisesWestern intelligence learns that one of Makarov's shipments is headed to London. A SAS team led by Sgt. Wallcroft and Sgt. Marcus Burns tries to intercept the shipment, first at the docks and then in a harrowing chase through the London Underground. They are able to catch up to the truck, only to learn it was a decoy. A mile or so away, an American tourist family are on their way to see Big Ben. As the child runs up to the corner, a white truck come stops at the curb and two men run away from the vehicle. Moments late the chemical weapons bomb in the truck exploded. All caught on the tourist camcorder. This would be just one of a series of chemical attacks in Western capitals that day with the intent of crippling Western response to Russian aggression. When the smoke cleared, it was determined that thousands had died in a terrorist attack even worse than 9-11. Taking advantage of the chaos, the Russian army attacked Western Europe, occupying much of the continentNATO responds by sending a force to liberate Hamburg. Task Force Metal was sent along with them to do another mission--rescue the American Vice President, who was being held by Makarovs forces. Frost and the rest of Team Metal fight alongside the invasion force and push their way into the city. At that point Frost joins a tank crew and takes the vehicle into a parking garage fighting all the way. At the end the team get out onto the streets, searching for the Vice President convoy. They find it a few blocks away, with no one there. They head into another building where they rescue the Vice President.Price contacts his former commander, MacMillan, now in command of the SAS. MacMillan gives Price intel on the attacks, namely that Makarov's African contact, a Somali warlord named Waraabe was responsible for providing the chemical weapons and he was at his compound in Bosasso, Somalia. Price and his team head into Waraabe's compound just ahead of a huge sandstorm. The team enters the compound engaging the warlord's forces. Nikolai gives Yuri remote command of a mini-gun on the chopper. He uses it to cut down many of the enemy forces. Price Soap and Yuri fight their way into Waraabe's headquarters. They breach the door to his office and take out the guards, capturing Waraabe.Price and the team put on their gas masks and Price threatens Waraabe with the gas. He makes Waraaabe reveal his contact, an arms dealer named Volk, the man behind Fregatta Enterprises. Price then kills Waraabe for his role in killing so many thousands of people. When the team tries to leave, they are attacked by the rest of the militia. With the sandstorm bearing down, they push forward to the landing zone. The sandstorm comes too fast and the chopper goes down. The team fights their way to the crash site to rescue Nikolai. The storm reduces visibility to a few feet. The team makes it to the crash site and they flee to a vehicle to escape the compoundArmed with this information, Price contacts Sandman and tells him about Volk. Team Metal then heads to Paris to link up with French Intelligence. Team Metal and the French forces fought through the streets of Paris, still filled with clouds of toxic gas. They used a couple of airstrikes to take out the vehicles in their way and made it to the catacombs under the city. The joint team slipped through the passageways until they found Volk's headquarters. Volk fled when the team arrived with Frost in hot pursuit. They emerged onto the streets and Volk fled away in his car. The team got into their vehicle and chased Volk. They caught up to Volk and ran his car off the road, capturing him.Because the city was a war zone, Team Metal needed to fight their way to the landing zone so they could escape with their prisoner. The team moved for several blocks only to be blocked by an armor column. They are given air support by an AC-130 gunship which clears their way to the US Embassy. The team is pinned down by an implanted machine gun nest, but Frost moves to the flanks and takes out the enemy with a sniper rifle. The team fights on and then make a mad dash through the city getting support from the gunship until they reached the Eiffel Tower. There, they fought a pitched battle with the enemy. With the help of air support the team was able to clear the way to the landing zone. The Tower fell during the battleVolk revealed the whole conspiracy under questioning. He revealed that Makarov was holding a war council with his allies in a hotel in Prague, Czech Republic. Sandman gave the intel to Price who was already in Prague. Price intended to assassinate Makarov at the meeting. Yuri and Soap slipped into the city. Because the city was under Russian lockdown, they needed extreme stealth. They got into the center of the city, but couldn't get to their target because of the enemy forces. At that point, local Resistance fighters launched a diversionary attack (it was arranged by Price and his ally Kamarov). The team fought their way through the city and got to their target, a church overlooking the hotel where the meeting was scheduled.Hours later, Price was at the hotel and Yuri and Soap were waiting across the street in the church with sniper rifles, waiting for Makarov. The convoy showed up, but Makarov wasnt there. He anticipated the attack and booby trapped both the church and hotel (he strapped the explosives to the captured Kamarov). Makarov sent a message "You shouldnt have come here, Yuri". Soap realized that Makarov and Yuri knew each other. The bombs went off Price managed to escape, but when the bomb went off in the church, Soap and Yuri fell to the ground. Soap was badly injured.Yuri and Price fought their way to the safehouse in a frantic attempt to get aid for the severely wounded Soap. They survived to make it to safety. They tried to save Soap, but he died. In his dying words, he gasped "Makarov knows Yuri". Price and Yuri left the room and Price punched Yuri down the nearby stairs, jamming a Desert Eagle pistol in Yuris face "Tell me how the bloody hell Makarov knows you"Yuri began his story, telling of how he and Makarov were working for Imran Zakhaev since the 1996 incident in Pripyat--near the site of the Chernobyl power plant (when Price tried to kill Zakhaev, but just wounded him) and the moment when Makarov ordered the detonation of the Nuke that destroyed a city, and killed over 30,000 American soldiers. Yuri also told of how he tried to stop Makarov's terrorist attack on the Moscow airport--he revealed the plot to Russian security services and was shot by Makarov for doing this. During the massacre he followed Makarov, despite his wounds in an attempt to stop him but he couldn't. At that point Price decides to still believe Yuri--for now.Price and Yuri go to the only other place in the area where Makarov's people are believed to be, a medieval castle. They slip into the compound, planting C4 on various parts of the building and infiltrate the command center. They continue on and slip up to the main office of the building. They learn that Makarov is still pressuring President Vorshevsky for the launch codes and that Makarov has learned where Vorshevsky's daughter Alena was being hidden in Berlin. Price and Yuri escape from the castle and send a message to Team Metal about Makarovs plans to capture Alena to force Vorshevsky to give up the codes.Team Metal and other American forces contact Alena Vorshevsky and she reveals where she is hiding and that her protection detail has been killed. Metal fights their way to the roof of a nearby building with the plan of providing cover for Team Granite, who was going to perform the rescue. Frost as his team take control of the roof and Frost used a sniper rifle to clear the adjoining rood. Team Granite arrives on the roof and moves to enter the building, while a column of Russian tanks approach the building Frost calls an A-10 strike on the column to protect the American forces. The tanks are destroyed, but Team Granite is killed by additional enemy forces in the building. Sandman then ordered Metal to go to the hotel, knowing they would have to rescue Alena themselves. They fought their way through the city, supported by a German armor column. They nearly reach the building only to have the Russians destroy another building, dropping the rubble on the team. Team Metal slips through the collapsed building and gets to the hotel where Alena was hiding. They fight through the building, climbing up to the fifth floor, only to learn Alena wasn't there anymore. Frost and Sandman climb up to the roof they rush to save Alena, but they are too late--Makarovs men took her away by chopper and Frost was badly wounded.Knowing that Vorshevsky wouldnt be able to hold out now that Makarov had his daughter, Team Metal (minus the wounded Frost) and TF 141 launch a joint rescue mission. They knew that Makarov was holding his hostages in a diamond mind in Siberia. The two teams fight their way through the building supporting the diamond mine and get to the outside. They fight their way through the construction area supported by Predator strikes until they reach the command center. They go through the building until they reach the room where Makarov's men were torturing Alena. Team metal rescues a wounded Alena, who tells them Makarov's men took her father deeper into the mine. The two teams press on deeper into the mine, where they find the team guarding President Vorshevsky. Yuri shoots the terrorist holding Vorshevsky with a sniper shot and the teams move him to the rescue chopper. The terrorists counterattack, Price and Yuri get the president into the chopper as Team Metal covers their escape. Price wanted to help them escape also, but Sandman tells him to save the President. TF141 escapes with the Presient while the mine collapses killing Team MetalAfter President Vorshevsky is rescued, the summit goes on as planned and the war comes to an end. In Moscow, Makarov's political allies are purged out of the government and Vorshevsky forms an Ultranationalist-Loyalist coalition government. As a result of their heroics in saving Vorshevsky and the revelation of General Shepard's duplicity, Task Force 141 is cleared of all charges. This clears the task force to do one last mission--Kill Makarov. They discover that Makarov and his remaining forces have set up shop in Dubai. Price and Yuri arrive in Dubai and head to Makarov's HQ--the Hotel Oasis. Equipped with Juggernaut suits they storm into the hotel lobby, taking out Makarov's guards as they go. They head up in the elevator only to have it attacked by a helicopter. Their armor is damaged and they have to shed it. Price and Yuri head up to the restaurant on the top floor. They fight Makarov's guards and Yuri is severely wounded as Makarov flees to the roof. Yuri implores Price to leave him and go after Makarov. Price sprints onto the roof and jumps onto Makarov's chopper just as it was leaving. Price kills the two pilots and takes the chopper. It crashes onto the roof, wounding both Price and Makarov. Makarov moves to kill Price, but Yuri clambers up onto the roof to stop him. Makarov kills Yuri, giving Price the distraction he needed. Price wraps the cable around Makarov's neck and hangs him. Price then has a victory cigar as he watches Makarovs corpse hang in front of him

good versus evil

tt1937113

Fish Tank

We open with Mia (Katie Jarvis), a 15 year old youngster, hunched over and trying to get her breath back in an empty apartment. She stands, looking exhausted. She is in an empty room over looking the Essex council estate where she lives. She calls Keeley and gets through to voice mail. She leaves a message. Admitting to being angry, she apologizes for something she said. She orders her friend to ring her back.She leaves the abandoned block and begins throwing small stones at a high window. An angry male appears and tells Mia to leave because Keeley isn't here. Mia shouts abuse at the man. She walks away towards a small grass patch in the middle of the estate where a group of teenage females are dancing seductively, much to the amusement of four teenage boys standing and gawking nearby. We see Keeley, Mia's friend dancing among the group. She pulls daggers at Mia, along with all the other girls. Mia sits and watches, smirking at the desperateness of the whole situation. The boys trying to get the girls to notice them and the girls taking it in turns to dance, obviously thriving off the boys attention. One of the girls becomes tired with Mia's sarcastic glares and shouts over to her. Mia instantly reacts with violence and storms over and headbutts the girl. The girl stumbles away with a bloody nose. Mia and the rest of the group hurl abuse at each other until Mia walks away, exclaiming "If you want more then you know where I am."Wandering out of the estate, Mia comes across a deprived looking horse chained to a caravan in the middle of a fenced off concrete block. She looks around for any signs of life and enters the area. She notices the chains on the animal and picks up a big rock. She begins hitting the chain hard, hoping to free the horse. A young man (Harry Treadaway) appears out of the caravan and shouts. He's holding a baseball bat and Mia flees. She returns home, a small apartment block back in the estate, and kneels down to stroke her dog, until her mother, Joanne (Kierston Wareing) sneaks up behind her and pushes her to the floor, violently. The police have been looking for you. She barks. "You broke that girls nose, didn't you?" Mia shouts that she didn't start it but her mum doesn't believe her. They have a brief scrap as Mia tries to get past towards the stairs. "I don't know what's wrong with you." Her mum says as Mia runs towards her room. "You're what's wrong with me." Mia shouts back before slamming her door shut. She lies on her bed for a while and we see an old picture of Mia and Keeley before their argument.Mia sneaks downstairs to avoid any confrontation with her mum. She escapes successfully. We see her pay an older looking boy to buy her a bottle of cider. She takes the cider to the abandoned apartment block where we saw her first. She plugs her music device into some speakers and begins hip-hop dancing. We cut from the sunset over the estate to Mia's dancing for a while. It becomes clear that dancing is something that Mia enjoys as well being an escape from her deprived life.A time lapse of a few hours occurs and we see Mia leaning over the balcony of the empty apartment with her cider. She takes long swigs and watches 3 young boys play football nearby. She then notices the boy who ran after her with a baseball bat after trying to free the horse. He is with several other boys and they are walking a dog. She leaves and returns home. Back at her home, Mia walks past her younger sister, Tyler (Rebecca Griffiths), and retrieves a hammer from a drawer. Tyler tells Mia that she will be in trouble because she was supposed to stay in. Mia leaves again anyway. We see Mia enter the site with the horse and caravan. She sneaks up and strokes the horse for a brief moment. She is calm around the horse which is a huge contrast to how she acts around other people. She then pulls the hammer out of her bag, ready to hit the chain again. However, a dog begins barking and runs for Mia. It's chained to the caravan so can't reach her but still scares her enough for her to turn and make a run for it. Only the boys are back and are behind her. They torment her and begin touching her. One of the boys rips her bag away from her. She retaliates but this only spurs the boys on. Two of the boys get a hold of Mia and it's disturbing to see where this is heading. The boy who previously ran after Mia with the baseball bat is stood watching, holding the barking dog. When it becomes apparent what his friends plan to do to Mia, he lets the dog go and it runs for the boys. This is Mia's chance to get away and she runs, leaving her bag with her music and speakers behind her.The next morning, Mia is in her kitchen. She starts dancing slowly to a song playing on a music channel on the small television on the work surface. She is interrupted by a noise coming from the kitchen door. A middle aged man (Michael Fassbender) stands, topless and smirking. She freezes and he tells her to carry on because he was enjoying it. She is embarrassed as she is only in her skimpy pajamas. He proceeds into the kitchen and begins making cups of tea. He introduces himself as a friend of her mother's. His name is Connor. They begin sarcastic banter about Mia's dancing. Mia watches him as he pours hot water and milk. He leaves the kitchen with two mugs and heads back up the stairs as Mia admires the curves of his back. She pulls his wallet out of his coat which is hung on the banister. She finds a wage slip from Wickes and also a five pound note which she quickly pockets before putting the wallet back and sitting innocently on the sofa as Connor comes back down the stairs. He puts his coat on as Tyler playfully guards the front door. She demands £2 and then she'll move and he can leave. He tickles her and demands a discount. She laughs and shouts "Fine, a pound!". He gives her a coin and she walks away. "I like you", Tyler says, "Ill kill you last". She makes a gun motion with her hand. In a playful mood, Tyler jumps on Mia. Mia stands and shouts at her sister. Tyler looks sad and lonely. Mia watches Connor through a window. He gets into his car and leaves.We hear Mia's mother play a love song on the radio in the kitchen. Dressed only in a small vest top and white underwear, Joanne is barely out of adolescence herself and is clearly happy about the previous evening's events as she dances and sings around the kitchen. Tyler and Mia watch her. She tells her daughters that she'll be having her friends round later and they need to either get out or stay in their rooms and its a no kids allowed event. Joanne clearly cares more about her friends, drinking and parties than her own daughters. Mia heads upstairs and Tyler shouts abuse at her mother as Joanne grabs her by her hair to get her out of the kitchen. Mia offers to give Tyler the child line number.We cut to Mia heading back to the caravan site with the intention of getting her bag back. She encounters the young man who ultimately saved her by letting the angry dog go. His name is Billy. He gives her her bag back and Mia asks if he let the dog go on purpose. He lies and says that the dog is strong. We are back at Mia's apartment and she sits in Tyler's room with her sister and her sister's friend as her mother's party is kicking off downstairs. The two young friends drink out of a can and smoke as Mia sits on the window sill. They watch a reality show on a small television. Mia spots Connor walking into their apartment block. She immediately heads downstairs and opens the door to him. He says that he doesn't recognize her with clothes on and she swears at him, feigning anger but you can see that she is pleased to see him. She watches as he heads towards her mother and the two seductively dance together. Joanne storms up to Mia and nips her hard on the arm and tells her to go to her room. Instead, Mia heads into the kitchen and steals a bottle of vodka. She then heads into her mother's room upstairs and plays around with her makeup, whilst taking huge gulps of the alcohol.It's night time and Mia has passed out on her mum's bed. Connor is there, along with Joanne. She tells him to give Mia a prod to wake her up but instead, he picks her up and takes her to her bedroom. He begins taking her shoes off, along with her trousers. We don't know if this is purely fatherly instinct or something else. He tucks her in and leaves.The next morning, Mia walks downstairs in just her underwear and vest top. She drinks from the tap and her mother tells her to get some clothes on as Connor is sat at the kitchen table. Mia says that she is wearing clothes and her mother snarls that she's half naked. Tyler sits on the surface next to the sink. "Shall we get a move on?" Mia's mum says to Connor. Tyler demands to know where they are going but Joanne tries to shrug her off by saying that they are just going for a drive. Tyler says that she still wants to go with them. Connor thinks it would be nice for the girls to go too and we hear Mia's mum groan in despair at the thought of her daughters imposing on her alone time with her new lover boy. Connor tells Tyler to go and get dressed. "What about you?" He says to Mia. Joanne interrupts and says that Mia has better things to do. "Actually, I'd love to come". Mia snarls sarcastically towards her mother. She heads upstairs to get dressed.The four of them are in Connor's car and he plays music on his stereo which the girls dislike at first but then warm to and they all dance in their seats. Connor drives them to a stream where he has obviously been before as he says that he wants to show them something. He begins to take his shoes off and roll his jeans up. He makes his way into the water and Tyler and Mia's mum say that he must be mad. Mia takes her own shoes off and goes into the water after Connor as he says that he needs some help. "Trust bloody Mia". Says Joanne from the water bank.Connor instructs Mia to enter the water and walk slowly towards him. He keeps his eyes on the water in between them and places his hands underneath the surface. Mia does as she's told and walks slowly towards him. After a few tentative steps, Connor pulls a fish up from the water. All three girls gasp. Tyler is extremely excited. Connor takes the fish to the water bank and Mia follows. We see the fish dying on the grass. It becomes clear that Mia has cut her foot in the water. Connor takes his sock off and wraps it around the cut. Mia notices a tattoo on Connor's arm that says Kelly inside a heart. She asks him about it and he dismisses it as an ex girlfriend. The four head back to the car and Connor invites Mia to jump on his back to save her from walking back with no shoes on, seeing as her feet are all wet and cut. She jumps up and rests her head on his shoulder.We cut to Mia in a washroom of a pub. She washes her hands and fixes her hair. Through an open window, she hears Connor outside on the phone to somebody. "Alright, Ill pop over later". He says, sounding annoyed. She looks suspicious. We see Mia stood against Connor's car with a glass of coke in the car park of the pub. Joanne sits in the drivers seat with the door open and Tyler is on a swing nearby. Connor makes his way back to the girls, after having been on the phone and he looks irritated. Joanne asks if he's okay and he says that he is but he'll have to leave soon. Joanne says that he shouldn't have to Put up with s**t from his mum. Mia eyes him suspiciously. Connor says that he'll take the girls home and Joanne begs him to stay for another drink. She gets him to cave in by offering to pay for this round. She leaves for the pub. Connor gets into the driver's seat and plays with the stereo. He plays Get Up Offa That Thing by James Brown and says to Mia Lets see you move to this then. He gets out of the car and begins dancing, quite badly. Mia laughs at him. Tyler sings on the swing. Mia shyly begins dancing. Connor claps and urges her on. Mia starts getting into it and shows off her moves. Joanne appears with a tray of drinks and laughs at them both. Connor takes it lightheartedly and laughs too but Mia is immediately defensive as she is embarrassed to be caught having a good time with Connor. Joanne tells Mia to behave as Connor has been kind to her today. Mia dismisses this and says that she doesn't have to like Connor. He looks hurt and says that she doesn't mean it. Mia begins shouting that Connor doesn't know them after two days. She storms away and we hear Connor say But you haven't got any shoes on. It's clear that he cares about her. Back in Joanne's apartment, presumably the next morning, we find Mia sound asleep in bed.There is a soft knocking on the door downstairs. We hear Joanne greet somebody and she shouts for Mia. Joanne pops her head around Mia's door when she gets no response. There is somebody downstairs who wants to talk to you. Joanne says. Mia turns over in bed, ignoring her. Joanne picks up a dirty piece of clothing from the floor and throws it at Mia's head. She threatens to bring the guest upstairs if Mia doesn't come down. "Keep your hair on, I'm coming". Mia shouts. Joanne shakes her head in disgust at her daughter and slams her door shut. Mia looks down at the cut on her foot. It looks swollen and bloody. Mia makes her way downstairs after having gotten dressed. A woman introduces herself as Carrie. She seems nice but Mia obviously knows what this is about and doesn't warm to her. Carrie wants to have a chat with Mia. Mia asks if she can get a drink first and makes her way into the kitchen. They've got you in that special school. We hear Joanne say. We also hear Joanne softly say to Carrie, When she was born, she wouldn't stop crying for days. I swear she came out looking for trouble. Mia turns the tap on to make it sound as though she is getting herself a drink. She sees her dog eating the fish that Connor caught the day before. Carrie asks Joanne about Tyler and Joanne says that it wont be long until Tyler is just like Mia. "This place shes going to, what's it like?". Joanne asks Carrie. Mia looks panicked and quietly opens the front door and makes a run for it. We hear Joanne call after her. Mia makes it into the town centre and spots a flyer in the window of an internet cafe. Female Dancers Wanted Top Club Seeks Fresh Young Talent!Mia is in the internet cafe, looking up dance videos on the internet. She turns the computer off, packs up her headphones and takes the flyer from the window. That is when she bumps into Keeley and the rest of her new friends including the girl that Mia headbutted. "Is there a bad smell in here or what?". Says one of the girls when she spots Mia. Mia threatens to headbutt the girl again if she doesn't move out of the doorway. The girls back off although they still shout abuse at Mia as she leaves. Keeley keeps quiet. Mia is walking past the back area of a big department store. She spots somebody she knows and walks towards it. Connor is stood outside, smoking and in a security guards uniform. "How did you know I worked here?". he asks. "You said". Mia quickly responds. Although she knew because she found a wage slip in his wallet. "Thought you hated me". Connor says sarcastically. Mia responds with a funny comment and Connor laughs. He can't stay mad at her. He asks her how her foot is and she says its okay. He doesn't believe her and looks. He sees the swelling and blood and fetches a first aid kit from inside. He orders her to take her shoe off. She says that she can do it when she spots the kit but he says that he can do it better. He kneels in front of her and bandages her foot. "Do you ever wash your feet?". He asks playfully. She smiles. She puts her shoe back on and notices a group of young girls having fun and laughing nearby. Connor asks what she is up to and Mia looks lonely. She lies and says that she has stuff planned. She shows Connor the flyer from the internet cafe and Connor immediately begins urging her to go for it. "You're great". He says to her and it's clear that she isn't used to being complimented. "Don't tell mum". She says. Connor observes that the flyer says that all candidates must send in a video and he offers to let her borrow his camera. He agrees to give it to her on one condition she must smile in the video. She looks bashful and agrees. He says that hes coming over later and Mia looks happy. Connor goes back to work. Mia is back in the abandoned apartment, dancing with her headphones in. There are beer cans in the corner of the room. She practices some moves for her candidate video. She heads back home and Joanne is cooking on the hob. She tells Mia that just because she ran away, she can't get away with it and that Mia will be leaving for this special school in two weeks.Mia notices men's shoes in the living room and immediately heads upstairs to find Connor. He is changing his clothes in Joanne's room and Mia makes him jump. She asks for the camera and Connor hands it over. She begins playing with it and records him getting changed. He splashes on some aftershave and asks Mia what she thinks by leaning towards her and letting her smell him. She closes her eyes and inhales. "Fox p*ss". She jokes. He playfully grabs her and throws her across his lap. He begins spanking her and telling her that she's in for a good hiding. She swears at him and gets away. Connor smirks and says that she got away lightly this time. Joanne appears and says that tea is ready. Connor explains that he was just giving his camera to Mia. Joanne says that she'll probably break it. She'll get a good hiding if she does. Connor says. He winks and walks away with Joanne. We see Mia in the empty room in which she does her dancing. She is talking into the camera and is filming her candidate video. She recites her name and telephone number and begins dancing. Its night time and Mia is in bed watching her video on Connor's camera. She then watches the video she made of him getting changed. She pauses the video when she hears noises coming from her mum's bedroom. She walks onto the landing and hears moaning and creaking. Through a gap in Joanne's door, Mia watches Connor and her mother make love. Mia storms away and slams her bedroom door so they know that she is awake. She slams it a second time just to make sure.The next morning, Mia packs her bag in her bedroom and heads out to the post office for a stamp to post her video. She sees Billy in the post office.. She posts her video and follows him out onto the street. "Are you following me?". He jokes. They walk together and Mia asks how the horse is. He explains that it isn't what it looks like. He knows that Mia thinks that the boys starve the horse. He says that the horse is old. Mia asks where he is going because she wants to come. They head to a car scrap yard as Billy plans to steal car parts. He tells Mia to keep a look out whilst he works on a car. Mia says that she doesn't like it and she offers to get them both some money for some drink if they can leave. We cut to them both running through a car park, laughing and looking slightly tipsy. They chase each other around cars. They are inside a department store, Mia leading the way. She looks down every aisle and then finds who she is looking for. She runs and jumps on Connors back. She gets down and asks for some money. Connor asks if she is drunk. Mia walks up to Billy and tells Connor to observe how skinny he is. We need food. She begs. Connor caves and hands Mia a five pound note. Mia jumps on Billy's back and they leave the store. It's early evening and we see Mia with Billy in the empty apartment drinking beer from a can. They look at each other and we see him almost go in for a kiss but Mia looks away. Mia returns home at night and asks her mother for some tea. "What do you think this is, a cafe?". Joanne asks. Mia looks in the fridge and fetches a yoghurt. She joins Joanne and Connor on the sofa. Tyler is asleep on the floor.Connor's eyes never leave Mia as she takes her jacket off and peels the lid off her yoghurt and licks it. He asks her if shes going out with that boy. She asks why and Connor responds by saying that he looks far too old. Mia says that hes only nineteen. Joanne tells Connor that Mia has never had a boyfriend and Mia angrily lies and says that shes just had sex with him upstairs. Connor doesn't look happy. Joanne asks Connor if he wants to go to bed and he agrees. He picks an asleep Tyler off the floor and takes her upstairs. Joanne hands Mia a letter all about her new school. Mia tears it up and throws it out of the window. Connor appears behind her and says That place might teach you some manners. Mia claims that it's got nothing to do with him and Connor nastily says that Mia needs sorting out. "You're nothing to me, so why should I listen?". Mia hisses at him. He looks hurt, retrieves Tyler's pillow from the floor and heads upstairs. Mia slumps on the sofa and falls asleep. Mia wakes the next morning and watches her mother retrieve Connors work shirts from the washing line outside. She looks happy. Mia gets a voice mail on her phone and it's somebody from the dance auditions. They offer her a personal audition the following week. We see her back in the empty apartment, with her headphones in, dancing. She seems calm. Mia is on her bed, in her pajamas, drinking out of a can. She hears the door open downstairs and she heads onto the landing where she sees Connor leading a drunk Joanne up the stairs. Mia retreats back to her room and watches as Connor puts Joanne into bed. She hears Connor head back downstairs. She follows him and finds him watching television. He looks up and says that shes up late. He asks if they are friends because she has been acting funny with him. She sits on the chair next to the sofa and drinks from a vodka bottle. "This family loves their booze". Connor comments. They talk about Mia's dance audition. She says that shes picked which song she is going to dance to. Its the one that Connor put on in the car on the day that they caught the fish. He looks really pleased and says that its his favorite song. He suggests that she dances for him now. She looks shy and says no. He says that if she's planning on auditioning in front of strangers then she should be able to dance in front of him. She gets up and puts a CD in. It's the song that she picked. She begins her routine. Connor watches intensely. Mia stops and sits next to Connor. He gestures for her to get closer and he puts his arm around her. He compliments her dancing and says "If it was up to me, you'd get the job". She cuddles him and he plays with her hair. She slowly looks up and he goes in for a kiss. He pushes her down onto the sofa and gets on top of her. He takes her pajama bottoms off and they have sex on the sofa. Afterwards, Connor sits up and looks shocked. "We need to keep this between you and me". He says. They are both out of breath and Mia looks uncomfortable. They hear a noise coming from the stairs but don't see anything. Connor says that they will talk the next day and then he heads off to bed. Mia hastily puts her pajama bottoms back on.Mia wakes up in bed the next morning to the sound of her front door slamming and her mother crying. She goes onto the landing and sees Tyler leaning up against the banister. Connor is gone is all she says. We see Joanne on her bed, crying. Mia runs down the stairs and out of the door. She runs all the way to the estate car park and just misses Connor as he drives away. She shouts after him but to no avail.The same afternoon, Mia heads into her mother's room where Joanne is lying on her bed with red, swollen eyes. Mia goes through Joanne's handbag to find her phone so that she can call Connor. "Did you know that I nearly had you aborted?". Joanne quietly asks. Mia doesn't respond. "I made an appointment and everything". Downstairs, Mia saves Connor's number into her mobile under Tyler's watchful eye. Mia makes her way out and Tyler follows. I know what you did, I'm telling mum. She says. Mia says that she doesn't care and walks away. Mia tries Connor's mobile several times only to be greeted by voice mail. She rings a directory and asks for Connor's workplace. A woman answers and says that Connor isn't working and wont be for a while. She hangs up. Mia makes her way to Tilbury, where she knows Connor lives. She walks there and asks a local how to get to Connor's road. It's a posh area and a woman walking past eyes Mia suspiciously. She spots Connor's car in a driveway and knocks on the door. Connor answers. "Jesus Christ!". he hisses quietly, as he ushers her away from his door. They walk hastily down the street together and he asks her if she thinks this is a good idea. He says he was going to call her but Mia calls him out on that one because he doesn't even have her number. "You know why I left". Connor says. You're fifteen. He adds. Mia says that it doesn't matter if you like someone. He drives Mia to the train station and asks her about the audition. He still spurs her on and says that she'll be great. He pulls up outside the station and hands her some money to get home. They have a quick kiss and he says that they'll talk later. Mia's train pulls up. Shes clearly deep in thought. We cut to Mia walking to Connor's front door once again. She didn't get on the train. Nobody answers the door and Connor's car is nowhere to be seen.Mia slowly walks around the back of the house and jumps over the garden gate, making sure that nobody can see her. She tries the back door which is also locked. She opens a small window which leads to the kitchen and climbs through. She looks through the fridge, takes a can of beer and begins drinking. In the living room, she spots the camera that she borrowed. She sits and plays back the most recent video. It's of a young girl, around Tyler's age, stood in a garden in a pink dress. Her mother kneels beside her and the voice behind the camera is Connor's. Sing for daddy. We hear him say. The mother urges her on, kindly. Mia leans forward as the girl begins singing and it all becomes clear. Connor is married and he has a young daughter. The young girl sings Bleeding Love by Leona Lewis. "I don't care what they say, I'm in love with you". are just some of the lyrics which Mia relates to. Mia throws the camera across the room and stands. She breathes heavily as she notices all of the evidence that Connor is a father. Girls' toys in the corner of the room, small pink clothing thrown over the arm of the sofa. Not to mention to way he automatically connected with Tyler and seemed so friendly and fatherly towards her. She squats and urinates on the living room floor. We see Mia in Connors bathroom washing her face she looks up as she hears a car pull up. She runs downstairs and climbs back through the kitchen window, just as we hear the front door open. She climbs over the back fence and makes her way back to Connor's street. She sits on a wooden fence a couple of houses down from Connor's place and watches a young girl whiz up and down the street on her scooter. Mia recognizes the girl as the girl from the video. Connors daughter. In the distance, Mia sees Connor telling the young girl to stay off the road. He calls her Keira. He heads back into the house.Mia calls Keira's name as she goes past on her scooter. Keira stops and Mia says that her mother said that they can both go and get some ice cream. "Let's see who can go faster". Mia says as they both head down the street. Mia leads Keira off the road and onto a field. We hear Keira's mother shouting her name but Mia insists that her mother is just playing a game. They walk over the field and Mia becomes increasingly agitated. Keira begins to understand that they aren't getting any ice cream. Keira complains and Mia pushes her onwards. They walk through some woods and Keira exclaims that Mia is beginning to scare her. They come to a fence with a small hole and Mia picks Keira up and throws her over. Before Mia can get over herself, Keira runs. Mia calls after her but Keira keeps running. Mia gets over the fence and runs after her but Keira had a huge head start. We hear loud, running water as they come to the water's edge. Keira is running dangerously close to the water. Mia runs after her. She finally catches up with Keira on the edge of the choppy water. Mia takes hold of Keira's shoulders and shouts at her for running away. Keira begins screaming and kicking at Mia's legs. In a fit of rage, Mia picks Keira up and throws her into the water. Keira is entirely submerged. After a few seconds, she comes back to the surface, gasping for breath. It doesn't take long for Mia to pull her back onto the bank but it was a close call. Keira stands shaking as Mia hugs her, clearly feeling sorry for her actions. She leads Keira away. It's night time. Mia and Keira walk hand in hand down Connor's street. Before they can reach the house, Mia lets go of Keira's hand. "Off you go then". She says. Keira runs home. We see Mia walking back home, across the motorway. A car, driving far too quickly, storms to a halt next to her. It's Connor. Mia runs, knowing that he'll be furious. He catches up and slaps her around the face. Nothing is said as he walks back to his car. Mia sits on the ground in the dark.Mia is back home and on her bed the next morning. She puts on a necklace, some bracelets and a pair of large hoop earrings. She walks to her audition. She sits in the audition room, watching another girl take her turn. The girl is dressed only in a skimpy black leotard and dances slowly and seductively to a slow hip hop song. It becomes clear that the audition is for strippers. Its Mia's turn and she stands on the stage looking nervous. The two adults running the audition ask for Mia to redo her hair so that its down and not up. She does. "Much better", they say. Her music beings playing. She stands for a while, probably thinking about how much the song reminds her of Connor and then walks off the stage. She walks out of the venue, leaving her CD and her memories of Connor behind. She goes back to the caravan site and notices that the horse is no longer there. Billy is there, working on a car. They chat for a while and Mia asks about the horse. She was sick, we had to shoot her. He says, looking remorseful. Mia looks sad, sits on the floor and cries. We see a bullet hole through the window of the place where the horse slept. Billy says that he's getting the car ready for the road because he's going to Cardiff. He knows some people there. Back home, Mia packs a hold all with clothes and essentials. Tyler watches. She asks about the referral unit that Mia was meant to be going to. You can have my place Mia says. The girls head downstairs and Joanne is in the living room, slowly dancing to a song on the radio. Its clear that she has been crying. It isn't made clear if Joanne is crying because Connor has gone or if Tyler told her of Mia and Connors antics on the sofa or because she knows that Mia plans to leave. It's probably all three. A song plays on the radio and the girls dance together for a while. Joanne tells Mia to go but not in a hateful way. She speaks as though she knows Mia will have a better life away from the estate.Mia walks down the stairs of the apartment block with Tyler in tow, helping to carry her things. Tyler asks where she is going and Mia announces that she is going to Wales. Mia heads towards Billy, who has got his car working. Mia introduces Tyler to him. Tyler swears at Mia and then begins to cry. They hug. "I hate you" Tyler says, sobbing. "I hate you too" Mia says. Mia kisses the top of Tyler's head and gets into the car. The car slowly makes its way down the street and Mia looks back to see Tyler running after the car. "Don't forget to write, say hi to the Welsh for me!". she shouts. Mia faces forward ready for her new life in Wales. We see a silver heart shaped balloon fly across the estate.

suspenseful, depressing, realism

tt1232776

The New World

Over a shot of trees reflected in water, a girl, Pocahontas, invokes a spirit to sing the the story of our land. We see her, reaching up to the sky.After a title sequence, over which nature sounds are heard, we see a shot of Native Americans swimming underwater, Pocahontas and her brother, as others on the shore point to something. Three ships come into view, and a title tells us this is Virginia, 1607.Aboard the one of the ships we see Captain Newport giving instructions, as others look out at the new world. In the brig is Captain Smith, who catches fresh water on his face.Native Americans, including Pocahontas rush to the shore to wonder at this sight.A landing party from the ships comes ashore.Captain Smith, about to be hanged on shore, is pardoned by Captain Newport, to the dismay of Wingall.As Captain Smith explores the land alone, Captain Newport decides to stay where they are. He warns the settlers not to disturb or anger the Natives, because they may need to trade with them. He says once they are settled, they will go north to find a route to the other sea.The Natives encounter the settlers for the first time, sniffing them. The settlers show some trepidation. Pocahontas and her brother watch from a distance.In voice over, Smith says they are kind and timid. Newport, worried about a native attack, orders them English to sleep aboard their ships, and instructs them to start building a fort in the morning. Slackers, he says, will be whipped.He warns them that they are not there to pillage, but to start a new colony.As they build a fort, the Natives watch them in puzzlement, and try to communicate with them.Pocahontas and her brother dance in the fields, and, when she is alone, Smith sees her for the first time.Some of the settlers steal food from their supplies, and more is ruined by the bad weather. A man is sentenced to have his ears cut off.A Native who picks up an axe from the fort is shot and killed by a settler. Smith makes a show of putting the settler's head underwater in front of the Natives as punishment.Newport warns them that they have lost the favour of the Naturals. He also says that had they not sighted land the day they did, he would have turned back. Many of the settlers are sick, others are about to mutiny. Their supplies are low.He has spoken to Natives who say there is a city up river. He proposes to send an envoy to this city to trade. He himself will return to England, and Radcliffe will be in charge.As it is a hazardous mission, Smith, the only professional soldier in the outfit, is picked to lead it.A group of settlers, with some Natives set out up the river. In voiceover, Smith talks of making a new start, where the blessing of the earth are bestowed on all, a true commonwealth with no landlords or high rents.When they land, a Native escapes. A smaller group of three settlers and a Native continue up river.In full armour, Smith loses the Native in the high grass. He becomes disorientated in the swamp. He is shot at with two arrows. Finding it hard to fight back from a Native attack, he is captiured. The Natives examine his belongings, a compass he tries to explain what it is for. Tying his hands and blindfolding him, they take him to their village.There, in a longhouse, he meets their chief. A Native hands the chief a hand presumably belonging to one of Smith's party. The Natives and Smith talk he tells them he's from the East. The chief tells him he must go. Smith insists they cannot leave until spring. He tries to trade, showing them gunpowder.Smith, believing he is about to be killed, lies there as Pocahontas throws herself on him. The chief's brother tells him to kill him. But he says he can teach Pocahontas about the world.Smith takes part in some kind of ceremony, and is carried out of the longhouse. The chief's brother says that if they do no leave, they must drive them into the sea.As the Natives gather corn and practise their archery, Smith wanders their village. He teaches Pocahontas English. There is a growing tenderness between them.Smith talks in voiceover about how Pocahontas is the king's favourite daughter. They are seen talking, and Smith practises fighting with a group of Native males. He begins to get accepted into the group.He talks about how they are gentle, faithful and lacking in guile and trickery, no sense of possession.Smith and Pocahontas play together. One evening in the village, Pocahontas's father asks her to promise him she will remain loyal to her people, and warns her that Smith is not of of them.At the shore, Pocahontas gives Smith a feather, he touches her face and kisses her.In voiceover, he asks if we shall deny love when it visits us, and the Natives are seen putting out their fishing nets. He says there is only this, all else is unreal.Pocahontas asks mother, where do you live? In the sky? The clouds? The sea? Show me your face. Give me a sign. We rise, we rise.Smith shows Pocahontas his drawings of English towns. He dances around a fire with the other Natives.Smith and Pocahontas share a few moments together before he is led back to the English fort, where the Natives give him food, on the understanding from the King that they will leave come spring. He is told there is no sea beyond the mountains, just a land that has no end.Smith finds the fort a stark, grey place. Many of the settlers are sick, others have died. Others constantly argue over trivial things. Buildings are left unfinished. Smith and Wingall Argue. He is told his has been found guilty in a trial. Other settlers join the argument.Wingall is shot. Smith is put in charge of the colony. He finds their crops have failed. He orders everyone to dig a well. Some of the settlers pointlessly dig for gold.Settlers gather around a fire, boiling their belts for sustenance. Another settler reports that one has died and his hands have been eaten.Smiths wishes to go back up the river, to live with Pocahontas in the wild.As winter arrives things get worse for the settlers. They are only saved when Pocahontas, against her father's wishes, brings them some fresh food. Smith and Pocahontas talk. She asks him why he hasn't come to her. He tells her not to trust him. He says she doesn't know who he is.She, in voiceover, wonders who he is.Going up river to trade with a Native, Smith spends time with Pocahontas. He asks if she wants him to go back to be with her again.Pocahontas is chided by her father for giving the settlers seeds. He realises the English do no intend to leave. She visits the fort at night. She tells Smith to make peace with the Natives. She asks him to come away with her. Here, at the fort, he is cynical about the idea. He warns her that people will find out that she came.The Natives attack the fort. The settlers fight back. During the battle, Pocahontas's brother is killed. The Natives enter the fort. For telling the settlers of the impending attack, Pocahontas is sent to live with another tribe.The settlers plan take Pocahontas from her exile, in exchange for a copper kettle, knowing they will not be attacked while she is at the fort. Smith disagrees with this plan, and is replaced as the president of the colony, and is tortured and made to work chopping wood for his disobedience.Pocahontas arrives at the settlement, and Captain Newport returns to the colony with more settlers, forcing the Natives to sue to peace.Pocahontas visits Smith while he is chopping timber, and again they spend time together in the forest.Captain Newport asks Smith if he wants to bring charges against Argall, and Smith indicates that he does not. Newport tells Smith that the King has requested Smith lead an expedition to find a passage to the Indies via the North.An English newcomer, Mary, begins to look after Pocahontas, who, we are told, has given up her name. Mary washes Pocahontas, and dresses her in English clothes and shows her how to walk in shoes. In voiceover, Pocahontas says she will find joy in all she sees.Talking to the settlers, Captain Newport tells them that Eden lies about them, and that they have shed the bondage of the old world, and should set a fresh example for humanity. He says their youth is their strength, and their inexperience their wisdom. He says they should prepare a land where man can rise to his true stature.Smith leaves instructions with his friend, Ben, that Pocahontas should be told he has drowned two months after he leaves.Pocahontas cries when he leaves. She is shown learning to read and write. Mary tells her she should forget about Smith, as he told her a pack of lies. Ben tells her he has died. She covers her face in ash, and wanders the settlement, as if she is lost and alone.The settlers burn a Native village, forcing its inhabitants to leave. Pocahontas is seen lying in the mud between two buildings. She gives water to a man in stocks.John Rolfe, a newcomer, is shown watching her. In voiceover, he talks about how when he first saw her, she was regarded as finished, broken, and that she barely noticed the others around her. He asks to spend the afternoon with her.Mary says that Pocahontas's nature can turn trouble into good, that when a branch breaks off a tree, the tree keeps reaching towards the light.Rolfe teaches Pocahontas about the months of the year, she asks him what a day is, what an hour is. She asks him why the Earth has colours.Pocahontas is baptised with the name Rebecca. She begins to work in the fields for John Rolfe. She asks him if he is kind, they embrace. Over scenes of her attempting to catch crickets, Rolfe is heard saying that she weaves things together. He asks her to marry him. She asks where they would live, he says either in Virginia or England. She hesitates, and cries, he asks why, and she tells him she supposes she must be happy.They are married by Captain Newport.She gives birth to a child, a boy, named Thomas.Time passes.John Rolfe announces that back in England, the King has requested a royal audience in Pocahontas/Rebecca's honour.Smith is shown on the desolate coast of Greenland.Outside the fort, Pocahontas/Rebecca, overhears two women talking about Smith's travels, and she realises that he is still alive.Pocahontas/Rebecca tells Rolfe that she is married to Smith. Rolfe tells her she does not know the meaning of the word.Leaving for England, Pocahontas/Rebecca speaks to her uncle on the ship, he has been sent by her father to see the God the English speak so much about, and to place a notch in sticks for every Englishman he sees.Arriving in England, people bow before Pocahontas/Rebecca. She and the other Natives have never seen a place like this before.At her audience with the King, Rolfe watches as she is presented. Pocahontas/Rebecca and the King inspect animals from the new world, including a raccoon in a cage.In the manicured grounds of an English house, Pocahontas's uncle is seen wandering in the cold, looking at the carefully sculpted gardens.Smith arrives at Rolfe's estate. Rolfe appears ready to let Pocahontas/Rebecca reunite with Smith. She tells Rolfe that he is the man she thought he was.A dishevelled Smith arrives at the Rolfe's house. Pocahontas/Rebecca meets with him. Initially she does not speak as he talks about her. She realises that she has moved on and he has not.Pocahontas/Rebecca asks Smith if he found his indies. He says he may have sailed past them.He tells her what they knew in the forest was the only truth. Pocahontas/Rebecca bows to him as they part.Pocahontas/Rebecca takes Rolfe's arm, and asks him if they can go home. He tells her they will, as soon as possible. She calls him my husband and they kiss.Pocahontas/Rebecca is shown watching Rolfe and Thomas play. In their garden, Pocahontas/Rebeccas play a game of hide and seek. In voiceover, we hear her say mother, now I know where you live.Over scenes of her playing in the garden and ill in bed, in voiceover, Rolfe is heard writing a letter to Thomas, telling her that Pocahontas/Rebecca fell ill at Gravesend, on their outward passage back to Virginia. He says that she gently reminded him that all must die, and it is enough that their child shall live.We see Pocahontas/Rebecca running through the garden, and turning cartwheels.Rolfe and Thomas are seen returning on the ship. There are shots of lakes, streams and trees in America. A leaf is shown falling from a tree.End credits.

boring, murder, cult, violence, atmospheric, haunting, romantic, sentimental

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Jackie

The film begins with a close-up of Jackie Kennedy (Natalie Portman). We are told were in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts in November 1963. A journalist (Billy Crudup) arrives at the home that Jackie is temporarily living in. He tells Jackie that he is sorry for her loss. She notes it's been one week and the press is writing really horrible things about her. She tells the journalist that she will be editing this conversation. He tells her that is unlikely.The interview begins and Jackie says she is glad she was with him (John F. Kennedy, whom she refers to as Jack) when it happened. The journalist tells her he was impressed with the tour of the White House Jackie did for CBS a few years earlier and that she could have been a broadcaster.We flashback to 1962, a year earlier, when Jackie is filming the special for CBS. Her social secretary, Nancy (Greta Gerwig) is there, reviewing some last minute notes with Jackie. We then see footage from the special which would go on to have an audience of 56 million people. Jackie talks about how she is acquiring historical items for the White House since nothing in it is older than 60 years. She assures the American people that the restoration is being done on her dime instead of through taxpayers money. She shows the reporter the room where they hired a conductor to play music for them. The reporter notes that the Kennedys seem to have an affinity for artists, musicians, writers, and poets.In present day, the journalist asks Jackie about her faith but she doesn't answer. She tells him she was a reporter once and suspects he wants to know about the sound the bullet made when it collided with her husband's skull. We flashback to a week earlier where Jackie is on Air Force One on her way to Dallas, practicing a speech she'll give in Spanish. When her husband and her exit the plane, they are greeted by a large crowd. Lyndon Johnson (John Carroll Lynch) and Lady Bird (Beth Grant) meet up with them and they continue on to a limo.In the present, Jackie tells the journalist, in graphic detail, what it was like having a piece of Jack's skull come off in front of her and his brains and blood in her lap. But she then tells the journalist he won't be publishing what she just said. He follows her suggestion and asks what the bullet sounded like. We hear a loud bang and see a motorcade racing the limousine to the hospital with Jackie and her dying husband in the back.Jackie is back on the Air Force One, crying, wiping dried blood off her face. She is summoned and goes out to the conference room in Air Force One where Lyndon Johnson is sworn into office. This is an overwhelming thing for Jackie to witness given what she has just gone through.Time passes and Jackie asks a Secret Service agent about the bullet. He says they don't know yet. She tells someone else that they need to hire the Irish Cadets for the funeral because Jack loved them. She is told that they'll be exiting from the rear of the plane to avoid press. Jackie doesn't want to hide but instead, wants to exit the usual way. She is told when they land, they will head to the hospital for an autopsy. This upsets Jackie who wants to know what will happen at an autopsy. Lady Bird asks Jackie if she wants her to help her change before they land since she is still in the blood-stained clothes. Jackie reminds Lady Bird of all the Wanted posters with Jacks face on them (stating he was wanted for treason) and wants all of his detractors to see what they've done.The plane lands and Bobby Kennedy (Peter Sarsgaard) enters. Bobby and Jackie exit the plane and ride in an ambulance with Jacks casket. Jackie wants the casket closed at the funeral but Bobby tells her hes not sure it can be since he was a Head of State. She tells him Jacks head was blown to pieces and she tried to hold his head together. Jackie watches as they do an autopsy on her husband. Jackie wonders who the shooter was. She complains that her husband warned her they were going to nut country but things had gone so well in the other parts of Texas they visited.In the ambulance, carrying Jack and his casket back to the White House, Jackie asks the driver if he knew who James Garfield or William McKinley were. He doesn't know either. She asks if he knows who Abraham Lincoln was. She is told he won the Civil War and abolished slavery. Jackie notes that all three presidents died while in office but only Lincoln is remembered. She tells Bobby they need books on Lincoln's funeral.Jackie goes into her bedroom in the White House. She finally takes off the bloody pink Chanel suit she is wearing and peels off her blood-stained pantyhose. She washes up in the shower, blood rushing off her face.Back in present day, the journalist points out Jackie will have to get personal eventually because shell be hounded until she does. She asks if he wants to be famous; he says no but she points out this article will bring him a lot of attention.In the White House, Jackie is given a rundown of Lincoln's funeral which was a grand procession all over D.C. Jackie mentions how her husband would spend a lot of money on getting votes but would always complain when she bought paintings for her restoration project. The cultural advisor tells Jackie the worlds gone mad and it might be better if she takes the children and hides (so as not to get assassinated during the procession). Hes interrupted by Nancy who tells Jackie the children are awake. Jackie goes into Caroline's bedroom and explains to the children that their father has gone to look over their baby brother Patrick in Heaven. Caroline doesn't understand so she finally tells her that a very bad man hurt their father.The East Room of the White House has become a mass, mourning the loss of JFK. John Jr. stands up and runs away but is scooped up by his Uncle Bobby. Afterwards, Jacks mother tells Jackie she expects her son will be buried at the family plot. Simultaneously, Lyndon Johnson's aide, Jack Valenti (Max Casella), argues with Bobby about the funeral, saying a procession is insane. He says he doesn't want HIS president (meaning LBJ) walking in public. Bobby tells him his brother is going to be carried in public regardless in a casket and then tells him to fuck off.Jackie voices her concern that they wont have much money now that she has to return to the life of a civilian. She suggests selling back the furniture she bought from collectors in order to have enough money to put Caroline and John Jr. through college.Back on the CBS special, Jackie admires a portrait of Abraham Lincoln, painted one week before his assassination. She shows off some of the furniture that used to belong to the Lincolns., as well as the Gettysburg Address.Jackie comes into Bobby's office while he watches Lee Harvey Oswald on TV. She interrupts to tell him that she doesn't want Jack buried in the family plot. Jackie is then seen at Arlington National Cemetery, looking for the perfect spot for her husband.In present day, Jackie says that she doesn't have a home. The journalist asks why she doesn't just live in the compound they're currently at. She tells him its cold there and he suggests lighting a fire and throwing a party. She asks why she would throw a party at that time. She says this house isn't hers and neither was the White House; every First Lady has to be prepared to have her suitcase packed.At the White House, Bobby tells Jackie that they're worried an outdoor procession will be a security risk. But Jackie is firm that they have to march with Jacks casket. That night, Jackie revisits the Presidential bedroom and turns on a Victrola where a song from Camelot plays. She enters her own bedroom and goes through her wardrobe. Then she enters the Oval Office and sits at the Presidents desk. The song from Camelot finally ends.Jackie walks with a priest (John Hurt) through a park. She tells him she thinks God is cruel. He says "God is love and is everywhere". She asks if he was in the bullet that killed her husband and if he's inside her all the time. He says, yes, and she says its a funny game for him to be hiding all the time. She asks, "what kind of God takes a husband from his two children?" And takes her two babies one in the womb and her baby, Patrick, 39 hours after he was born.The next day, Jackie asks Nancy for a list of people attending the White House. Jackie tells Nancy she used to worry that Nancy was jealous of her which would have been ridiculous because shes buried two children and a husband. Nancy says she was once jealous of the dress Jackie wore in Vienna. Nancy promises to stay with Jackie despite her leaving the White House.In the White Houses sitting room, LBJ, Lady Bird, Bobby and his wife watch on TV as Lee Oswald is being escorted to the jailhouse only to be assassinated by Jack Ruby. Upstairs, Jackie is getting ready for the procession. Downstairs, LBJ says they have to get a handle on the situation because its making them look like a bunch of barbarians. Bobby demands no one tell Jackie what has just happened. Simultaneously, Jackie is telling a secret service agent that she needs to talk to Lee Harvey Oswald, to find out why he did what he did. The agent tells her he doesn't know if she can but says no more. Nancy suggests Jackie and her children exit through the back to avoid the press. Jackie thinks the press should capture two heartbroken, fatherless children.Jackie leads her children out to the front of the White House. A horse-drawn carriage with John F. Kennedys body is parked in front. Jackie rides past photographers and mourners in a limo. When they get to the Senate steps, Jackie greets Lyndon and notes its an awful way for him to begin his presidency. Later, she kneels at Jacks casket at the Capitol Rotunda.Time has passed. Jackie rushes into Bobby's office and yells at him about not telling her about Lee Oswald being assassinated. She feels she put her childrens life in danger knowing how easily people are shooting others when they go outside. She wonders if the parade is really to help Bobby when he campaigns for president. She now thinks its not worth putting their lives in danger over.We find Jackie and the priest again, walking through the park. Jackie confesses she wishes shed had an ordinary job and married an ordinary man. The priest tells her God is working through Jackie.Jackie is shown red carpet that has been laid down in the Oval Office, which is something she previously requested, along with green carpet in the Treaty Room which shes told was also added. She notes that her husband had thought her ideas about decorating the White House was a vanity project but she insists its to share the White Houses history with the public.Bobby finds Jackie in the Lincoln Bedroom and tells her the following day, everyone will ride through the city and there will be no procession. Bobby notes that being in the Lincoln Bedroom reminds him that one man freed millions of people from slavery. He notes that its bad that their legacy was wasted. He fears Jack will be remembered for being a beautiful person but nothing else he might have handled the missile crisis but he also created it. Bobby wishes they had done more, like for Civil Rights and the space program.Jackie walks around the White House and sees workers packing up all her belongings. Finally, Jackie joins in, walking around and begins throwing things into boxes. She finds Jack Valenti in Bobby's office, unpacking his own belongings while having simultaneously arranged for hers to be packed up. He immediately tells Jackie hes just doing his job. Valenti notes that he heard Jackie has requested a more modest funeral. Jackie tells him shes changed her mind and wants a procession again where shell walk to the Cathedral. Valenti debates that the country couldn't endure another assassination and tells her a lot of head of state will be there, including a general who already has been threatened. Jackie tells him to deliver the message that she will walk with her husband the following day, even if alone. And if the general is so concerned about his safety, he can ride in an armored car and the millions of people watching wont blame him. She then repeats what he said, stating that she's just doing her job.In present day, Jackie tells the journalist that presidents will look up to her husband for years to come. He points out that her husband didn't do anything extraordinary like abolish slavery.The procession takes place with Jackie appreciating all the mourners who have come out. She is then seen talking to the priest again, admitting that she thinks the event wasn't to honor Jack but for herself. She tells the priest that before she walked with the casket, she wrote a letter stating that she wanted to die. If she was shot while going outside, shed consider it a kind gesture. The march continues, with Jackie holding onto Bobby. In present day, she tells the journalist she has been lying when she says she doesn't remember the assassination. And then we see it John F. Kennedy is shot in the head and he collapses onto Jackie, who is covered in blood. Panic ensues. She tells the journalist she felt she could have saved him if she had stopped the bleeding.Jackie asks to read the journalists notes and then begins making changes. While she writes in his journal, he tells her Jackie has left a mark on the country, which is going through a somber period because losing a president is like losing a father. He adds that she has been like their mother, especially with the entire country watching the funeral. He tells Jackie people will remember her for years to come.Its a year earlier and Jackie is finishing the White House tour for the CBS special. Jack is interviewed and says he appreciates her effort to reacquaint people with the men who used to live in the White House before her. This is intercut with Jackie leaving the White House, watching Lady Bird go over fabric swatches, ready to undo all the decoration Jackie had worked on for years. Jackie and her children are loaded into a limousine and driven away.Jackie now tells the journalist that Jack and her would listen to records at night before bed and his favorite was Camelot. Jack loved history and Camelot was about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. She states there will be other presidents but there will never be another Camelot.The priest asks Jackie why she wanted to talk to him; she has confessed she wants to die but he tells her he is not burying her that day. He adds that there comes a time in mans search for meaning when he realizes there are no answers. The priest then confesses that every night, he goes to bed and wonders, Is this all there is? He theorizes that everybody wonders the same thing.The journalist dictates the interview over the phone, to his editor. He then leaves, wishing Jackie a good night. We see Jackie with the priest again, telling him how the journalist wrote down every word and his article has been reprinted all over the globe. And maybe they'll all believe in Camelot now. Later, the priest gives a sermon in front of Jacks grave. He has been buried next to his two children that died.In the White House, a plaque is mounted outside Jackie's former bedroom that reads "In this room lived John Fitzgerald Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline, during the two years, ten months, and two days he was President of the United States.Jackie rides in a limo through D.C. She notices a man carrying a mannequin over her shoulder that looks like her, that is wearing the same Chanel dress she had worn. She sees workers unloading dozens of identical mannequins from a truck, into a Macy's Department Store. The world has become fascinated with her.We see another clip from the CBS special where Jackie says shes proud of her husband. She is then seen seated in the White House with her husband and Bobby as an opera is performed, as discussed in the CBS interview yet on the soundtrack, instead of the classical music, all we hear is Camelot.

flashback

tt1619029

The Haunted

This creepy and scary story centers around The Smurl family of Pittston, Pennsylvania. After they move to a duplex, they begin experiencing strange things. Dark shadows move about the house. Mrs Smurl hears her mother in law calling her name only to find out later that she was not calling her. A black stain on the wall keeps reappearing after being cleaned and painted over and a foul smell lingers. Weird noises awaken them in the night and invisible hands caress Mrs Smurl while she's sleeping. But things begin to get worse. They begin to experience physical attacks by the invisible entity. When they try to get away from the house, they notice the black shadow had followed them. They realized that no matter where they go this thing will follow. When the attacks begin to get out of control, they contact The Warren family but will the renowned psychics be able to get rid of the evil presence that intends on destroying them?

paranormal, horror, haunting

tt0102007

Assault on Precinct 13

On New Years Eve, Detroit's oldest police station, Precinct 13, is about to close forever. Only a skeleton crew of officers are on duty for New Year's Eve, including Sergeant Jake Roenick (Ethan Hawke), veteran officer Jasper (Brian Dennehy), secretary Iris (Drea de Matteo), and psychiatrist Alex (Maria Bello). Roenick is haunted by a botched undercover operation from eight months before that resulted in the death of the other two members of his team.Meanwhile, crime lord Marion Bishop (Laurence Fishburne) is arrested after a confrontation results in the death of an undercover officer. Bishop is put on a prison bus with three other criminals: meth addict Beck (John Leguizamo), petty crook Anna (Aisha Hinds), and counterfeiter Smiley (Ja Rule). A raging snowstorm and treacherous road conditions force the bus driver to make a detour to Precinct 13, where the prisoners are to be held until the storm is over.New Year's celebrations at the precinct are soon cut short, however, as an intrusion by two masked gunmen results in the death of one of the prison guards, and fatally injures the other. The officers soon find they are surrounded by unknown assailants, preparing to lay siege to the precinct. The electricity in the station then goes off and all the land-line phone lines are cut. Cellular phone reception has also been jammed, as well as any radio communication. After one of the attackers throws a brick into the precinct with "Bishop" written on it, Jasper claims they are Bishop's men, here to extract him.This is proven to be false, however, after Roenick kills one of the attackers in another assault and reclaims the man's wallet, which contained his police badge. Bishop then reveals the attackers are actually policemen, led by corrupt Captain Marcus Duvall (Gabriel Byrne). Previously, Bishop and Duvall were partners in crime, but Duvall got greedy. Now he and his men, including Sgt. Mike Kahane (Currie Graham), are there to kill Bishop before he can testify at trial, saving all officers involved a hefty prison sentence. However, now that everyone inside Precinct 13 knows of the true plot instead of just Bishop, they are all a liability and must be eliminated.Heavily outnumbered by a growing police force made up of dirty street cops and SWAT officers, Roenick makes the decision to free and arm the prisoners to help them hold out until dawn. Although the officers do not trust the criminals, and vice-versa, Roenick and Bishop reach an agreement to cooperate in order to stand a chance to survive the night. With their combined efforts, they manage to repel further attacks by the police forces, and reclaim their weapons.Soon Precinct 13 is joined by another officer, off-duty cop Capra (Matt Craven). After driving erratically enough to evade the snipers from the buildings across the street, he scurries into the building completely confused and panicked. The attending officers welcome him with open arms, but Beck accuses him of being a plant. Fearing he may start a shootout, Bishop subdues Beck to calm him down and settles the conflict.Smiley also thinks that Capra is a plant, so he and Beck decide to risk the police force outside for a shot at freedom, and plan an escape over a nearby fence.As the prison bus explodes and they notice Smiley and Beck escaping, they decide to use this as a distraction and also plan an escape, making use of Capra's car in order for a couple people to flee the precinct and call for help while the police are busy with Beck and Smiley.Anna, who can hotwire a car, volunteers to go. Alex also goes along. Beck and Smiley make it to the perimeter fence before they are killed by snipers. Anna and Alex appear to have made it, before a cop hidden in the backseat shoots and kills Anna, causing the car to crash and Alex to be captured.Alex is brought before Duvall, who asks her how many are in the precinct. Defiant, she replies "a hundred", and she is executed by Duvall after complimenting her on her bravery.With only Roenick, Bishop, Jasper, Capra, and Iris left, the precinct stands little chance of withstanding further assaults. Bishop discovers the handcuffs that were holding the back door locked are removed. He concludes that someone inside is helping the police and accuses Capra, but before anything can be done, the police begin to lay siege to the precinct with SWAT reinforcements from the rooftop when a police helicopter arrives and begins dropping men onto the roof.Jasper miraculously remembers an old sewage entrance beneath the precinct, and Roenick and Bishop set the precinct on fire to slow their pursuers. The survivors escape along an abandoned sewer passageway, but even as they find themselves on a deserted street they are suddenly surrounded by the corrupt policemen. Jasper reveals himself to have been the traitor all along, and the officers led by Duvall prepare to execute the remaining survivors.Bishop sneaks a flash grenade into Jasper's jacket, and in the ensuing distraction the survivors disarm the officers and escape. Iris and Capra attempt to escape in the officers' car, while Roenick and Bishop flee into the forest. Duvall and another officer pursue Roenick, while Kahane goes after the car. The car flips and Capra is heavily injured, but Iris manages to stab Kahane with his own knife.In the nearby forest, Roenick is suddenly confronted by Bishop, who offers to cooperate in order to kill Duvall. As the corrupt officers have night vision and Roenick and Bishop do not, Roenick volunteers to draw their fire so Bishop can see the muzzle flashes from their weapons, and dispose of them while they are distracted. The plan works, and Bishop kills the accompanying officer, but he is then shot in the stomach by Duvall who orders Bishop to lure Roenick into a trap. Roenick arrives and guns down Duvall, but is shot in the side and injured also.After considering their cooperation throughout the night, Bishop decides to spare Roenick, who vows that he will find and arrest him someday. After Bishop limps away, officers led by Iris arrive. An officer asks Roenick if anyone else is in the forest, and after looking around for a moment he replies "no". The last shot is of an injured Roenick and Iris making their way to the ambulance, where Iris states she did not even recognize the battle-hardened Roenick of the night, and he replies, "get used to it."

suspenseful, neo noir, murder, violence, action, revenge

tt0398712

The Best Years of Our Lives

After World War II, Fred Derry (Dana Andrews), Homer Parrish (Harold Russell), and Al Stephenson (Fredric March) meet while flying home to Boone City (a fictional city patterned after Cincinnati, Ohio). Fred was a decorated Army Air Forces captain and bombardier in Europe. Homer lost both hands from burns suffered when his aircraft carrier was sunk, and now uses mechanical hook prostheses. Al served as an infantry platoon sergeant in the Pacific. All three have trouble adjusting to civilian life. Al has a comfortable home and a loving family: wife Milly (Myrna Loy), adult daughter Peggy (Teresa Wright, who was only thirteen years Loy's junior), and college freshman son Rob (Michael Hall, who is absent after the first one-third of the film). He returns to his old job as a bank loan officer. The bank president views his military experience as valuable in dealing with other returning servicemen. When Al approves a loan (without collateral) to a young Navy veteran, however, the president advises him against making a habit of it. Later, at a banquet held in his honor, a slightly inebriated Al expounds his belief that the bank (and America) must stand with the vets who risked everything to defend the country and give them every chance to rebuild their lives. Before the war, Fred had been an unskilled drugstore soda jerk. He wants something better, but the tight postwar job market forces him to return to his old job. Fred had met Marie (Virginia Mayo) while in flight training and married her shortly afterward, before shipping out less than a month later. She became a nightclub waitress while Fred was overseas. Marie makes it clear she does not enjoy being married to a lowly soda jerk. Homer was a football quarterback and became engaged to his next door neighbor, Wilma (Cathy O'Donnell), before joining the Navy. Both Homer and his parents now have trouble dealing with his disability. He does not want to burden Wilma with his handicap so he eventually pushes her away, although she still wants to marry him. Peggy meets Fred while bringing her father home from a bar where the three men meet once again. They are attracted to each other. Peggy dislikes Marie, and informs her parents she intends to end Fred and Marie's marriage, but they tell her that their own marriage overcame similar problems. Concerned, Al demands that Fred stop seeing his daughter. Fred agrees, but the friendship between the two men is strained. At the drugstore, an obnoxious customer, who claims that the war was fought against the wrong enemies, gets into a fight with Homer. Fred intervenes and knocks the man into a glass counter, costing him his job. Later, Fred encourages Homer to put his misgivings behind him and marry Wilma, offering to be his best man. One evening, Wilma visits Homer and tells him that her parents want her to leave Boone City for an extended period to try to forget him. Homer bluntly demonstrates to her how hard life with him would be. When Wilma is undaunted, Homer reconsiders. On arriving home, Fred discovers his wife with another veteran (Steve Cochran). After complaining to Fred that she has "given up the best years of my life," Marie tells him that she is getting a divorce. Fred decides to leave town, and gives his father his medals and citations. His father is unable to persuade Fred to stay. After Fred leaves, his father reads the citation for his Distinguished Flying Cross as composed by General Doolittle. At the airport, Fred books space on the first outbound aircraft, without regard for the destination. While waiting, he wanders into a vast aircraft boneyard. Inside the nose of a B-17, he relives the intense memories of combat. The boss of a work crew rouses him from his flashback. When the man says the aluminum from the aircraft is being salvaged to build housing, Fred persuades the boss to hire him. At the bride's home, people have gathered for the wedding of Homer and Wilma. Fred, now-divorced, is Homer's best man. While the vows are exchanged Fred and Peggy glance across at one another. At the conclusion everyone gathers around the newlyweds. Still gazing over at Peggy, Fred walks across the room, takes her in his arms and kisses her. He asks if she knows how things will be for them, that it will be a hard at first, that it could take years before they can get a life established. All the while Peggy smiles fondly at Fred, and then kisses him back.

romantic, historical, storytelling

tt0036868

House Arrest

The film is told through the perspective of Grover and TJ through the literary device known as a frame story. The two are shown in silhouette form watching the original film, House Arrest, in a style nearly identical to that of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Grover interrupts the film to fast-forward to his scenes, but TJ protest prompts Grover to share his backstory. showing the Beindorfs, Janet (Jamie Lee Curtis), Ned (Kevin Pollak), Gregory whose nicknamed "Grover" (Kyle Howard), and Stacy (Amy Sakasitz), a supposedly happy family living a typical family life in the suburbs of Defiance, Ohio. It is revealed that Janet and Ned are not happy and in fact separating although they tell their children it is not a divorce. Grover and Stacy first try to recreate their parents' honeymoon in the basement of their house but this fails to bring any happiness into their relationship. The children then leave the basement telling their parents they must get another surprise for them upstairs. They go up, close the door, and nail it shut. They vow to keep it shut until their parents work out their problems. The next day, Grover tells his best friend Matt Finley (Mooky Arizona) what he has done and T.J. Krupp (Russel Harper), the wealthy local bully, overhears the conversation. Matt goes over to the Beindorfs' house to look at the children's work and is impressed. T.J. shows up to have a look and actually installs a newer, more secure door to keep the parents trapped. He and Matt then leave to collect their parents and bring them to the Beindorfs' house to lock them up as well. Matt's father Vic (Wallace Shawn) never keeps a wife for more than two years and T.J.'s father Donald (Christopher McDonald) does not treat his wife Gwenna (Sheila McCarthy) well. Matt also brings his bulldog Cosmo and his two younger brothers, Teddy and Jimmy (who come armed with sleeping bags) and T.J. brings Spot, his pet boa constrictor. When Grover asks what is going on in response to his friends setting up camp at his house, T.J. replies with "Our parents could be down there for months!" Janet and Ned almost talk Grover into letting them all out but T.J.'s father, Donald (who's an attorney), threatens him with legal action. Grover finds out that his dream girl, Brooke Figler (Jennifer Love Hewitt), is also having parental problems: her mother Cindy (Jennifer Tilly) acts like a teenager, going so far as to trying to hang out with Brooke's friends. Grover invites her to lock up Cindy with the rest of the parents. The children lock up all of their parents and begin to help them solve their problems. They try to find a way out of the basement while getting along and seeing what each of their problems are. The children also work out their differences with each other above. They eventually give in and give up to the police and their parents are set free. It is revealed at the end that Grover's parents reconciled and took a second honeymoon to Hawaii. Matt's parents' wedding lasted past the two-year mark and they are expecting another child. T.J.'s parents got divorced though his mom later went back to law school and they opened up a law firm together. Brooke's mother started dating other men instead of intruding on Brooke's dates. Also, Grover and Brooke became boyfriend and girlfriend and she passionately kisses him in front of their classmates at school for a very long time, causing a slightly awkward moment for the bystanders. However, he concluded if their parents ever try to get divorced again he might think of locking them in the attic. In the final scene of the film, Matt Finley, Donald Krupp, Ned, Janet and Stacy join Grover and TJ to re-watch the film in the cinema. As the film fades to black, TJ reminds Grover that he still doesn't do well in crowds.

romantic, home movie

tt0116571

Bitter Moon

Nigel Dobson (Hugh Grant) and his wife Fiona (Kristn Scott Thomas) are a perfectly respectable British couple with nuances of gentlemanly life. They are on a cruise during their honeymoon heading for India. They meet an extremely sensual young woman of French origin called Mimi (Emmanuelle Seigner), extremeley flamboyant and Paris-cosmopolitan, and by means of her they come to meet American wanna-be author Oscar (Peter Coyote), a disabled man in a wheelchair. Oscar starts telling their love story to Nigel and Fiona. The latter finds it gruesome and unsettling, and doesn't want to know how it ends, but Nigel will become completely obsessed with the love-hate story of Mimi and Oscar.Oscar finds in Mimi, a student dancer, a willing partner for his almost hardcore sexual games, ever pushing their boundaries together. She is completely enraptured by him, and bows to his every whim. However, without any furthr reason that his caprice, he gets bored out of his wits about her. He is rude and wicked to her, and tells her that he'd rather she left him for good. Mimi packs her things, and is about to leave him forever. She has opened the door to the condo where they have been living together, but re-enters the flat again. She wants to stay no matter what.Life will be hell for Mimi from that moment on. He becomes really abusive towards her, and she puts up with everything. Their sexual antics become sadistic, full of anger and twisted mentality. I agree with some other reviewers into saying that Mimi becames a mere shadow of her former self. She has stayed with him, but life becomes a nightmare. She mus quit all her life and interests in order to pursue her obsesive love for him.She has to do things she doesn't really want to because if not, Oscar will sent her packing for good, and she knows this time there won't be a second chance. Finally, she becomes pregnant, and that's a door for her to lead a normal couple life with Oscar. They agree to leave France together and keep the child. However, Oscar's behaviour is selfish and rotten once more. He pretends to follow-suit her, but when they are both on the plane to Martinique, he leaves the plane with some dumb excuse. Mimi is completely distraught, and the audience will come to know what she did afterwards. She had an abbortion performed by some doctor who butchered her, and had to surpass a terrible infection on her own. The surgery and its consequences have left her uncapable of getting pregnant again, and that comes to a shock to her as well.Meanwhile, Oscar returns to his happy life: he goes to parties, gets drunk, and has sexual relations with all sorts of women. He doesn't seem to write much. Once, he is so drunk that he suffers a car accident which will leave him crippled for life. Mimi returns to Paris because, after all, her traumatic experiences have not made her to forget him. She won't forgive him, but the audience will come to know how much she loves him in spite of it all. She has become frustrated, angry, and wants revenge for everything Oscar has made he go through despite her love. She takes care of him, but in a twisted and cruel way. She doesn't allow him to talk to any of her former lovers, or go out of home without her. One of the prevert things she did is to hold a long conversation leavin Oscar in the full-of-water bath. While she's talking gayly, the water gets colder and colder, so Oscar has to leave the bathroom crawling like a worm. Mimi sees this with a half-smile onto her lips, and keeps on chatting as though without a care in the world. On another occassion, she gives him a present: a gun with a single bullet so that he can commit suicide.Coming back to the crouse, Fiona gets utterly fed-up of Nigel. She is afraid that he wants to have sex with Mimi, because she's constantly flirting with and giving hints to him. She tells him that she can do anything better than him, so she starts flirting with Dado (Luca Vellani) during Oscar's story sessions.Nigel looks for Fiona, and to his surprise, she finds her in bed after having made love with Mimi. Oscar had watched them while having sex. Both women are sleeping in a hug, and he shoots Mimi. Fiona is woken up because to the noise, and Nigel and Fiona leave the cabin together, deeply traumatized because of everything they have witnessed.

comedy, cruelty, murder, sadist, flashback, revenge, storytelling

tt0104779

The Frozen Ground

The film opens in an Anchorage motel room in 1983, where 17-year-old Cindy Paulson (Vanessa Hudgens) is handcuffed and screaming for help. She is rescued by an Anchorage Police Department patrol officer. He takes Paulson to the hospital, and her clothes are kept for a rape kit. At an APD station, she explains to detectives that she was abducted and raped. Because she is a prostitute and lying about her age, the detectives do not believe her story, refusing to even look into the man whom she named as her abductor, Robert Hansen (John Cusack). They claim Hansen is an upstanding member of society, a family man who owns his own restaurant, and has alibis from three people. The APD patrol officer who rescued Paulson is outraged that the detectives refuse to pursue Hansen. He surreptitiously photocopies information about the case and sends it to the Alaska State Troopers. Meanwhile, state trooper Jack Halcombe (Nicolas Cage) has been called to investigate a female body that was found in the bush, half eaten by bears. The police connect the case to other missing girls, who have disappeared after going to what they thought were legitimate photo shoots. With secret information from the APD officer, Halcombe connects the other cases to Paulson's and starts to put together a portrait of Hansen. Paulson details how Hansen kept her captive, and that she escaped from his car when he tried to transfer her to his bush plane. Meanwhile in Anchorage, Debbie Peters gets picked up by a man in an RV for a photo shoot. Later, Hansen eats a quiet dinner at home. His wife and children are away, and Hansen relaxes in his trophy room, casually ignoring Debbie who is chained to a post. She has urinated on the floor, and as she cleans up the mess with a towel, Hansen's neighbor enters the house to deliver a plate of food. Hansen warns Debbie not to scream and leaves the trophy room to greet his neighbor. Hansen then takes Debbie to the airport, where he orders her into his plane. After landing in a remote spot in the bush, Hansen frees Debbie, letting her run in a panic through the woods before he shoots her with a .223 caliber rifle. He steals her necklace before finishing her off with a handgun. Halcombe has a very difficult time assembling a case against Hansen. Because the evidence is circumstantial and Paulson is afraid to testify, the district attorney refuses to issue a search warrant. Paulson keeps falling back into the world of stripping and prostitution, despite Halcombe's efforts to keep her safe. At a strip club, while she is trying to sell lap dances, she notices Hansen trolling for a new victim. Their eyes meet, a chase ensues, and Paulson barely escapes. The encounter makes Hansen nervous, and he hires Carl Galenski to find and kill Paulson. Carl approaches Paulson's erstwhile pimp Clate Johnson (50 Cent) and offers to forgive his sizable debt if Clate turns Paulson over to him. Halcombe stakes out Hansen's house, causing Hansen to panic. Hansen gathers the evidence of his crimes, including the keepsakes from his victims, and flees with his son to the airport. He flies his plane to the bush and hides his keepsakes. Feeling that the chance to catch Hansen is slipping away, and with the victim count now at 17 girls, Halcombe forces the DA to issue a warrant. The search of Hansen's house yields no evidence, not even in his trophy room. Hansen agrees to be interrogated without a lawyer, but he is not yielding any new evidence. Halcombe arrests Hansen, but unless the police find new evidence, they will be unable to hold him. Halcombe orders a second search of Hansen's house, which turns up a hidden cache of guns, including the .223 caliber rifle used in many of the murders. Under police watch at a safe location, Paulson slips away and returns to her life of prostitution. Clate picks her up and delivers her to Carl. When Clate attempts to rob Carl, Paulson uses the opportunity to escape, with Carl in pursuit. After making a call to Halcombe, Paulson is almost killed by Carl, but Halcombe rescues her just in time. Halcombe uses a bracelet identical to one worn by one of the victims in order to trick Hansen into thinking the police have found where he hid the evidence in the bush. The bracelet, combined with the sight of Paulson in the interrogation room, enrages Hansen to the point that he incriminates himself. The epilogue states that Hansen confessed to the murder of 17 women and the kidnap and rape of another 30. He was charged with the abduction and rape of Cindy Paulson and the murders of Joanna Messina, Sherry Morrow, Paula Goulding and "Eklutna Annie". He was sentenced to 461 years plus life without parole. Robert Hansen died in 2014 at the age of 75. Only 11 of his victim's bodies were recovered. Jack Halcombe remained with the Alaska State Troopers and was promoted. He is now retired. Cindy Paulson now lives in the lower 48 and married with 3 children. The film ends with a dedication and actual pictures of Hansen's victims.

dramatic, murder

tt2005374

The Forbidden Kingdom

South Boston teenager Jason Tripitikas is a fan of martial arts films and awakens from a dream of a battle between the Monkey King and celestial soldiers in the clouds. He visits a pawn shop in Chinatown to buy Wuxia DVDs and discovers a golden staff. On his way home, Tripitikas is harassed by some hooligans, whose leader Lupo attempts to use him to help them rob the shop-owner Hop, who is shot by Lupo. Hop tells Tripitikas to deliver the staff to its rightful owner and Tripitikas flees with the staff. He is cornered on the rooftop before being pulled off the roof by the staff. When Tripitikas regains consciousness, he finds himself in a village in ancient China that is under attack by armored soldiers. The soldiers see his staff and attempt to seize it. He is saved by the inebriated traveling scholar Lu Yan, a supposed "immortal," who remains alert and agile even when drunk. Lu tells him the story of the rivalry between the King and the Jade Warlord. The Warlord tricked the King into setting aside his magic staff, Ruyi Jingu Bang, and transformed the immortal into a stone statue, but the King cast his staff far away before the transformation. Lu ends the tale with a prophecy about a "Seeker" who will find the staff and free the King. Just then, they are attacked by the Warlord's men again, but manage to escape with the help of Golden Sparrow, a young woman. She reveals that her family was murdered by the Warlord, against whom she has sworn revenge. Meanwhile, the Warlord, upon learning about the staff, sends the witch Ni-Chang to help him retrieve it in exchange for the elixir of immortality. Tripitikas, Lu and Sparrow meet a strange man dressed in white who takes the staff away from them. Lu fights with the man (later revealed to be the Silent Monk) for the staff until the latter realizes that Tripitikas is the Seeker, and joins them in their quest to free the King. As the four travel to Five Elements Mountain, Lu and the Monk teach Tripitikas kung fu along the way. After crossing a desert, they encounter Ni-Chang and her henchmen and a battle ensues, in which Lu is mortally wounded. Tripitikas’s team takes refuge in a monastery, where they learn that Lu is actually not an immortal as he failed the test, and only the Warlord’s elixir can save his life. In desperation, Tripitikas goes to the Warlord's palace alone to exchange the staff for the elixir. The Warlord asks Tripitikas to duel Ni-Chang to death, since the former can give the elixir to only one of them. Tripitikas is overpowered until his teammates and monks from the monastery arrive to join the battle. Tripitikas manages to grab the elixir and tosses it to Lu, who drinks it and recovers. The Monk passes the staff to Tripitikas, who uses it to smash the King's statue. The King is freed and the Monk is revealed to be actually one of the King's clones. Lu kills Ni-Chang. After another long battle between the King and the Warlord, the latter is eventually stabbed by Tripitikas and falls into a lava pit to his death. However, Sparrow succumbs to her wounds. The Jade Emperor, having returned from his meditation, praises Tripitikas for fulfilling the prophecy and allows him for one wish, which he asks to return home. Tripitikas finds himself back in the present. He overpowers Lupo and drives the other hooligans away. Hop survives from the wound and claims that he is immortal (hinting that he is actually Lu). Before the film ends, Jason is delighted to meet a woman who resembles Sparrow. Tripitikas continues honing his kung fu skills while Lu narrates the King’s search for truth.

fantasy, murder, violence, flashback, philosophical, revenge

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The Help

In civil-rights era Jackson, Mississippi, 23-year-old Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan (Emma Stone), a recent graduate of the University of Mississippi and an aspiring writer, attends a bridge game at the home of her friend Elizabeth Leefolt (Ahna O'Reilly). Skeeter's girlhood friends have all gotten married and started families, but Skeeter is disturbed to see how they treat their African American maids.Elizabeth's maid, Aibileen Clark (Viola Davis), fields a call from "white trash" Celia Foote (Jessica Chastain), who wants to help with a benefit being organized by the Junior League. Elizabeth and fellow socialite Hilly Holbrook (Bryce Dallas Howard), head of the local Junior League chapter, laugh at Celia's efforts to be accepted, as they don't think she's up to their social standards. (We learn later that Celia's married to Hilly's former boyfriend, which might have something to do with Hilly's attitude.) Celia mentions to Aibileen that she's looking for a maid. After refusing to use Elizabeth's toilet because Aibileen uses it ("they carry different diseases than we do!"), Hilly describes the Home Health Sanitation Initiative she hopes to get passed in the state legislature. The bill would require white-owned homes to have a separate toilet for the Negro "help." This conversation is conducted within earshot of Aibileen.Skeeter has been assigned to write the Miss Myrna housekeeping column for the local newspaper. Because she has never had to do much housework herself, she asks Aibileen for assistance. In addition to doing all the cooking and cleaning for Elizabeth's family, Aibileen is the de facto mother of Elizabeth's toddler daughter, Mae Mobley (Eleanor Henry and Emma Henry), for whom Elizabeth shows heart-rendingly little concern. Every day Aibileen tells Mae Mobley, "You is kind. You is smart. You is important."When Skeeter gets home, her mother, Charlotte (Allison Janney), is trying on a dress. Charlotte gets Skeeter to try it on and bugs her about still being single. Skeeter mentions the job she landed, and her mother frets that she'll never get married. Charlotte asks whether Skeeter is attracted to women, as she's "heard of an herbal remedy than can cure such 'unnatural' urges." Skeeter is horrified.At dinner that night Skeeter makes a rude remark about liking girls and her mother excuses herself from the table because Skeeter has upset her cancerous ulcer. Skeeter runs to a favorite spot outdoors, a small bench under a tree, and remembers how Constantine (Cicely Tyson), the maid who raised her from a child, comforted her when she wasn't asked to a dance. Skeeter desperately misses Constantine, who according to Charlotte quit while Skeeter was away at college. Skeeter can tell there's more to the story, but no one will say what really happened. Disturbed by the sudden loss of Constantine and at how Elizabeth and Hilly treat their own maids with bigoted condescension, Skeeter conceives a writing project: a book about the lives of Jackson's maids. She describes the project to Elaine Stein (Mary Steenburgen), an editor in New York, and receives lukewarm encouragement; Elaine doubts that any maids will agree to participate. Skeeter approaches Aibeleen about the book, but Aibileen declines to be interviewed.Hilly's maid, Minny Jackson (Octavia Spencer), disobeys Hilly's order not to use the family's bathroom during a violent thunderstorm that makes a trip to the outhouse dangerous. Hilly fires her over the objections of her own mother, Mrs. Walters (Sissy Spacek). In retaliation, Minny makes a chocolate pie into which she has baked her own feces, and takes it to Hilly in a fake act of contrition. While Hilly greedily eats two slices, she asks why her mother can't have a slice, to which Minny explains that it's a "special pie, just for Miss Hilly." A moment later Minny tells Hilly, "Eat my shit!" Hilly asks if Minny's lost her mind, and Minny replies, "No, ma'am, but you is about to. 'Cause you just did." Hilly's mother laughs and laughs and Hilly retaliates by having her mother committed to a nursing home.Later that night, Minny's husband beats her while Aibileen listens on the phone.At church the next day, Aibileen hears a sermon about courage and changing her mind, resolves to help Skeeter with her book. She tearfully recounts to Skeeter and Minny the story of her son's death years before: At age twenty-four, Aibileen's son was run over by a truck at his workplace. The white foreman drove him to a colored hospital, dumped him on the ground, honked the horn, and left. By that point it was too late to save him, so Aibileen brought him home, where he died on the sofa right before her eyes. She expresses her pain, saying "The anniversary of his death comes every year, and every year I can't breathe. But to you all, it's just another day of bridge." She becomes even more invested in the dangerous book project.Meanwhile Minny goes to work for Celia Foote, who's had no luck breaking into the Junior League social set and is therefore somewhat isolated. Celia pays Minny under the table because she doesn't want her husband to know that she has no domestic skills. Although she is generally suspicious of white people, Minny finds herself becoming more comfortable around Celia, who is bubbly and treats Minny with respect, but is deeply insecure. Minny improves Celia's dismal cooking skills by teaching her how to make fried chicken on her first day. They bond further when Celia suffers her fourth miscarriage. While Minny helps her into bed and soothes her, Celia is overwrought. She reveals that she married her husband Johnny (Mike Vogel) because she was pregnant, but quickly lost the baby and hasn't told him about the three failed pregnancies that followed. She worries that she will never be able to have children.Hilly's new maid, Yule Mae (Aunjanue Ellis), explains to her employer that her twin sons have graduated high school and that she and her husband have been saving for years to send them to college. However, they are short $75 on one tuition, and are on the verge of having to choose which son can go. Yule Mae respectfully asks Hilly for a loan, saying that she will gladly work for free until the loan is paid off. Hilly refuses, explaining that it's "the Christian thing" to do because God does not give charity to those who are well and able. While vacuuming Hilly's living room later, Yule Mae finds a ring, which she pockets and later tries to pawn, hoping to get the tuition money. Hilly finds out and has Yule Mae arrested at the bus stop in front of the other maids, all of whom are deeply shaken by the event.Aibileen recruits a reluctant Minny into the book project, but Elaine Stein (who's warming to the idea) insists the book will need at least a dozen voices -- including the story of Skeeter's own relationship with Constantine. After Yule Mae's arrest, nearly all the local maids volunteer to help with the book. Though she has changed the names of everyone involved, Skeeter remains concerned that people will recognize the maids and create more trouble for the Negro community in the wake of the recent murder of Medgar Evars. Minny insists that they include the story about Hilly and the chocolate pie -- which she refers to as her "terrible awful" -- as insurance against being identified; an embarrassed Hilly will not want anyone to know that she ingested her maid's feces and will do all she can to convince everyone that the book isn't about Jackson.Hilly has several times directed Skeeter, who writes the Junior League newsletter, to include an item about her proposed "sanitation initiative," but Skeeter keeps putting her off. Now Hilly adds an item about a charity coat drive, the coats for which are to be dropped off at Hilly's house. Skeeter includes both items, but changes "coats" to something else.The next day Elizabeth gets a call and rushes herself, Mae Mobley, and Aibileen over to Hilly's, where Hilly is screaming, "I told her to write 'coats'! Not 'commodes'!" On Hilly's lawn are about 40 toilets. While Hilly continues her histrionics, Mae Mobley innocently sits on a toilet and Elizabeth slaps her till she sobs. Mae Mobley runs to Aibileen, who holds her and whispers, "You is kind. You is smart. You is important."Skeeter eventually pries the story of Constantine's departure out of her mother: Charlotte fired Constantine because Constantine's daughter Rachel (LaChanze) refused to use the back door and embarrassed Charlotte while she was hosting an important DAR luncheon. Charlotte regretted it and tried to get Constantine to come back, going so far as to send her son, Skeeter's brother, to Constantine's new home in Chicago, but by the time he got there, Constantine had died.Skeeter's book The Help is published anonymously, and soon everyone in Jackson is reading it. True to Minny's prediction, Hilly is horrified to find the chocolate pie story therein and goes out of her way to assure her friends that The Help isn't about Jackson. Skeeter splits the advance she receives evenly among all the maids, promising that more is on the way. She's offered a job at the publishing house in New York, which she is disinclined to take, but Aibileen and Minny insist that she must.Stuart Whitworth (Chris Lowell), whom Skeeter has been dating, breaks up with Skeeter when he finds out it was she who wrote The Help. Hilly also figures out who wrote the book and storms over to Skeeter's house in a drunken fury. She threatens to tell Skeeter's mother, but Charlotte kicks Hilly off her property after insulting her and insinuating she knows about the pie. Charlotte tells Skeeter to take the job in New York, which Skeeter does, and Charlotte tells her she's proud of her.Celia works hard to prepare a lavish meal for Minny in gratitude for all she has done. Celia's husband, who has known all along that Minny is working for Celia, tells Minny she will have a job with them for as long as she wants it. Inspired, Minny leaves her abusive husband, taking their children with her.One of the final scenes shows Hilly taking in her mail. One item is a check for $200, a donation from Celia to the Junior League benefit. When she sees that the check is made out to "Two-Slice Hilly," she throws a tantrum and tears it up.Hilly, falsely claiming that Aibileen has stolen some silverware, browbeats the weak-willed Elizabeth into firing Aibileen. When alone with Aibileen, Hilly cruelly tells her that while she cannot send Aibileen to jail for her involvement in the book, she can send her "for being a thief." Aibileen snaps and finally stands up to Hilly, calling her a "godless woman" for her false accusations and for her conniving and backstabbing ways, at which Hilly bursts into tears of rage and leaves. Mae Mobley begs Aibileen not to leave her. They share a tearful goodbye, during which Aibileen repeats her affirming mantra: "You is kind. You is smart. You is important." Elizabeth shows a rare glimpse of emotion, tearing up as she watches Mae Mobley bang on the window, crying for Aibileen to return. As she walks away, Aibileen promises herself that she will become a writer, as her son had encouraged her to do.

historical, feel-good

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No Strings Attached

15 years agoWe see two young kids, named Emma and Adam, sitting on a bench looking uncomfortable while other teenagers are making out at a summer camp. Adam cries, revealing that he's attending summer camp because his parents are going through a divorce. Emma awkwardly puts her arm around him and comforts him by saying that people just aren't meant to stay together forever. Adam seems consoled. He then asks if he can finger her. She refuses.5 years ago20 year-old Emma Kutzman (Natalie Portman) wearing a trench coat walks into a frat party at a university in Michigan and finds her friend, Patrice. Patrice, wearing a tank top and daisy duke pajama shorts, teases Emma for wearing red long johns to the "pajama party." Across the room, Adam Franklin (Ashton Kutcher) spots Emma and tells his friend Eli that he knows her from somewhere. Emma catches his stare and recognizes him from summer camp 10 years earlier. They walk towards each other and chat. Emma invites Adam to "this thing" she has to attend the next day and Adam agrees to accompany her.The next day we see Emma's mom; her sister, Katie; Katie's boyfriend; and Adam standing in a cemetery. Emma invited Adam to attend her dad's funeral, and Adam not knowing the occasion is underdressed. Later in the day, Adam catches Emma consoling her mother outside in the family's garden.1 year agoEli, Adam, and Vanessa (Adam's girlfriend) are at an L.A. farmer's market when Eli spots Patrice. They reconnect and talk. Adam walks up and hugs Patrice. Emma, who is shopping nearby with Katie, sees Adam and walks up to everyone. She is excited to see him (as is Adam) until Adam introduces her to Vanessa. Emma reveals that she just moved to L.A. to work as an intern at a nearby hospital. She gives Adam her phone number, and they promise to keep in touch. They don't.Present dayAdam is working as a production's assistant for a TV show. He is a budding screenwriter; he writes an episode for the show but has yet to gain the nerves to give it to the director/producer. His dad, Alvin (Kevin Kline), is a successful film star (or producer) but Adam wants to break out on his own. While visiting Alvin at his estate, Vanessa surprises Adam wearing only a bikini. It's apparent the Alvin and Vanessa are dating. Disgusted, Adam leaves.At the bar where Wallace, another friend, works we see Adam and Eli drinking. Adam is visibly upset. He then decides that the best course of action is to dial all the girls on his cell phone until one agrees to sleep with him. With each call, he drinks more and more until he passes out.The next morning Adam awakens in an apartment to find himself laying on a couch with only a dish towel covering his "lap". A girl named Shira is sitting on a bar stool eating breakfast. He thinks they slept together until her roommate, Guy, walks in. Adam is unsure about what occurred the previous night. Then Patrice walks into the room, and Adam is thrilled to recognize her. She pretends that they had sex. Then Emma walks into the kitchen and tells Adam that he called her, came over, and passed out. Everyone laughs.Adam and Emma go into her bedroom so that he can retrieve his pants. Emma reveals what happened yesterday evening: Adam, thinking he was at home, strips to his birthday suit and danced around; he also cried when telling her that Alvin and Vanessa are dating. They laugh and sit on her bed. Sparks fly, they kiss, they have sex.Before leaving for work, Emma makes Adam promise not to divulge what just happened. He agrees. Meeting Eli for lunch Adam tells his friend that he slept with Emma, but she has yet to return any of his phone calls. Just then, Emma gets out of the car with a handsome co-worker, Sam. It's clear that Sam likes Emma. They chat for a bit before Emma and Sam go into the bistro to grab coffees and salads. Adam then decides to surprise Emma.He goes to the hospital with a congratulatory balloon and they talk. Emma's embarrassed that he tracked her down, telling him that's she is not the relationship type of girl. She leaves to go back to work, and Adam, a bit sad, meets up with his friends for drinks. During the night, Emma texts Adam with, "What are you doing?". Eli and Wallace agree that she's asking for a booty call and advise him to play it cool. He does and Emma invites herself over to his house.They meet and have sex again. Afterwards, Emma starts dressing and Adam asks her to stay for a muffin. Again, Emma declares that she's not into dating or spending the night or eating breakfast with a man. Adam agrees prompting Emma to ask, "Do you want to do this? Use each other for sex?". Adam says, "I can handle it." They agree to a few ground rules: no dating, no spending the night, no putting each other on their emergency contact list, and if one begins feeling more than the other the "relationship" but immediately terminate.The next few weeks (or months) find Emma and Adam doing it everywhere. It's obvious they are both starting to fall for each other but are refusing to acknowledge it. In the meantime, Adam attempts to hand his screenplay to his boss. It doesn't go well, but Lucy, his boss's assistant, apprehends the play and says she'll take a look at it.The next evening we find Emma, Patrice, and Shire sprawled out on their living room. Their periods have synced, and they're all miserable. Adam surprises the ladies with Sprinkles cupcakes, and for Emma, he gives her a period CD. She is touched. They go to her room and fall asleep. Fully clothed. The next morning Emma wakes up to find Adam spooning her and she's dismayed at herself for allowing it. She wakes him up and tells him they need to cool their situation by sleeping with other people. Adam, not amused but too chicken to confess his feelings, says fine and leaves.That night Adam is hanging out with Wallace when Megan, another friend, confesses that she's in love with Lisa, who happens to be sitting next to Adam. The girls start making out. Wallace takes a picture of the girls kissing Adam and texts it to Emma. She's at her work party when she receives the message. Irate and very drunk, she takes a cab to his house. When Adam opens the door, she starts getting mad until Megan appears. She's wearing nothing but her underwear. Then Lisa appears, also scantily clothed. Emma is visibly upset then goes nuts on the girls, prompting them to leave. Adam and Emma have sex. And Emma tells him not to do that again. Their "relationship" continues.A few weeks later Adam is at work when Alvin surprises him with a birthday song. The entire TV cast sings him happy birthday. Alvin invites his son to dinner because he and Vanessa have something to share. Adam, still upset at his dad, punches him, which lands him in the ER. Emma rushes to his side and finds out that she's on his emergency contact list. She tries to break it off, but Adam intercedes, telling her that he's heavily sedated and about to meet his dad and ex-girlfriend for dinner and needs a support system. He asks her to join him. She agrees.Alvin, Vanessa, Adam and Emma are sitting in a fancy restaurant when Alvin and Vanessa tell Adam that they want to make a baby together, but before they do that, they want Adam's blessing. Adam responds by hitting his head on the table. Emma responds for him, telling off Alvin and Vanessa, saying that they shouldnt make a baby since they're babies themselves. She lets out her true feelings for Adam indirectly by telling Vanessa that if she had to choose between Alvin and Adam she'd choose Adam every single time. Before leaving she retorts that Adam is the best sex of her life. They exit the restaurant and Adam asks her out on a real date. Emma, a bit hesitant, agrees.It's Valentine's day, and Adam picks up Emma at work and they go miniature golfing. They talk and laugh and hit it off yet again. At the diner, they share a milkshake when Adam decides it's time to confess his feelings and begins to tell her he's falling for her. But she doesn't let him finish. At LACMA, Adam tries again and tells her that he's in love with Emma. She responds by hitting him and telling him that he's ruining their relationship. She commands him to take her back to work, and he does. At the hospital, Adam says he can't keep doing this anymore and ends their "relationship." They leave.Six weeks pass and we find out that Emma's depressed. Meanwhile, Lucy has given the episode to their boss who decides to use it. On the night of Adam's episode, we see him basking in his success. Meanwhile, Emma is in Santa Barbara for her sister's wedding. Emma and her mom have a talk in which her mom tells her not to close up her life but instead embrace it, even if it means getting hurt when falling in love. Emma realizes she loves Adam and Katie tells her to call him. She does, and Adam who's at the cast party answers it. After hearing, Emma say she misses him he tells her that she's only saying that because she's feeling lonely since it's her sister's wedding. She'll get over it. He hangs up on her and takes Lucy home.Emma, realizing that she has to do something big, leaves Santa Barbara and heads back to Adam's house in LA, hoping to find him there and confess her true feelings. She arrives before he does and hides out in the bushes when she realizes that he is bringing a girl home. After Adam and Lucy enter the house Emma gets into her car, calls Katie, and cries, telling her she's too late. She starts driving back to Santa Barbara when she gets a text from Shira who is working at the hospital.While Emma is driving back to Santa Barbara, Adam and Lucy start making out, but it's apparent that they aren't in sync with each other. His phone rings and Adam picks up. The call is about Alvin, who has apparently overdosed. Adam rushes to the hospital to discover that Vanessa, who is waiting for him, wants out of the relationship. "He's too old, and I'm too young," she says. She gives an excuse why she can't see Alvin and disappears. Adam finds his dad's room, and they talk. Alvin tells Adam that while he has a selfish heart, Adam doesn't and is a good guy. Adam forgives his dad and tells him that he'll call him the next day.While Adam walks out of the hospital, he calls Emma and tells her that she has no right to tell her she misses him when he hasn't heard from her in weeks. As he is telling her that, she has to do more than just call him her car pulls up and Emma runs out of the car. Unsure of his feelings towards him, Emma cries and tells her she is in love with him. Adam embraces Emma. They kiss.The next morning we see them eating breakfast and discussing the new rules to their official relationship. They head back to Santa Barbara, just in time for Katie's wedding. Holding hands, the music swells and the film ends.

boring, adult comedy, cute, flashback, romantic, entertaining

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Bean

Mr. Bean (Rowan Atkinson) is a well-meaning, but hopelessly clumsy and destructive guard at the Royal National Gallery in London. Attempts by the gallery's board of directors to fire Bean are thwarted by the chairman who, for unspecified reasons, is very fond of him. Desperate to rid themselves of the turmoil Bean unintentionally causes, the board members send him to the United States to represent them at the unveiling of the portrait Whistler's Mother, which has been purchased for $50 million by the Grierson Art Gallery in Los Angeles. Bean's visit has been arranged by the gallery's curator, David Langley (Peter MacNicol) who is being very impressed by the National Gallery's fabricated praise of "Dr. Bean", decides to board him in his house. On his flight to Los Angeles, Bean attempts to amuse a child with air sickness by blowing up his M&Ms bag and popping it to wake up the man in front of him, but without success. After the child throws up into an air sickness bag, Bean takes the bag from him and repeats the bag popping over the man's face, only to splatter him with vomit. He hides from the man upon his arrival to Los Angeles, where he is detained at the airport due to pretending to have a gun. His arrival at David's house is initially met with subtle hostility from David's wife Alison (Pamela Reed), son Kevin (Andrew Lawrence), and daughter Jennifer (Tricia Vessey). Alison refuses David's request to allow Bean to live with them for two months, and David promises Alison that he will talk to Bean and take him to a hotel after their meeting at the gallery. Bean's unorthodox arrival at the gallery worries many of David's colleagues, particularly his boss, George Grierson (Harris Yulin), who subtly warns David that he will be responsible for Bean's actions at the unveiling of the painting, but David promises that he can handle Bean, convinced that he is merely a little eccentric. When David takes Bean back to his house, Alison departs for her mother's home, unwilling to live with Bean. With his family gone, David decides to take Bean on a tour of the Los Angeles art galleries. However, Bean decides that he and David should go to Pacific Park instead, but lands in police detainment for the second time after accidentally tampering with the controls of a motion simulator ride, making it go dangerously fast after deeming that his first ride earlier was too slow. This prompts Lieutenant Brutus (Richard Gant), who dealt with Bean at the airport, to make David accountable for Bean, threatening to arrest Bean if he ever steps out of line again. Following a miserable dinner with Grierson which David had forgotten about, where Bean accidentally blows up the microwave after attempting to cook their Thanksgiving turkey in it, David finally realises that Bean is not a doctor and knows nothing about art. He is obliged to continue with the deception, however, as he has already staked his professional career on Bean's supposed reputation as a noted art scholar. The next day, Whistler's Mother arrives at the Grierson Art Gallery, and Bean is given a few minutes alone to study it, in an effort to keep him out of trouble. While dusting the frame, Bean accidentally sneezes on the painting and wipes it with a handkerchief, not knowing that it is covered in blue ink from a broken pen, and therefore the painting is stained. Terrified, Bean takes it to the caretaker's cupboard to get some agent by which to remove the ink. He uses lacquer thinner, which also dissolves the painted face from the painting. Much to his horror, Bean attempts to patch it up with an extremely unconvincing cartoon face. Upon seeing it, David is also horrified and hides the painting behind its metal security shutters. Fearing that David will lose his job and possibly face criminal proceedings for his vandalism, he and Bean head off to a bar to drown their sorrows. During the night, Bean hatches his plan to restore Whistler's Mother. He gathers a few items from David's house and makes his way to the Grierson Art Gallery. He distracts the only security guard on duty by putting laxative in his coffee, followed by switching the men's bathroom keys with some other set. He removes the destroyed painting from its frame and replaces it with a poster version of itself, glossing it with an egg and varnish mix to make it appear authentic. At the unveiling of Whistler's Mother the next day, David is overjoyed to see the painting is restored, but expects Bean, who has totally forgotten to come up with a speech, to make a fool of himself on national television when he takes the podium at the press conference. However, Bean's brief but effective off-the-cuff speech regarding the work is both very simple and very deep, cementing the public's perception of him as a scholarly virtuoso. Despite initial doubts, the officials and hierarchy appear to take his words to heart and enjoy the speech. After the unveiling, Brutus finds David and informs him that Jennifer has been involved in a motorcycle accident because she rebelled against David for not getting rid of Bean, and is in intensive care. Bean and David are given a police escort to the hospital to see Jennifer, but Brutus stops on his way to deal with an armed robber, who shoots Brutus in his stomach before being arrested. Due to a mix-up at the hospital, Bean is mistaken for a medical doctor and pushed into an operating theatre containing Brutus, who is shot in the stomach and barely alive. While the other doctors and nurses are distracted, Bean unconventionally retrieves the bullet and eventually rescues Brutus, earning the admiration of his colleagues. Bean is again mistaken for a doctor and this time, David takes him to see Jennifer, who is unconscious. Bean, unsure what to do, attempt to use a defibrillator to bring Jennifer back to life, but accidentally shocks himself and is sent flying across the room and lands on Jennifer in her bed and waking her up in the process. Still not recognising Bean, David and Alison tell him that they will offer him anything. Bean reveals himself and then asks if he can stay with them for another week before returning to London. Though baffled, the Langleys gladly accept. After another week in Los Angeles with the Langleys, for which he gives the family gifts, and explores the city, a bald man shows him his middle finger, bean thinks it is a sign of good luck. So he shows this to everybody. In his flat, Bean, getting ready to bed for the night, turns off the light and looks at the original vandalised Whistler's Mother, which now has pride-of-place on his wall, and shows it to his Teddy before closing his eyes and going to sleep.

cult, comedy, entertaining

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The Inbetweeners Movie

Four teenage misfits - Will, Simon, Jay and Neil - have finished their A-levels and are about to leave Rudge Park Comprehensive, much to the relief of Mr. Gilbert, their sarcastic, cynical sixth form tutor. Within their final week of school, however, Jay's grandfather dies, Simon is dumped by his girlfriend Carli and Will discovers that his divorced father has unexpectedly married his much younger mistress. Depressed, the boys decide to go on holiday together and Neil books them on a trip to Malia, Crete.Their accommodation in Malia is awful, but the boys meet four girls - Alison, Lucy, Lisa and Jane - in an empty bar during their first night out. Their initial meeting goes less than smoothly- Will chats to Alison and pokes fun at her cliched "Greek waiter boyfriend", Simon bores Lucy to death talking about Carli, Neil has a non-conversation with Lisa, and Jay "gets stuck" with the bubbly, if somewhat overweight Jane. The girls go on their way after Neil pulls two older women, but arrange to meet the boys the next day. Outside the bar, Simon sees Carli across the street. He talks awkwardly with her before being run over by a quadbike ridden by James, an obnoxious club rep and Carli's new squeeze. Carli reveals she is going to a boat party later in the week, and Simon pledges to meet her there.The next morning, Will and Simon awaken to find Neil being given oral sex by a middle-aged woman and Jay sleeping face-down in an ants' nest outside. After sobering up, they go to meet the girls by their hotel pool. While there, Jay has his shorts pulled down by a local child and throws him into the pool in retaliation, only to find that the boy cannot swim. At the same time, Will gets into an argument with a family whose poolside sun-loungers were 'requisitioned' by the boys, tactlessly pointing out that their wheelchair-bound daughter 'doesn't even need a sun-lounger'. Having publicly humiliated themselves, the boys are quickly thrown out of the hotel.Outside, Jay argues with Simon over his continuing obsession with Carli and they fight in the street. Will and Neil separate the pair and drag them off in different directions. Desperate to buy a ticket for the boat party, Simon attempts to sell his clothes to James, but never gets paid for them. Meanwhile, Jay angrily tears up two tickets he secretly bought for them as a surprise. He and Neil then go to a nightclub hoping to meet more girls, only to witness a male stripper performing autofellatio on stage. The duo subsequently run into James and his friends, who ridicule and threaten them until they leave.Later that evening, the four boys meet back at the bar and bury the hatchet. Before long, the girls turn up and suggest that they all go skinny dipping at the local beach. Jane attempts to kiss Jay, but he is embarrassed by her size so she leaves him behind. Will has better luck with Alison until he stumbles across her Greek boyfriend having sex with another woman; Alison then runs off in tears. Lucy and Simon appear to be growing closer until he sees Carli on the beach and leaves Lucy alone in the sea.Eventually, the boys are able to obtain tickets for the boat party. On board, Carli kisses Simon passionately in order to make James jealous, and Simon realises he is being used. Jay apologises to Jane, and she takes him into the toilets to perform oral sex on him. After finishing, they encounter James, who mocks Jane's weight and tries to extort money from Jay in order to snort cocaine. Jay complies, but gives him a 20 note that had been concealed in his anus as a bribe for 'corrupt foreign cops', resulting in James unknowingly walking around with faeces on his nose for the rest of the day. After a conversation about 'ethics', Neil and Lisa decide to be together and celebrate by dry-humping each other.Meanwhile, Alison hunts out Will and asks to be his girlfriend. He eagerly accepts as Simon finally realises that Lucy, who gave him her ticket so that he could attend the party, is more worthy of his attention than Carli. Simon then attempts to jump off the boat and swim to her on the beach as a grand romantic gesture, but nearly drowns in the process and has to be airlifted to shore. As several paramedics load him into an ambulance, Lucy rushes over to him in concern and the two reconcile.After the boat party is over, the other boys and girls visit Simon in hospital, and once he recovers they all spend the rest of their holiday together as couples. Eventually, the four boys head home to the UK, looking forward to the next stage of their lives. As they meet their families at the airport, their girlfriends exit the same terminal and introduce themselves to the boys' parents as the film ends. In a final scene during the credits, Mr. Gilbert is seen riding a quad-bike through the streets of Malia in his underwear.

bleak, comedy, humor, entertaining

tt1716772

Taste of Fear

** CONTAINS SPOILERSIn England, OFFICIALS drag a lake, soon locating the body of a YOUNG GIRL, apparently a suicideIn Nice, France, handsome, sexy chauffeur, BOB, dutifully arrives at the airport to pick up PENNY APPLEBY, late teens or 20s. Confined to a wheelchair since a long-ago horse riding accident, Penny has come to stay with her FATHER and stepmother, JANE, whom she has never met.Her stepmother greets her warmly, but tells Penny that her Father is away on business. They dine elegantly at the lavish estate, and then retire. That night, Penny hears strange noises. She maneuvers her wheelchair outside to the summer house, where candlelight flickers. Penny goes inside, only to find her Father's CORPSE, sitting upright in a chair! Horrified, Penny races out of the summer house in her wheelchair, ending up in the pool, rescued by Bob.She wakes up to find DR. GERRARD tending to her. Although she insists what she saw was real, a trip to the summer house fails to reveal a body. Penny broods about it, and then finds herself confused when stepmother Jane calls her to the phone to talk with her Father, who, apparently, is just fine.But Penny finds an apparently sympathetic ear in the attractive chauffeur Bob. When Penny runs into her Father's CORPSE yet again, this time sitting upright in his study, Penny wonders if she's going mad. Penny begins to suspect her stepmother Jane and Dr. Gerrard. She's convinced they're having an affair and that they've killed her father, hiding his body somewhere in the house.With chauffeur Bob now an ally, Penny and Bob decide the body must be hidden somewhere in the house. Late at night, they locate a meat freezer, but when Bob pries it open, they do not find her Father's body. Only later, staring at the swimming pool, does Penny realize that the body might be kept down in the icy water. Bob dives into it, swimming through the weed-infested water, and indeed he sees the old man's dead eyes staring at him from his watery grave.Now, Penny and Bob decide to drive to the authorities, as Jane has left for the evening. Bob places Penny in the backseat of the limo and they start out. On a deserted road, they see Jane. Bob gets out of the car to talk to her, but the car begins to roll with Penny helpless in the backseat. Panicked, Penny leans across the seat to stop the car, and then sees her Father's CORPSE slumped down in the front seat. She screams before the car plunges into the waterBob and Jane, secretly lovers, have watched the whole accident. It was all a plot to make it appear as though Penny and her Father died in the same car accident, thus getting the estate for themselves.Jane gets a visit from her Father's SOLICITOR. When she inquires about the chain of inheritance, since both the Father and Penny were killed, the Solicitor is surprised. He says there was only ONE body in the car - the Father. Further, he tells Jane that Penny committed suicide three weeks ago!!A shocked Jane is confused. Before the Solicitor leaves, he points out the young girl at the edge of the cliff outside the house who's sitting in a wheelchair!Jane goes up to the wheelchair, and indeed it's Penny, still alive. But Penny reveals that she is not Penny at all. She is Penny's best friend, EMILY FRENCHEM. She's also not paralyzed, rising out of the wheelchair. Penny is the girl who committed suicide in France, the one whose body they dragged out at the beginning of the movie. Emily knew something was wrong at the estate because Penny's Father had called his daughter about it. That's why Emily came investigating, and now she knows the truth-Penny's Stepmother Jane and the Chauffeur murdered Penny's Father. Emily had aligned herself with Dr. Gerrard to trick Jane and Bob into revealing their guilt. She was able to leap from the car before it plunged into the water.Emily walks off to call the police, Jane sits wearily in the wheelchair. In the meantime, Bob, having found out Penny's alive, rushes into the house, searching for Penny. He sees the wheelchair, kicks it off the cliff, but, of course, it's Jane who falls to her death. Police arrest Bob. Dr. Gerrard comforts Emily, who has vindicated her friend, the tragic Penny

murder

tt0055505

13 Ghosts

The movie opens with eerie music and a darkened screen followed by screams and moans and splotches of paint thrown at the screen. Each ghost and its number appears with the number thirteen as a "?". Titles and credits follow.The opening shot is the front (south entrance) of the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History. Cyrus Zorba (Donald Woods) is a paleontologist and is lecturing to a group of college students. He encourages them to visit the La Brea Tar Pits. He is interrupted by his boss, Mr. Van Allen (John Van Dreelen), who tells him his wife needs to speak to him on the telephone. Hilda Zorba (Rosemary DeCamp) tells her husband their furniture is being repossessed, again! Payments are three months overdue. Cy is a poor money manager and very forgetful. She reminds him that it is Buck's birthday, so don't forget his gift. Buck Zorba (Charles Herbert) arrives home to an empty house. "Why do they always take our furniture?" he asks his mother knowing the answer.The cake says, "Happy Birthday, Buck" and contains eleven candles. His sister, Medea (Jo Morrow) gave her brother a tome of "Ghost Stories." They eat on the floor, as all the furniture is gone. Buck makes a wish and prepares to blow out the candles. His wish is for, "A house with furniture that no one could take away from us." At that a gust of wind blows out the candles. Simultaneously the doorbell rings. Cy answers it. He sees no one at the door. He ventures out into the darkness a few steps and a short, cadaverous man (David Hoffman) asks, "Mr. Cyrus Zorba?" He hands him a telegram then disappears into the darkness. Cy opens and reads the telegram out loud. He is to report at 10:00 a.m. to an attorney's office. Medea looks up his name in the phone book and tells her father he's in the Petrol Building.The next morning Cy and Hilda Zorba appear at the law office of Benjamin Rush (Martin Milner). Ben Rush tells the pair that Cy has inherited a house from his uncle, Dr. Plato Zorba. It includes furniture, but Ben tells them they will be disappointed. It is a fifty year old house in need of work. A wrapped package sealed with wax was also included in the inheritance. According to Ben Rush, Dr. Zorba was his client for a year and he had collected ghosts from all over the world. "You inherit them too," he warns. Cy and Hilda chuckle in amusement, but Ben is dead serious, reiterating, "They go with the house." Ben leaves to get a notary. They open the package and find a wooden box. When they open it a gust of wind blows the papers around the lawyer's desk. Inside is a pair of peculiar looking glasses. A fly buzzing around the room annoys Hilda, who keeps brushing it away. It lands on the glasses and explodes like it was a bug zapper.Ben drives up to the house to see Cy about more paperwork. The family has moved into the house. It is a large Victorian place, very overgrown and obviously untended for years. Ben encounters Buck skating on the porch. Buck is excited about the house and claims they have a "live" witch living there. When Ben rings, Medea answers, much to Buck's annoyance. He wanted the housekeeper, Elaine Zacharides (Margaret Hamilton) to answer as she usually does. Medea introduces herself to the lawyer and is instantly attracted to him. She invites him in. Elaine is on the stairs and holding a broom. She glowers at Ben and the children, and turns and walks upstairs. They discuss Plato Zorba and his picture over the fireplace. Ben explains the ghosts had nearly killed him and altered his appearance, "back broken, face torn to shreds, lips ripped away." He tells Medea he wishes they had not moved into the house. Medea invites Ben to stay for dinner. Cy finishes signing all the paperwork for the house and they discuss "the witch." Cy explains they can't pay her, but she begged to stay on until she found something else. Ben explains she must have money, as Zorba paid her well. Buck finds a OUIJA board and brings it to the table. Buck explains he pushed something on the fireplace and a door opened. Buck walks over to the fireplace, pushes a button and the door opens revealing a deck of cards, the book and the planchette. Cy retrieves the planchette and hands it to Buck. He removes the white bound book. It is written in Latin. Medea suggests they play with the OUIJA board. Cy explains how the board works. All five put a finger on the planchette. Ben asks, "Is Medea in Love?" Buck asks a question, "Are there any ghosts in this house?" The pointer goes to Yes, despite Hilda and Ben saying they pushed towards No. After that, just Medea and Buck play with the board. He asks, "How many?" It answers 13. Medea asks, "Are they going to hurt us?" It points to Yes. Ben warns Medea, "Don't fool around with that thing anymore." Buck finally asks, "Are they going to kill any of us?" The glass framed portrait of Dr. Zorba falls off the wall and nearly kills both Buck and Medea. The planchette starts moving on its own, levitating above the couch and landing in Medea's lap.Cy and Hilda prepare for bed. Hilda is scared. Cy explains to his wife if they don't live in the house it goes to the state. Cy opens the box and pulls out the glasses. Hilda complains of a freezing draft. The flowers on a table wilt. Cy checks on the children and then goes downstairs for a book. Down in the living room we see some of the ghosts re-enacting their crimes, perpetrators and victims. Cy hears moaning and is drawn to the source. He walks down a hallway and opens a door that leads to a walled up room. He presses on it and it slides open. The moans are louder. He turns on a light. This must have been Zorba's laboratory. Someone whispers "13" over and over. He puts on the glasses and sees the book burning. He looks up to see four apparitions floating in midair. The four burst into flames and scream. He is attacked by a pinwheel of fire. He takes the glasses off. The door open and he retrieves his Uncle's book. The number "13" is seared into his flesh on the back of his right hand.The next morning at work he asks Mr. Van Allen how the translation is going on the book. Van Allen has a hard time putting it into words. He refers to a University Publication from ten years prior. It is about Plato Zorba and his solicitation of haunted houses so he can photograph ghosts. The book is a record of his work. There is a chapter for each ghost. One is from Ireland, a couple from Italy and one from Tibet is mentioned. "I, Plato Zorba, am the twelfth." The phone rings and Van Allen answers it. It is Hilda again, and she demands Cy return home immediately.The ghost of a chef kills his wife with a cleaver. When Cy gets home there is commotion in the kitchen. The floor is a mess of broken plates. Hilda tells her husband they just flew off the shelves. They watch as a can of flour pours itself on the floor. Hilda says, "I have had enough, Cy." A bottle of milk floats over the mess and falls. Buck walks into the kitchen and explains, "That was Emilio." He was an Italian chef who killed his wife and two other in-laws. The final act is a cleaver that flies across the room and imbeds itself in the wall, nearly hitting Cy. Hilda pleads with Cy to move out now. Elaine appears and answers some of Cy's questions. She tells him she helped Dr. Zorba with his work. She adds that Zorba turned against her. Zorba converted all his wealth into cash. She and Ben searched the house after his death but found nothing. Cy asks about Zorba's death. Elaine shows him Zorba's bedroom. She lights a few candles and tells Cy he died in bed, the official cause of death was suffocation. Elaine pleads with Cy that he and his family should leave tonight. A gust of wind blows out the candles, and then they relight themselves. One candle levitates over to the bed, directing attention to a switch that raises and lowers the canopy. Cy operates the switch.Ben and Medea return home from a date. Everyone in the house is asleep. In Zorba's bedroom a man with cobweb covered pants and dirty shoes walks towards the door. Medea turns out her light and goes to bed. The figure walks the house. It opens Medea's bedroom door. She is awakened to a window banging. She gets up to latch it. The visage of Dr. Zorba approaches her. She screams and walks backwards. Elaine goes into her room and reopens the window.The next morning Buck makes his bed and then slides down the bannister. Two one-hundred dollar bills appear and float to the floor, unnoticed. He takes the glasses and walks down into the basement. He finds an old trunk and opens it. He finds a lion tamer's hat and whip used by Shadrack the Great. He opens an empty cage and is floored by a lion's roar. He puts the glasses on and sees both the ghost of the lion and the headless Shadrack. He is both frightened and fascinated. Buck takes Medea her breakfast. He sees the $200 and picks it up. The doorbell rings--it is Ben. Ben notices and asks about the money. Buck brings his sister her tray. Ben tells Buck that, "there's a treasure hidden in this house." Ben wants Buck's help finding it.Ben stops at the Museum to see Cy. Ben tells Cy that he thinks he can arrange for the state to pay for the house and grounds. Ben is a little too anxious to get the Zorba family out of the house. Van Allen comes in an reads a passage from the book, "Today, I finished converting my assets into cash and put it where unscrupulous men can no longer steal it from me." Van Allen suggests he find Elaine to get some answers. Cy explains Elaine is the housekeeper. Van Allen suggests a séance to converse with Dr. Zorba.That evening Elaine holds a séance with Medea, Hilda and Cy. She will act as medium. Cy retrieves his glasses as Buck slides down the bannister again. He finds more money, wiggles the balustrade posts and it opens a hidden door. Behind the door is a stack of money. Dr. Zorba speaks through Cy. He puts the glasses on and sees Zorba materialize from his portrait, but not the distinguished man in the picture, but a disfigured visage. Ben shows up at the house and Buck shows him the money. Ben tells him to go to bed, and then follows him upstairs. Dr. Zorba's ghost inhabits Cy. He says, "Death tonight, one of you." Zorba returns to his portrait. Cy wants to know more, but Elaine deflects the questions and predicts, "Tonight death walks again in this evil house."Ben is in Dr. Zorba's bedroom dressed up as the visage of Dr. Zorba. He is wearing the cobweb pants and dirty shoes, but not the mask. He checks the switch on the bed's canopy mechanism. Ben steals into Buck's bedroom and lifts the sleeping child. He takes him to Dr. Zorba's bedroom and places him on the bed. Ben activates the canopy switch and watches it slowly descend. The ghosts react to the impending murder of a child. Through a ventilation duct, a mist appears. Ben sees Dr. Zorba's ghost. It approaches as Ben retreats. It directs Ben to the bed and forces him under the lowering canopy. Buck wakes, runs out of the way and screams. He sees Zorba's ghost hold Ben under the canopy. The family rushes into Zorba's bedroom.The next morning they are counting cash. Cy explains to his daughter that Ben murdered Dr. Zorba and tried to find the hidden money. Elaine calls the family to breakfast. Buck asks Elaine, "You really are a witch aren't you?" Elaine replies, "Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies." She tells Buck the ghosts will be back. The glasses levitate above a table and explode. Elaine takes a broom, smirks, and exits the room. We close with a panning shot around the inside of the house, and see the ghosts again. The front door closes and "House for Sale" appears.

revenge, murder

tt0053559

Ultraviolet

In the mid-21st century, the Hemaglophagic virus (HGV), an obscure virus from Eastern Europe which was being used to breed stronger and faster soldiers, escaped the laboratory. Once infected, people have a lifespan of about 12 years, but first they are reduced to "hemophages" (aka "vampires"). They take on many characteristics including extended eyeteeth, regeneration, accelerated reflexes and increased strength. One of the victims is Violet Song jat Shariff [Milla Jovovich]. Because she was infected while pregnant, Violet was secured to a holding camp to be studied. Most of the other hemophages have been wiped out, thanks to the actions of Vice cardinal Ferdinand Daxus [Nick Chinlund], who is determined to wipe out every last hemophage. But the hemophages aren't going to be led like sheep to their slaughter. Hemophages have united, and their resistance and terrorist attacks have become known as "the Blood War."It is 12 years later. The scientists terminated Violet's pregnancy, and she has managed to escape the camp and join the Hemophage Underground. After infiltrating the Archministry by posing as courier XPD154, Violet finds herself in possession of a case that contains the ultimate weapon against Hemophages, one that will wipe out the entire hemophagic population. When ordered by her Hemophagic superior, Nerva [Sebastien Andrieu], to destroy the case without opening it, which will set off a bomb that will destroy everything a block around, Violet refuses to comply and opens the case to discover it contains a child. It is both a weapon and a child, she is told. The child contains antigens that will wipe out all existing Hemophages. What is Violet to do...destroy the weapon or protect the child?The child is a ten-year human named Six [Cameron Bright], because he is a clone of eight. He has been raised all his life in a laboratory and knows very little about life outside. Violet takes Six to be examined by her Hemophagic friend Garth [William Fichtner], who learns that Six has only eight hours to live and that he is outfitted with a tracking device, so Violet must keep moving lest Daxus catches up with her. Unfortunately, Nerva has made a deal with Daxus and learned that Six doesn't contain an antigen against Hemophagia but against the entire human race, so Nerva seizes Six with the idea of using him against the humans. Violet sets Six free again. In the time they have left before Six dies, Violet takes him to the park. When the time comes, Violet is at his side, but Daxus and his henchmen show up to claim the body and kill Violet.Fortunately for Violet, Garth manages to retrieve her body before Daxus's incendiary team can destroy it. After several hours of surgery, Garth is able to bring Violet back to life. Violet goes into a deep depression but recovers when she senses that Six is not dead and that he needs her help to get away from Daxus. Violet storms the Archministry just as Daxus is about to saw into Six's brain. Violet single-handedly wipes out everyone in the Archministry except for Daxus. As they face each other, Daxus tells Violet the truth about himself...he is actually a Hemophage, too. Violet defeats him with a flame pistol and her sword.Epilogue: Violet carries Six to the roof and reawakens him. Six is surprised to still be alive; a flashback reveals one of Violet's tears at the park protected him from dying by giving him immunity to what was killing him. He tells Violet that there is a cure for Hemophagia.

cult, stupid, atmospheric, violence, romantic

tt0370032

The Initiation

Kelly Fairchild is a university student who has suffered from a recurring nightmare in which a strange man is burning to death inside her childhood home. Adding to her stress, Kelly is also about to take part in her sorority's initiation ritual, which entails her and a group of pledges breaking into her wealthy father's multi-level department store after hours. Megan, the head of the sorority, comes up with the idea in hopes of getting Kelly into trouble, out of jealousy. Kelly, her friend Marcia, and roommate Alison are the three main pledges.At a sanitarium 300 miles away, several inmates break out of the building and murder a nurse. The following morning, Kelly's parents, Frances and Dwight, receive a phone call from the sanitarium notifying them of the incident. That afternoon, Kelly pitches an idea for her term paper to Peter , the graduate assistant in her psychology course. Kelly explains her dream to Peter, and tells how she had lost memory of her early childhood after falling out of a treehouse, leaving her with injuries that put her into a coma.At dinner, Frances forbids Kelly's meetings with Peter, who is attempting to analyse her nightmare. Meanwhile, while Dwight is outside starting his car, he is attacked by an unseen assailant, who impales him in the neck with a garden fork and decapitates him with a machete. Frances goes outside and sees Dwight's car driving down the road, assuming he left the house.The following night at the department store, the night porter is murdered while doing rounds. Shortly after, Kelly, Marcia, and Alison arrive there to steal the porter's uniform for their initiation pledge. The three split up, and Kelly heads to the lounge upstairs to get one of the spare uniforms. Meanwhile, Megan lets Chad, Ralph, and Andy into the department store to scare the girls. Chad and Ralph scare them by rolling a bowling ball down the hallway; the girls then attempt to leave the store, but find themselves locked inside. Meanwhile, Megan and Andy make out inside one of the shops, and begin playing hide and seek. Andy is murdered when the killer emerges from an elevator and slams a hatchet into his head. Shortly after, the killer shoots Megan through the chest with an arrow and her body collapses, breaking a vase. Kelly and Marcia hear the commotion, and run into Ralph and Chad who are hiding in a dressing room.At the university, Peter comes across newspaper clippings detailing the fire Kelly described in her dream; the articles reveal the burning man's identity as Jason Randall, a floor manager at the Fairchild department store, who was married to Frances; he believes Kelly's dream to be a memory of her biological father, Jason, being burned in an altercation with Frances' lover, Dwight, whom Kelly believes to be her real father. A recent article on the inmates' revolt at the sanitarium reveals Jason was a groundskeeper and an inmate there, and among those who escaped.Stuck inside the store, Kelly, Marcia, and Alison drink wine together with Ralph and Chad. Alison and Chad leave to use the bathroom, and Alison discovers the body of the night porter. Panicked, she runs into the men's bathroom to get Chad, and finds him in a bathroom stall with his throat slashed. Kelly goes into the bathroom to investigate, while a frantic Alison goes downstairs to the security desk. Inside the bathroom, Kelly sees her name written on the mirror in blood.Alison is viciously stabbed to death at the security desk, and the sounds of her screaming are broadcast over the store's intercom system. Meanwhile, Peter drives to the Fairchild house to tell Frances what he has discovered; Frances tells him that the police have just notified her that Dwight's mutilated body was found inside the trunk of his car, parked two blocks from his department store. At the store, Ralph is shot dead with a crossbow in front of Marcia, who flees to find Kelly. They hide in a freight elevator inside the building, which is infiltrated by the killer, who pulls Marcia into the elevator shaft as the doors close. Kelly escapes and flees into the store's boiler room, where she finds Marcia's corpse being dragged away by the killer and encounters the burned Jason Randall. He chases her to the roof, and she pushes him off, killing him.Peter and Frances arrive at the store and find Jason's body lying on the ground outside. Inside, Peter sees who he believes to be Kelly standing in the store foyer and embraces her; she then stabs him in the stomach. Kelly runs into the room, and is faced with a mirror image of herself it is her disturbed twin sister, Terry, who had been institutionalized as a child when Frances left their father and married Dwight, and whom Kelly has no memory of. Just as Terry is about to murder Kelly, she is shot to death by Frances. The film ends as Peter is taken away in an ambulance, while Kelly stares at her mother in disbelief.

cult, murder, violence, prank

tt0087472

Busanhaeng

A truck approaches a toll booth as it's being sanitized, with several workers cleaning the area in hazmat suits. The truck driver passes through the toll booth and accuses them of slowing him down, but the workers assure him that nothing is wrong, and that the area is just being sanitized as there was a small leak at a nearby nuclear plant. As he passes the toll booth, he is distracted by his ringing phone and accidentally runs over a doe. After inspecting the scene, he gets back in his truck and drives off. However, the doe staggers to its feet despite the crash and turns to reveal that it is infected.Meanwhile, in Seoul, Seok-Woo is a busy fund manager who barely has time for his daughter Su-an, let alone his divorce. After a stressful day at work and accidentally buying Su-an the same birthday present he did last year, Su-an reveals that she wants to visit her mother in Busan. Seok-woo is initially reluctant due to work, but his mother convinces him otherwise by showing him a video of Su-an singing Aloha 'Oe at a school recital (she stops singing in the middle of the song), which he couldn't attend due to work. Out of guilt, Seok-woo books the next KTX train bound for Busan the next morning.Early in the morning, Seok-woo drives Su-an to the station, only to nearly crash into an oncoming horde of ambulances and police cars. As Seok-woo ponders what could be going on, Su-an reaches out the car window and catches an ember in her hand, prompting Seok-woo to notice the burning building in the distance. He remarks that there's something bad going on, but drives to the station regardless. They board the train, which is also occupied by the tough working-class husband Sang-hwa and his pregnant wife Seong-kyeong, a high school baseball team, rich but selfish CEO Yon-suk, and a pair of elderly sisters, In-gil and Jon-gil, and a homeless man who seems to be aware of the zombie situation.As the train prepares to leave, a spasming young woman boards the train with an enormous bite wound on her leg. Outside the train, station manager then signals the KTX to leave, only to notice a group of people on top of the stairs of the station, screaming at something unseen. Su-an watches through the window as the manager is quickly ambushed by a rabid human, which only she witnesses. Frightened, Su-an gets up to go to the bathroom. In the lower numbered cars, a train attendant comes across the infected woman, and she attempts to resuscitate her, only for the woman to complete her transformation. The zombie then latches onto the attendant's neck, who runs into the baseball team's car in a panic. The two then fall to the floor, now both zombies. The two proceed to attack most of the baseball team and creates a horde of zombies in the process -- only four students escape: baseball player Yong-guk, his crush Jin-hee, and two unnamed boys.The zombies race towards the upper compartments and infect everyone in their path, Su-an unwittingly walks towards the lower ones, looking for a bathroom. Seok-woo awakens and notices that Su-an is missing from her seat. He then receives a call from a coworker, who informs him that "violent riots" have erupted around Korea. Soon enough, a group of panicked passengers from the lower compartments rush through past his seat, screaming and running. Now realizing that Su-an may be in danger, Seok-woo runs in the opposite direction and sees Su-an standing right in front of an oncoming horde of zombies. He grabs her, and they are chased by the horde, but Seok-woo successfully reaches his compartment and attempts to barricade it, nearly locking Sang-hwa and Seong-kyeong out in the process. The survivors struggle to barricade the door, then realize that the zombies do not know how to open it, and merely charge at the sight of humans. Seong-kyung uses water and newspapers to cover the windows, which remedies the situation by causing the zombies to think they are not there.The conductor reassures the survivors over the intercom that the train will not go to Busan, but stop at Daegu station, as he has been informed that the military has been dispatched there. Yon-suk calls his company friends and asks about the situation at Daegu, which Seok-woo overhears and deduces from it that all arriving passengers at Daegu will be forcibly quarantined. He makes a private call to a coworker and convinces him to pick him and Su-an up separately so they won't be quarantined. The train then arrives at the abandoned Daegu station, and Seok-woo takes Su-an towards the east exit where they will be picked up, while the others go towards the main exit. The homeless man follows Seok-woo, having overheard his phone call. The three go down the hallway where they see a soldier in the distance. Relieved, Seok-woo tells Su-an to stay where she is, and he rushes towards the soldier for help, only to see that he is injured. The soldier begs them to help him before a horde of infected soldiers round the corner, trampling and consuming him.The rest of the survivors head out the main exit. Towards the bottom of the escalator, the survivors see a large group of uniformed men and realize the soldiers are all infected, and the deployment has failed. Several of the passengers are eaten and infected as they scramble back up the escalator and back into the station. Seok-woo, still inside the station concourse and facing zombies, tells Su-an to run. She does so and bumps into Seong-kyeong and Sang-hwa, who are rushing back to the train with the others. Seong-kyeong takes Su-an and runs to the platform, while Sang-hwa fights off the horde with Seok-woo, Yong-guk, and the two other baseball players. Once they manage to lock the exit door, they run to the train. Yong-guk's two friends are attacked and infected when they reach the platform. Meanwhile, Jin-hee, Yon-suk, and a few others have successfully boarded the train. Seong-kyeong and Su-an are also boarding when a glass bridge above the train shatters and sends zombies raining onto the platform. One of the zombies falls between In-gil and Jon-gil, separating them. In-gil is forcibly dragged aboard Jin-hee's compartment, and she watches Jong-gil, Seong-kyeong, and Su-an run in the opposite direction.Seong-kyeong, Su-an, Jong-gil, and the homeless man barricade themselves inside a bathroom in one of the lower infected compartments, while Yong-guk, Seok-woo, and Sang-hwa successfully get onto a safe compartment. Sang-hwa calls his wife and realizes she is trapped in the bathroom with a few others. Unwilling to leave them to die, the three of them begin fighting through the lower compartments to rescue them. In the process, they discover the zombies are blind in the dark and only react to sound. They use this to their advantage and manage to rescue them, and they all run together towards the first compartment, where Yon-suk, Jin-hee, In-gil, and the manager are. Yong-guk texts Jin-hee that they have rescued the survivors and are headed towards her compartment. When she happily tells the others, they react with hostility and decide to lock the door to their compartment to prevent the group from entering. With the door locked, Yong-guk attempts to break it open, while Seok-woo and Sung-hwa struggle to keep the zombies from entering on the other side. Realizing that there isn't enough time, Sung-hwa tells Seok-woo to take care of his wife and leave him behind to distract the zombies. Seok-woo tearfully apologizes and lets go of the door, dragging Su-an and Seong-kyeong towards the barricaded door. Before he is consumed, Sung-hwa manages to tell his wife the name he chose for their unborn son.The locked door is broken down and the survivors pile into the compartment safely (there is a second door inside the compartment, which they close), although Jong-gil is not fast enough and she is eaten. Realizing that Sung-hwa and Jong-gil could have survived as well if the group hadn't barricaded the door, Seok-woo angrily punches Yon-suk and demands to know why he did such a thing. Unwilling to answer, Yon-suk lies to the others and insists that Seok-woo and his allies are infected. Instilling fear inside the initial group that barricaded the door, they force Seok-woo and the group that just entered the compartment (now joined by Jin-hee) into the hallway between their compartment and the conductor's car. Once they are forced out, Yon-suk and the others use their neckties and shirts to tie down the knob and prevent them from coming back in. In-gil, still shocked and silent from seeing her sister die needlessly, notices Jong-gil's face in the crowd of zombies in the door window. She tells her infected sister that she lived a long and fulfilling life, and realizes that the compartment group's actions have led to her sister's death. Out of anger and defeat, In-gil opens the door, allowing the zombies to flood the safe compartment. The survivors inside the hallway can only watch as the group is eaten inside the compartment -- they see shadows of the passengers desperately clawing at the door they just barricaded in a cruel twist of events.The conductor receives a radio notification that Busan has succeeded in holding off the zombie infection. However, as they approach a station before Busan, the train is cut off by debris on the track. The conductor informs the remaining survivors on the train over the speaker that he will find another train on an unblocked track to drive to Busan and that they should follow him, but wishes them luck, as they will have to exit the train and survive crossing the zombie-filled tracks. He exits his cockpit, and finds an empty path, successfully discovering a cargo train. He starts it up and begins going down the track towards Busan, searching for survivors on the tracks.Seok-woo and the others exit the train, and unbeknownst to them, Yon-suk has survived the horde of zombies in the compartment (by hiding in the bathroom). He also hears the conductor's announcement and fights his way out of the compartment, but several zombies continue chasing him as he gets off. Meanwhile, Seok-woo's group is making their way to the cargo train. Suddenly, a burning freight car rushes towards them, and Jin-Hee and Yong-guk are separated from the group when the runaway freight rams into the cars of a nearby train, which falls and blocks their path. They go into one of the next train cars to cross over to the other side through the door, not noticing that Yon-suk, who is being chased by a zombie, is following them. Yon-suk enters the car and throws Jin-hee behind him, sacrificing her to the zombie. Yong-guk fights the zombie off and collapses to the ground, cradling the spasming Jin-hee in his arms. Yon-suk ignores them and manages to pry the door open and runs towards the cargo train. As Jin-hee chokes and begins to turn, Yong-guk begins to cry, asking why fate had to be like this. He apologizes to Jin-hee for not telling her how he felt about her, as she fully turns and consumes his face and throat. Yon-suk runs towards the cargo train, but twists his ankle on the tracks, and one of the zombies following him manages to bite his ankle. The conductor rushes off the car to help, but Yon-suk betrays him and throws him aside to the zombies like he did with Jin-hee. He ignores the conductor's screams for help as he boards the train alone.Meanwhile, the homeless man, Su-an, Seok-woo, and Seong-kyeong are on the other side of the wreckage, trapped under a train full of zombies. The windows of the train threaten to collapse at any moment. Seok-woo finds an opening under the train and begins to climb under it, but a part of the train collapses and seals the hole before the other three can make it through. The impact also shatters a window, and a small group of zombies tumble out and crawl towards the three. However, the homeless man sacrifices himself to the zombies at the last minute, allowing enough time for Seok-woo to pull the debris away, and for Seong-kyeong and Su-an to escape. They run towards the cargo train and get on the outdoor platform of it. Seok-woo approaches the cockpit but backs away when he sees Yon-suk in the conductor's seat, milky-eyed and infected. He initially shuts the door, but Yon-suk opens it in spite of being a zombie -- the infection has not reached his brain. Yon-suk approaches Seok-woo and begs him to take him home to Busan, speaking like a little boy and reciting his address and the name of his mother. Seok-woo tells him he is infected, and Yon-suk is momentarily shocked, and he weeps, but within seconds, he is fully turned.Seok-woo begins to struggle with the zombified Yon-suk and nearly falls off the ledge of the car. Su-an screams on the other side of the car platform, which attracts Yon-suk and he attempts to attack Seong-kyeong and Su-an. However, Seok-woo intervenes, and his hand is severely bitten. He manages to throw Yon-suk off the car but notices his injury. Aware that he will turn very soon, he seats Su-an and Seong-kyeong in the cockpit and tells them how to use the brakes once they get to Busan station. He then tries to leave the car, but Su-an begs him to stay and reveals that on the day of her recital, she did not finish singing Aloha 'Oe because she didn't see Seok-woo in the audience -- she had been saving the song for her father. The two have a tearful farewell, and Seok-woo holds Su-an's small hands in his for a moment, before throwing them aside and locking himself out of the cockpit. Su-an begins to scream and cry for him to come back.As the infection spreads, Seok-woo sobs as he walks towards the end of the train car, clutching his bloody hand. Su-an continues to cry for him inside the cockpit, as Seong-kyeong tries to hold her back. He slowly approaches the back of the train car, fighting the infection, and begins thinking of when Su-an was an infant. Recalling his happiest memories of cradling her and holding her small fingers and toes (as he did in the cockpit before), the infection takes hold, his eyes going white and veins going dark. However, in spite of being fully zombified, Seok-woo continues thinking of Su-an and he smiles happily towards the sky before falling off the car and onto the tracks (it is left ambiguous as to whether this was due to his body spasming, or him jumping off the car in an act of suicide to keep Su-an and Seong-kyeong safe).The train car finally arrives at the tunnel leading to Busan station. However, the track is blocked off with debris. The two exit the car and begin walking down the tunnel, not aware that they are being watched on the other side by the Busan military. One of the snipers reports their approach to his superior and is told to shoot them down, as they cannot tell in the dark whether they are infected or not. Just as the sniper is about to pull the trigger, Su-an begins to mournfully sing Aloha 'Oe to rally the exhausted Seong-kyeong to walk to the end of the tunnel. Hearing her song, the soldiers realize they are not infected and rush to their aid.

violence

tt5700672

Dead & Breakfast

Six friends, Christian, David, Kate, Johnny, Sara, and Melody, are traveling in an R.V. to get to the wedding of their friend, Kelly, in Galveston, Texas. However they become lost in a small town called Lovelock, and decide to spend the night at the local bed and breakfast, owned by the creepy Mr. Wise. While staying, the group insult the chef, Henri, causing an argument to break out. After everyone goes to bed, David goes to the kitchen to get a snack, only to discover Henri brutally murdered, before Mr Wise suffers a heart attack. With the phone line broken it takes until morning for the Sheriff, and his Deputy, Enus, to be summoned for help. The Sheriff is quick to suspect the group, and takes the keys to the R.V. away, so they can not leave the town until the investigation is over. The group goes into town, while the Sheriff arrests a mysterious drifter, who quickly becomes the prime suspect. The drifter warns Christian and Sara of ancient exotic wooden box, that Sara realizes belongs to Mr Wise. However it is too late, as Johnny arrives back at the bed & breakfast and opens the box, unleashing the "Kuman Thong" which possesses him, causing him to savagely murder various people. Meanwhile, Christian and Sara meet town local Lisa Belmont (Miranda Bailey) who swears she saw Mr Wise dig up the body of his dead son and perform a form of black magic on the body. Sara and Christian return to the bed & breakfast and discover Johnny has opened the box. Sara and Christian alert the Sheriff, who drives them to a local party, that David, Kate and Melody are attending with the rest of the town folk. The possessed Johnny arrives and a bloody massacre ensues, with the town folk, including Enus, becoming zombies as Johnny puts various body parts of his victims in the box. In the chaos, Christian is decapitated as David, Kate, Sara and Melody escape with the Sheriff in a truck. They accidentally run over the drifter, knocking him unconscious after he escapes from his prison cell. Taking him with them, the radiator soon blows in the truck, forcing the group to take shelter in the bed & breakfast. They gather weapons, before the drifter tells them they must retrieve the body of Mr Wise to kill Johnny. The zombies arrive at the bed & breakfast and the group fend them off, before the Sheriff, Melody and the drifter sneak out the back door to retrieve the bones of Mr Wise. At the bed & breakfast, the zombies retrieve some of David's blood that was on the step of the house, placing it in the box causing him to become possessed. David beats Kate to death with a metal pole, before attacking Sara. However Sara manages to kill David with a chainsaw. At the cemetery, the Sheriff, Melody and the drifter retrieve the body of Mr Wise and perform a black magic spell, taking the bones from the body. As they travel to the bed & breakfast they encounter a group of zombies. The Sheriff has his neck snapped, killing him, before Lisa arrives and rescues the drifter and Melody, who continue on to the bed & breakfast. Meanwhile, at the bed & breakfast, the zombies break in. Sara fights them, but is soon cornered. The drifter, and Melody arrive outside, where Melody shoots Johnny through the heart with a bone from the body of Mr Wise, killing him and the other zombies. Sara reunites with Melody and the drifter, and together they leave Lovelock in their R.V.

cult, murder, flashback

tt0350774

The Matador

Julian Noble (Pierce Brosnan) wakes up in bed next to a hooker. He looks in her bag and discovers some purple nail varnish; he paints his toe nails and then burns some documents. Julian walks to a park and sits on a bench in Denver, pretending to read a paper. He keeps staring at a Porsche across the road. A young boy asks him if the Porsche is his car. He says his mom thinks Julian is cute. Julian rudely replies "I don't know anything about that car and I'm only interested in your mother if she lost 20 pounds and 30 years!" The boy goes away and Julian sees a man getting into the Porsche; he quickly gets up and walks away quickly. When the car explodes, Julian doesn't even bother to look.Elsewhere in Denver, Danny Wright (Gregg Kinnear) wakes up at 5:45AM with lightening and thunder breaking continually overhead during a terrible storm. He gets up quietly without waking his wife. He goes downstairs and eats breakfast when his wife, Bean (Hope Davis), comes down, wakened by the storm. They talk about how they will miss each other and Danny replies he will be back in just two days. They embrace and then start to undress for a quickie before he leaves for the airport. Suddenly a tree falls through their roof and they leap to the side before the tree crashes through their kitchen.Danny runs into the Denver airport out of the pouring rain. He meets his business partner. They talk about their upcoming trip and how important it is to their business. They can't afford to miss the plane to Mexico. Coincidentally, Julian is on the same flight. The ticket agent asks him how he is and, after looking at her cleavage for a lingering moment and at her name tag, he replies "Couldn't be better. But more importantly how are you Genevive?"After they arrive in Mexico City, a man walks into a hotel carrying a large metallic briefcase. Julian gets out a taxi and walks into the hotel and after checking in, goes into the hotel bar. The man joins him and orders a beer. They talk casually for a minute. Julian asks the bartender whether there are any good and bloody bullfights on on Sunday. The bartender replies there is a good one with a matador from Madrid. The bartender then asks Julian whether he is in town for business or pleasure. Julian replies "My business is my pleasure". before the man walks away, leaving the briefcase behind, next to Julian.Julian takes the suitcase up to his room and opens it. It contains a sniper rifle and pictures of his target. Danny and his partner are leaving the same hotel on the way to their meeting with a prospective client. They are both worried about their presentation. Julian leaves the hotel after them and goes into the city. He goes to a flea market stand where he target shoots in a booth. Three cute teen age school girls watch him. He smiles at them and scores on the first shot. When he misses the second shot. He smiles at the girls and then laughs. The girls giggle at him.Julian's boss, Mr. Randy (Phillip Baker Hall), meets him and describes the job. He remarks that the girls might be too pubescent even for him! His boss says the schedule has been moved up, and the job has to be completed today. Julian is unhappy. As his boss walks off he shouts back to Julian, "Happy birthday". Julian appears to ahve forgotten it is his birthday.Julian follows his target in the gun's scope from a high vantage point. He shoots the woman and kills her. Elsewhere, Danny and his partner walk joyfully into a bar, exclaiming about how brilliant their first pitch to the client went.Julian returns to his hotel room and watches TV, bored and lonely. He puts on a large Mexican sombrero and then takes it off, annoyed. He calls a number of people and they all hang up on him. He gets really annoyed and decides to head for the brothel.When he returns to the hotel he goes straight to the bar where Danny is also drinking. He orders a margarita and Danny says he looks like he needs one. Julian says how they always taste better in Mexico "margaritas and cock". They begin talking and Julian commends Danny for getting back on his feet with his new business deal after being fired from his job suddenly and left struggling. Julian says something rude and Danny is offended. Julian apologizes and they continue to talk. Danny tentatively reveals that he lost his son in an accident, and Julian responds with a crude joke about a "fifteen-inch schlong," changing the subject. Danny is deeply offended and begins to leave before Julian apologizes. Danny relents and allows Julian to buy him a drink.The next morning Julian walks through the hotel lobby in his tight swim trunks and boots, drinking a can of beer, drawing stares. He kicks off his boots and jumps in the swimming pool. Underwater, he imagines sharks are in the water. At the entrance to the hotel Danny and his partner are upset. The clients now want to hear pitches from other companies. They agree that Danny will remain behind and attempt to secure the contract. Julian sees Danny and apologizes for his rudeness the night before. He tells Danny that he lost his wife while driving drunk. Gaining Danny's sympathy, he invites Danny to a bullfight. Danny is initially reluctant but agrees to join him.At the bullfight they both smoke cigars. Danny is amazed by the experience. Julian tells Danny that he doesn't have a proper address, that he lives wherever he works. Danny is really suprised and asks what Julian does. Julian says he'd rather not say. Julian then explains to Danny the honour of a bull dying in a bull fight and that the crowd respects the bull. Danny finally persuades Julian to say what he does. Julian asks him to not "loose his shit" when he tells him what job he does. Julian says "sometimes people need to be eliminated. Danny does not believe it and jokes about Julian being a hitman. Julian says "my handler calls me a facilitator, a facilitator of fatalities." Danny finds this hilarious and does not believe him.Danny humours Julian and says he wants a man in the crowd killed. Julian agrees and they leave the bull ring. They go outside the toilets and Julian explains the "got-to-pee" theory. He tells Danny about what to and what not to worry about. He shows Danny the escape routes and picked a lock of a door. Danny is amazed.Julian then empties lighter fluid into a bin full of paper. The man Danny joked about killing got up and went into the toilets. Julian threw a cigarette into the bin and it exploded. The guards immediately ran to put it out. Julian dragged Danny away, pulled out a knife and dragged him into the toilets. He goes to the cubicle the man is in. Danny is now scared and begs Julian not to kill him. Julian kicks open the door his knife ready with Danny whimpering. He apologizes to the man and pulls Danny out of the toilets laughing.The two walk down the street together to a little bar. Julian asks Danny a favour. He wants Danny's help with a job and offers to pay $50 000. Danny is revolted by the idea and says no. He changes the subject but Julian changes it back. Danny still says no so Julian walks off in a mood, Danny calls him back and Julian just says "consider me the best cocktail party story you ever met".That evening Danny heard news that the business deal is now going against him. He sits drinking. Julian comes knocking on the door drunk trying to apologize. The screen goes black and you hear a bottle smash. The screen changes to six months later.There are short clips of Julian having sex, drinking and killing people in Vienna, Moscow, Las Vegas, and Sydney. The screen slows down in Budapest where he is meeting Mr Randy. Julian wants to have a break as he feels "burnt out" but Mr Randy said he can't otherwise the agency will find a new young assassin. Julian says he is tired and doesn't want to do that job. Mr Randy remarks about a failure in Manila but pleads with him to do that job. Julian reluctantly agrees and goes off to do it.He is on a roof above a crowded square and has his sights set on his target. He is about the pull the trigger when he sees himself cowering. he tries again but collapses.The screen changes to Mr Randy. He is speaking to the messenger of his boss Mr Stick. The messenger says Mr Stick wants Julian dead. Mr Randy is surprised and sad. He says he's only made two mistakes. The messenger walks off.The screen changes again but this time to Denver where Danny and Bean are having sex. All looks well. That evening they are in bed talking about how they love each other and support each other. Tomorrow is the fourth anniversary of their son's death. In the middle of their conversation the doorbell rings. It is late at night so they both run downstairs. Danny look out the door and sees Julian standing there. He lets Julian in and hugs him. He greets Bean and says she's fantastic. Danny asks Julian what he is doing there.Julian replies he doesn't know but Danny and Bean offer him some whisky. They sit down and talk. Julian notices the bull fight ticket framed and on the wall. Julian is touched by this. Bean asks to see Julian's gun. He shows it to her and comments "My god you are a magnificent woman!". Julian comments on how good Danny looks and understands that Danny got the job he went to Mexico for. Julian proposes a toast to Bean, Danny and himself ("a toast to a dead man").The three move in to the kitchen and Julian explains how he messed up in Manila and how he was burnt out. He said he drank and had sex but nothing worked. He still felt terrible. He said he had to kill a Copper Wire Executive in a market. His plan was to bump into him and stab him. But as Julian got near to his target. The target turned into a child. He collapsed and woke up in a pile of donkey excrement.Julian then explained how his jobs from then were hot and cold. He explained his mistake in Budapest and said how his bosses now wanted to kill him. Danny is really amazed and asks can't he just apologize. Julian said it is impossible as he only just got out of Budapest alive because Mr Randy let him off.Bean then asked him how he got here. Julian tells her how their home is the only home he knows. That Danny is his only friend. Bean invites Julian to stay the night. Julian asks Danny whether he can dance with Bean. Danny obliges and Julian and Bean dance beautifully together. Bean then makes a comment about having a horrible hangover. Julian tells her a recipe to prevent this from "the only woman he'd ever loved" his mother. Danny then knows how Julian lied about his wife. There is a moment of tenseness between them. Julian asks whether they want him to leave but they say "No", so he stays.Julian wakes Danny up after they went to bed. He takes him into his rental car. Julian again says he needs Danny's help. He said he had been offered a reprieve from death but needed Danny's help to do it. He couldn't do the job on his own as he was burnt out. He needed Danny to help kill the target. At first Danny says no but after Julian says Danny owes him, he obliges.They flew to Arizona together to the race courses to kill the target. Julian gets Danny to open a door to set off the alarm so he could turn off the alarm in the future. He then asks Danny to bump into the target so Julian could have a clear shot. Julian is on the stairwell with a sniper rifle. Danny does his part but Julian is unable to take the shot he breaks down. Danny goes to find him and together they agree that Danny will talk Julian through firing. They are successful in killing the man.The screen then changes to the plane on the way home. Julian says thank you and Danny says it's ok. They talk about what happened the night where Julian was knocking on Danny's hotel room. There is a flashback and we discover what really happened. Danny let Julian in and they began talking. Danny asked Julian to kill his business opponents. Julian says no as he doesn't think Danny is that type of person and knows Danny will regret it. The flashback ends and they are back on the plane. Danny says " You became my friend that night Julian. You surprised me!" Julian replied "I surprised myself." Julian tells Danny that really he didn't do any assignment and that the person he killed was Mr Stick. Julian killed the guy that was trying to kill him.Bean and Danny, when he got back, went to the cemetery together and Julian after watching them for a while left leaving only a little piece of information showing that he was going to Greece!

psychedelic, comedy, murder, storytelling, flashback

tt0365485

Seven Years in Tibet

The introduction shows the young Dalai Lama receiving gifts from Tibetan monks. One gift he receives, an ornate music box, has special meaning to him, as he is still a young child.The progress of Heinrich Harrer through India and Tibet on his trek across the high plateau to Lhasa is interwoven with the story of the young Dalai Lama growing into an 8 year old boy who becomes the spiritual leader of Tibet, with a thirst for western knowledge and later into an adolescent. The Dalai Lama is portrayed by three different actors as he grows up.Harrer (Pitt) and his pregnant wife Ingrid (Ingeborga Dapkunaite) are briefly shown being driven to the train station in Graz, for Harrer's departure on an expedition to Nanga Parbat. It becomes evident that Ingrid resents his departure. At the station Harrer barges through the crowds, dragging his wife by the hand, and shows his resentment of Peter Aufschnaiter's selection as leader of the expedition.Harrer at the train station in 1939 appears hostile to the Nazi Party, taking their flag with reluctance. The real-life Heinrich Harrer admitted he had Nazi sympathies at the time which he later regretted. Harrer's arrogance and self-sufficiency become apparent as he sits by himself on the train journey to India.The expedition begins climbing the mountain Harrer, Aufschnaiter, and the expedition group begin climbing Nanga Parbat. Harrer falls, injuring his leg, but hides his injuries from the group. Harrer places Aufschnaiter's life in danger by his inability to pull him safely up a cliff due to the pain of his injury; this worsens their relationship. After an avalanche, Aufschnaiter orders the group to retreat back to the base, despite Harrer's determination to reach the summit.While descending from the mountain, Harrer encounters a Tibetan traveller who gives him a photograph of the Dalai Lama for his protection. On reaching the base, they learn that Germany has invaded Poland, and they are arrested by the British and taken by truck to Dehra Dun prison camp. Harrer writes to Ingrid in Austria, telling of his capture; she responds with divorce papers and tells him she wishes to re-marry. Harrer's son Rolf is now two. Harrer makes several unsuccessful escape attempts. Eventually Aufschnaiter manages to steal a British uniform and several of the prisoners escape. The members of the group go separate ways, with Harrer heading for northern India.On reaching northern India in 1943, Harrer steals food from a religious offering, but is later violently sick from food poisoning. The rest of the group, apart from Aufschnaiter, have been recaptured. Aufschnaiter plans to travel to China to find work.They cross the border into Tibet and set out east, but are met by two men on horseback who tell them they must turn back. Aufschnaiter attempts to speak to them in Tibetan, which he learned while in prison, but is told that foreigners are strictly forbidden in Tibet. On reaching the next town and requesting food, they are confronted by the same two men. They learn that one of them is the garpon, leader of the province, and that the reason that foreigners are forbidden from Tibet is that there is a threat of attack from outside forces. Harrer attempts to appease the garpon by offering him the photo of the Dalai Lama, but they are forced to return towards India, escorted by two guards who are told to shoot them if they try to escape.Harrer and Aufschnaiter are escorted to a small town near the border with India where they trade what little they have in return for food. Harrer persuades Aufschnaiter to trade a watch that he received from his father for climbing Mont Blanc. Seeing one of the guards trying on a Chinese army uniform, he offers him his "German army boots" while actually giving him crampons. The guard takes a liking to the "boots" and puts them on. Harrer and Aufschnaiter escape to the mountainside where the guards, clad in the heavy crampons and uniforms, are unable to follow.While recovering from the escape, Aufschnaiter discovers that Harrer has deceived him about not having a watch to trade, and is furious at Harrer's selfishness. Harrer, first indifferent, after a while begs forgiveness, offering Aufschnaiter all three of his watches and his wedding ring. Aufschnaiter declines the ring, but Harrer insists, stating "I didn't deserve it either." The two then start on their way over the high Tibetan plateau to Lhasa.The arduous journey to Lhasa (including footage secretly captured by director Jean Jacques Annaud in Tibet) causes Harrer to reflect on his son Rolf and the Tibetan custom that the longer and more difficult the journey in a pilgrimage, the greater the repentance of past sins. High in the Himalayas, Harrer and Aufschnaiter are abducted by bandits, but they escape on horseback. Harrer and Aufschnaiter are forced to kill their horses and eat the meat raw.In Lhasa, the pair encounter pilgrims travelling to Lhasa. They are only allowed to join the group after saying they have "special permission" and showing one of the pilgrims the instruction sheet from their first aid kit. As the Tibetan they show it to cannot read English, he allows the two men to join the pilgrims.In Lhasa, Harrer and Aufschnaiter cover their faces to avoid recognition as foreigners. When they try to steal food, Kungo Tsarong, played by Mako, seeing the condition of the travellers, invites them to stay at his home.Tsarong asks for permission for the explorers to remain in Lhasa. The conversation is overheard by the secretary to the regent, Ngawang Jigme (B. D. Wong). Jigme offers Harrer and Aufschnaiter a gift of new clothes, and at the guest quarters of Tsarong's home a Tibetan tailor named Pema Lhaki arrives to measure the two men. Not having seen a woman for several years, they immediately attempt to win her affections.Settled in Lhasa, Harrer continues his attempts to impress Pema Lhaki by demonstrating his climbing techniques and showing a scrapbook containing his achievements back in Austria in skiing and his gold medal at the 1936 Winter Olympics. Lhaki is seemingly unimpressed, stating that climbing is a foolish pleasure and informing Harrer that Western civilization is very different from Tibet, where a man is more respected for abandoning his ego.Harrer, still interested in the Tibetan tailor, rips out a jacket pocket as an excuse to visit her and have it repaired. Harrer enters the store to find Aufschnaiter already there. The three go ice skating together, and Harrer realises that Aufschnaiter has succeeded in winning the Tibetan woman's love.The foreigners have been observed through a telescope by the young Dalai Lama from the nearby Potala Palace. Ngawang Jigme visits the Chinese embassy in Tibet and becomes acquainted with the Chinese ambassador. He has been sent by the Tibetan government to persuade Chinese officials to stop sending financial gifts to Tibetan monasteries as they are becoming suspicious of Chinese intentions. The Chinese official hints that Jigme could gain advancement by offering his services to the Chinese.By May 1945, Harrer visits Aufschnaiter and Pema Lhaki to congratulate them on their marriage. They discuss the activities of the Chinese Communist Party. Lhaki asks Harrer about his life in Lhasa, and he reveals he is very busy and moved out of Tsarong's house five months ago into his own settlement. But he has not found love, and shows his resentment over Aufschnaiter's marriage.Returning to Lhasa, where he has been hired to survey the city, he is told by Ngawang Jigme that World War II is now over. Heinrich immediately begins packing for home when Kungo's elderly wife arrives with a letter for him from Austria. The letter is from his son Rolf, telling him to stop writing. A depressed Harrer receives another letter, this time from the `Great Mother` of the Dalai Lama.In a beautiful Deyangsar courtyard, Harrer greets the Great Mother (played by Jetsun Pema, the sister of the living 14th Dalai Lama). She gives him instructions on how to behave when in the presence of the Lama, who has learned of Harrer's presence in Lhasa and would like to meet him personally.Harrer enters the interior halls of the Potala Palace. Turning into a dark chamber, he sees the mysterious Dalai Lama seated on a throne at the end. Entering behind the Great Mother, he bows repeatedly, much to the amusement of the young Lama. Harrer walks up to the throne, and the Dalai Lama plays with Harrer's mop of blond hair, calling him a yellow head. Shortly afterwards, the Dalai Lama asks the surprised Harrer if he can build him a movie cinema at the palace. He also wants Harrer to teach him about western civilization and become his private tutor during the building process.Harrer immediately begins building the theatre, but encounters a problem, as the workers refuse to harm the worms in the earth while digging, believing that each could have been their mother or a loved one in a past life. Harrer again visits the Dalai Lama, who emphasizes that religious concerns are paramount, and that he must honor them and find a solution. As the movie house is built, Harrer begins tutoring the boy in world geography and the ways of the west.Harrer and Aufschnaiter with a number of important monks and ministers attend a festival near a river, where they meet Ngawang Jigme to celebrate his promotion to the position of minister. At a Christmas party, Harrer returns Aufschnaiter's old watch. Harrer had come across it by chance at a shop and retrieved it as a gift to Aufschnaiter, along with a note thanking him for his friendship. Soon afterwards, a Tibetan turns on the radio and a Chinese announcer proclaims that they plan to invade Tibet. The party breaks up, and an evil omen at night casts a shadow on what is to come.At a meeting with the cabinet, the regent states that Tibet recognizes no foreign sovereign and banishes all Chinese officials from Tibet, including those at the Chinese embassy. As the crisis grows, the Dalai Lama has a terrible nightmare of Chinese atrocities near the Tibetan border in Taktser, his birthplace, with monasteries being burnt down and monks being forced to kill each other. He seeks comfort with Heinrich Harrer, who tells him it was a dream, only to find soon after that the Chinese have indeed crossed the Tibetan frontier, burnt Taktser, and are advancing.Three Chinese generals fly to Lhasa to speak with the Dalai Lama, and against Harrer's request Ngawang Jigme raises the Chinese flag, saying that Tibet should embrace the enemy if it cannot defend itself. Monks have spent many days creating a sand mandala to welcome the generals, who show their disrespect by wiping their feet on it. Despite the Dalai Lama's speech to them that Tibet is a peace-loving nation, the head of the Chinese delegation dismisses religion as "poison", and war soon breaks out on the Tibetan frontier at Chamdo.Ngawang Jigme is sent to Chamdo with a small Tibetan army to defend against the Chinese attack, but many Tibetans are killed. Jigme makes the decision to surrender after just 11 days and then blows up the Tibetan ammunitions dump, destroying any hope of a counter-attack. During a treaty signing in Lhasa, Kungo Tsarong tells Harrer that if Jigme had not destroyed the weapons supply, Tibetan guerillas could have held the mountain passes, buying time to appeal to other nations for help. As the Chinese take control of Tibet and the Chinese flag flies at Lhasa, Harrer visits Ngawang Jigme to condemn him for his surrender, and insults him by returning the jacket he received as a gift.Despite the Chinese invasion, the Dalai Lama, now fifteen years old, is formally enthroned as the spiritual and temporal leader of Tibet. Harrer pays a final visit to the Lama on top of the Potala and prays with him. As he leaves the palace, he is given a gift of the music box which was shown to be so dear to the Dalai Lama at the beginning of the film.Harrer bids farewell to Aufschnaiter and Pema and returns to Austria in 1951 to visit his son Rolf, now a young boy. Although his son initially refuses to see him, Harrer leaves the musical box as a gift for him and watches him lovingly from the crack in the door. In the film finale, Harrer gradually comes to know the son he has thought about all the years while he was in Tibet and trains him like himself in the art of climbing mountains. Having reached the top of a mountain, Harrer is shown with a Tibetan flag planted beside him at the peak.

violence, historical

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Dracula 2000

1897 England: The schooner Demeter is nearing England. The crew is dead, and the captain is lashed to the wheel. Dracula has arrived.2000 London: Matthew Van Helsing [Christopher Plummer], an aging collector of antiques, and his protegee Simon Sheppard [Jonny Lee Miller] are discussing the purchase of a medieval crossbow that Matthew means to add to his personal collection in the Carfax Museum. Among the artifacts on public display, Carfax Museum also houses a heavily-protected vault, and no one knows what it contains. It must be pretty valuable, though, so another employee, Solina [Jennifer Esposito], has arranged to break into the vault and steal whatever is in there. While Matthew sits in his office at the end of the day, Solina and her companions (Marcus, Trick, Nightshade, Dax, Charlie, and J.T) break the computer codes and make their way to the main vault, passing numerous vampire skulls and crosses along the way, only to find...a coffin. No one would think to look for treasure in a coffin, they reason, so this must be it. In searching for a way to open it,Eddie and Dax are impaled by spikes causing an alarm to go off in in Matthew's office. "It's not possible!" Matthew whispers to himself, arms himself with a gun that shoots silver bullets, and goes down to the vault to find that the coffin is gone, the thieves having removed it through a hole they've blasted in the vault's wall. "God help us all!" Matthew exclaims. When Simon comes into work the next day, he finds Matthew preparing to travel. But Matthew won't reveal where he is going, so Simon follows him...all the way to New Orleans.New Orleans: Mary Heller [Justine Waddell] is awakened by a dream in which a vampire is attacking her. Mary has been having this dream for all her life and finds them troubling enough that she is receiving counseling from her family friend, Father David [Nathan Fillion]. She thinks the dreams have to do with something that happened to her mother before she died, and she thinks Fr David might know what it is. But Fr David isn't talking. On the other hand, Mary's roommate, Lucy Westerman [Colleen Fitzpatrick] thinks that all Mary needs is a real man in her bed. But it's Mardi Gras, and Mary vows not to let it bother her.Meanwhile, the thieves are transporting the coffin on a cargo plane. Still trying to open it, Nightshade cuts himself. His blood is sucked into the coffin and the lid opens to reveal a body, a bunch of leeches, and a crucifix set with a ruby. As Nightshade searches the coffin for more treasure, Dracula [Gerard Butler] awakens. One by one, the thieves are drained of their blood, and the plane ultimately crashes in a swamp near New Orleans, the pilot lashed to his seat. While newscaster Valerie Sharpe [Jeri Ryan] is covering the crash, Dracula emerges from the swamp and makes her his second vampiress (Solina being first).Matthew and Simon go to the townhall where the bodies from the plane crash have been taken. By now, they're all vampires. Matthew and Simon manage to destroy some of them, but Solina and Marcus escape. As Matthew and Simon drive away, Matthew finally fills Simon in on what's happening. Stoker's Dracula is real, he says, and Matthew Van Helsing is really Abraham Van Helsing, kept alive by injections of Dracula's blood, which he has been filtering through leeches. Van Helsing has been keeping Dracula's body ever since he bested him in 1897. Unlike other vampires, who can be destroyed by piercing their hearts or cutting off their heads, Dracula cannot die, and Van Helsing intends to remain alive until such time as he can learn the secret to Dracula's origin and find the way to end him. So far, all he has managed to learn is that Dracula hates God and is repulsed by all things Christian. He also reveals that he (Van Helsing) has fathered a daughter, Mary Heller, and that Dracula has come to New Orleans to find her. The two decide to go looking for Mary, Van Helsing to her house and Simon to the Virgin Megastore where she and Lucy both work.Dracula is apparently following the same plan. He comes to Virgin looking for Mary, but Lucy tells him that she isn't there. Lucy takes Dracula home to wait for Mary. Dracula seduces Lucy and turns her into vampiress #3. When Simon arrives at Virgin, Mary has returned. Simon tries to tell her about her father. As they leave the shop, Simon is attacked by Marcus. "Never ever fuck with an antiques dealer," Simon warns Marcus just before beheading him. Meanwhile, Van Helsing arrives at Mary's house, only to find Dracula waiting for him. "You can't have her!" Van Helsing exclaims, but Dracula refuses to listen. "You stole life from my blood and passed it to another," he hisses. "She's MY Mary now." With that, Dracula kills Van Helsing by tossing him into a mirror.Mary goes home to find her father dead and the three vampiresses and Dracula awaiting her. She escapes into Simon's arms. Looking for a sacred place to spend the night, they go to a church. While in the parish library, they research Dracula's background, learning only what they already know about his despise of all things Christian--holy water, the cross, the Bible. Only his dislike of silver remains unexplained. Suddenly, Dracula appears. Mary flees into the church cemetery while Simon attempts to divert Dracula with an open Bible. Dracula *is* diverted...right into the cemetery where he explains to Mary, "I have walked the earth for centuries in search of a soul not bitten but born. Everything I am is yours, and all that you are is mine."Dracula takes Mary to the church roof where he reveals to her the secret of his long existence. He is Judas Iscariot, the disciple who sold out Christ to the Romans for 30 pieces of silver (hence, Dracula's dislike of silver). In atonement, Judas hung himself, but the rope broke and God scourged him with eternal life as a vampire. In a soliloquy in front of a lighted crucifix, Dracula cries out to God, "Now I drink the blood of *your* children. You made the world in your image. Now I make it in mine."Meanwhile, Simon sees the three vampiresses feasting on Mardi Gras revelers. He stakes Valerie, but the remaining two capture him. Dracula takes Mary to Simon and tells her to feed from him. "I'd like his head," Mary says while unsheathing a sword. Just as she prepares to swing the sword, Lucy cries out, "She's faking!" In the melee that follows, Mary beheads Lucy instead of Simon, Simon beheads Solina, and Dracula winds up hanging by his neck from the lighted crucifix...just as the sun comes up. Dracula bursts into flames. Mary vows to take over her father's job of keeping Dracula's ashes, lest Dracula find a way to return to life. [Original Synopsis by bj_kuehl.]

comedy, suspenseful, gothic, murder, paranormal, cult, violence, plot twist, flashback, good versus evil, psychedelic, humor, revenge

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Whale Rider

The film's plot follows the story of Paikea Apirana ("Pai"). The leader should be the first-born grandson – a direct patrilineal descendant of Paikea, the Whale Rider – he who rode on top of a whale (Tohora) from Hawaiki. Pai is originally born a twin, but her twin brother, as well as her mother, dies in childbirth. However, Pai is female and technically cannot inherit the leadership. While her grandfather, Koro, later forms an affectionate bond with his granddaughter, carrying her to school every day on his bicycle, he also condemns her and blames her for conflicts happening within the tribe. At one point Paikea decides to live with her father because her grandfather is mistreating her. She finds that she cannot bear to leave the sea as the whale seems to be calling her back. Pai tells her father to turn the car back and returns home. After the death of his wife and overwhelming pressure from Koro, Pai's father refuses to assume traditional leadership; instead he moves to Germany to pursue a career as an artist. Pai herself is interested in the leadership, learning traditional songs and dances, but is given little encouragement by her grandfather. Pai feels that she can become the leader (although there's no precedent for a woman to do so), and is determined to succeed. Koro leads a cultural school for the village boys, hoping to find a new leader. He teaches the boys to use a taiaha (fighting stick). This is traditionally reserved for males. However, Nanny tells Pai that her second son, Pai's uncle, had won a taiaha tournament in his youth while he was still slim, so Pai secretly learns from him. She also secretly follows Koro's lessons. One of the students, Hemi, is also sympathetic towards her. Koro is enraged when he finds out, particularly when she wins her taiaha fight against Hemi. Koro's relationship with Pai erodes further when none of the boys succeed at the traditional task of recovering the rei puta (whale tooth) that he threw into the ocean – this mission would prove one of them worthy of becoming leader. With the loss of the rei puta, Koro in despair calls out the Ancient ones, the whales. In an attempt to help, Pai also calls out to them and they hear her call. One day Pai finds the rei puta while swimming, signifying that she is the rightful leader. Pai, in an attempt to bridge the rift that has formed, invites Koro to be her guest of honour at a concert of Māori chants that her school is putting on. Unknown to all, she had won an inter-school speech contest with a touching dedication to Koro and the traditions of the village. However, Koro was late, and as he was walking to the school, he notices that numerous southern right whales are beached near Pai's home. The entire village attempts to coax and drag them back into the water, but all efforts prove unsuccessful; even a tractor does not help. Koro sees it as a sign of his failure and despairs further. He admonishes Pai against touching the largest whale because "she has done enough damage" with her presumption. Also, the largest whale traditionally belongs to the legendary Paikea. When Koro walks away, Pai climbs onto the back of the largest whale at the location and coaxes it to re-enter the ocean. The whale leads the entire pod back into the sea; Pai submerges completely underwater, and the spectators wonder if she has drowned, but are relieved when she comes back above sea level. When she goes out to sea, Nanny shows Koro the whale tooth which Pai had previously recovered. When Pai is found and brought to the hospital, Koro declares her the leader and asks her forgiveness. The film ends with Pai's father, grandparents, and uncle coming together to celebrate her status as the new leader, as the finished waka is hauled into the sea for its maiden voyage. In voiceover, Pai declares, "My name is Paikea Apirana, and I come from a long line of chiefs stretching all the way back to the Whale Rider. I'm not a prophet, but I know that our people will keep going forward, all together, with all of our strength."

dramatic, boring

tt0298228

A Cure for Wellness

In the opening scene, a man named Morris (Craig Wroe) is working late in his office. He starts to experience pain in his chest. Morris goes to get some water when the pain gets worse. He then suffers a heart attack and collapses on the floor as he dies.We meet Mr. Lockhart (Dane DeHaan) on a train headed to work. He is very much into his work and seems rude and careless to others. Lockhart goes to a meeting with the higher-ups - Hank Green (David Bishins), Hollis (Lisa Banes), and Wilson (Carl Lumbly). They review a note sent by the company's CEO, Roland Pembroke (Harry Groener), who was supposed to be away for two weeks at a spa in the Swiss Alps, but has not returned since, and as the note indicates, he appears to have had some sort of breakdown. Green shows Lockhart an illegal document he handed in that is now under investigation by the SEC. Lockhart is ordered to bring Pembroke back unless he wants to face the penalty for his action.In a flashback, we see Lockhart visiting his elderly mother (Rebecca Street) at a retirement home. She carries a small music box with a ballerina that she says is dreaming, only she doesn't know that she is in a dream. Lockhart's mother dies and is cremated before his departure, and he kept the ballerina.Upon arriving in Switzerland, Lockhart takes a ride from a taxi driver named Enrico (Ivo Nandi). While riding up the hill to the spa, a villager chucks a drink at the car. Enrico explains that the villagers have a bad history with the people that live on the hill. There is a story of a baron who wanted to protect his bloodline by marrying his sister. After learning she was infertile, the baron began performing experiments on the villagers, which led to them revolting and burning the baron's sister alive.Lockhart arrives at the spa, but visiting hours have just ended. He finds Pembroke in the bath house where he goes for a swim. Lockhart urges Pembroke to go home with him. Pembroke appears fine and not interested in leaving. Lockhart leaves with Enrico and tells him to take him to a hotel to make a phone call since he has no service on the hill.Another flashback shows a young Lockhart in a car with his father. His father drove over a bridge on a rainy day as he hears on the radio that stocks have plummeted and a bunch of jobs are gone. He pulls over and walks over to the edge of the bridge. Lockhart watched as his father jumped after leaving the boy in the car.On the way to the hotel, a deer runs out from the woods and into the road. Enrico hits the deer, which gets stuck in the windshield and causes the car to swerve off the road and crash into a ditch.Lockhart awakens three days later in a room at the spa. He meets the spa's director, Dr. Heinreich Volmer (Jason Isaacs), who points out that he suffered a broken leg as a result of the accident. Volmer says he notified Green about the accident. He tells Lockhart to try out the spa's treatments during his stay. He is put to stay in a room where he hears the toilet handle rattling by itself. Lockhart also takes a drink of water and finds a parasitic creature floating in the glass.Lockhart meets three patients - Frank Hill (Tomas Norstrom), Ron Nair (Ashok Mandanna), and Victoria Watkins (Celia Imrie). Watkins in particular enjoys crossword puzzles. The three of them all seem perfectly pleased with their treatments. Lockhart then meets Hannah (Mia Goth), a young woman who considers herself a special case. She and several other patients, plus Volmer and other staff members, are frequently seen taking vitamin droplets from a blue bottle.Lockhart undergoes treatment inside a water tank. The water fills up and the orderly tending to Lockhart gets distracted. The tank fills up with eels, causing him to panic. Lockhart rises and has his breathing tube pulled off by an eel. He nearly drowns until he gets the tank to open and spill the water out.Watkins relays the baron story to Lockhart when he brings it up to her. She mentions that the spa was built on the remains of his castle after the villagers burnt it down. Watkins says that the baby was cut out of the baron's sister's womb and then thrown into an aquifer, but it survived. She also mentions that "She doesn't know..."Lockhart gives Hannah his ballerina figurine in exchange for a bike ride into town. The two go together and stop at a local tavern. Lockhart buys himself and Hannah beers and runs into Enrico, who survived the crash and was given a new car with money that the spa gave him. Hannah stays to listen to music and do a dance by herself in front of the other patrons. Lockhart comes across a barn with a mute child who is drawing the castle fire. His father Pieter (Magnus Krepper) approaches Lockhart. Lockhart asks questions regarding the spa and its history. Pieter then goes to a cow that is ailing and ready to die. He cuts the cow's stomach open, and out spills a stillborn calf and some eels. When Lockhart rejoins Hannah at the bar, he sees a punk dancing next to Hannah. Lockhart tries to get him away from her, but the punk attacks Lockhart. He is saved by Volmer, who arrives to pick up Lockhart and Hannah.Lockhart gets in touch with Green, who demands to know what happened with him and Pembroke. Lockhart mentions that Volmer called them about the accident, but Green knows nothing about the accident until Lockhart just mentioned it. He orders Lockhart to return to New York with Pembroke within the next 24 hours.Lockhart's tooth comes loose and he must pull it out himself. He brings it to a staff member who places it in water. Lockhart then goes off to continue looking for answers. He sneaks past the staff as he goes through several wings. He comes across one room where several patients, including Pembroke, are kept inside water tanks, appearing dead. He also finds an underground area with a pool where dead bodies are dumped in and fed to eels. One of those dead bodies happens to be Mrs. Watkins. When Lockhart tries to return to his room, he is found by the Caretaker (Johannes Krisch) along with Volmer and another staff member. Lockhart mentions the issue with his tooth. He is taken into a room and strapped down as he has a drill forced through his front tooth.Lockhart escapes the spa and heads into town to report Volmer's experiments to a police officer. Volmer and his staff member arrive to bring Lockhart back. Lockhart mentions the tanks and how he saw Pembroke. Pembroke then emerges alive and well, backing up Volmer's claims that Lockhart threatened Pembroke and saying he would bring him back to New York by force if necessary. Lockhart has no choice but to return with Volmer.After undergoing more treatments, Lockhart starts to act and think like Pembroke in that he believes he is not well and must stay for a cure. He has a moment of clarity while writing a note to his employers where he thinks to himself that "no man can unsee the truth". Meanwhile, Hannah is using the pool and has her first period. Eels start swimming near her, but then they start swimming in a perfect circle around her. Lockhart then breaks a glass and uses a shard to cut open his cast, revealing that his leg was never broken. He runs out of his room and finds Hannah. She is panicked and hits Lockhart in the face as he tries to help her. Hannah runs and finds Volmer in a room where he, the staff, and some patients are having dinner. Lockhart runs in and starts to tell everyone that Volmer is a liar and is the one responsible for everyone being sick due to whatever is in the water, which is responsible for making their teeth fall out as a side effect. Patients start to stand, which Lockhart thinks is in support of him, but they are all actually going against him as they slowly approach him saying that they are unwell. They all crowd around Lockhart until he passes out.Lockhart wakes up in a chamber where he is immobile. Volmer forces a tube down his throat and uses the eel-filled liquid to put into his body where the eels filter out the "vitamins" that Volmer has all his patients take.Lockhart has his teeth fixed and appears to be changed just like the rest of the patients, stuck in a delusion that he is unwell. Volmer throws a party that night with the patients and staff. He even gives Hannah a new dress for the occasion. In his room, Lockhart starts to come to his senses as he thinks about when Watkins told him about the baron. He finds a portrait that was taken a while after the fire. There is also a note saying "SHE DOESN'T KNOW". Lockhart breaks the portrait and uses a glass to magnify one subject in the picture - a man with bandages all over his face. What the portrait didn't show was the man holding hands with a little girl - Hannah.Volmer brings Hannah into a room by the transfusion wing. There, he has kept a portrait of his sister, who was also Hannah's mother. Volmer ties Hannah to the bed and prepares to rape her. Lockhart breaks out of his room and first encounters the Caretaker, who attacks him until Lockhart causes steam to blow in his face before he bludgeons the Caretaker to death. Lockhart then finds Volmer and saves Hannah. Lockhart and Volmer fight, wherein Volmer pulls off the skin from his face to reveal himself as the hideously scarred baron. The "vitamins" have been keeping him and Hannah alive for well over a century. Lockhart leads Volmer into a trap where he dropped a bunch of fuel, leading Lockhart to set a fire. Volmer catches fire and then sets fire to the curtains as he tries to extinguish himself. The fire then spreads up toward the rest of the castle. Lockhart tries to free Hannah, but Volmer attacks him. Volmer drags Lockhart near the eel pool and prepares to kill him, but Hannah takes a shovel and swings it down into Volmer's head. He stumbles backwards and falls into the pool to become eel food.Lockhart and Hannah escape just as the patients and staff flee the burning castle. They take Hannah's bike and ride away. On the road, they are stopped by a car. Green, Hollis, and Wilson step out, ordering Lockhart to get in the car. When they ask about Pembroke, Lockhart says he is gone. They tell him to get in again, but he refuses. Hollis asks Lockhart what's wrong with him. Lockhart responds that he is feeling much better. He and Hannah continue riding away into the night, with a sinister grin forming on Lockhart's face.

paranormal, suspenseful, gothic, flashback

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Nayakan

An anti-government union leader's only son Sakthivel is arrested by the police to find his whereabouts. They trick Sakthivel into believing them as his well-wishers and release him. When Sakthivel meets his father, the police kill the latter. Feeling betrayed, Sakthivel stabs the police inspector and runs away to Bombay, where he is raised by Hussain, a kind-hearted smuggler living in the Dharavi slums. One day, when Hussain is ill, Sakthivel, now a young man, decides to carry out the smuggling activity on behalf of Hussain. His demand for a bigger commission from the smugglers makes them furious and they involve a police inspector Kelkar to arrest Hussain and kill him in jail. When they close the case as suicide, Sakthivel is angered knowing the truth and murders Kelkar. He later takes care of Kelkar's family which consists of his wife and a mentally retarded son Ajit. Kelkar's wife knew that her husband's immorality resulted in his death. Sakthivel meets Neela, a schoolgirl forced into prostitution who has interests to pursue her education. Her innocence impresses Sakthivel who marries her. They have two children: Surya and Charumathi. Sakthivel's power and command gradually increases in Dharavi as he voices out in support of local people which gains him huge popularity among the masses. His rival smugglers in Bombay try to murder Sakthivel in an attack but Neela is killed instead. Sakthivel sends his children to Chennai to safeguard them. Meanwhile, Sakthivel's power further increases in Bombay and is fondly called "Velu Naicker" by everyone. Surya and Charumathi return to Bombay as adults after education. Surya follows Sakthivel's footsteps which makes him feel proud. But when Surya is killed by a gang during a clash, Charumathi blames Sakthivel for the deaths of Neela and Surya. She wants Sakthivel to leave Bombay and start life afresh, which he refuses to do. Charumathi leaves her father and walks away. After some years, a new assistant commissioner of police is deputed in Bombay to eliminate the gangsters and his first target is Sakthivel. He collects all the evidence needed for the arrest of Sakthivel. When Sakthivel comes to meet him, he learns that Charumathi is married to him and they have a son. The assistant commissioner too learns that his wife is Sakthivel's daughter and suspects that she might help her father to flee from the police. Sakthivel absconds and his allies are arrested. He decides to surrender to the police to save them from undergoing torture in the police station. Through Charumathi, Sakthivel informs her husband about his hide out place and is arrested. The assistant commissioner is shocked due to lack of proper evidence against Sakthivel as none comes forward from the public as witness against the crimes committed by him. The assistant commissioner meets Kelkar's wife and the now grown-up Ajit and requests to disclose the truth behind her husband's death in the court. She refuses and defends Sakthivel's acts. But Ajit is shocked after learning the truth. Sakthivel is produced in the court and is exonerated due to lack of valid and strong evidence. Sakthivel steps out of the court amid big cheer from his supporters, until Ajit fatally shoots him to avenge his father's death; Sakthivel dies on the spot.

revenge, cruelty, murder, violence, romantic

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Saints and Soldiers

In 1944, Allied troops have defeated the Germans after the Battle of the Bulge. In Malmedy, Belgium, they find and uncover the frozen bodies of over 70 American soldiers who were held prisoners and killed by their German captors. Three weeks earlier, the prisoners, members of the 101st and 285th division are rounded up and searched by the German troops while medic Steven Gould (Alexander Niver) tries to help a seriously wounded American soldier. One soldier tries to escape, and is shot dead, causing confusion and fear from the prisoners. The Germans open fire on the prisoners, in what is known as the Malmedy massacre, killing many troops as they try to run away. The soldier Gould tried to save is shot dead and Gould manages to escape with Corporal Nathan 'Deacon' Greer (Corbin Allred). Deacon disarms a German but doesn't shoot him, even at Gould's insistence. Gould and Deacon are joined by two other survivors, Shirl Kendrick (Larry Bagby), a member in Gould's division, and Deacon's close friend Sergeant Gordon Gunderson (Peter Asle Holden). Gunderson explains it would be better to hide out until the Allies retake the area and the four hide out in an abandoned building. When a German patrol comes along, the soldiers hide under the floor. While there Deacon loosely translates a German message about a downed plane in the area. Leaving after the Germans, the Americans find British pilot Flight Sergeant Oberon Winley (Kirby Heyborne). Winley explains he has important intelligence photographs he has to get back to the Allies and the group decide to try and reach the Allied lines some 20 miles away. While on point, Deacon has a hallucination and breaks down. Gunderson explains that Deacon had inadvertently, when clearing a building during an earlier mission, killed two women and six children recently. Gould begins to criticize Deacon for not shooting the German and for being religious. Deacon offers him his Bible, which Gould refuses. Deacon says that Gould is asking too many questions for someone who is not interested in religion. Shortly afterwards, Kendrick falls through the roof of an old building that had been covered by the snow. Looking for shelter, Gunderson enters a house and finds a woman and girl who speak French, Catherine and Sophie Theary. A coming snow storm causes Gunderson to surmise that the Germans will be pinned down and immobilized. He suggests staying the night but Winley insists that he must get the information to the Allied troops and leaves during the storm. The others are sure he will die in the cold. Catherine brings some bread to the soldiers. While with the soldiers, two Germans arrive and Catherine talks to them. One German starts scouting the building while the other attempts to rape Catherine. She yells and Deacon kills one German and misses the other as he runs into the woods. Winley returns with this German as his prisoner. Deacon recognizes the German as Rudolph, a convert during his mission serving as a minister for his Church in Berlin. Deacon understands then why he, who was well known for never failing to hit what he aimed at, missed Rudolph. In the morning, Deacon has let Rudolph go, after Rudolph had told him where the Germans lines were and how to get through them. With captured weapons they set out but soon encounter a small group of German soldiers. Gunderson is fatally shot by a sniper, whom Deacon then kills. More Germans attack and Winley is hit in the leg. During the firefight the Allied group is split in two. While carrying Winley, Kendrick is shot in the stomach and dies. Winley kills the German and, trying to hobble away, falls into a river. Deacon and Gould find him. While they care for Winley, Rudolph finds them and tells them where there is a jeep, and an escape route they could use with it closer to the Allied lines, then goes off in the direction of the pursuing Germans. The three remaining Allied soldiers, now dressed as German soldiers, get in the jeep and head toward the German lines. They manage to talk their way past a German guard (as Deacon speaks fluent German) but when they veer towards the American lines the Germans open fire. Speeding toward the safety of the American lines (where observers work out they are Allied soldiers) the jeep is overturned by mortar fire. Deacon gives covering fire as Gould and Winley head for safety. Deacon is killed by a sniper, and before he dies, he sees the spirits of the women and children he killed one last time. Gould and Winley make it through and the important intelligence is passed on to headquarters. Winley is then transported to a medical station because of his injuries. As Gould sees Deacon's body being carried away, he takes out Deacon's Book of Mormon, places the photo of Deacon's wife into Deacon's hands and keeps the book, which Deacon had offered to him earlier, and wishes him to rest in peace. After this, he looks up and sees a P-51 Mustang fighter flying over, signaling that the weather is improving, and the turning of the tide in the Battle. Gould encounters a now captured Rudolph, nods to him, with Rudolph answering back in kind, and then helps an injured German soldier whom he recognizes from the massacre at the start of the film.

murder, flashback

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The Amazing Spider-Man

Scientist Richard Parker (Campbell Scott) is playing hide-and-seek with his young son Peter (Max Charles) when he discovers that his study has been broken into. After quickly gathering some hidden documents, Richard and his wife Mary (Embeth Davidtz) leave Peter with his Aunt May (Sally Field) and Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen), then mysteriously depart without telling Peter where they are going.Years later, the teenage Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) has become an alienated social outcast. He attends Midtown Science High School, where he pines over his crush Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone), while frequently getting bullied by the obnoxious Flash Thompson (Chris Zylka).At home, Peter finds a briefcase containing some of his father's old documents and learns that his father worked with fellow scientist Dr. Curtis Connors (Rhys Ifans) at a pharmaceutical company named Oscorp. Faking his way into the Oscorp building by pretending to be an intern, Peter sneaks into a laboratory where extremely strong "biocable" is being created from genetically-modified spiders. One of the spiders escapes from its container and bites Peter. On the subway ride home, Peter scuffles with a gang of thugs and discovers that he suddenly has increased agility and strength. Upon returning home, he finds the spider hiding in his jacket and stores it away.The next day, Peter goes to Dr. Connors's house and gives him Richard Parker's documents. Dr. Connors explains that he and Richard were researching cross-species genetics in order to find a way to re-grow lost limbs, Dr. Connors being motivated by the loss of his own right arm. Dr. Connors is frustrated because his superior, Dr. Rajit Ratha (Irrfan Khan), is pressuring him to devise a cure for Oscorp's CEO Norman Osborn, who is terminally ill.Back at school, Peter gets in trouble after accidentally breaking a basketball hoop during a game with Flash. Uncle Ben is forced to switch a work shift to meet with the principal about the situation. Afterward, Uncle Ben asks Peter to pick up Aunt May, but Peter instead practices his new-found powers and meets with Dr. Connors at Oscorp, who shows him how the limb-regeneration formula works on a laboratory mouse.When Peter returns home, Uncle Ben scolds him for having forgotten to pick up Aunt May, reminding him that Richard believed that people should always make their responsibilities their priority. A distraught Peter storms off. He goes to a store to buy milk, but falls two cents cents short and is refused service by the store clerk. Suddenly, a man robs the store and Peter doesn't do anything to stop him. Uncle Ben, who was searching for Peter, sees the thief running away and wrestles with him over a gun. The thief shoots Uncle Ben right in front of Peter and runs off.Shortly after the attack, Peter acquires a police sketch of the killer and uses his abilities to hunt criminals matching the killer's description. After attacking a man who fits the description, he is chased by a gang and falls inside an abandoned gym, and a luchador wrestling poster inspires him to create a mask.Later on, he adds a spandex suit for mobility and suddenly becomes a folk hero who the public refers to as 'Spider-Man.' The police, led by Gwen's father, Captain George Stacy (Denis Leary), soon start a man-hunt for the masked vigilante.Meanwhile, Dr. Ratha fires Dr. Connors for refusing to immediately start human trials of the limb-regeneration formula. He takes a sample of the drug and plans to test it at a Veterans Administration hospital under the guise of flu shots. Growing desperate, Dr. Connors injects himself with the formula, and passes out. Upon awakening, he finds his lost arm has fully regenerated. However, he then mutates into a large, reptilian monster and chases Dr. Ratha at the Williamsburg Bridge, throwing cars over the side as he rampages. Spider-Man saves each fallen car with the biocable web, which he deploys from wrist-mounted shooters of his own invention. With a great deal of difficulty, he also manages to save the life of a young boy trapped in a car that has fallen from the bridge and that Spider-Man is holding suspended in midair through the biocable webbing. Spider-Man then confronts the Lizard in the sewers, barely escaping alive.Unfortunately, Peter leaves behind a camera he used to expose the Lizard's intentions -- a camera inscribed with his name. The Lizard finds it and learns Spider-Man's real identity. He attacks Peter at school and plans to unleash the drug all over Manhattan to mutate all humans into lizards using a cloud-generating device at Oscorp Tower, unaware that Gwen is there making an antidote for the condition at Peter's request. The police mobilize to stop both him and Spider-Man, but are delayed when the Lizard infects officers with small doses of the chemical.Captain Stacy learns Spider-Man's real identity and allows him to go stop Connors while proceeding to the tower himself after Peter mentions that Gwen is there making the antidote. However, during the manhunt, Spider-Man was wounded by a police bullet and is having difficulty swinging from building to building to reach Oscorp Tower. The father of the young boy whose life Spider-Man saved works in construction, and hears about what's going on through the radio and TV while working an evening shift. He calls all of his construction worker friends who are also working, and they all maneuver large cranes into proper formation so that Spider-Man can use them to reach Oscorp Tower.After Captain Stacy retrieves the antidote from Gwen and arrives to save Spider-Man, who was being overpowered, both of them fight together to delay the Lizard while Spider-Man modifies the machine to disperse the antidote instead, restoring the humanity of Connors and the infected officers, and allowing him to save Peter from a fatal fall from the tower.Unfortunately, the Lizard mortally wounded Captain Stacy. Before he dies of his wounds, Stacy makes Peter promise to keep Gwen safe by staying away from her. Peter initially does so, staying out of sight at Captain Stacy's funeral, which offends Gwen. She confronts him at his house, and he doesn't talk about it, but Gwen is no fool; she realizes his reasons. Arriving late to class back in school, Peter is told by a teacher to "not make promises he can't keep." Peter leans forward and whispers to Gwen, "but those are the best kind." She smiles, and it is implied that the two resume their relationship. With his first challenge surmounted, Peter officially takes to the streets as a proper hero.In a post-credits scene, Dr. Connors is sitting in a prison cell speaking with a mysterious man (presumably Norman Osborn). The man inquires about Dr. Connors divulging information about Peter's father, but Dr. Connors tells the man to leave Peter alone, and the scene abruptly ends with a flash of lightning.

murder, violence, flashback, good versus evil, humor, action, romantic, revenge, entertaining

tt0948470

Paddington

An explorer named Montgomery Clyde (Tim Downie) documents his trip to Darkest Peru. He comes across a rather intelligent species of bears. Although he tries to take one in, he decides to bond with them and learns that they can talk and have a great appetite for marmalade. Clyde says he's learned a lot from the bears, and he wonders if the bears have learned anything from him.Years later, a young bear (voice of Ben Whishaw) awakens to find that the marmalade fruits have been produced. He excitedly runs to his Aunt Lucy (voice of Imelda Staunton) and Uncle Pastuzo (voice of Michael Gambon), the same bears Clyde met. The bears gather the fruits and produce their own supply of marmalade for their sandwiches. That night, an earthquake strikes the forest, wrecking the bears home. Lucy and the little bear hide. When they wake up the next morning, they discover their home is destroyed and Pastuzo is nowhere to be found. All that's left behind is his hat.Lucy takes the little bear to a ship and places him on a lifeboat with a supply of marmalade. She is going to stay at a home for retired bears while she sends the little one to find a home of his own. The bear eats all the marmalade until he arrives at a train station in London. He tries to find a home from anybody passing by, but they all ignore him. He sits alone with some birds, sharing his marmalade sandwich, when the Brown family walks by. The mother Mary (Sally Hawkins) spots the bear and immediately takes a liking to him, while her husband Henry (Hugh Bonneville) is less than enthused. Their son Jonathan (Samuel Joslin) also likes the bear, while his sister Judy (Madeleine Harris) is not very interested. They treat him to a meal, and Mary decides to name him Paddington.The Browns take Paddington home where they live with a relative named Mrs. Bird (Julie Walters), only for the night until they turn him in to the authorities. Paddington goes to the bathroom and puts two toothbrushes in his ears, pulling out big chunks of earwax. Curious, he licks one chunk, only to be disgusted. He grabs a bottle of mouthwash and chugs it. The alcohol burns his throat and he dunks his head in the toilet and cools off with the water. Paddington gets his head stuck and overflows the toilet bowl. He pulls himself out and turns on the showerhead. This causes a flood that fills the bathroom with water. Henry opens the door and gets caught in the wave of water. Jonathan thinks its amazing.At the Natural History Museum, a monkey is delivered to the museum director Millicent (Nicole Kidman). She has sinister plans for the primate, when the man delivering the monkey tells her that he spotted sticky footprints of marmalade around the boat. Millicent's eyes perk up, because she knows what this means and what the man is talking about. She takes a knife and throws it at a picture on the wall of Montgomery Clyde and the bears, along with a collage of other articles and pictures involving this expedition.During his stay, Paddington learns a thing or two about the Browns - Henry is a real estate agent, Mary is an artist, Judy is seeing a boy named Tony and is learning Chinese to run off there, and Jonathan aspires to be an astronaut. Mary notices Paddington's hat. She says she knows someone who works at an antique shop and might know how to find out who owned that hat.Mary brings Paddington to the shop owned by Mr. Gruber (Jim Broadbent). As he looks at the hat, a pickpocketing thief (Matt King) comes in and swipes the wallet off another customer. On his way out, he drops it. Thinking it's the man's own wallet, Paddington grabs it and runs after him. The thief runs away, but Paddington continues to give chase. He even gets a police hat and rides with a skateboard and umbrella to catch up with the thief, as townspeople and school children watch. The wind blows the umbrella up high, allowing Paddington to land on the thief and causing him to spill many other wallets he's stolen. The police arrest the thief while Paddington is praised as a hero, even though he still doesn't realize he just caught a thief. When he gets back to the antique shop, the other customers praise him for recovering their stolen wallets. Mr. Gruber then tells Paddington that the hat belonged to a guild of explorers, which is one clue to finding out the identity of the explorer.Henry begrudgingly accompanies Paddington to the offices of the guild, where the secretary tells them that there are no records on any expeditions to Peru. Paddington then gets Henry to dress up as a maid while they sneak into the computer room to search the archives. They learn that there were a few records on Peru, but they were destroyed. Paddington then accidentally jams the message delivery system with marmalade, forcing him and Henry to run.Millicent continues her pursuit of Paddington. She even gets help from the Browns' grumpy neighbor Mr. Curry (Peter Capaldi), as he is smitten with Millicent.At home, the kids start to bond with Paddington. He gets Judy to be more open with him, and he starts teaching her how to speak bear. He helps Jonathan build things with his father's old toys. The kids also give Paddington a bath, after which he shakes off all the water and looks puffy and silly. The parents notice how much the kids enjoy Paddington, to the point where they are considering keeping him around longer.Paddington is left home alone while the Browns are out. Millicent finds the apartment and attempts to sneak in and grab him. Paddington spots her and, with her gas mask on, he mistakes her for an elephant and runs away. In the struggle, they accidentally cause a fire from the oven. Millicent escapes before anyone notices. When the Browns return, Henry is very upset with Paddington and decides Paddington needs to go.Paddington leaves a note for the Browns apologizing for the trouble he's caused as he decides to locate Montgomery Clyde on his own. The Browns find the note, and everyone is unhappy with Henry for driving Paddington away. Mary says that he was the best thing that ever happened to the family.The bear goes all around town looking for people with the name Montgomery Clyde, with no success. At his last stop, he hears a woman's voice saying Clyde was her father. Paddington enters the home, only to discover the voice belongs to Millicent. She kidnaps Paddington and throws him in her taxidermy van. Mr. Curry sees this and discovers her true intentions. She also rejects his romantic advances and leaves. Mr. Curry then calls the Browns and tells them that Paddington is in trouble.Millicent takes Paddington to the museum and reveals to him that she is indeed Clyde's daughter. Because he failed to bring back the bears from Peru, he was disgraced and kicked out of the guild. He opened a petting zoo, but Millicent now wants to finish what her father failed to do. She prepares to stuff Paddington as the Browns (and Mrs. Bird) make it to the museum. They enter through the sewers to get inside and they kill the power while Mrs. Bird distracts the security guard with a drinking game. Henry heroically climbs out the window and finds the room where Paddington is in and tries to help him get out. However, Millicent turns the power back on and notices the family's wet footprints and realizes she's being sabotaged. Paddington is forced to climb to the roof through the furnace, just as Millicent turns it on. He uses little vacuums to climb up until they start to run out of battery. He nearly falls to his doom until the Browns catch him and pull him up. Millicent makes it to the roof and faces the Browns. She holds up a tranquilizing gun at Paddington, when he spots many birds near him. He takes out a marmalade sandwich and throws it in the air so the birds can fly around Millicent and subdue her. Mrs. Bird then opens a door and pushes Millicent off the roof, although she manages to grab onto a flagpole. The family takes Paddington home.Paddington writes one more letter to Aunt Lucy telling him about the latest events. Millicent was removed from her position as museum director and was forced to do community service at her father's petting zoo. She is seen getting a pile of poo dumped on her by a cheeky monkey. The Browns are doing better than before now that they've officially adopted Paddington as part of their family. He tells Lucy that he finally has a home. Paddington then joins the Browns outside for a snowball fight.

comedy

tt1109624

Victoria

Berlin, 04:00. After having her club time Victoria decides to leave. At the door a man, whom with his three friends are denied entry, asks her about the club. As she leaves the boys get kicked out again. Outside one of the boys introduced himself as Sonne and asks her to join them for a drink. She agrees to join him and Boxer, Blinker, and Fuss. Sonne takes her to buy beer. As they find the clerk sleeping, Sonne decides to walk out slowly with the beer. They then go to a roof where the boys usually hang out. After some chat Victoria leaves saying she has to open her workplace café later at 07:00. Sonne leaves to escort her. At the café she invites him for cocoa. Soon the boys come and pick him up. They leave Victoria, stealing a parked car. They quickly get back to her as Fuss is too drunk. Boxer insists they be four men so he demands Sonne to ask Victoria to join them.She agrees, and drives the car. They meet a gangster who protected Boxer in prison. Now the man demands something for it, asking them to rob a bank. Bocer refuses and promises the man his money. But he asks to hold Victoria. Sonne quickly steps in, telling him theyd do it. They practice the heist and then go for it. Victoria mans the wheel as they go in. She accidentally turned the engine off. Boxer has to hot-wire it again on exit, sending everybody in panic. But they regain control and leave the car near the club where they first met. They go back in there, not denied entry due to tipping much. There Victoria and Sonne find a romantic moment. But soon they all get kicked out for being erratic. The sky has already brighten up. Victoria asks the boys about Fuss, whom theyve all forgotten hes still sleeping in the car. They slowly walk away after seeing police has already found the car.They cant control their panic and soon get chased by the police. Blinker gets shot while Victoria, Sonne and Boxer hides behind a wall and return fire to the police. They retreat to another wall but Boxer gets shot in the leg. As the police advance Sonne and Victoria leave him into an apartment building. On the stairs Sonne threatens a man to give them shelter. The police surrounds the building. Victoria talks the mans wife to borrow their baby. She and Sonne take the baby and gets pass the police. They leave the baby at a store as Victoria promised the mother, then rides on a taxi. They go to Westin hotel where Sonne reveals that he was shot and is now wounded. He tells Victoria to take the money and disappear. Moments later he dies and Victoria controls herself and leaves the hotel.

tragedy

tt4226388

I vitelloni

As summer draws to a close, a violent downpour interrupts a beach-side beauty pageant in a provincial town on the Adriatic coast. Sandra Rubini (Leonora Ruffo), elected "Miss Siren of 1953", suddenly grows upset and faints: rumours fly that she’s expecting a baby by inveterate skirt chaser Fausto Moretti (Franco Fabrizi). Under pressure from Francesco (Jean Brochard), his respectable father, Fausto agrees to a shotgun wedding. After the sparsely attended middle-class ceremony, the newlyweds leave town on their honeymoon. Unemployed and living off their parents, Fausto's twenty-something friends kill time shuffling from empty cafés to seedy pool halls to aimless walks across desolate windswept beaches. During the interim, they perform immature pranks. Taunting honest road workers from the safety of a luxury car they never earned, they're given a sound thrashing when it runs out of gas. Moraldo Rubini (Franco Interlenghi), Sandra's brother and the youngest of the five vitelloni, uncomfortably observes Fausto's womanizing as he ponders his own existence, dreaming of ways to escape to the big city. Riccardo (Riccardo Fellini), the baritone, nourishes unrealistic ambitions to sing and act. Alberto (Alberto Sordi), the daydreamer, is supported by his mother and self-reliant sister, Olga (Claude Farell). Vulnerable and effeminate, he's unhappy that Olga is secretly dating a married man. Leopoldo (Leopoldo Trieste), the aspiring dramatist, writes a play that he discusses with Sergio Natali (Achille Majeroni), an eccentric stage actor he hopes will perform in it. Back from his honeymoon and settled in with Sandra, Fausto is forced to accept a job as a stockroom assistant in a religious-articles shop owned by Michele Curti (Carlo Romano), a friend of his father-in-law's. Incorrigible, he pursues other women even in his wife's presence. At the annual masquerade ball, Fausto is bedazzled by the mature beauty of Giulia Curti (Lída Baarová), his employer’s wife. Alberto, in drag and half-drunk, executes a surrealistic dance across the ballroom floor with a goofy carnival head made of papier-mâché. Returning home at dawn, Alberto is devastated to find his sister running off for good with her married lover. Fausto’s naive attempt to seduce Giulia results in his being humiliated and then fired by her husband. In revenge, he steals the statue of an angel in gold paint from his former employer, enlisting the loyal Moraldo to help him sell it to a monk. Suspicious, the monk turns down the offer. Fausto ends up giving the statue to a simple-minded peasant (Silvio Bagolini) who sets the angel on a mound outside his hovel, admiring it from afar. One evening after a variety show, Leopoldo agrees to accompany old Sergio for a walk along the seashore to discuss the merits of his play but when the actor propositions him, he takes to his heels in horror. Learning of Fausto’s one-night stand with an actress, Sandra runs away from home, taking the baby with her. Riccardo, Alberto, Leopoldo, and Moraldo all join in Fausto’s desperate search to retrieve his wife and child. When they find her at the home of Fausto’s father, Francesco pulls off his belt in a rage and finally whips his son. Later Fausto and Sandra walk home happily, with optimism about their life together. Resolved to abandon the provincial monotony of his dead-end town, Moraldo boards the train for anyplace else (Rome), imagining his vitelloni friends sleeping their lives away.

romantic

tt0046521

War Room

Ms. Clara (Karen Abercrombie) is standing by a grave. The scene cuts to army soldiers standing in a war room. Clara explains a war room is where an army gathers before a war to plan their strategy. This is what her husband did for a living until a heart attack took his life too soon.We meet the Jordan family. Tony (T.C. Stallings), the father, is very emotionally cold. He comes home and yells at his wife, Elizabeth (Priscilla C. Shirer). Tony is angry because he just found out that she transferred $5,000 from their savings account and knew it is for her poverty-stricken sister. He tells her to put it back, and its his decision to handle their money and she wont be giving her sister any money. Tony tells their young daughter, Danielle (Alenna Pitts), that she is too old for a double dutch team. Liz nods disapprovingly. She tells Danielle she has to drop her off at the community center early the next day to meet with a client and Tony is leaving for a business trip.We see that Tony is the top salesman at a pharmaceutical company. He makes a lot of money and is well respected. On his way out of a meeting, he meets an attractive lady who hands him her phone number. He takes it and smiles.Liz works as a real estate agent. We see her in a meeting room with her co-workers, and they tell her not to back down to Tony and to give her sister the money anyway. Then one lady makes a joke and says "My grandmother used to say, submitting to your husband is just ducking so God can hit your husband."Liz goes to meet Ms. Clara. She gets the details of her beautiful home. She sees a picture on the wall of Clara and her husband. She says they only had one son and were married for only 14 years before he died. Then Clara asks to meet Liz the next day for coffee. Liz agrees.The next morning Clara asks Liz about her church and her prayer life. Liz says she goes to church sometimes and that shed consider her prayer life lukewarm. Clara brings Liz room temperature coffee, and when she expresses her disgust, Clara tells her thats how God feels about His people being lukewarm. "He wants us either hot or cold" says Ms. Clara. Meanwhile, Tony calls the woman from earlier and say hell be in town and asks her out to dinner.Clara asks Liz if shell meet with her one hour a week, and shell train her about how to pray for her husband so Liz wont step on the same land mines that Clara did. Liz agrees. Clara tells her that God calls us to pray, not to change people and that her battle isnt with Tony, but its with the devil who has taken control of her house and her marriage. She shows her a closet, which Clara calls her "war room", where she goes to pray. She has scriptures and notes posted on the walls of the room about what to pray for what situation and what she needs to pray for. Outside of the closet, she has a wall of remembrance, where she posts answered prayers.At home, Liz overhears her daughter Danielle tell her friend that she wishes she could live at her house because anytime her parents are together, all they do is fight. Liz goes to her closet and cleans it out and makes her war room. She isnt sure what to do at first. (In a hilarious scene, Liz is shown taking chairs and bean bags in and out deciding what to do.) Then she decides just to sit and eat chips until Danielle finds her. Danielle makes a joke about how stinky the closet is because of her mother's feet.Liz gets a text from a friend that Tony is at dinner with another woman, and it doesnt look like business. Liz begins to cry. Then she sits down in her war room and genuinely prays. She finds scriptures to help her trust God and resist the devil. She prays to God to take her hurt and intervene in the situation with Tony, to please help him and stop whatever is happening and save her marriage.Meanwhile, Tony is at dinner with the woman. She doesnt care that hes married and invites him back to her apartment to spend the night. Tony agrees and asks for the check. Meanwhile, Liz is still praying that God stops the situation. At the same time, Tony suddenly gets very sick and runs to the bathroom.Tony comes home early and finds Liz making dinner. She says Danielle is going to a friends house. He asks if she can eat with her. She smiles and agrees, never mentioning the affair. He sees her cell phone and the messages from the friend telling her about him with the other woman, so he knows that she knows where he was. Liz treats him with dignity and respect, never questioning him because shes trusting it to God. She says God is his judge, not her. In another funny scene, he switches their plates of food because of how nice and calm she is. He asks her what she wants. She says "Right now? Right now... Id like a big ice cream sundae. Hot fudge just everywhere and lots of whipped cream. One cherry right on top. OH and a foot rub". Tony says "Liz, I am NOT touching your feet."Liz continues to meet with Clara. They go for ice cream and are robbed at knife point. Clara stands up to the man and tells him to drop the knife in the name of Jesus. For some odd reason, the would-be-mugger gets freaked out and runs. The police are shocked at how calm Clara is but she says she trusts God to protect her.Tony is discovered to be padding his numbers at work to earn more bonuses and loses his job. When he tells Liz that he was just fired, hes already very defensive. Shes very calm and says that its okay, and theyll make it through this. He gets even more upset at her, and she says she trusts Jesus and that she loves him but first and foremost, she belongs to the Lord, and no matter what Tony does, he wont steal her joy because that comes from God.Tony wants to go to the gym to work out this stress he's feeling and while hes looking for his gym bag, discovers his wifes war room. He reads the prayers and the letters she has. He takes Danielle to her double dutch practice and gets involved. He jumps with her and teaches her new tricks. Her and her friends love him. Tony goes home and falls on his face and begs God to forgive him. Then he goes to Liz and begs her forgiveness and says he will be better. He says he didnt cheat on her, but he almost did; he came so close, and hes so sorry for all hes done and how he has treated her. She forgives him. Then he asks the same from his daughter.Tony tells Liz hes struggling with one more thing. He opens a box full of pills he stole from the pharmaceutical company. He says he knows he has to return them but if he does, he may spend time in jail. She tells him to trust God. Tony takes the pills back to the company. One boss, Tom, is ready to call the cops immediately, but another boss (played by writer and director Alex Kendrick), tells him to give him two days to think about what he wants to do.Liz tells Tony to spend the next two days involved with the jump rope team and to let God have his worries. He does. The day before he finds out his fate, his boss comes to his house. He tells him that he cant give him his job back but that he believes he is sincere because not many men would risk returning the pills. He also tells him he needs to pay back the company $19,000 in bonuses because of his lies. He says they already agreed to do so.Liz and Tony break down saying this is grace and mercy from God on them.The next day the family goes to the Double Dutch competition. On the way, they see Tom, the boss who wanted him in prison, with a flat tire. He cant change it, and Tony stops. He gets out of the car and approaches Tom with a tire iron. Tom is visibly scared until Tony goes to the ground to change the tire. He stands up with dirty hands to shake Toms hand, and Tom relaxes and gives him a firm, respectful hand shake. Tom sees that Tony was sincere in his reasoning to get right with God, his family, and his former company. He gets back in the car, and his daughter asks why he did that for such a mean man, and he says "Its mercy, Danielle. I treated him the way I want to be treated."At the double dutch competition, Tony competes with his daughters team. They are amazing. Danielle's team wins second place. However, Tony tells Danielle that it wasnt about winning, it was about him being involved and being there for his daughter.They go home as a family. Liz shows Claras house to a retired preacher who says he can tell someone has been praying in that closet; thats how strong she prayed. They buy the house.Liz still meets with Clara and thanks her. She says that Clara was her answered prayer and helped save her family. Clara says that Liz is her answered prayer, too. She tells her that she never got to reconcile with her husband. That she never prayed for him because she was so stubborn, bitter and prideful. She didnt learn her lesson until after he died from a sudden heart attack. She asked God to send her a woman to pass the knowledge on to before it was too late and that God sent her Liz. She asks Liz to please find a woman to do the same for.Liz and Tony are at home, and he asks her how it went with her sister. She said it went fine, and she appreciated the $500 and knows they cant do more right now. He tells her he got a job as head of the community center, its half the pay, but theyll make it if theyre wise. She says shes so wise the ladies skipped dessert. He says good, he has something for her.She sits on the couch, and he brings a bucket of water to her. He tells her to put her feet in and relax then brings her her ice cream sundae just the way she described earlier.Liz tells him please, dont touch her stinky feet. He says shes his wife, and he has this covered. Then he pulls out a surgical mask, and they laugh. She starts to cry and says her husband brought her her favorite dessert and is rubbing her feet, there MUST be a God in heaven.

christian film

tt3832914

Invasion of the Bee Girls

In a cheap motel near Peckham California, a maid discovers a man's corpse in one of the rooms. The dead man, Professor Grabowski, is associated with the Brandt Research center, and an autopsy reveals he died of a massive coronary during sexual intercourse. Another similar death is discovered almost immediately, this time a younger man. This causes the federal government to send in Agent Neil Agar (William Smith) to get to the bottom of things. He gets the background on the deaths by consulting with local police captain Peters.In the small town the Brandt Facility is doing research with genetics and atomic power. Grabowski's assistant, Julie Zorn (Victoria Vetri), becomes Agar's contact in the investigation. More men turn up dead of sexual exhaustion, including a 21 year old man, and the locals become highly agitated. It seems there are a lot of aggressive male types in Peckham, and Julie tells Neil that the scientists at Brandt are no different than the others, preoccupied with sex and enjoying a promiscuous lifestyle that includes partner-swapping. Other Brandt luminaries are not so fortunate, such as geneticist Stan Williams, whose wife treats him in a cold and shrewish manner.When Brandt's Dr. Murger suggests that he has a theory about the strange deaths, he is subsequently run down by a car, driven by an unseen person. When Agar investigates, he discovers that Murger had a male lover and was not interested in women sexually at all. The socially distant Dr. Susan Harris (Anitra Ford), who is in charge of some mysterious research in bee culture, becomes a key suspect for Agar. Harris makes a move on Brandt scientist Herb Kline, inviting him over to her house, seducing him, and having sex with him. During intercourse, her eyes suddenly turn completely black, and Kline suffers a fatal heart attack just like the other men. After Kline's death, his wife receives a phone call from an unidentified female, luring her to Dr. Harris's lab, where Harris and a number of other women overpower her and force her through a strange process where she is stripped nude, covered in a mysterious substance, and placed in a chamber adjacent to a colony of bees, which cover her. Harris has a large machine setup that bombards her female victims with radiation, transforming them into women who have the ability to kill men by having sex with them.The next day, Captain Peters goes to visit Mrs. Kline to inform her of her husband's death, but instead of reacting with grief, she becomes sexually aggressive and attempts to seduce him. Fortunately, he leaves. Stan Williams isn't so lucky; his recently transformed wife seduces him and manages to kill him. In an ironic twist, he strangles her as he dies and they both wind up dead. Agar manages to piece the puzzle together himself, but before he can apprehend Dr. Harris, she lures Julie into her lab and begins the transformation process on her. Agar arrives in time to stop the procedure, firing a bullet into Harris's machine and breaking it. The lab begins to explode, and the bee girls slowly die, including Dr. Harris. The film ends as Agar and Julie begin a romantic interlude.

tragedy, pornographic, murder

tt0070222

Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker

Late one night in future Gotham, several members of the infamous Jokerz gang - Bonk (Henry Rollins), Chucko (Don Harvey), Woof (Don Harvey), a human spliced with hyena DNA, Ghoul (Michael Rosenbaum), and the Dee-Dee twins, Delia and Deidre, (Melissa Joan Hart) - break into a warehouse full of high-tech equipment. They attempt to use a hovercraft to move one large piece of machinery but are quickly confronted by Batman (Will Friedle). The gang flees and an air chase ensues over Gotham, resulting in the destruction of the machinery and the gang's hasty escape.Back in the Batcave, an elderly Bruce Wayne (Kevin Conroy) practices throwing a Batarang to keep his remaining skills sharp. The aerial Batmobile returns and Bruce's protégé, Terry McGinnis, confirms that he was able to stop the Jokerz from taking what they sought but admits that he doesn't know why. Since the same gang of Jokerz has been stealing high-tech equipment several times over the past month, Bruce suspects that they are acting as fences for the stolen goods. A news report flashes on the TV announcing Bruce's plans to take control of Wayne Enterprises after years of absence. The majority of the company is happy about the return of their founder but one board member, Jordan Price (Mark Hamill) is bitter about the transition since he was next in line, after the departure of Derek Powers (Sherman Howard), for the chief position. Having finished his patrols, Terry leaves to go out with his girlfriend, Dana (Lauren Tom) at a night club but soon dozes off from exhaustion.The Jokerz gang returns to their hideout to face their mysterious boss who berates them for their failure to procure the latest gear. Bonk is no less pleased with the situation and accuses their employer of tricking them into stealing for no apparent purpose or payout before he insinuates that the man is not who he says he is. The darkened figure pulls out a gun and pulls the trigger, making Bonk flinch, but all that comes out is a banner with BANG written on it. However, with a second flex of the finger, the BANG flag shoots out and impales Bonk, killing him. His identity no longer a secret, the original Clown Prince of Crime, the Joker (Mark Hamill), stands and makes the other Jokerz swear their allegiance. Ghoul uses a computer to find another source for their missing materials. The Joker spots one entry on the list and points it out, noting that he thinks it will be 'fun'.The next night, Bruce and Terry attend a function for Wayne Enterprises celebrating Bruce's return on the roof of one of the company buildings. As Bruce begins giving a speech to the crowd, the microphone cuts out and the speakers erupt with the sound of the Joker's trademark laugh. Terry finds a moment in the confusion to find shelter and change into his Batman suit as Woof appears in the crowd and sends people into a panic. Dee-Dee startles Bruce on stage just as a shock rocks the platform and a plume of smoke obscures everything. Bruce is knocked to the ground as a panel rises on the stage and a figure emerges. Bruce's eyes widen in horror as he recognizes the apparent return of his greatest foe; the Joker.Batman arrives and puts himself between the Joker and Bruce. Joker is hardly impressed with the new Batman and even critiques his suit before fleeing. He tosses a few hapless people off the edge of the roof as he makes his escape, forcing Batman to rescue them instead of continuing his pursuit. Later, Terry returns to Bruce and, as they drive away, beats himself over his failure to stop the Joker. Bruce reassures Terry and tells him he did the right thing. Terry wonders how the Joker, after all these years, could still be around. Curious, and receiving no immediate information from a clearly shaken Bruce, Terry visits Commissioner Barbara Gordon (Angie Harmon), formerly Batgirl, to learn more about the Joker. However, she refuses to tell him much of anything. She meets with a man named Tim as Terry leaves.The following night in the Batcave, Bruce analyzes the night's events and compares voice samples from the Joker's latest appearance with those from his earlier encounters. They prove to be an exact match. Bruce remarks to Terry that it still isn't possible that the Joker has returned since he died more than forty years ago. Terry asks if he's sure, to which Bruce states that 'he was there'. Terry theorizes that Bruce himself, as Batman, killed the Joker but only because he had no other choice, else something truly terrible would have happened. Bruce doesn't answer but tells Terry to return his Batsuit. He feels that Terry has done enough for the city and cannot be burdened to do any more. Terry objects, saying that he feels being Batman helps to amend for past sins and insists that the life of Batman is the one he wants. Bruce becomes impatient and insults Terry, calling him a 'stupid kid' who knows nothing of what he wants. Terry storms out in anger, leaving the suit behind.The next morning, Terry gets up to have breakfast with his mother, Mary (Teri Garr), and his young brother, Matt (Ryan O'Donohue), who are both shocked to see Terry up so early given his normal late-night schedule. Terry admits he no longer works for Mr. Wayne.That night, Dana is happy to see that Terry is more energetic and able to spend time with her and give her his full attention. Terry is equally glad until he is approached by two blonde girls - the Dee-Dee twins. The Jokerz gang appears on the dance floor and attack Terry.Meanwhile, at the Batcave, Bruce is examining a chemical mixer when he is attacked by a gas bomb. The Joker emerges out of the shadows, surprisingly aware of whom Bruce really is.Terry manages to fight off the Jokerz gang at the club, but Dana is injured in the struggle. When paramedics arrive and assure Terry that Dana will recover, he speeds off towards Wayne manor. He knows that the Jokerz would have no reason to attack him so publicly unless they had very good reason to. He calls Bruce and receives no response. At the manor, Terry finds Bruce's dog, Ace, injured and races inside to find the old man. He enters the Batcave to see Joker graffitti sprayed all over the walls, a haunting reminder of the night his father was murdered. He finds Bruce sprawled on the ground of the Batcave, a horrible grin etched on his face. Despite his infected state, and barely conscious, Bruce directs Terry to a supply of the Joker venom antidote he'd been working on before the attack. Terry quickly administers the antidote.The next day, Barbara watches over Bruce as he slowly recovers from the toxin while Terry releases a cover story to Wayne Enterprises that Bruce suffered a bad fall and will not be able to take control of the company just yet. Afterwards, Terry meets up with Barbara and presses her for information. Finally, Barbara relents and starts at the beginning:Nigh on forty years ago, Barbara lived the life of Batgirl, part of the family that comprised of Bruce as Batman and young Tim Drake (Mathew Valencia) as Robin. One night, while Robin was on patrol alone, he came upon what he thought was a damsel in distress. The woman turns out to be none other than Harley Quinn (Arleen Sorkin), accomplice and lover of the Joker. Harley knocks Robin out and kidnaps him. For three weeks, Batgirl and Batman search the city for Robin until they come upon an obvious Joker booby trap. The 'gift box' erupts, leaving evidence that points Batman to the remains of Arkham Asylum, long since abandoned due to a relocation. They enter the asylum where the Joker and Harley welcome them in a grim scene resembling a casual family outing. They introduce the newest member to their 'family', their 'son' Joker Junior - Tim. Dressed in a suit matching the Joker's and wearing a freakish smile on his pale face, Tim is clearly brainwashed by the Joker's toxins. In a fury, Batman attacks the Joker while Batgirl pursues Harley. Batgirl and Harley fight in the rusted upper levels of the asylum and Batgirl demands to know why Harley allowed the Joker to do such a thing. Harley admits that they 'roughed' Tim up a bit, but she'll make it right. Harley is then knocked into a crevasse and, before Batgirl can pull her back up, loses her grip and falls into darkness.Meanwhile, the Joker flees further into the asylum and begins to play 'home movies' on a large projector screen for Batman to watch. Joker darkly narrates how he first captured Robin and tortured him until his will broke, at which point he began to share secrets. Joker calls Bruce by his name and admits that he finds it rather pathetic that Batman is, after all, merely a 'little boy in a playsuit crying for Mommy and Daddy'. When the projection ends, Joker ambushes Batman and slashes his chest with a knife before stabbing him in the leg and knocking him hard to the floor. Joker stands over Batman and tosses a gun to Tim who is standing nearby. Tim aims the gun at Batman and Joker encourages him to finish him. Tim pulls the trigger, laughing maniacally, and a BANG flag pops out. Batman begs to Tim, calling him by his name, as Joker becomes impatient. Tim's face twitches despite his laughter and he quickly re-aims the gun and pulls the trigger. The BANG flag shoots out, launching into the Joker's chest and knocking him back. He coughs blood and mutters, "Thats not funny," before dying. Tim's laughter then succumbs to tears as Batgirl returns. She comforts Tim before they all leave together.Completing her story, Barbara explains to Terry that the Joker was buried beneath Arkham, Harley's body was never found, and Tim spent over a year with a friend, Leslie Tompkins, while his mind recovered, though he never again took up the mantle as the Boy Wonder. Barbara herself left the Dark Knight's company later on and relations between the three of them have never been the same. Tim is now a communications engineer and seems to be doing fine.Suspicious of Tim's current mental state, Terry takes the Batsuit back and decides to examine him in stealth. However, he is spotted right away due to Tim's years of training with the elder Batman. Tim swears that he has put his old life behind him and is less than nostalgic about his life as Robin. Regardless of his suspicions, Terry follows a secondary theory in Jordan Price, knowing that he harbors resentment against Bruce. He finds Price on his yacht surrounded by the Jokerz gang. Batman confronts them and Price admits that he gave the gang clearance so that they could steal goods from the factory but knows nothing about the attempt on Wayne's life. The Jokerz then reveal that they've been assigned to kill Price in order to 'tie up loose ends'. Batman saves Price as his yacht explodes from a localized beam of energy from above while the Jokerz escape once more. On shore, Batman gives Price to polic ealong with a recording proving his involvement with the Jokerz. Price is taken into custody.In the Batcave, a recovered Bruce sits with Ace at the computer, sullen over his inability to piece anything together. Terry confronts him and claims that the 'real' Batman would have recalled something to solve the case by now but Bruce claims that things are rarely that simple. He admits that he did not want Terry to end up like Tim; bitter, which is why he asked for the suit back. As they argue, Terry suddenly notices that, among the items in the cave smashed from the Joker's attack, only the Robin suit was shredded beyond recognition. Adding that to the fact that everything the Jokerz gang had stolen is consistent with communications software leads Terry's suspicions all the more to Tim as the answer behind the Joker's true identity. Following more research, Terry and Bruce discover that the stolen items could create a satellite defense system which Terry realizes was responsible for the spontaneous destruction of Price's yacht.Bruce instructs Terry to suit up and investigate. Terry requests one more weapon for his arsenal: Ace.Batman confronts Tim again at the local research station but finds that he is nothing more than a hologram. As the image disappears, the Joker communicates with Batman, seemingly confirming Terry's theory, and activates the satellite defense laser, destroying the station. Batman and Ace barely manage to outrun the laser with the Batmobile. After tracing down the Joker's headquarters, Batman engages the residing Jokerz gang one on one, with Ace helping to fight against the animalistic Woof. Having subdued the gang, Batman goes further inside and finds the real Tim who appears confused and unsure of how he got there. Batman becomes impatient with Tim's behavior and calls him out on working for the Joker. Tim suddenly suffers a flashback of killing the Joker and falls into a state of panic. Batman offers to call an ambulance, but Tim insists that he is fine, calling Batman 'Terry'. Shocked that Tim would know his true identity, Terry falters as Tim attacks and restrains him, telling him to stick around so that he won't miss the show.Tim then undergoes a transformation where he is revealed to be the Joker himself! Joker explains to a shocked Terry and Bruce that, while Tim was under his wing, he was also part of a breakthrough genetic experiment. The Joker implanted a microchip into the back of Tim's head where the Joker's DNA was essentially implanted; leading to Tim's transformation into a clone of the Clown Prince, all while remaining unaware. The Joker powers up the satellite defense system again and happily lists a few possible targets: the hospital where Dana is recovering, the park where Terry's mother and brother are, and Wayne manor. Not intimidated by Batman's threats, the Joker remains confident that he knows everything the old Batman and Robin knew at the top of their game and is thus one step ahead. But Batman asserts that the Joker doesn't know a thing about him. Ace then appears and attacks Joker, giving Batman time to escape. Bruce gives Terry some tips about the Joker; that he is very vain and likes to talk and not to let him get into Terry's head. Terry then comes up with an idea; he likes to talk too.Hiding in the rafters, Batman calls out to Joker and insults him, calling him less than a comedian and berating his unoriginal jokes. He surmises that the reason the Joker got such a kick out of teasing the original Batman was because he could never get a laugh out of him. He then starts laughing. This quickly infuriates the Joker who launches several bombs into the rafters, damaging the control system for the satellite in the process and re-aiming the beam onto the factory itself. Joker manages to knock Batman out of the ceiling and pins him down, choking him. He laughs in his face and maniacally begs one more laugh out of him. Batman manages to choke out a "ha-ha" as he takes an electric hand buzzer and zaps the microchip on the back of the Joker's neck, destroying it and whatever essence of the Joker was in Tim. Back to his old self, Tim collapses. Batman collects him and Ace and escapes the factory just before the satellite beam destroys it.Later, the Dee-Dee twins are released from jail on bond into the custody of their grandmother who beats them over the head, calling them ungrateful. The girls leave with her, calling her Nana Harley.The next day, Terry visits Tim in the hospital with Barbara. Tim thanks Terry for saving his life and notes that he is a fine successor to Bruce as Batman. As Terry leaves, Bruce appears in the doorway and makes peace with Tim.That night, Terry dons the Batsuit once more, vowing to continue the legacy.

comedy, gothic, murder, cult, violence, flashback, good versus evil, insanity, psychedelic, brainwashing, sci-fi

tt0233298

Alien

Scenes in red appear only in the 2003 Director's Cut. Scenes in blue appear only in the 1979 Theatrical Edition.The opening credits appear in front of a large planet with rings. Cut to the far reaches of deep space: the Nostromo, a commercial towing space vehicle, carrying a refinery with twenty million tons of mineral ore, is en route to Earth with a crew of seven. Inside, the ship appears eerily quiet, but suddenly, the onboard computer is activated. Lights inside the ship are activated, and a room with 7 biobeds is illuminated. The canopies open to wake the crew. Executive Officer Kane (John Hurt) is the first to get out. They congregate in the mess hall, where they cheerfully enjoy a meal. Chief Engineer Parker (Yaphet Kotto) and Engineering Technician Brett (Harry Dean Stanton) take the opportunity to discuss the bonus system, which they find unfair, as they get paid less than the officers. Captain Dallas (Tom Skerritt) is called away by Mother, the ship's computer, before they can have a meaningful conversation. Dallas enters the Mother console room, and tries to assess the situation, as the rest of the crew gets in the cockpit of the ship to determine their location. They quickly deduce that they are not home yet. Navigator Lambert (Veronica Cartwright) finds out that they are at Zeta II Reticuli, and the ship is still quite far from Earth. When Parker and Brett return from their round of the lower deck, complaining about their colleagues' attitude and the bonus system, Dallas briefs the crew: the ship is not even halfway home, and has altered course because it has picked up an unknown signal, which repeats every 12 seconds. The crew has been awoken from cryosleep to investigate. Parker protests, arguing that they're not a rescue team and that they should be compensated for the extra work, but Science Officer Ash (Ian Holm) stipulates that per Company contract, the crew is obliged to investigate every signal from an intelligent source; non-compliance will result in loss of pay, which quickly gets Parker in a cooperative mood.The crew assembles in the cockpit to listen to the signal. It sounds very strange and unearthly, perhaps like a voice. Lambert homes in on it and finds that it comes from a planetoid, 1200 km in diameter, with a 2 hour rotation and some gravity.The Nostromo approaches the planet, which is close to one enormous ringed planet and two smaller ones. The ship separates from the refinery, and sets course to the planet's surface. It descends toward the planet, but the landing is rough, causing damage that will take some time for Parker and Brett to fix (although they allot themselves copious amounts of time). The planet is windy, and visibility is low. As the source of the signal is 2000 meters away and the sun is coming up, Dallas and Kane decide to investigate on foot. A reluctant Lambert is ordered to join. Ash takes place behind an outer window with a communication console, as the team puts on the space suits and leaves the ship to investigate the signal on the planet's windy surface. In the meanwhile, Warrant Officer Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) has gone to the lower deck to inspect the repairs. Parker and Brett ask if there will be a bonus for any discovery which is made on the surface; Ripley assures them that the law guarantees them a share, before returning upstairs, as they keep teasing her. Outside, the team walks between the rocks, through the planetoid's inhabitable atmosphere. Inside the ship, Ash tells Ripley that Mother has not yet deciphered the signal; she volunteers to give it a try. Ripley accesses a console and starts working on the strange signal.Outside, the sun is up and they wind has laid down. The team clears the rock formation, and makes a fascinating discovery. Near the horizon, they see a derelict spacecraft of unknown origin. It is lying against the rocks, vaguely shaped like a horseshoe. Despite Lambert's hesitation, they approach it, losing contact with the Nostromo upon entering the massive ship through an opening at the side. Inside, they find hallways with walls textured like bones. At the end is an elevated platform. It carries the remains of an enormous alien creature in a large chair, now fossilized. Upon initial examination, there is evidence of some unknown trauma to its chest: its ribs are bent outward, as if it exploded from the inside. Lambert wants to leave. Kane then draws the others' attention to a large hole in the floor.Meanwhile, analysis of the unidentified transmission suggests that it is not an SOS, but a warning. Ripley wants to go after the search party, but Ash talks her out of it, reasoning that by the time she gets there, the search team will probably know what the signal means.Kane is lowered into the hole by means of a winch. He finds an enormous tube-like hallway down below, divided into sections and basins. He nears one basin, discovering thousands of leathery objects that resemble large eggs. He also discovers a strange light and mist covering the eggs that reacts when broken. He trips and falls into the pit, but is okay and moves in to investigate further. Kane touches one of the eggs, which seems to give a shriek. He illuminates the egg from behind with a flashlight and discovers movement inside. He grabs a pistol: a strange, spider-like organism is the resident. The egg has flaps on top, which open, revealing its insides. As Kane moves into for a better look, the strange life form inside suddenly leaps out, attaching itself to Kane's helmet.Ash is looking towards the planet's surface, when he sees Dallas and Lambert carrying the unconscious Kane back to the Nostromo. They enter the airlock and ask Ripley to let them in, while Ash waits at the inner airlock door to open it. They inform Ripley that an organism has attached itself to Kane's face. Ripley hesitates, citing quarantine protocol: for the safety of the crew, Kane should first be decontaminated for 24 hours before being brought on board. Dallas fears for Kane's life and orders her to open the door, but she refuses, despite Dallas trying to pull rank. However, Ash disregards Ripley's decision and lets them in.In the infirmary, Dallas and Ash cut Kane's helmet open: they find that a spider-like creature has attached itself to Kane's face, with eight fingers, and a long tail tightly wrapped around his neck. Despite his mouth being blocked, Kane is breathing heavily. Parker, Brett and Lambert observe through a window. Ripley joins them, and is angrily slapped by a furious Lambert for not allowing them to re-enter the ship; the men break the women apart. Dallas berates Ripley for disobeying a direct order, but Ripley furiously replies that she was just following the rules. Ash attempts to remove the creature from Kane's face with a pair of pliers, but it merely tightens its grip, and is holding on so tight that it will tear Kane's skin off with it. Kane is examined with a sophisticated medical scanner, which shows that the creature has inserted a tube into Kane's throat and is feeding him oxygen. Ash deduces that since Kane is comatose and the parasite is feeding him oxygen, removing the creature may kill Kane. However, Dallas is willing to take the risk.Ash tries to cut off one of its legs with a scalpel, but a yellowish fluid pours out of the wound and begins to eat through the floor. Out of concern that the acidic fluid will breach the hull, the crew runs several floors downstairs, and find that the stuff's corrosive effects is neutralized after burning through several decks. Dallas says the substance resembles molecular acid, and Brett comments the creature must be using it for blood. 'Wonderful defense mechanism - you don't dare kill it', growls Parker. Dallas orders everyone back to their posts, as Kane is left in his coma to be tended by Ash.Parker and Brett resume their repairs, commenting that they should never have landed on the planet. As Kane's situation remains unchanged, Ash is collecting data on the creature. He is startled by the sudden presence of Ripley in the infirmary. She wants to know what he has found out yet. Ash can only confirm that the creature's skin is made up of polysaccharides, which it is slowly replacing with silicon to toughen itself up. Ripley then confronts him with his decision to let it aboard, ignoring the quarantine law; Ash defends himself by stating that he did it out of concern for Kane's life, and that he temporarily forgot the fact that Ripley is the officer in charge when Dallas and Kane are away. Ripley replies that by allowing this, he has put all of their lives at risk, which is not appropriate behavior for a science officer. Ash coldly lets her know that he is perfectly capable to make that decision, and she should stick to her own job. Ripley leaves.Dallas is sitting in the Nostromo's escape shuttle, the Narcissus, listening to music, when he is called to the infirmary by Ash, because something has happened to Kane. The creature has detached from Kane's face on its own, and has disappeared. Dallas, Ripley and Ash search the infirmary, and find it when it suddenly drops from an overhead compartment on an unsuspecting Ripley; it appears to be dead, only showing basic reflexes. They take a closer look at it, and confirm it is dead. Ripley wants to get rid of it, fearing that it may become even more harmful when dead; Ash strongly disagrees, given the uniqueness of the specimen. He wants to take it back to Earth for more tests, as it is harmless now. Dallas shares Ripley's sentiment, but leaves the decision to Ash, to Ripley's amazement.Ripley tries to talk some sense into Dallas, who is unwilling to listen to her arguments, replying that he only runs the ship, and the science officer has the final word on all things scientific. Apparently, this is standard procedure nowadays, as per the almighty Company's regulations. Ripley asks if Dallas has ever worked with Ash before. Dallas mentions that he did five tours with the same science officer, but this person was suddenly replaced two days before the Nostromo left Thedus dock. Ripley admits she doesn't trust Ash, but Dallas responds that he doesn't trust anybody. He asks about the status of repairs, which are still underway, but appear completed enough to take the ship off. Even though Ripley does not recommend it, Dallas prefers to leave as soon as possible.After a successful take-off and despite some minor technical errors, the ship docks with the refinery and cargo in orbit. The Nostromo then resumes its course for Earth.The crew is back in the mess hall, bickering again about what to do with Kane. Dallas decides they will all get back into cryosleep. Lambert has calculated that it will take another 10 months to get back to Earth, which spoils their moods even further. Ash suddenly calls Dallas to the infirmary. Kane has awoken, still groggy but seemingly unharmed. He remembers very little of the event, but is starved and wants to eat. The crew decides to have one last meal before they re-enter cryosleep. During the meal, the crew is finally having a good time again, joking and enjoying the food. Kane is eating like he hasn't got food in ages, sharply observed by Ash. Suddenly, Kane begins to choke. After initially thinking he has swallowed something bad, the mood suddenly changes when Kane starts to groan and convulse violently. While he lies writhing and screaming on the table, the crew tries to aid and stabilize him, but his chest suddenly bursts, and a small snake-like alien creature erupts from his insides. It silently observes its surroundings. Parker moves in to kill it with a knife, but he is stopped by Ash. The creature screeches, then scurries away quickly, leaving the crew stunned and horrified.A quick search through the deck yields no results whatsoever. After a short funeral for Kane, where his body is jettisoned into space, the crew members split up into two teams to capture the small creature. Brett assembles a weapon similar to a cattle prod, while Ash rigs together a tracking device. Parker, Brett, and Ripley investigate one of the lower decks, finding that the power has been disrupted despite repairs having been finished. Picking up a signal, they think they have the creature cornered in a cupboard. They prepare to catch it in a net, only to be startled by the discovery that it is the crew's cat, Jones, who had found a quiet place inside the cupboard, and runs away. Realizing they might pick up the cat on the tracker again later, Parker sends Brett off to catch Jones. As Brett is searching for Jones, he finds a mysterious object resembling a shedded snake skin on the floor. He continues on to a hold housing one of the ship's landing struts, eventually catching up with Jones. A strange creature is hanging in the chains above him, seemingly observing him. As Brett tries to coax Jones out, the cat hisses when a huge shape drops down behind him. It is the creature, however now with four limbs, an elongated head, fully grown and towering over Brett. Brett turns around, and is mesmerized while looking at the creature opening its mouth, revealing a second set of teeth which quickly extends from the mouth, biting Brett in the head, and dragging him, bloodied and screaming, above into an air shaft. Ripley and Parker hear him and arrive just in time to catch a glimpse of the monster as Brett disappears and blood drips down.Parker and Ripley can only confirm the creature is big and escaped through the air ducts. Brett is assumed dead. The crew debates their next move. They all agree that the alien is using the air shafts to move around, so if they could drive it from the ducts into an airlock, they might be able to blow it out into space. Ripley asks Ash if he can offer some helpful information as a scientist; Ash suggests the alien may be afraid of fire, as most animals are. Fortunately, there are several flamethrowers on board. Ripley volunteers to enter the air shafts, but Dallas overrules her by volunteering himself.Dallas enters the Mother console once more. He tries to get the Mother computer to evaluate their procedure to get rid of the alien, but Mother simply cannot provide an answer, due to lack of input. He tries to get Mother to offer suggestions, but again, the computer cannot compute, due to lack of available data. Finally, Dallas types " What are my chances?" The computer replies that it cannot compute.The main airlock is prepared by Ripley and Ash for the decompression procedure, while Parker and Lambert position themselves where they can measure movement inside the ducts. The main duct is opened and Dallas enters the network of air shafts with a flamethrower, allowing the crew to remote-close valves behind him as he proceeds. Lambert uses a motion tracker to get his location, when she suddenly catches another signal going towards him. Assuming it is the alien, Dallas uses the flamethrower to make sure that one of the ducts leading down is safe. He ascends a ladder to the lower duct, but the alien's signal is lost in the meanwhile. He finds a puddle of slime on the floor. Lambert assures him that the alien cannot be far, so he uses the flame thrower around him to scare it out of hiding; nothing is there. Dallas is disoriented in the cramped space and starts to panic, when the other signal starts moving again, at higher speed to his location. Lambert desperately urges him to move away. He descends another ladder, turning around, his light illuminating the shrieking creature stretching its arms towards him. Static and feedback interrupt the line, and then there is only silence.Parker puts Dallas' flamethrower on the table, saying it was just laying in the duct: no blood, no Dallas. Lambert looks as if she is near a nervous breakdown, while Ripley is desperately trying to hide her apprehension. She suggests that in absence of a better idea, they should continue with the old plan. Lambert says it is madness, and suggests abandoning the ship with the shuttle; however, the shuttle cannot sustain four people. Parker also opposes the idea, and wants to kill the creature; even if this means entering the entire duct system again, and blowing the alien out of the airlock. He leaves to re-fill the flamethrower. Ripley once again tries to get helpful information from Ash, but he says he is still analyzing. She scoffs at him for being so little help, and decides to go and try Mother for answers, since she now has access in light of Dallas' absence.Ripley enters the Mother console, and queries Mother for answers as to why they are unable to neutralize the alien. Mother responds that she cannot clarify. Ripley asks Mother to explain that. Mother replies that she cannot, referring to 'Special Order 937' , which is only meant to be read by the science officer. Ripley uses a command override to force Mother to explain what Special Order 937 entails. Mother displays the following shocking text: 'Nostromo rerouted to new coordinates. Investigate life form. Gather specimen. Priority one: insure return of organism for analysis. All other considerations secondary. Crew expendable.' As she contemplates the cold, hard words, she suddenly finds Ash sitting next to her, saying there is an explanation for this. Furiously, she grabs and yells at him, sobbing uncontrollably. She leaves the console, trying to contact Parker and Lambert, but she finds that Ash is closing all doors leaving the mess hall, preventing her from leaving. She demands that he open the doors, but Ash simply stares at her. She notices a drop of white liquid running down his face, and he starts to have facial twitches. Unnerved, she tries to run away, but he suddenly grabs her hair; Ripley breaks free, pulling out a lock of hair, and tries to run. Ash quickly catches up and throws her against a few walls. While she is barely conscious, Ash uses a rolled-up magazine in order to choke her. She starts to struggle fiercely as Ash starts to twitch and make incoherent noises. Suddenly, Parker and Lambert arrive, both trying to drag Ash away from Ripley. Parker howls in pain as Ash grabs a piece of skin on his chest, forcing him to let go. Parker quickly grabs a fire extinguisher and hits Ash with it in the back. Ash starts to convulse and shriek violently, making very inhuman sounds while spitting out white liquid. Parker gives him another blow with the extinguisher, dislodging Ash's head, revealing Ash is an android. He keeps ponding Ash until he is on the floor, white liquid gushing from its insides. Ash' movements start to decrease and Parker settles down, but suddenly, the decapitated body grabs him and forces him onto a table; Lambert finally grabs the electric prod and screams as she stabs Ash in the back with it, finally rendering the android lifeless.With Ash disabled, Ripley theorizes that the Company sent him along to bring an alien back for their weapons division, as Ash was always very protective of the creature. They reconnect his disembodied head to see if he can give them any advice on how to deal with the creature. Ash confirms that his order was to bring back the life-form, even if it meant sacrificing the crew. Ripley asks how they can kill the creature. He tells them they have no chance against it, as it is "the perfect organism". He has a silent admiration for it, "a survivor, unclouded by conscience, remorse and delusions of morality". When he mocks their chances of survival, Ripley disconnects him again. The three survivors decide to follow Lambert's earlier suggestion; set the Nostromo to self-destruct and escape in the shuttle, leaving the Alien to die on the main ship. As they leave the room, Parker turns the flamethrower on Ash's corpse, melting his remains. Ripley will prep the shuttle for launch, while Parker and Lambert go to gather coolant for the shuttle's life-support system.While prepping the shuttle, Ripley hears the cat meowing on the ship's open intercom system, and realizes Jones is still left behind. Lambert and Parker are in the hold gathering equipment. They proceed to a small room where the coolant is stored. Ripley ventures out alone, into the hallways of the Nostromo to find Jones the cat. Expecting the alien at every turn, Ripley finally locates the cat in the cockpit, where he startles her as he suddenly jumps into view. She puts him into his traveling container. In the meanwhile, Parker and Lambert are working so feverishly on the supplies, that neither of them pays attention to a large shadow that has appeared inside the room. It is the alien, and it closes in on Lambert. Ripley can hear Parker over the open intercom, shouting to Lambert to get out of the way, but the alien has cornered her against the wall. Parker is unable to get a clear shot at it with the flamethrower without risking harm to Lambert, as it is hulking over her. Finally, he charges at the creature, but it rapidly spins, whipping the flamethrower out of his hands with its long tail, and grabbing him with its large claws. Despite his struggle, the creature holds a tight grip, opens its mouth, and its bizarre inner jaws pierce Parker's head, instantly killing him. As Ripley rushes towards their position, she is powerless to prevent the creature from turning back to Lambert. It curls its tail around her, and the final thing that Ripley can hear from the intercom are the sounds of Lambert, crying, sobbing, gagging and screaming. Ripley finds their blodied and lifeless bodies in the storage room where they had been working in, with no sign of the alien.In terrible shock, Ripley dashes towards the emergency room without stopping. Between the sobs, she locates the ship's self-destruct mechanism and quickly completes the entire procedure to activate it. The voice of Mother now announces that the self-destruct mechanism has been activated, and the ship will detonate in 10 minutes; however, the self-destruct can still be canceled during the first five minutes.Ripley takes a ladder to the lower deck, where she hears a soft groan. She inspects the hold, and finds a strange organic structure adhering to the walls and machinery. Shocked, she finds Dallas stuck within the adhesive, barely alive. On the opposite wall, she notices a shape which vaguely resembles Brett; he seems to be dissolving, transforming into an object like the eggs seen in the derelict ship. Dallas very weakly begs Ripley to kill him. After some hesitation, she grants his dying request: she burns them both with the flamethrower and rushes out of the chamber.Ripley crawls up a ladder, and runs towards the shuttle with Jones in the container. She briefly rests against a wall, when she suddenly hears the alien stirring around the corner. Terrified, she drops the cat carrier and carefully retraces her steps along the wall, as the alien slowly comes into view around the corner. It shows interest in Jones. The alien slams the container against a wall. Ripley races back to the self-destruct mechanism and tries to override the procedure; however, she is too late, as the mechanism is already starting to activate. She restarts the cooling unit, but Mother announces that it is too late to stop the countdown, and the Nostromo will explode in 5 minutes, much to Ripley's frustrated anger. With sirens blaring and steam releasing from the vents, Ripley runs back to the shuttle loading area, ready to make her best attempt to fight off the alien and get into the lifeboat. However, the alien is nowhere to be seen, only the cat container lying on its side. As fires start to erupt, she picks up Jones and boards the shuttle with only one minute to abandon ship. She quickly runs through the launch sequence, and the shuttle lowers to launch position as Mother starts counting down the last 30 seconds of the Nostromo's life. The shuttle's engines ignite and the ship races away from the Nostromo, which grows smaller by the second. A series of mighty explosions follow as the Nostromo vanishes in fire, destroying the refinery and ore it had been carrying. Ripley is relieved it destroyed the alien along with it.Ripley gives Jones an hug and prepares one of the biobeds for cryosleep, putting Jones in it. As she makes final preparations for the ship, a hand suddenly reaches out to her from a wall; she shrieks, and in horror, she sees the alien lying in an alcove. It had, in fact, stowed away aboard the shuttle, its external physicality making it blend in with the ship's machinery. She flees into a locker with space suits inside, and notices the alien is not following her; it remains lying in the alcove, seemingly unable to do something. Ripley gets an idea, and dons one of the spacesuits. She arms herself with a harpoon gun, then straps herself into a chair while singing 'You are my lucky star' to calm her nerves. Opening a series of air vents above the alien's head, Ripley tests them one at a time, and then finds one that directly blasts high-pressure steam onto the alien, driving it screaming from its hiding spot. As she is activating several buttons, she doesn't notice the monster creeping up to her from the side, until it is standing next to her to its full, menacing 2-meter height, ready to attack with its inner jaw. Screaming, she opens the shuttle's airlock door. Everything not secured, including the alien, blasts towards the door. The alien, however, grabs the edges of the doorway to prevent itself from being sucked outside. Ripley quickly fires her harpoon before the creature is able to haul itself in; it pierces the screaming alien, which lets go of the doorway and blasts outside, the wire connecting the gun to the harpoon pulling the gun out of Ripley's hands. However, the door slams shut, jamming the wire under it. Still tethered to the door by the wire, the alien undauntedly attempts to re-enter the ship by climbing inside one of the heat thrusters. Ripley, however, sees the opportunity and fires the engines, incinerating the alien, and sending it drifting into space.Before she and Jones enter hypersleep for the trip home, Ripley records a final log entry, stating that Kane, Lambert, Parker, Brett, Ash and captain Dallas are dead. Cargo and ship are destroyed. She expects to reach the frontier in six weeks, and to be picked up by the network. She signs off as Ripley, last survivor of the Nostromo, and gets into hypersleep.End credits.

dark, boring, gothic, murder, mystery, cult, violence, horror, atmospheric, action, claustrophobic, suspenseful, sci-fi

tt0078748

Hotel Chevalier

In a hotel lobby, the concierge answers a phone call from a guest's room. A man (Jason Schwartzman) lies on a hotel bed in a yellow bathrobe, watching the black-and-white American war film Stalag 17 and reading the newspaper. After ordering room service from the concierge in broken French, he receives a call from a woman whose voice he recognizes. She tells him she is on her way from the airport and asks for his room number. Despite objecting that he did not tell her she could come, the man consents nevertheless. He then hurriedly attempts to tidy the room – pausing to play the opening bars of the song "Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)?" by Peter Sarstedt on his stereo system – and runs a bath. The man is again lying on the bed, now in a gray suit. Hearing a knock, he starts the song playing again before opening the door to a woman (Natalie Portman). After staring at him for several seconds, the woman breaks the silence by asking what music is playing. Receiving no response, she steps into the room and presents the man with a bouquet of flowers. When she moves to kiss him on the mouth, he turns his head away and they embrace instead. He closes the door and asks how she found him; she replies that it "wasn't actually that hard". She moves around the room browsing through his possessions, brushes her teeth with his toothbrush and declines to take the bath he had run for her. Stepping back into the bedroom, the woman turns to face the man and confronts him, asking slowly "what the fuck is going on?" He motions to her to join him on the bed and at her prompting, he reveals in the ensuing conversation that he has been living in the hotel room for "more than a month", and that he had left to escape their relationship. They lie back on the bed looking at one another before being interrupted by the arrival of room service. Once alone again, the two kiss and the man begins to undress the woman. They have an uncomfortable exchange about not having slept with other people and when he notices bruises on her arm after undressing her further, the woman chooses not to comment on them. Lying on top of him, she tells the man that she does not want to lose his friendship, that she loves him and never meant to hurt him. He responds coldly that he "will never be [her] friend", but holds her when she embraces him. "Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)?" starts again and the man offers to show the woman his view of Paris. The woman is perched against an armoire, the man approaches and covers her naked body with the yellow bathrobe, and the two move towards the window. After they step out on the balcony, the man draws a toothpick from his pocket and hands it to her with an upwards nod, which she reciprocates. After looking out for another few seconds she clasps his neck lightly and they step back inside.

romantic

tt1094249

Spud

The film takes place in South Africa around the time of Nelson Mandela's release from jail (1990). It chronicles 14-year-old John Milton's (Troye Sivan) first year at an elite boarding school for boys. When John arrives for the first time at the school, he gets nicknamed "Spud" by the other boys because he was yet to experience puberty. All eight boys in his dormitory get nicknames. They are also called the "Crazy Eight". Spud finds it difficult to make friends and fit in. He befriends Mr Edly, a teacher nicknamed "The Guv", after he is the only one in the English class to pass an exam. The Guv frequently lends English literature books to Spud and invites him to lunch regularly. But Spud soon realises that Edly has marital problems, and is an alcoholic. While back at home for the holidays, Spud falls in love with Debbie, the daughter of one of his mother's friends, whom he nicknames "The Mermaid." When Spud returns to the school, he sees a flyer for the school play Oliver Twist. Spud decides to audition so he can fit in. He ends up landing the lead role of Oliver. During practice, Spud meets Amanda, a girl from the nearby school St. Catherine's, and immediately falls for her. But he soon realises that she has a boyfriend already, and he cannot form a relationship with her without cheating on Debbie, whom he still loves. He seeks the advice of his roommate Gecko, who tells Spud to pretend he loves another girl named Christine, in order make Amanda jealous. Spud and Gecko begin to build a strong friendship and they occasionally visit a rock at the top of the hill near the school. In the fourth term, Gecko is diagnosed with cerebral malaria that he got during his holiday to Mozambique. A few days later he passes away. Spud mourns the death of Gecko and the whole school attends his funeral service in the school's chapel. In the end, Spud performs in the school's play and gets a standing ovation. After the performance, he is dragged away from the post-performance celebration by Amanda, and they go to a nearby field. There, she tells him to kiss her. Spud, however, stops at the last moment and rejects her, deciding to stay true to Debbie. He offers to give Debbie a tour of the school, and kisses her in the middle of the quadrangle, which his dorm-mates witness from their window. After he returns, he is praised by the group, and finally fits in. The film ends with Spud, on the final day of the year, sitting on the same rock he and Gecko used to frequent overlooking the school, and remarking that "God gives us choices. But sometimes, God gives us no choice. He deals us the cards, and we play them."

entertaining

tt1059969

Timber Falls

A couple is seen being tortured. After "Sarah" escapes from her bondings, her boyfriend tells her to run and is killed. Sarah runs from a figure in a black trench coat and a modified sickle. When Sarah is trapped on the edge of a cliff, she jumps off the cliff and is killed when she hits the ground. The following scene shows another couple: Sheryl and Mike go on a hiking trip for the week. Though they are told by the park ranger that they should take the beginner's trail, the couple decides to go on the trail called "Timber Falls" at the advice of a friendly woman. The two meet a group of unfriendly hunters, and the couple is warned by the hunters that they should be careful about what they do in the woods, as some residents there do not take kindly to certain actions. Sheryl convinces Mike to empty his handgun of bullets, thinking there is nothing to worry about. The couple sets up camp after hiking down the trail and meeting up with another park ranger. The couple goes to sleep, not noticing the shadowy figure that spies on them during the night. In the morning, Sheryl goes down to a lake to bathe. Though not shown on-screen, Sheryl is kidnapped by an unknown person. Mike wakes up and finds that Sheryl is missing. He tries to find her, and sees two of the hunters he and Sheryl encountered the previous day. He sees one of them holding one of Sheryl's articles of clothing. Believing they kidnapped her, he hits one of them over the head with a log, causing one hunter to run away. After taking the hunter's shotgun, Mike demands that the hunter tells him where Sheryl is. Though the hunter tells Mike he hasn't seen her since the day before, Mike knocks him out by hitting him with the stock of the shotgun after the hunter tries to attack him with a knife. Mike leaves the hunter for dead, and continues his search for Sheryl. He soon gets his foot caught in a bear trap. He slowly faints. After he wakes up, he finds himself in a cabin. The cabin, owned by Ida Forester, who was the woman Mike and Sheryl saw the day before. She nurses him back to health, and assures Mike that she will contact the sheriff via the radio upstairs. Mike believes that Ida stole his wallet as she calls him by his real name "Michael". He claims that no stranger could figure that out so easily because he told very few people what his real name was, and claims that she stole his wallet and his I.D. She denies this, but he begins demanding that she let him use the radio. Ida and Mike engage in a fight, ending in the wounded Mike apparently knocking out Ida. Mike rushes upstairs to use the radio, only to find it does not work. The camera then goes to Sheryl and shows her running away from a strange figure in a black trench coat. She finds the same park ranger they saw on the trail, only to find out he is allied with the man who was chasing Sheryl. It is revealed that this happened before Ida found Mike, as when Mike enters the cabin's basement, he finds Sheryl there, strapped to a chair. The basement of the cabin is shown as some sort of shrine, with a shelf of prematurely born babies in jars with name plates on the jars, a room which appears to be a containment room, and a room that appears to be a torture room. Mike, after finding Sheryl, is captured by Clyde, Ida, and Ida's brother Deacon, whose face is horribly disfigured. The family is shown to be a group of insane religious fanatics, believing that capturing the couple is for a good purpose. After Ida describes having seen the couple having sex in their tent a few days previously, she and Clyde tell the couple that the punishment for their sins is for them to have a child for Ida and Clyde, due to Ida not being able to have a baby successfully. Mike and Sheryl are forced to marry, and over the course of three days, Ida and Clyde force them to attempt to have a child, brutally torturing them if they do not. Sheryl and Mike decide not to have a baby, for both know that when they do have a child, Ida and Clyde obviously will kill them. After a few days pass, two of the men Sheryl and Mike met days before hear about the missing couple, and decide that something strange is going on at Ida and Clyde's home. The two journey there on the third night that Mike and Sheryl have been captured. One goes through the front door, the other find a secret door to the cabin's basement. The man who goes through the hidden door is killed by Clyde, only after Mike manages to yell for help. As the other man enters the basement, he is shot and killed by Ida. After Ida and Clyde come down to the basement and gloat about there being no rescue coming for Sheryl and Mike, Sheryl begins laughing hysterically. She tells Ida that she has already gotten pregnant with Mike before they went on the hiking trip, telling Ida that the child was conceived "in sin". Ida, in shock, drops the small blade she was going to mutilate Sheryl with. After Ida leaves the room, Mike quickly picks up the blade and slashes Clyde's throat. The couple then knocks out Ida, and Mike shoots Clyde in the head with the shotgun Ida had, mocking what Clyde had said earlier by saying, "I understand your extreme circumstances, but punishment must be handed down" before he shoots him. After hobbling out of the basement, the couple exits the basement and prepares to leave the cabin. Mike tells Sheryl to run for help, and as she does, she is confronted by Deacon in the cabin. After a chase, she sets him on fire by pouring moonshine on him and then a lit match. She picks up his sickle and enters the cabin to get Mike. Ida charges out of the basement and stabs Mike with a knife; Sheryl quickly decapitates her with the sickle she took from Deacon. A year has passed as we see the couple putting their baby to bed, leaving the room. As the movie ends the camera fades over to the window where Deacon's sickle is suddenly shown.

violence

tt0857295

The Core

After a series of strange events around the world connected by variances in the Earth's electromagnetic field, scientists, led by Dr. Josh Keyes (Aaron Eckhart), a geology professor, and Conrad Zimsky (Stanley Tucci) and egotistical researcher, discover that the Earth's rotating molten core is slowly coming to a stop; without its movement, the electromagnetic field around the earth will disappear, exposing the surface to unfiltered solar radiation and will incinerate anything or anyone exposed to it. Keyes and Zimsky are charged to find a way to restart the core, which requires traveling deep into the Earth and setting off nuclear charges to induce rotational force.While in it's re-entry procedure, the crew of the space shuttle Endeavor find themselves several miles off course. Instead of being aligned with Edwards Air Force Base, they are heading directly for downtown Los Angeles. The shuttle makes an emergency landing in the L.A. River, avoiding a catastrophic accident. Major Rebecca "Beck" Childs (Hilary Swank) was the navigator for the mission and is nearly court-martialed before it's determined that she performed her duties perfectly and that the strange magnetic anomalies around the world were responsibleKeyes and Zimsky seek the help of Dr. Serge Leveque (Tchéky Karyo), a weapons expert, and Ed "Braz" Brazzelton (Delroy Lindo). Brazzelton reveals a means of not only drilling through the Earth at high speeds using a series of high-powered lasers, but also has devised a material, "unobtainium", which is capable of withstanding the pressures deep inside the planet as well as generating energy from them. Keyes himself works to create a means to visualize their path through rock structures via x-rays. To avoid creating a worldwide panic, an expert hacker, Theodore Donald Finch (DJ Qualls), known by his hacking handle "Rat", is found by an FBI agent (John Shaw) and is brought to monitor the Internet and erase any rumors to the potential fate of the planet. However, there is a hint that the Army is hiding the real reason of the impending catastrophe.The team constructs a snake-like ship named Virgil made up of several compartments that will be launched over the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean, the deepest such area on Earth. Keyes, Zimsky, Leveque, and Brazzelton are joined by Commander Robert Iverson (Bruce Greenwood) and Beck, who will pilot the ship.The launch goes successfully and the team finds their equipment is working to expectations as they begin their descent. After successful descent on the 700 miles depth, they run into a snag when they breach a gigantic geode-like structure, damaging the laser drilling device. Keyes and Zimsky find out that they are in fact inside a cobalt cocoon full of amethyst. During the repairs, Iverson is killed by falling crystal shards leaving Beck to pilot the ship to the Earth's core. They repair the ship and escape just before the geode collapses and lava pours in.As they dive further, a large diamond breaches the hull of the last compartment where Leveque is preparing the nuclear devices for activation; he sacrifices himself to make sure that Keyes has the launch codes as the compartment, no longer able to withstand the pressure, is crushed. When they finally breach the molten core, the team performs a series of calculations and find that their original plan would fail to restart the core due to unexpected physical property differences concerning density of the fluid. The team calculates that they can still restart the core by decoupling each compartment of Virgil at precise positions, timing the nuclear devices in each to go off to obtain the best force they can impart to the core. However, in order to separate the individual compartments, one member will have to enter the open area at the front of Virgil, which is exposed directly to the heat of the molten core and likely will not survive. Brazzelton offers to do so and sacrifices himself to the cause, successfully throwing the switch.Meanwhile, on the surface, the public become aware of problems after a lightning superstorm appears over Rome and destroys the Colosseum and a patch of unfiltered sunlight over San Francisco melts the Golden Gate Bridge. Rat is unable to stop the release of the news, but learns of a device called "D.E.S.T.I.N.I." (Deep Earth Seismic Trigger Initiative), the news of which he relays to Keyes. Keyes learns that the DESTINI project was an attempt to propagate earthquakes through Earth's core as a weapon, but instead was the cause for stopping its rotation, and that Zimsky was a critical figure behind its design. Zimsky reveals that the government will attempt to use the device again to try to restart the core, which could have disastrous results.Keyes gets Rat to disable the power to the device while they attempt to plot the proper locations for the detonations, long enough for the Virgil team to detach each compartment, planting the nuclear devices at key points in the molten core. While Keyes and Zimsky activate the bombs, they realise that the blast won't be effective enough so they decide to restart the timers. While they do so, Zimsky is trapped in one of the compartments and must be left behind by Keyes and Childs. Before the compartment with Zimsky is disconnected, he reveals to Keyes that the explosion can be effective only if he uses the Virgil's fuel core to increase the blast power of the last bomb. While the timer for the nuclear explosions ticks down, the two find they are within the blast radius of the devices, and are forced to rig the ship, using the power generated by the unobtainium, to move themselves out of the way in time.As they speed out of the core, the series of nuclear explosions goes off successfully restarting the core's rotation. Keyes and Childs are able to safely make it to the ocean floor in Virgil but without heat, they are unable to get to the surface. However, their position is found by the military by tracking whalesong singing over their ship. Shortly after they are recovered, Rat, through Keyes' directive, releases full information of Project DESTINI and of their mission to the Internet, which reveals the truth to all, and ensures that Iverson, Serge, Braz, and Zimsky are not forgotten, but rather lauded as heroes.

psychedelic

tt0298814

Now, Voyager

Drab Charlotte Vale (Bette Davis) is an unattractive, overweight, repressed spinster whose life is brutally dominated by her tyrannical mother (Gladys Cooper), an aristocratic Boston dowager whose verbal and emotional abuse of her daughter has contributed to the woman's complete lack of self-confidence. It is revealed that Mrs. Vale had already brought up three sons, and Charlotte was an unwanted child born to her late in life. Fearing that Charlotte is on the verge of a nervous breakdown, her sister-in-law Lisa (Ilka Chase) introduces her to psychiatrist Dr. Jaquith (Claude Rains), who recommends that she spend time in his sanitarium. Away from her mother's control Charlotte blossoms, and at Lisa's urging the transformed woman opts to take a lengthy cruise instead of going home immediately. On the ship she meets Jeremiah Duvaux Durrance (Paul Henreid), a married man who is traveling with his friends Deb (Lee Patrick) and Frank McIntyre (James Rennie). It is from them that Charlotte learns of how Jerry's devotion to his young daughter Christine ("Tina") keeps him from divorcing his wife, a manipulative, jealous woman who does not love Tina and keeps Jerry from engaging in his chosen career of architecture, despite the fulfillment he gets from it. Charlotte and Jerry become friendly, and in Rio de Janeiro the two are stranded on Sugarloaf Mountain when their car crashes. They miss the ship and spend five days together before Charlotte flies to Buenos Aires to rejoin the cruise. Although they have fallen in love, they decide it would be best not to see each other again. When she arrives home, Charlotte's family is stunned by the dramatic changes in her appearance and demeanor. Her mother is determined to once again destroy her daughter, but Charlotte is resolved to remain independent. The memory of Jerry's love and devotion help to give her the strength she needs to remain resolute. Charlotte becomes engaged to wealthy, well-connected widower Elliot Livingston (John Loder), but after a chance meeting with Jerry, she breaks off the engagement, about which she quarrels with her mother. During the argument, Charlotte says she didn't ask to be born, that her mother never wanted her, that it's "been a calamity on both sides." Mrs. Vale is so shocked that her once-weak daughter has found the courage to actually talk back to her, she has a heart attack and dies. Guilty and distraught, Charlotte returns to the sanitarium. When she arrives at the sanitarium, she is immediately diverted from her own problems when she meets Jerry's lonely, unhappy 12-year-old daughter Tina (Janis Wilson) who has been sent to Dr. Jaquith. Tina greatly reminds Charlotte of herself; both were unwanted and unloved by their mothers. Shaken from her depression, Charlotte becomes overly interested in Tina's welfare and, with Dr. Jaquith's permission, she takes her under her wing. When the girl improves, Charlotte takes her home to Boston. Jerry and Dr. Jaquith visit the Vale home, where Jerry is delighted to see the changes in his daughter. While he initially pities Charlotte, believing her to be settling in her life, he's taken aback by her contempt for his initial condescension. Dr. Jaquith has allowed Charlotte to keep Tina there with the understanding that her relationship with Jerry will remain platonic. She tells Jerry that she sees Tina as his gift to her and her way of being close to him. When Jerry asks her if she's happy, Charlotte finds much to value in her life, even if she doesn't have everything she wants: "Oh, Jerry, don't let's ask for the moon. We have the stars," a line ranked #46 in the American Film Institute's list of the top 100 movie quotes in American cinema.

romantic, psychological, flashback

tt0035140

Rivals

Divorcée Hazel Show and her teenage daughter Laurie, move to the small, Amish country town of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. One night, Laurie attends the senior prom with yearbook editor, Samantha "Sam" Gardner to take photographs and videotape footage for the school yearbook. There, they meet the beautiful and popular Michelle Lambert whom Laurie is enchanted by. Michelle and her boyfriend Butch Yunkin are thereupon elected Prom King & Queen where the two are awarded a spotlight dance. Afterwards, Butch approaches Laurie claiming Michelle has granted him the liberty of dancing with any girl of his choice--and he chose Laurie. Laurie's reluctant to do so at first, but upon Michelle's reassurance, she uneasily dances with Butch.From that point on, Michelle and Laurie become the best of friends. Later on, Michelle gives Laurie a makeover and shows her off at the Bowl-O-Rama, a local bowling alley. Michelle identifies Laurie's appearance to Butch who casually perceives Laurie's more pulchritudinous than Michelle, which enrages her. Michelle, then accuses Butch of possessing a sexual intent in Laurie, though Laurie tries to convince the disillusioned Michelle her assumption is false.At the community pool, Michelle notices Butch flirting with Laurie and attempts to invoke jealousy in him by making out with a boy named Craig Haber. Butch appears to be irked somewhat, but brushes it off and follows Laurie into the girl's dressing room. Michelle apprehends them and suggests to Laurie she should start a relationship with Butch now that he and she are no longer an item anymore. Laurie approaches Michelle at her home to persuade her into reuniting with Butch, but Michelle emphasizes she has no interest in him anymore, and would rather hang with Craig. She fully asserts to Laurie there's no hard feelings if Laurie does, in fact, decide to date Butch.That evening, Butch phones Laurie feeling suicidal over his breakup with Michelle. Laurie invites him over to her home where she convinces Butch he and Michelle are just going through a hardship and will soon reconcile. The confiding talk brings Laurie and Butch closer to each other. Sam invites Laurie to a party. At the party, Butch expresses in pursuing a relationship with Laurie. Laurie's initially hesitant at first in fear Butch remains in a relationship with Michelle though he promises he isn't. The two share their first kiss which is seen by Michelle's friends who immediately call Michelle to notify her. An irate Michelle suffers a mental breakdown, she flies into a psychopathic rage, ransacking her bedroom before she leaves several messages onto Laurie's answering machine claiming she knows where she is and what she is doing. Meanwhile, Butch leads Laurie into a nearby barn where he attempts to have sexual intercourse with her, though Laurie feels they are going too fast. Butch assumes she just needs some encouragement and forcefully rapes Laurie. Michelle finds them, where she informs Laurie that Butch also raped her the first time they had a sexual encounter together. A panicked Laurie races to her car, crying hysterically. Michelle creates a scene in front of the party goers announcing she is pregnant with Butch's child. The next morning, Laurie informs her mother of the rape, but would rather forget about it instead of pressing charges believing this would infuriate Butch and Michelle who resume their relationship.Michelle begins to suffer from the delusion Laurie is purposefully trying to steal Butch away from her and begins to repeatedly call the Show residence insulting both Hazel and Laurie. Pretty soon, Michelle's terror escalates, she watches the Show home, turns the entire school against Laurie, stalks Laurie in public establishments, and eventually befriends Sam. Sam warns Laurie that Michelle could possibly try to kill her, and to lock her doors and shut her blinds. One evening, Laurie is cornered by Butch and Michelle while walking through a parking lot. When she tries to escape, she is encircled by Sam and Michelle's friends who restrain her while Michelle violently assaults her with such brutality and rage, Michelle's friends, especially Sam are frightened of her. The gang leaves when moments later, the incapacitated Laurie is found near dead, by her date Andrew. After the beating, Michelle's friends, lose all respect for her and refuse to assist Michelle in her harassment campaign. Michelle turns to her only friend Tabitha Buck, revealing to her she experienced a miscarriage on Laurie's part, and the two conspire to murder Laurie before her mother can send her to live with her father.When Laurie is supposed to leave for the airport, Hazel receives an emergency call for work and leaves. Butch drops Michelle and Tabitha off where they gain access to the house and Tabitha chases Laurie up the staircase. Laurie turns around where she runs into Michelle. Michelle and Tabitha bound her with rope before slitting Laurie's throat with a butcher knife. Hazel arrives at work where she is informed she was never called in and realizes she was bamboozled. She races home where she discovers her dying daughter who tells her Michelle killed her before she perishes. Hazel reports the murder to the police, but her accusation isn't enough to charge the murderers. Hazel makes an announcement at Laurie's former high school where she informs anyone who can testify on her behalf that Michelle was the sole murderer of her daughter needs to step forward. Sam reports to Officer Mary Randolph who is the primary investigator of Laurie's case and Michelle, Tabitha, and Butch are subsequently arrested. Michelle is charged with first degree murder and sentenced to life without parole. Tabitha is charged with second degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. Butch originally testified against Michelle, but was eventually sentenced ten to twenty years for perjury and convicted of third degree murder. Before the death of Laurie Show there were no anti-stalking laws in Pennsylvania. Hazel Show set out to create such a law--she was successful.

murder

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A Most Violent Year

In 1981 New York, Abel Morales (Oscar Isaac) is the owner of an up-and-coming company which has suffered the hijacking of several trucks, each carrying heating-oil worth thousands of dollars. One driver, Julian (Elyes Gabel), is severely beaten when his oil truck is hijacked by two unknown assailants. Abel's wife, Anna Morales (Jessica Chastain), beseeches Abel to fight violence with violence, but Abel refuses. Morales and his company are under investigation by Assistant District Attorney Lawrence (David Oyelowo), who seems determined to expose price fixing, tax evasion, and various other illegalities committed by Morales and his competitors in the heating oil business. As a way to secure financial independence for himself and trump his competitors, Abel, with the help of his attorney, Andrew Walsh (Albert Brooks), brokers a deal with a group of Jewish Chassidim, led by Josef Mendellsohn (Jerry Adler), to purchase a fuel oil terminal on the East River. This will allow Morales' company to directly import fuel oil from barges and to store far more oil in the summertime when fuel oil prices are lower. He places a large down payment of 40% on the property with the agreement that he will close in 30 days—if he fails to do so, the Chassidim will sell the terminal to one of Morales' competitors and keep the down payment. After moving into a new home, Morales prevents what appears to be an attempted burglary, but the next day one of his daughters finds a loaded handgun dropped in the bushes by the perpetrator. Suspecting this intimidation is coming from his competitors, he begins to confront them one by one; each one denies any intimidation and theft to drive him out of business. The head of the Teamsters encourages Morales to arm his drivers with handguns and fake permits that he can secure for him. Morales refuses, believing that such a move could bring down even more heat on his operation from the authorities and potentially ruin his legitimate business connections with a bank financing his business. Returning to work after weeks of rehabilitation, Julian is again accosted by criminals, this time on the Queensboro Bridge in broad daylight. Carrying a firearm without Abel's knowledge or permission, he engages in a shootout with the hijackers, which results in the police arriving and chasing Julian and the other assailants, who all escape. This incident once again shifts Morales and his company into the spotlight of not only ADA Lawrence, but also the bank, which informs him that due to the impending criminal indictments and this unfortunate public incident, it can no longer finance his purchase of the terminal. Desperate, and needing $1.5 million to close on the property, he approaches his competition, Saul Leftkowitz and his granddaughter, who agree to give him a $500,000 loan for 20% interest and equity in the company for the term of the agreement. He manages to scrounge up another $200,000 by taking out a mortgage loan against an apartment building that he and his younger brother own together. With time winding down quickly, he intercepts a radio call for help from one of his drivers, who states his truck is being hijacked. Being nearby, he pursues the stolen truck. Eventually catching up to and attacking one of the hijackers, Morales demands to know who the mastermind is. The hijacker denies he was hired by anyone but reveals that he sold his last stolen shipment in Far Rockaway. Morales confronts one of his competitors, who has facilities in Far Rockaway, threatening to alert the federal authorities as the stolen fuel is marked. The competitor agrees to pay Morales more than $200,000 for stolen fuel oil. As Morales is getting closer to his $1.5 million goal, he visits mafia-affiliated Peter Forente (Alessandro Nivola) to ask for another $600,000. Forente agrees to give Morales the loan, but on very unfavorable terms. Dismayed by having to leverage his company to such a high degree in order to secure the loan, Morales begins to inform his wife, only to learn she has been "skimming" from the company for years and has been hiding the money, which is sufficient to cover the amount of money that Forente had agreed to lend, in a secret account. Having the money he now needs, Morales and Walsh pay off his creditors and secure the terminal. As Abel, Anna, and Walsh are looking over the property, they are approached by an angry Julian carrying a gun, who blames Morales for his problems, believing that he should also be entitled to some of Morales' good fortune. Despondent by his being a wanted man, Julian commits suicide in front of Abel, Anna, and Walsh. As the police show up with ADA Lawrence to investigate the suicide, Morales expresses that the broader investigations into his firm are hurting his business, and that they should find a conclusion at some point. Lawrence agrees in general terms and suggests that this new fuel oil terminal will propel Morales' business and give him "political influence." Lawrence then suggests that Morales might be able to help him with his higher aspirations. Morales claims that he has always done "the most right thing".

violence

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Stella

Stella (Bette Midler) is a feisty, single, good time gal working in a bar when she meets and falls for the suave charms of the young Dr Steve Dallas (Stephen Collins). Although from opposite ends of the social spectrum they start an affair resulting in Stella becoming pregnant. After he proposes half heartedly she rejects him and embarks upon raising their child Jenny as a single mother, but is always helped and encouraged by her stalwart friend, a local good natured barfly, Ed Munn (John Goodman). Stella is fiercely independent and proud and is determined to do well by this child and take on whatever jobs she must to raise her daughter properly. When Jenny is 4 years old her father suddenly re appears on the scene and is determined to get to know his daughter. At first reluctant to allow this, Stella is persuaded to allow contact and a happy bond develops between the father and daughter. As Jenny (Trini Alvarado) grows up she becomes torn between her father's rich and well connected background and her loyalty and love for her mother who is poor and crass and vulgar but devoted to her daughter. She also despises the perceived relationship she sees developing between Stella and Ed Munn who is now a broken alcoholic. Jenny eventually meets and falls for a boy from her father's 'world' and Stella realizes that now the disparities in her own and and Jenny's father's backgrounds might jeopardize her daughters future happiness. So she makes a heart rending decision played out in the last 10 minutes of the film to ensure that this is not going to happen.

melodrama

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The Men Who Stare at Goats

The movie opens with Brigadier General Dean Hopgood (Stephen Lang) staring intently at his wall from behind his desk. He tells his secretary that he will be going into the next room and charges into his wall, hoping to phase through it. He hits the wall hard and says shit.More of this is true than you would believe.Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) is a reporter at a local newspaper in Ann Arbor Michigan. He opens the film with a narration about how his story doesnt begin where he thought it would. He wanted it to start when he married his college sweetheart, Helen (Rebecca Mader), but he acknowledges that his story started when he interviewed a local man who he heard on talk radio claiming to be part of a secret government initiative. He meets with Gus Lacey (Stephen Root) and Lacey tells him about the psychic spy initiative and tells Bob that he killed his hamster with his mind. Lacey shows Bob a video of his hamster, staring intently at a wheel and then keeling over. Bob is wowed, despite thinking that Lacey is crazy, but then the hamster gets up. Bob asks why it isnt dead and Lacey replies that his mother didnt want him to show the hamster dying so he put in a video if it acting strangely. Lacey mentions that everyone in his unit had different methods and that the strongest Psi-warrior was a man named Lynn Cassady.Bob writes a small piece on Lacey and forgets about him. A year later in 2003, one of Bob and Helens fat coworkers has a heart attack and dies, which serves as a catalyst for Helen leaving Bob. Helen tells Bob that life is too short to spend not looking for true happiness and leaves to be with Bobs one armed editor, Dave. Bob grows increasingly aimless, and decides that he will go to Iraq in order to get the perfect scoop.Bob goes out to the Middle East, but he cant get into Iraq. He lounges around hotels and calls Helen to tell her about his tour in Iraq. When he realizes that shes still with Dave and not missing him, Bob hangs up and goes to get drunk in the hotel lobby. He starts doodling in a notebook and notices a man sitting at the table next to him works for a company trying to make a sales pitch to the newly appointed Iraqi government and decides to talk to him. The man (George Clooney) introduces himself as Skip, but when the power goes out and he lights up a candle, Bob sees the mans nametag says Lynn Cassady.Bob asks Lynn if he knows Lacey, and Lynn runs away. As Lynn runs away, the power in the building fluctuates and Bob pursues him until they arrive at the kitchen. Lynn is on edge and asks Bob who sent him, but Bob tells him that hes just a reporter from Michigan looking for a story. Lynn brings Bob up to his room and tells him about the New Earth Army.The New Earth Army was founded by Bill Django (Jeff Bridges). A Vietnam Vet, he was shot during a mission and had a vision of his attacker which told him that Love would be the winner of wars. Perplexed, Bill offered to research a different way to wage war, and the United States government founded his research. Bill returned years later, after experimenting with numerous drugs. He created a manual which established the New Earth Army as a branch of psychic warfare, supported by Brigadier General Hopgood. Hopgood had read that the Russians believed that the US was researching psychic warfare, so he suggested that the US actually start researching it to prevent the Russians from developing a way to beat them first. Lynn, who made the computers in Area 51 crash and go haywire, was transferred over to the New Earth Army unit to harness his psychic abilities and become a Jedi.Bob is fascinated by the story and convinces Lynn to take him with him into Iraq. Lynn tells Bob that he is retired and doesnt want to have to deal with Bob, but notices Bobs doodling of an All Seeing Eye from the dollar bill and changes his mind. Lynn takes an injection of steroids for what he says is Crohns disease and Bob goes to sleep.The next day, the duo head out into Iraq by car. They drive all day until its lost. Lynn tries to cook some hamburgers with a strange solar cooker made by the New Earth Army. Hours later, the meat is ruined and Lynn is pissed. The pair go to sleep in the car. The next morning, Bob wakes up alone in the car and flips out, thinking Lynn abandoned him to die in the dessert. However, Lynn was just on the cars roof saluting the Sun. Lynn starts driving them toward Baghdad, but as he practices his cloud bursting, crashes the car into a large stone on the side of the road.Bob and Lynn wait for rescue and Bob learns more about the New Earth Army. The unit was not officially recognized as a branch of the military but was dedicated to invisibility, psychic remote viewing and Bill helped Lynn reach his full potential and trained his unit to be the best that they can be. Lynn went from an uptight awkward soldier to a great remote viewer; able to locate whoever he needed to, using his mind. Bob is starting to think that Lynn is insane, and his suspicions are seemingly confirmed when Lynn hurts him with an object in several different ways. After a while, a truck pulls up and picks the pair up.The men on the truck pick up the two and immediately go through their bags. Bob asks Lynn if theyve just been picked up by terrorists and Lynn confirms it as a gun is cocked in their face. They are kept in a holding cell and Bob freaks out after Lynn tries to tell him more about the New Earth Army. Lynn explains that Bob was destined to be with him in this cell because of the drawing Bob had in his notebook of the All Seeing Eye. Lynn shows Bob his All Seeing Eye Tattoo on his chest, which calms Bob down a bit. Lynn tells him that they have been kidnapped by lower level gangsters and that they cannot allow themselves to get traded off to real terrorists.The next morning, at the swap, Lynn refuses to move, and the standoff gets tense. The terrorists are ready to shoot when Bob screams I Am a Reporter! in Arabic. They immediately begin shooting at him, but Lynn tackles the shooter and takes him out. A third hostage runs away into the dessert and Lynn takes the terrorists gun and truck and drives away with Bob. They try to pick up the third hostage, Mahmood, but end up running him over. They are surrounded by White Jeeps, owned by a private defense contractor named Todd Nixon (Robert Patrick). He takes the three into the city, exposing his plans to bring franchises to Baghdad and westernize the region. As hes bragging, a firefight breaks out between his contractors and their rivals (both claiming to have been fired on by Iraqis). The trio escapes and heads to Mahmoods house.At Mahmoods house, he finds that his wife is missing and no one knows where she is. Hes depressed and Lynn apologizes to him for how Nixon acted in the car, saying that not all Americans are like that. That night, Bob watches Lynn inject his last bottle of medication and Lynn pretends he doesnt notice. Mahmood lends his car to Bob and Lynn and the pair continues their journey. They drive to a crossroads and Bob ridicules the fact that Lynn doesnt know where to drive. He takes a right and their car does a backflips when a hidden mine explodes.The pair survive and Bob is carried from the wreck by Lynn. Bob is upset that hes still chasing Lynn through the jungle and asks about Bobs mission. Bob tells him that he was reactivated by Bill. He got a message through astral projection to come to Iraq and find him. Bob realizes that Bob is truly insane and starts yelling at him. Lynn tells him that its something he needs to do because it was his fault the New Age Army was destroyed.Lynn had excelled in remote viewing and was able to locate people at will. This pissed off Larry Hooper (Kevin Spacey), a psychic who wanted to be number one. Lynn continuously defeated Hooper in testing, so Hooper sought to use psychedelics to even the playing field. He tricked a green lieutenant into taking LSD and the lieutenant went insane from Hoopers experiments. Naked, the lieutenant went into the training yard and started firing at soldiers. Bill approaches him and asks him to surrender the gun, but the lieutenant just shoots himself in the head instead. Bill is brought before a military oversight committee and Hooper buries him by accusing him of miss using funds to hire prostitutes and buy drugs (the hooker thing is a lie!). Bill is dishonorably discharged and says goodbye to Lynn. Soon after, General Holtz (Glenn Morshower) takes over the New Earth Army and Hooper tells him that there are offensive applications to thier psychic abilities. Holtz orders Lynn to psychokinetically stop the heart of a goat. Lynn stares at the goat and it dies after a few minutes of intense staring. Lynn finished the remainder of his tour and leaves, but not before Hooper gives him the Death Tap. Ever since he used his power for evil, Lynn has been cursed.Lynn and Bob go to sleep and when they wake up, Bob sees a goat. He follows it to water and Lynn and Bob drink it as a helicopter appears overhead. The two pass out and come to in a hospital beds. Lynn sees a man looking at them and follows him. They pass through a chamber full of goats and another full of prisoners forced to listen to Barney while being forced to watch strobe lights. They then find an older Bill, burnt out from booze and drugs, working for Hooper at Psi Securities, a psychology/psychic firm which focuses on overseas subliminal messaging. He offers Lynn a job, but Lynn is broken by seeing Bill in such bad shape.Bob walks around and finds Lynn in bed. Lynn tells him hes dying. Bob tries to explain that the death palm is nonsense, but Lynn tells him its his cancer that is killing him. Bob is saddened for his friend and Lynn gives him an old eagle feather Bill had given him to honor his psychic abilities. Bob finds Bill, but Bill shrugs it off. He and Bob find common ground and Bob convinces him to help Lynn get out of his rut. They go into the pantry to get ice cream. Bill then teaches Bob about how to embrace the Jedi lifestyle.Hooper pays Lynn a visit. He wakes him up on purpose, offers him a job and tells Lynn that he knows his abilities are a sham and that Lynn had gotten the location from a former New Earth Army soldier who had hinted that there was work to do. Hooper maliciously taunts Lynn, and Lynn goes back to sleep.The next morning, Lynn goes to join Bob and Bill in the mess tent for breakfast. Bob tells him not to eat the eggs since they laced them with LCD. The entire army is high and hallucinating. Unfortunately, Bill also spiked the water, so Bob, Lynn and Bill are also high. They run to the goat and prisoner storage barns and Bob convinces Lynn to get redemption by freeing the goats. They heard the goats and prisoners out of the camp without a hitch due to the drug induced chaos around them, until they are blocked by Hooper. Hooper points a gun at them, but then puts the gun in his own mouth (mirroring his test subjects suicide). However, before he can shoot himself, he succumbs to the munchies and goes to get food instead. The prisoners and goats leave.Bob sees Lynn and Bill get into a helicopter. He follows them and asks to come, but Lynn tells him that his job is to go and tell the world of their story. Lynn and Bill take off and vanish. Bob tells us that the official word is that they crashed in the desert (because thats what happens when you fly a helicopter while you're tripping on Acid). He wrote the story, but the public didnt even consider it. They just made a joke about the part where prisoners were tortured with Barney. Disappointed, he realized that life happens when you dont try to go against the current (something Lynn had told him personally). He becomes editor of his paper and stares at his wall. He focuses on it intently, smiles, then charges as he phases through the wall like a real Jedi.

comedy, boring, historical fiction, flashback, absurd, humor, satire

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Strangers on a Train

Amateur tennis star Guy Haines (Farley Granger) wants to divorce his vulgar and promiscuous wife Miriam (Laura Elliott), so he can marry the elegant Anne Morton (Ruth Roman), the daughter of a senator, and hopefully have a career in politics. On a train, Haines accidentally meets Bruno Anthony (Robert Walker), who recognizes Guy from the sports pages and knows about his situation from the gossip pages. Bruno tells Guy about his idea for the perfect murder scheme: the two should "swap murders". Bruno will kill Miriam, and, in exchange, Guy will kill Bruno's hated father. Each murderer will kill a perfect stranger, having no identifiable motive, so neither will be suspected. Guy does not take Bruno's suggestion seriously; he humors Bruno by pretending to find it amusing, but Bruno interprets Guy's response as agreement to the scheme. Guy lets Bruno light a cigarette with his (Guy's) monogrammed cigarette lighter; instead of returning it, Bruno puts it in his own pocket. Guy meets with Miriam, who is pregnant by someone else. She tells him that she is no longer willing to agree to a divorce. She threatens to follow Guy to Washington, D.C. and cause a scandal. Guy calls Anne with the bad news and, speaking figuratively, tells her he would like to "break [Miriam's] neck"...that he could "strangle her." Meanwhile, Bruno follows Miriam and her two beaux to an amusement park, stalks her through various rides, and strangles her to death on the "Magic Isle". Later, Bruno tells Guy that Miriam is dead and that Guy must honor his part of the deal and kill Bruno's father. Bruno sends Guy his house key, a map to his father's room, and a pistol. Senator Morton, Anne's father, (Leo G. Carroll) informs Guy that his wife has been murdered. The police question Guy; his alibi, that he was on a train with another passenger at the time of the murder, fails because the police examine the train schedule and determine that he could have left the train in time to commit the murder, and then completed his trip on another train. The police do not arrest Guy, but assign a police escort to ensure he does not flee while they continue to investigate. To pressure Guy into fulfilling his obligation, Bruno introduces himself to Anne. Soon after, Bruno appears at a party at Senator Morton's house. To amuse another guest (Norma Varden), Bruno demonstrates how to strangle someone by playfully putting his hands around her neck. His gaze falls upon Anne's sister Barbara (Patricia Hitchcock), who physically resembles Miriam. Her resemblance to Miriam triggers a flashback. Staring at Barbara, he begins actually strangling the guest, and then blacks out. Barbara tells Anne: "His hands were on her throat, but he was strangling me." Her suspicions aroused, Anne confronts Guy, who tells her the truth about Bruno's crazy scheme. Guy pretends to agree to Bruno's original plan. He creeps into Bruno's father's room hoping to warn him of his son's murderous intentions, but the father is away, and Bruno is waiting for Guy there. Guy tries, unsuccessfully, to persuade Bruno to seek psychiatric help. Bruno responds by threatening to punish Guy for betraying him. He menacingly reminds Guy that he, Bruno, is "a very clever fellow". Anne visits Bruno's house and attempts to explain to his befuddled mother (Marion Lorne) that her son is responsible for a murder, but the demented woman does not believe her. Bruno tells Anne that he has Guy's cigarette lighter and intends to incriminate Guy by planting it at the amusement park. Anne and Guy devise a plan for Guy to finish his tennis match quickly, evade his police escort, and reach the amusement park first and prevent Bruno from planting the lighter. Guy eventually wins the long match at Forest Hills, then, eluding the police, heads for the amusement park. Bruno is also delayed when he accidentally drops Guy's lighter down a storm drain and has to recover it. Guy arrives at the amusement park. Bruno stays out of sight until sunset when he can plant the lighter on the "Magic Isle". A worker recognizes him from the night of the murder and informs the police. Guy catches up to Bruno, and they fight on the park's carousel. Thinking Guy is trying to escape, a police officer shoots at him, but his shot misses and kills the carousel operator instead. The dead man falls onto the carousel's control panel and the carousel spins wildly out of control and crashes. Bruno is mortally injured. The worker who recognized Bruno tells the police chief that Guy is innocent. Guy tells the police that Bruno was attempting to plant Guy's lighter at the murder scene. Bruno lies to the police, but, as he dies, his fingers open to reveal Guy's lighter in his hand. === U.S. version === In the American version of the movie, a final scene shows Guy reunited with Anne on a train home. A minister, who is also a tennis fan, recognizes Guy and attempts to strike up a conversation, but Guy, hardened by his traumatic experience, turns away coldly and leaves with Anne, without replying to the eager fan.

insanity, comedy, suspenseful, psychedelic, murder

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Die Hard with a Vengeance

In New York City, the Bonwit Teller department store is destroyed by a bomb during the morning commute. The New York City Police Department receive a call from "Simon" ordering them that suspended police officer Lt. John McClane be dropped in Harlem wearing a sandwich board that says "I hate niggers" and threatening to detonate another bomb if they don't comply. They collect McClane and follow Simon's instructions. McClane is saved from an angry group of young men by Zeus Carver, a nearby shop owner. McClane and Carver escape and return to headquarters, where Simon calls again and threatens to detonate more bombs if McClane and Carver do not follow his instructions. Simon sends the two on a series of children's riddles. He tells them to reach the Wall Street subway station 90 blocks south, within 30 minutes to stop a bomb planted on a Brooklyn-bound 3 train. McClane boards the subway while Carver drives. McClane locates the bomb and throws it off the train, it still detonates, derailing the train and sending it through the station with minimal injuries due to Carver's warnings. As McClane and Carver regroup with the police, they are met by FBI agents, who reveal Simon is Peter Krieg, a former Colonel in the East German People's Army and a mercenary-for-hire. Krieg is after McClane as Krieg's birth name is Simon Peter Gruber, the brother of Hans Gruber whom McClane had killed years earlier in Los Angeles. Simon calls the police, knowing the FBI is there, to inform them that he has planted a bomb in a NYC-area public school that is rigged with a radio detonator triggered by the police band. Simon tells them that he will give McClane and Carver the school's location if they continue to play his game. While McClane and Carver set off on Simon's next task, the police organize all the city's public works to begin searching schools, using 9-1-1 to coordinate activities. As McClane solves Simon's riddles, he recognizes that Simon is using the school bomb distraction to draw the police away from Wall Street. They arrive too late to find that Simon and his agents used the destruction of the subway station to dig into the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and steal $140 billion of gold bullion in dump trucks. They follow the trucks to aqueduct in the New York City Water Tunnel No. 3, and McClane has Carver continue on Simon's games. Within the tunnel he kills some of Simon's men, discovering they have a roll of quarters on them. Simon destroys a cofferdam, flooding the tunnel, but McClane escapes through a vent, ending up near Carver. They recognize the roll of quarters would pay for a toll road, and follow the trucks to a tanker vessel in the Long Island Sound. They sneak aboard, but realize too late it is a trap. They are tied to the real bomb and Simon says he will destroy the tanker, redistributing the bullion across the Sound, which would severely destroy the economies of the world. McClane convinces Simon to give him a bottle of aspirin. McClane is able to free them from the bomb before it explodes, sinking the tanker. As McClane and Carver are debriefed by the police, McClane says he knows Simon and reports that none of the bullion was on the tanker. McClane finds the bottle of aspirin came from a hotel just inside the Quebec border. McClane, Carver, and the police launch an attack on a warehouse near the hotel where Simon and his men are in the process of distributing the wealth and planning their escape. The rest of the men are captured, while Simon and his girlfriend attempt escape in a helicopter, firing upon McClane. McClane shoots an overhead power line so that it falls onto the helicopter, crashing it and killing all aboard. With the bullion located, Carver convinces McClane to call his wife.

comedy, suspenseful, mystery, murder, cult, violence, flashback, insanity, humor, action, revenge

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Red Dead Redemption

The game begins with John Marston stepping off of a ferry in Blackwater. He is guided to the train station by two federal agents. He boards the train to Armadillo and meets up with his escort to Fort Mercer. He explains on the way there that he needs to capture or kill Bill Williamson, a former member of the gang he was in. He also explains that if he did not comply, his wife and son would be punished and he would be killed. John arrives at the Fort and is greeted by Bill with hostility. John tries to reason with him but is then shot in the waist and left for dead.Hours later, Bonnie MacFarlane finds John and takes him back to her ranch. John then wakes up at The MacFarlane Ranch, he is greeted by Bonnie. She tells him that the doctor spent fifteen dollars fixing him up (this being alot of money in 1911). He chooses to repay her by helping around on the ranch. Eventually. you come in contact with Marshall Leigh Johnson in Armadillo. He assures you that Bill will be brought to justice, as long as John agrees to help him around Armadillo. Soon after working with the Marshal, John rescues Nigel West Dickens from death. After he recovers, West Dickens says he will help you assault Fort Mercer if he can help him seel his "ailments". You also work for Irish, who gets you a gatling gun for the assault, and Seth, who will proide the distraction. Soon after you complete all of these tasks, you can go to Fort Mercer to start the mission.John, Marshall Johnson and West Dickens storm the fort, only to discover that Bill left for Mexico the night before. This means John must travel to Mexico, to find Javier Escuaslla, another former gang member who may know the whereabouts of Bill.You cross the border with Irish on a raft, but you are greeted with gunfire and must fight back. Once you get into Mexico, you can work for the following people: Landon Ricketts, you get a new gun and a deadeye skill from him (I suggest you visit him first), and DeSanta, a part of the Mexican army. DeSanta has you work with him many times with the promise of finding Bill and Javier. But to your surprise, you are betrayed by DeSanta and must work for the rebels, which is led by Abraham Reyes. He promises that Javier and Bill will be found. Javier is found first, and he tells you that Bill is hiding with Colonol Allende, the leader of the armed forces. John and Abraham storm Allendes villa, and chase after them. Abraham will kill Allende to gain power, and John will kill Bill(ha ha). Allende betrays Bill and pushes him out of the carriage they were in. Allende holds Bill at sword point, John kills Bill, and Abraham kills Allende. With Bill out of the picture, John returns to West Elizabeth to find the former leader of his gang, Dutch Van der Linde.Edgar Ross, the man who had you set out on your quest tells you that your family is safe in an undisclosed location. apparently, Dutch has been a public menace to society lately, and the federal agents are taking every chance to stop him. After many attempts to stop Dutch, he is finally cornered at Cochinay, a mountainous village where the local indian tribe is occupied. John chases Dutch through a cave that leads up to a dead end cliff. Dutch tells John that their kind is gone, and that Dutch is tired of running, and gives up by throwing himself off the cliff. With Dutch dead, John can go home.John is greeted with smiles from his wife Abigail, and his son, Jack. After the West Elizabeth missions, the rest are very easy, mostly herding cattle, hunting with your son, breaking horses, regular ranch type things. One day Uncle is inspecting the fields when he sees men with guns on horses approaching the house. John tells Jack and Abigail. A battle ensues with the U.S. army and federal marshalls. Halfway through, uncle is shot and killed. John tells Jack and Abigail to get on a horse and ride away. There is only one horse left, so John cannot go with them. Jack and Abigail flee from the back door of the barn. John turns around to the front of the barn. He opens the door a crack and sees U.S. army and marshals surroundin the outside of the barn. Remembering what Dutch says, John stops running. He opens up the barn door and confronts the men. It is possible to take out a few soldiers. The men open fire on John, firing repeatedly until John falls, to the ground. He wheezes and coughs, but then falls backwards, dead. Edgar Ross holsters his pistol, showing that it was Ross's plan to extirminate the gang once and for all, by using John and then turning on him.Jack riding away, hears the gunshots and rides back to the ranch. Abigail and Jack discover Johns body, and begin to cry. Shortly after, John is shown buried on a hill nearby the ranch.3 years later...Jack is seen standing at his fathers grave once more. This time, he had to bury his mother. Jack turns around and gets on his horse.(I just want to make this note because I STRONGLY suggest that you do this stranger mission. It can be found in Blackwater under the name of "Remember my Family?". It is the revenge mission for Jack)Jack goes to a marshall and asks where Edgar Ross could be. He tells him he retired to Lake Don Julio 2 years ago with his wife. Jack travels down ther and meets Ross's wife and brother. They tell him he is hunting ducks on the other side of the river. Jack confronts him and they duel. Jack kills Ross, and then looks at the gun he used to kill him with. This is a shallow victory however. John so desperately wanted a better life for Jack, not the one that John grew up with. By killing Ross, Jack was only beginning his forthcoming life as an outlaw.

good versus evil, violence, revenge, cruelty, murder

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Justice League: The New Frontier

The film (set from 1953~1960) begins with an unknown entity (voiced by Keith David) explaining how it has witnessed the evolution of life on Earth:Like all things on this hurtling sphere, I emerged from the molten center of creation. But mine has been a unique path. Isolated, I developed attributes beyond those of lesser beings. Then the sphere was struck by a vast celestial stone. Black chunks of death filled the skies and the world became a chaotic garden of doom. Soon the sphere began to nurture new kinds of life. And there was one that stood above the rest. Its fragile shell belied its vicious nature. And in what seemed like a heartbeat, these things proliferated in both number and destructive means. Now they have harnessed the most destructive force. And I, The Centre, have concluded that the sphere must be cleansed of them.This explanation is shown being written and illustrated under the title "The Last Story" by a mysterious person who then shoots himself. The film cuts to the end of the Korean War, where United States Air Force pilot Hal Jordan (voiced by David Boreanaz) and his wingman, Kyle "Ace" Morgan (voiced by John Heard), are attacked by enemy pilots not yet informed of the ceasefire. Hal is shot down in the ensuing conflict, and forced to kill a North Korean soldier after ejecting to safety. The trauma of this event leads Hal to a mental ward within a hospital for about six months. Elsewhere at Gotham Observatory, the last survivor of the Green Martian race, J'onn J'onzz (voiced by Miguel Ferrer), is inadvertently teleported to Earth by a scientist, Dr. Saul Erdel. The shock of J'onn's appearance causes Erdel to succumb to a heart attack, though not before he apologizes for stranding the Martian. Unable to return to Mars, he disguises himself as Dr. Erdel using his shapeshifting abilities and takes Dr. Erdel's wallet and identification; apprently having read Erdel's mind in his last moments of life to gain an understanding of life on Earth and hence the need for identification. The following year, Superman (voiced by Kyle MacLachlan) meets Wonder Woman (voiced by Lucy Lawless) in Vietnam where she celebrates with a group of women she rescued from political rebels. The Amazon allowed them to exact their own brand of fatal justice upon their captors, which Superman is horrified to learn. He reminds Diana that the government is distrustful at best of super heroes, which has led to the Justice Society's disbanding and Hourman's death, as well as Batman's branding as a fugitive vigilante. Superman also tries to remind her that mitigating the general public's fear is why they signed loyalty oaths to the United States government. Diana, however, resolves that she must do what she feels is right. The two part at odds, and Diana later leaves America to return to Paradise Island. Superman later confides in Lois Lane (voiced by Kyra Sedgwick) about Wonder Woman and Batman, neither of whom, he says, would sacrifice their principles for each other. In Gotham City, J'onn J'onzz has been living quietly under the guise of Dr. Erdel, while learning what he can about humans and Earth society through television. He shape-shifts into different guises during his nightly viewing, such as Groucho Marx and Bugs Bunny, before settling on the form of a film noir detective. In Las Vegas, reporter Iris West (voiced by Vicki Lewis) is on assignment to interview singer Buddy Blake, at the same casino where Hal Jordan and Ace Morgan are enjoying themselves. While Iris is on the phone with her boyfriend Barry Allen (voiced by Neil Patrick Harris), Captain Cold (voiced by James Arnold Taylor) arrives to rob the casino. Hearing the events on the phone, Barry races to Vegas from Central City as The Flash and confronts Cold, who tells him he has hidden six cryogenic bombs around Vegas set to go off in 90 seconds. Flash zips around the city and locates five of the bombs, but deduces the sixth is a decoy, and captures Cold before he can escape by helicopter. Before being subdued, Cold is possessed by the unknown entity from the prologue, who asks Flash why he is faster than "the other lesser beings" before leaving the villain. Hal and Ace leave the casino and head into the desert. Hal is unclear about their destination, which Ace keeps a surprise. Ace notices Hal has been acting differently, and Jordan confesses things haven't been the same since the war and his time in the hospital. He also admits his past hospitalization has kept him from getting a job with a top aircraft company. It's after Hal confides in Ace that the two arrive at Ferris Aircraft, where an opening as a test pilot is indeed waiting for Hal, thanks to a recommendation from his friend. Back in Gotham, J'onn joins the Gotham City Police Department under the name John Jones, and with his integrity, cunning analytical skill, and telepathy, quickly rises to the ranks of detective in just two years. After investigating a kidnapping of a child which was later discovered to be part of a sacrificial ritual for a cult that worships something called The Centre, J'onn and his partner Slam Bradley (voiced by Jim Meskimen) meet Batman (voiced by Jeremy Sisto) for the first time as he is also investigating the kidnapping. The two cops join Batman in battle against the cult, but a fire is started during the fight, rendering J'onn powerless until Slam extinguishes it. Afterward, when Batman attempts to free the boy from his bonds, the child is terrified at the sight of him. J'onn arrives to calm the boy down and then he and his partner free the child themselves. The entity which possessed Captain Cold speaks through the incapacitated cult leader, identifying itself as "The Centre" and warning of an impending judgment. Hal Jordan begins training exercises under Col. Rick Flag (voiced by Lex Lang) at Ferris Industries. His joking, devil-may-care attitude rubs Flagg the wrong way, but Carol Ferris (voiced by Brooke Shields) is understanding and recognizes Hal's natural ability. Carol also recognizes that Hal needs to know the true nature of his training, which she soon reveals to him: the government has commissioned Ferris Aircraft to build a spacecraft capable of travel to Mars. Special agent King Faraday (voiced by Phil Morris) is assigned to oversee the project, which is in response to Dr. Erdel's contact with Mars and J'onn's arrival. Back in Gotham, the Dark Knight reveals his knowledge of J'onn's true nature in his apartment, as he is able to find a way to shield his mind from J'onn's telepathy, and suggests that they should form an alliance as they are both investigating the cult that is rising throughout the world a cult that worships the Centre. J'onn's demonstration of kindness toward the boy they rescued led Batman to believe that he can be a trusted ally. However, he warns J'onn that should he betray him, he is fully aware of and willing to use the Martian's vulnerability to fire against him. In Central City, The Flash defeats Gorilla Grodd (or, rather, a robotic duplicate), but is targeted by government agents, as they attempt to capture him in an effort to learn the secret of his powers. Though he narrowly escapes, the experience leads the Flash to consider retiring from his crimefighting career as he announces it upon crashing a news report. J'onn J'onzz interrogates Harry Leiter, a former Ferris employee apprehended for murder while under the influence of the Centre. During the questioning, Harry lets word slip about the launch to Mars. Leiter's ramblings are confirmed when Faraday arrives to take him into custody. J'onn briefly glimpses into the agent's mind and learns the truth. After watching the Flash announce his retirement on live television, and seeing the public contemptuous response, a disheartened J'onn attempts to stow away on the rocket so that he may return home. Before leaving, he arrives in Batman's headquarters, the Batcave, revealing that he's been aware of Batman's secrets for quite some time (using his cunning detective skills instead of his telepathy), and gives him the last of his research on The Centre. J'onn reveals to Batman that he's losing faith in humanity, as he sees that there's too much hatred, ignorance, and conformity within the people around him, which made him decide to leave Earth. Batman's response is cold and brief, as he tells J'onn some people don't have the luxury of leaving Earth. While attempting to board the ship, J'onn is seen on camera by Faraday, who confronts J'onn and fights him on the launchpad. J'onn is able to beat Faraday, but saves him from the rocket exhaust by flying him to a platform before collapsing due to exposure to the flames. The rocket is damaged and malfunctions shortly after exiting the atmosphere. Hal wants to attempt a landing, but his co-pilot, Col. Rick Flagg, reveals that the rocket is loaded with weapons of mass destruction, and as such he won't risk a crash landing that could detonate the weapons. After a brief struggle, Hal is ejected from the cockpit. Though he is saved by Superman, the distraction allows Flagg to detonate the rocket. J'onn J'onzz is held as a prisoner by Faraday. Superman blasts Faraday for treating J'onn differently from him (a Kryptonian and thus also an alien), just because J'onn looks radically different. He also points out the captivity is entirely J'onn's decision because he can escape at any time using his powers. On Paradise Island, Wonder Woman trains with Mala, and tells her of how America has changed since the war. Her training partner says the island has changed as well, and that many Amazons desire a change in leadership. Though Diana quickly fends off a challenge from her fellow Amazon, the two of them are soon beset upon by the approaching Centre. Hal Jordan is later found by Abin Sur (voiced by Corey Burton), the Green Lantern of Sector 2814. The destruction of the rocket Abin had been traveling in badly wounds him as he enters Earth's atmosphere, so he instructs his ring to find a worthy replacement. He leaves his ring with Hal, and tells him of The Centre, which he describes as a "monstrous creature" that fears humans and seeks their destruction. In the Batcave, Superman reviews J'onn's research with Batman and meets Robin (voiced by Shane Haboucha) for the first time. Batman has altered the design of his suit so it won't frighten an innocent, but is still able to strike terror in the heart of a guilty. As they discuss the Centre, they hear Lois reporting on the attack of a giant pterodactyl at Cape Canaveral. Superman arrives at the scene and quickly defeats the creature. Almost immediately afterwards, Wonder Woman's invisible jet makes a crash landing, its cockpit smeared with blood. Before losing consciousness, Wonder Woman warns Superman that the Centre is coming. Faraday eventually befriends J'onn who saved his life, and occasionally plays chess with him. J'onn reveals to Faraday that he decided to remain at the agent's base willingly because of the upcoming battle with The Centre, and had telepathically looked into the agent's mind during their battle at the platform. J'onn found that Faraday believes that one day the world won't be living in fear and hate. Finding that within Faraday, J'onn has renewed hope for humanity and decides to participate in the battle to save Earth. Before leaving with Faraday, J'onn adopts a new Martian/human superheroic hybrid form as the Martian Manhunter, believing it is honest to his heritage with a friendly appearance to human perception.The Centre Following this, the Centre begins its attack in earnest at the coast of Florida, finally revealed as a massive flying island, with an army of mutated dinosaurs to guard it. The threat draws heroes such as Flash (whom Iris talks into coming out of retirement), Green Arrow, Adam Strange, the Challengers of the Unknown, and the Blackhawks, who clash with the soldiers on base. The conflict is stopped by Superman, who advocates cooperation between the two sides. He is unexpectedly seconded by Faraday, accompanied by J'onn, who agrees that the government and the heroes must work together for survival. With that, Superman heads out to do reconnaissance on the Centre, but is swiftly and shockingly defeated. Moved by his effort, the rest of Earth's superheroes and military forces band together to defeat the Centre. Batman interrupts a meeting between Faraday, J'onn, Will Magnus (voiced by Townsend Coleman), and the Challengers. Batman brought with him Ray Palmer, a scientist known for his work with matter reduction. When one of the Challengers argues the technology is too unreliable, destabilizing anything it shrinks (eventually causing the object to explode), Batman replies that's exactly the point, and a plan is formed to use Palmer's reduction ray to destabilize the island. The heroes will distract the Centre with a frontal assault (while Hal and Ace fly a bombing mission into the creature), leaving Flash to quickly crisscross the island with the ray. While the aerial assault (including Batman and Green Arrow as pilots) is nearly outmatched before the intervention of the Blackhawks, Faraday's ground forces are ambushed by a herd of rampaging mutant dinosaurs. J'onn is overwhelmed by the psychic impact from The Centre and is rescued by Faraday, who is shortly thereafter captured by a dinosaur. As he is about to be eaten by a tyrannosaurus, Faraday grabs two hand grenades and pulls the pins. The dinosaur swallows Faraday and immediately afterwards its head explodes from the grenade detonation, killing both it and Faraday. The shock of his friend's death helps J'onn shake off the Centre's hold, and he and a recovered Wonder Woman help turn the tide of the ground battle. Hal Jordan and Ace Morgan manage to shoot their way into the core of the creature, but are disoriented at first by a hallucinogenic attack. The creature secretes a thick red fluid that jams their weapons and almost suffocates them. It is then that Hal's ring activates, relaying instructions from the Guardians of the Universe (voiced by Robin Atkin Downes) as to its use. Ace manages to detonate his payload, and is rescued by Hal now dressed in a costume identical to Abin Sur's just before his plane explodes. The explosion gives the ground crew their opening as they prepare to send Flash to finish the creature. The speedster is struck by the gravity of the situation and his role in it, but J'onn reassures him that everyone will be behind him. Flash races across the ocean and leaps onto the Centre's surface, covering the entire surface on foot before leaping into the ocean. The Centre begins to shrink, but realizing its imminent destruction, it heads toward land to destroy the humans along with it. Hal realizes what he must do, and envelops the island in green energy, then tows it into space where it explodes. The entire world celebrates the Centre's defeat. As many participants in the battle attend a ceremony, Hal celebrates the victory his own way by pursuing his lifelong dream: flying through space with the aid of his new power ring. During the celebration, Superman is revealed to be injured but still alive, saved by a man named Arthur (voiced by Alan Ritchson) who claims to be from an underwater kingdom. He and his subjects treated Superman's wounds during the battle with the Centre. Superman is reunited with Lois and the rest of the heroes, who are touted so on the front page of the Daily Planet. This monumental victory and display of teamwork changes public opinion about superheroes, and a montage of various heroes and villains (with cameos by Black Canary, Captain Marvel, Plastic Man, Robin, Supergirl, the Teen Titans, Ra's al Ghul, Black Manta, Brainiac, Cheetah, Darkseid, Doctor Light, Doctor Sivana, Gentleman Ghost, Joker, Key, Lex Luthor, Monocle, Mister Mxyzptlk, Harley Quinn, Riddler, Star Sapphire, Two-Face, and Ultra-Humanite) as well as the birth of the world's second generation superhero team: Justice League, set to the titular John F. Kennedy speech, is shown just before the film ends.

violence

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The Bourne Legacy

Note: the events in this movie take place at the same time during the events in the previous movie "The Bourne Ultimatum", thus making this movie a spin-off to the Bourne trilogy.Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner) is a member of Operation Outcome, one of the Department of Defense's black ops programs, which provides its agents with green pills that enhance physical abilities and blue pills that enhance mental abilities. He is given the moniker of "Number Five" and is deployed to Alaska for a training assignment, where he meets another Outcome operative, Number Three (Oscar Isaac). Their exchange is initially intense, as Number Three questions Cross as to why he is two days ahead of schedule for their rendezvous. Cross explains to him that he had to take a shortcut through a mountain ridge after having lost his chems while pursued by wolves, along with the requisite bloodwork he draws on schedule to send back to Outcome for analysis.Cross' arrival two days early confuses Number Three, as the mountain ridge is generally acknowledged as being extremely difficult trip for agents even when assisted with a program kit, yet Cross has completed the challenge in record time without his kit, a fact that ostensibly irritates Number Three, since it appers that Cross has beat Number Three's unofficial "record". After a further exchange in which Number Three agrees to re-package send some of his bloodwork and label it Cross's, both men call an uneasy, implied truce to their tension. A fast-moving blizzard is on the horizon, and Number Three says Cross can stay an extra day, since he won't be able to get ahead of it, despite his early arrival. While lying in bed that evening, Cross happens to notice a number of carvings done in the woodwork above his head, including one of the name "Jason Bourne".Meanwhile, Jason Bourne is in New York City exposing Operation Blackbriar and the Treadstone Project, leading to CIA Deputy Director Pamela Landy (Joan Allen) and Operation Blackbriar supervisor Noah Vosen (David Strathairn) being investigated by the FBI. Upon learning of this, CIA Director Ezra Kramer (Scott Glenn), also under investigation, calls Eric Byer (Edward Norton), a retired USAF Colonel responsible for overseeing the CIA's clandestine operations, for help.To eliminate evidence of the Blackbriar program, Byer decides to eliminate all Outcome assets. He orders new meds distributed to the agents. He learns that both Numbers Three and Five are at the same location, and dispatches a U-CAV drone aircraft to kill both agents. Cross's enhanced hearing picks up a faint echo in the distance, and Cross asks Number Three to confirm what he's just heard. He cannot, but he and Cross decide to split up and survey the area separately. Cross exits the cabin moments before the U-CAV missile deployed by Byer's people hits the cabin and kills Number Three.Cross travels cross country, trying to hide from the sensors the U-CAV is using to track him. He uses a sniper rifle to shoot the U-CAV down. He realizes that his superiors have ordered his assassination. He removes a tracking device that has been surgically inserted below the skin of his abdomen. He captures a wolf and forces it to swallow the tracking device. Tracking Cross' active signal, Byer orders a second U-CAV to attack and kill Cross. The missile, following the tracking signal carried within the wolf, fires its missile at the wolf, destroying it and the tracking device. Byer mistakenly believes that Cross is dead. He continues to kill the remaining Outcome agents across the globe.The remaining Outcome assets' are given a new medication, a triangular yellow pills that unknown to them kills them within a few hours. Byer captures one of Outcome's foremost scientists, Dr. Donald Foite (Zeljko Ivanek), chemically brainwashes him, and gives him instructions to shoot and kill the other scientists. He brings a weapon into the Outcome research lab and methodically shoots each of the scientists. Only Dr. Marta Shearing (Rachel Weisz), escapes after Foite commits suicide when security forces enter the lab.Cross travels to Maryland where the lab is located. He locates a car that has been prepped with hidden, spare license plates, a wallet, and other gear essential to creating a new temporary identify. He drives to the vicinity of Shearing's country home.After she returns home, Shearing is preparing to leave for Montreal when she is visited by four initially friendly CIA agents with orders to complete the job Foite failed at. One of the visitors informs her that Foite's home was filled with pictures of her and articles of her clothing, giving the appearance that he was obsessing on her. One of them says she is a psychiatrist. She reminds her of her employment contract and tells her that Foite spared her life, which Shearing finds incredulous. One agent finds Shearing's pistol and she orders them to leave. The psychiatrist tells Shearing that they need to verify that she's not a suicide risk when the two agents seize her, apparently trying to make it look as if she's committed suicide.She is rescued by Cross, who kills all four agents. He convinces her to help him after reminder who he is. Shearing reveals that Cross was genetically modified to retain the benefits of the green pills without need of continuous consumption, a process they call "viraling off". Because he hasn't taken a blue pill in several days, Cross realizes that he will soon lose his mental enhancement. He then coerces Shearing to travel to Manila with him, as the pills are manufactured there, in the hopes of being able to viral off the blue pills in the same manner he did the green.On the way to Manila, Cross reveals to Shearing that he is actually Kenneth J. Kitsom, a former U.S. Army soldier. He tells her that his recruiter raised his IQ by 12 points to make the minimum required. He explains that if he loses the benefit of the medication it will have a big impact on his intelligence. He said that after he was wounded by an IED during the Iraq War that a cover story was created that he had been killed. He was then offered an opportunity to serve his country in the Outcome program.In Washington D.C., Byer continues to hunt for Shearing and discovers that she is being helped by Cross. From security intelligence gathered at major transportation hubs across the country, Byer deduces that Cross and Shearing have departed the US and are travelling to Manila, where the pills are manufactured, ostensibly to help Cross attempt to viral off the blue pills. Byers decides to activate Larx-03 (Louis Ozawa Changchien), am Outcome super soldier, who has completed the viralling off process and has been programmed as a lethal and emotionless killer. Larx-03 is deployed to Manila to kill Cross and Shearing while Cross is still presumably weak during the viraling off process. Byer also learns that Landy is expected to face charges for assisting Bourne, while Vosen is expected to be declared innocent and returned to duty.In Manila, Cross and Shearing arrive at the factory where the pills are produced and Shearing administers the blue-pill viralling off procedure for the blue (intelligence) pill to Cross. Byer contacts the factory's supervisor and orders them to lock Cross and Shearing into the basement, but they escape before Larx arrives. They take shelter in an apartment, where Shearing nurses Cross through his recovery from the viralling off process. Cross experiences flashbacks recalling his recruitment into Outcome under Byer's direction. Delirious, he tells Shearing that he has $40,000 in the lining of his jacket and if anything happens she should take it and leave. Cross tells Shearing she should go home, that she's done enough for him. She holds and comforts him.The next day, Larx-03 informs the local police of Cross' location and follow them to him, hoping they will flush Cross into the open where Larx can kill him. The police arrive while Shearing is buying medicine. She seems them arrive and warns Cross, who has recovered from the viraling off process. He escapes from the police and rescues Shearing. They steal a motorcycle and escape, pursued by Larx. During a chase through the streets and marketplaces of Manila, Cross is wounded and he wounds Larx in turn. Still chased by Larx, Cross is losing strength from his wound. Shearing kicks Larx-03 on his motorcycle and he crashes into a pillar, killing him instantly. Cross starts to pass out. Shearing guides the motorcycle into a controlled slide and they slide to a stop themselves. Cross and Shearing give a boatman a valuable gold watch they'd taken from the factory where the pills are made. He takes them aboard his boat and they depart for places unknown.

brainwashing, violence, action, murder, flashback

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The Wanderers

Joey and Turkey are members of the Wanderers, an all-Italian street gang. In the Bronx, Joey tries to dissuade Turkey from joining a rival gang, the Fordham Baldies. Before Turkey can ask, Terror's girlfriend Peewee overhears Joey insulting the Baldies, calling them a "bunch of pricks with ears". Joey and Turkey flee and the Baldies chase them. Richie—the leader of the Wanderers—and Buddy come to help but they also flee from the Baldies. After being cornered, the Wanderers are helped by a tough stranger named Perry, who has recently moved to the Bronx from New Jersey. After much persuasion, Perry joins the Wanderers. In school, the Wanderers get into a racial dispute with another gang, the Del Bombers who are all African-American. Both gangs agree to settle their dispute, seemingly a street fight, but the Wanderers struggle to find a gang willing to back them. With no other options, Richie asks his girlfriend's father, local mafia boss Chubby Galasso, who agrees to help solve the gangs' dispute. During a game of "elbow-tit", Richie gropes a woman called Nina. He feels ashamed of himself, apologizes for his actions and persuades Nina to accept Joey's telephone number. The Wanderers then decide to follow Nina in Perry's car. After Perry becomes lost, the Wanderers are attacked by a gang from Long Island called the Ducky Boys. They escape after Perry's arm is broken. While drunk, the Baldies are tricked into joining the Marines. Before reporting for training, they decide to crash Despie's party, where Turkey—who has recently joined the Baldies—is told to draw the Wanderers outside. After drawing them out, Turkey realizes the Baldies have abandoned him. He tries to chase them but fails. Upset, Turkey visits a nearby Catholic church. After being spotted by a member of the Ducky Boys attending mass, Turkey is chased down the street. After climbing a fire escape ladder in an attempt to escape, falls to his death. In school, while the Wanderers are mourning Turkey's death, the rest of the gang oust Richie for sleeping with Joey's date Nina. After the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Richie rekindles his relationship with Despie. When Chubby discovers his daughter is pregnant, he forces Richie into marrying her. In the climax, we discover the Wanderers and the Del Bombers are settling their dispute not with a street fight but with a football game organized by Chubby. Richie uses the opportunity to make amends with Joey. A member of the Ducky Boys interrupts the game, as the Wanderers momentarily turn their heads, hundreds of Ducky Boys invade the field. Many of the Wanderers and the Del Bombers flee, but some stand their ground. The remaining players join forces with spectator gangs in the stands, including one called the Wongs and even Emilio. After a long and bloody battle, the Ducky Boys flee. After being physically abused by his father Emilio, Joey decides to spend the night at Perry's apartment. Perry tells Joey he is planning to leave the Bronx and move back to New Jersey. Joey asks Perry if he can go with him; after an initially skeptical response, Perry agrees. Emilio, drunk, enters Perry's apartment and fights with him; Joey knocks Emilio unconscious with a glass bottle. Joey and Perry quickly leave the apartment and head to Richie's engagement party. They say an emotional goodbye to Richie; when they leave, Richie realizes things will not be the same. At Richie's party, members of the Wanderers, the Del Bombers and the Wongs embrace one another while singing "The Wanderer". The movie ends with Joey and Perry traveling to California.

cult, romantic

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Hatari!

Hatari!The film opens before the credits with the members of the Momella Game Ltd. parked on the African plains scanning the landscape for rhino. Sean Mercer (John Wayne) spots one and moves out with his men to capture it. During the chase which ensues, Little Wolf, the Indian (Bruce Cabot), is gored in the leg and the rhino escapes. Kurt (Hardy Krüger), who was driving the herding jeep, blames himself for the mishap, despite what Sean says, as he feels he was herding too close. Pockets (Red Buttons), driver of the catching car, tells Sean a tourniquet isn't doing any good to stop the bleeding, and so they head into town to take the Indian to the hospital while Kurt dives back to the compound to bring Brandy (Michèle Girardon), who technically owns Momella Game Ltd., to town to meet them.The credits play while Sean and the others are driving back.Kurt arrives at the compound in the evening and tells Brandy what happened while she dresses; they depart and join the others at the hospital where they all anxiously await news of the Indians fate. When a young Frenchman with a chip on his shoulder named Charles Maurey (Gérard Blain) comes up to them and asks Sean for the Indian's job, as he was afraid if he waited someone else would get it, the party reacts with indignation and Kurt knocks him down in anger. Sean separates them, and just then Doctor Sanderson (Eduard Franz) enters to tell them about the Indian. He sadly relates to them that the Indian needs a transfusion, but his blood type AB negative is very difficult to match, and the plasma is not doing the job. The Frenchman announces that his blood type is the same as the Indian's, but he will only give it if Kurt asks him. Kurt does, and Sean tells the Frenchman to come out to the compound afterwards, and they'll see about that job. The doctor asks them all to leave the hospital as they're only in the way.The party relocates to a bar where some time and several drinks later the doctor calls to inform them the Indian will be all right and should soon be on his feet again. Deeply relieved, they start back to the compound after a celebration, the men very tipsy. Saying goodnight to the others, Sean enters his darkened room and starts to undress but stops in surprise when a woman's voice tells him he is not alone. Turning on the lights he finds a woman, named Dallas (Elsa Martinelli), in his bed, who tells him no one was there when she arrived, so when it got late, she picked a room out and went to bed. Pockets comes in and mistakes Dallas for Sean in his stupor; they're then joined by Kurt. Sean, Pockets and Kurt begin to confusedly argue about what she is doing there, when they are interrupted by the mysterious guest herself who requests to get some sleep and says they can all talk it over tomorrow, whereupon they leave.Next morning, the men and Brady discover from her belongings that the woman they saw last night is a photographer. She was sent by the Swiss zoo that contracted to take the animals Sean and the others catch that season. They piece together that it was the Indian who had corresponded with her, not knowing by her initials that she was a woman. In the middle of their talk about her, Dallas herself appears. Sean tells her shell have to leave , as theyre behind schedule already and can't be bothered with a greenhorn, but Dallas shows them a letter from the zoo stating that they will only take the animals provided pictures of the catching come along with it. Disgusted, Sean agrees to let her stay, and that morning Dallas gets her first taste of what animal catching is like.They head out after giraffe, and Dallas insists on riding in the back of the catching car where she can "move around." Sean tells her she will all right, and during the bumpy chase over rugged terrain, Dallas, continually falling and yelling, makes a fool of herself, and is eventually told by Luis (Valentin de Vargas) to stay where she is on the floor of the truck.They capture the giraffe, and when they return to the compound, Dallas makes a very pretty apology to all of them and tells them to forget the letter she showed them. She says she would like very much to stay, but only if they'll let her; if they want her to go, she'll go. Pockets and all the others except Sean can't tell her to leave after that.While Dallas is getting cleaned up in a hot tub, a cheetah enters and frightens her so she screams. Pockets rushes in and, heroically getting a chair between her and the cat, tells her not to move as he thinks he can save her. Just then Sean and Kurt enter the room to see what Dallas was screaming about and see Pockets and the cheetah, whose name is Sonia, the domesticated house pet. Sean asks Pockets "What's with this Clyde Beatty routine?" Kurt stokes Sonia and shoos her out and Pockets abashedly explains how it looked like too good a situation to pass up, when an angry Dallas hits him with a wet cloth and orders them both out.Later that same evening, Dallas is sharing the patio with Sonia when Sean comes and tells her that the others voted to let her stay. She is glad, but asks if Sean had voted against her, which he answers in the affirmative by saying he still thinks she'll be a damned nuisance, and leaves. Pockets strolls up and takes a chair next to Dallas. They strike up a friendship, and Pockets sees right away that Dallas has fallen for Sean in a big way. She loves it there, and wishes she could become part of Sean's life, but learns from Pockets about a woman Sean almost married once. She realizes Sean has been once burned and is twice shy of getting involved again, but receives encouragement from Pockets who tells her it isn't hopeless, but that she will have to start something, because he won't.Next morning Sean and the others hear over the radio from the doctor that the Indian will be with them again in three or four days. When Sean asks about the Frenchman, the doctor tells them he already left with fifteen pounds he borrowed from the Indian, who borrowed it from Doctor Sanderson. Kurt is disgusted by what he sees as the mans taking money from the Indian for saving his life, and in the midst of the discussion, Pockets announces the arrival of the French blood bank himself. He says he needed the money to get his rifle, as he would need it if he is going to work for them, and Sean takes him out to shoot against Kurt in target practice to get an idea of how good he is. The Frenchman, whom Sean dubs Chips, proves himself very handy with the gun, and is told he's hired. Before accepting, Chips asks Sean to hold his gun, and then knocks Kurt down. He asks Kurt if he still wants him, to which Kurt laughingly replies "You've got the job. But you've got a strange way of asking for it."Out on the trail of game again, some of Sean's party stops off at a native village for water. Soon, the entire party is after zebra, which they manage to catch in a running chase with no mishaps, Dallas getting her photos all the while.Back at the compound again, Brandy and Chips are hosing down one of their captured hyenas under the thoughtful gaze of Kurt. Sean comes out onto the porch and discovers from Kurt a growing rivalry over Brandy between the Frenchman and Kurt, whom has stopped thinking about Brandy as a little girl, as Sean does.The Indian returns that night. While talking to Sean, he asks him to leave rhino alone as he is beginning to think they've got a jinx on them; Sean says they'll wait till they've filled the other orders, and then see about rhino.The catching goes on, and while the party is out after buffalo, they pull into a native village where a female elephant has run rampage and been shot by the game ranger. An elephant calf shows up from the brush, and Dallas, unwilling to let it be shot too, insists on taking it with them, much to Sean's annoyance. Feeding the calf wild goats milk proves very difficult, and chaos ensues when the whole party tries milking the goats, but Dallas, who has a way with the elephant, proves successful eventually.That night, Dallas, acting on Pockets's advice, makes her first attempt at romance with Sean by simply asking him how he likes to kiss. She succeeds in getting the first kiss, but when Pockets accidentally interrupts, Sean leaves to see about setting a trap for a leopard. Pockets, impressed, asks Dallas if he may come to her when he has a problem.Next morning, after the leopard is caught in a cage, the party heads out after buffalo, which they succeed in catching after a dangerous chase.While crossing a river on the way back, the herding jeep stalls in the water and Kurt takes a tow line and starts for the bank to tie to the back of the truck. When a crocodile comes up behind him, Chips shoots the animal and saves his life, to which Kurt, back at the compound, thanks him by saying, "I don't like crocodiles, especially when Im in the water with them." After this, their rivalry over Brandy, though still hot, is on a friendly footing.A comic interlude occurs one morning as Kurt and the native boys try shooing some escaped ostriches back into their pens.Dallas, much to Sean's annoyance, acquires another baby elephant which she looks after with the help of a native boy she hired, and she assures Sean the baby elephants won't be any trouble for him.That evening, Dallas finds Pockets mooning over Brandy who is dancing to music played by Kurt and Chips; grabbing Pockets for a dance, Dallas gets him over to Brandy and starts them dancing together, much to Pockets's joy.One day a native tribe comes to sing to Dallas and initiate her into the tribe on account of her baby elephants. Dallas, not realizing what she's getting into, gets carried along to their village under the supervision of Sean and the others where she is dyed and dubbed "Mama Timbo", mother of elephants. To be a good sport, she dances with them as she is supposed to.That evening, Sean takes some wine to Dallas in her room, who is in curlers, covered with cold-cream, and annoyed over the whole day's proceedings, especially at being caught by Sean at a disadvantage. She quickly begins to melt, however, when she perceives that Sean, in spite of himself, is becoming attached to her. But in the middle of a passionate kiss, Pockets once again interrupts by bringing Dallas her dinner on a tray, then tripping over Sonia who was lying in the way, falls headlong on Sean, dumping the dinner all over him.The next animal to be caught is wildebeest. During the chase, the herding jeep blows a tire and flips over with its riders. Kurt is thrown clear and gets a dislocated shoulder which Sean "fixes" for him. Chips injures his leg and is knocked out. Both of them, though rather the worse for wear, are not seriously injured.Throughout the incident, Brandy, though concerned, does not behave as if she were in love with either Kurt or Chips, which puzzles Sean who thought she was. The episode makes Pockets think, however.Back at the compound, due to being shorthanded, Sean makes Pockets, who is scared to death of animals, help with unloading the wildebeest. In order to be as far away from it as he can, he climbs up onto a fence, but then falls off.Brandy, who witnesses it, rushes over to him in a panic that he has hurt himself, and has Sean and the Indian pick him up to carry him to bed. Pockets, playing the role of invalid for all he's worth, is pleased with the way things are going until Sean and the Indian, by mutual consent and once out of sight of Brandy, drop him to the ground and walk off.That evening, a bandaged Kurt and Chips are wondering what has happened to all the ice in the house, and Sean tells them to look in Brandys room. There, they see Pockets in bed, icepacks on his head, being fondly caressed by Brandy who tells him she was so worried when he fell off that fence."He fell off a fence!" Chips says in disbelief to Kurt."You nearly took a leg off," Kurt replies wearily, "I got a dislocated shoulder...""And he gets the ice," they sadly conclude, and go to have a nice, warm drink together.In the morning, when Dallas goes out to see to the elephants, she is shocked to find yet a third outside the pen. In the midst of worrying what to tell Sean, Sean himself walks up and is driven almost past endurance when he sees three baby elephants.Pockets too comes up, in disbelief, and Sean, exasperated, cries to him, "Were running an elephant nursery! Mother," he grumbles to Dallas, and she whispers to Pockets, "That means he can stay!"Later, Kurt comes into the living room where Sean and the Indian are and asks if they know what Pockets is building in the workshop. He won't let anyone in, and says Sean promised him he could work alone. The Indian tells Kurt he's working on some "Rube Goldberg device for catching monkeys," but when Kurt begins reading over a list of materials Pockets has been buying, including black powder and war surplus rockets, Sean thinks he had better have a talk with Pockets.On their way over to the workshop, Sean and Kurt are alarmed by Pockets and the native boys running in panic from the hut yelling "Hatari!" Just then, a rocket bursts through the roof of the hut to soar through the air with a trail of smoke behind it.Kurt grabs a hose, thinking the place is on fire, but Pockets convinces him the fire is out. Sean insists on knowing whether Pockets launched the rocket, or if it went off by itself, to which Pockets, stammering, only falls back on Seans promise to leave him alone.Sean eventually leaves it at that, telling Pockets disgustedly to get the roof fixed.That night, Pockets, very pleased with himself, tells everyone that in a few days the invention will be ready. He intends to trap five hundred monkeys in one tree under a net for the others to catch, but he suggests that they get together some homemade armor to keep the monkeys from sinking their teeth into them.Sean and the others, not willing to take the chance that Pocketss invention won't work, begin getting together their armor, looking a very odd assortment indeed.Pockets, with the help of a native tribe, bribing them with Seans cigarettes, gets the monkeys into a chosen tree and ties two dogs there to keep the monkeys in the tree until morning. He informs Sean and the others that night that tomorrow is the big day.The morning of the great monkey catching comes and the entire party goes out to the tree. Pockets, very nervous about the success of all his planning, has everyone get behind trees as he lights his rocket.He himself hides behind a tree with his hands over his eyes, too worried to watch. The rocket, the fishnet attached, soars over the tree, dropping the net over the monkeys, just as Pockets said it would.Everyone, especially Pockets, is shocked the invention actually worked, and soon Sean and the others, except Pockets, are under the net catching monkeys.That evening back at the compound, an inebriated Pockets, sobbing because he didn't see the launching, forces Sean to tell him over and over again about the rocket and how it worked.Next morning, Dallas takes the baby elephants to the watering hole for a bath; Sean follows her with a rifle to see nothing happens to her. On their way back, they are nearly charged by a female elephant warning them to stay away from her calf. Sean fires in the air and scares the elephant away, and he and Dallas return to the compound.That evening, the Indian remarks he sees only one order left to fill: rhino. Sean, in spite of the Indian's objection, decides to head out for them in the morning, which they do.A long, dangerous chase of a big, aggressive rhino ensues the next morning, but the rhino, after escaping from Sean and his men once, is at length brought down and the animal catching for that season is finished.That evening, the whole party is going into down to celebrate, except for Dallas, who Pockets finds crying in her room. She confides to Pockets that she is giving up about Sean, she doesn't think he can ever get over that girl who burned his fingers once. Pockets leaves and tells the others she isn't going, giving as an excuse that she has a lot of work to do, and when Sean tries to persuade her to come, she drives him out of her room with tears and sobs."Now what the hell did I say?" Sean mutters to himself, completely mystified.Next morning, Sean is shocked when he comes to breakfast and his friends tell him that Dallas has left early, leaving a note saying goodbye. Sean declares that he did not want her to go and was intending to ask her to stay. The others, glad to hear it, join with Sean in organizing a search party to find Dallas in town before she departs on the plane.Luis suggests for one of the baby elephants to track her down like a bloodhound, but they have difficulty in getting it into the truck until Pockets, using an outfit of Dallas's which she left behind, lures it into the truck and the chase is on.Sean, Pockets, and Luis drive one jeep with Timbo, the baby elephant, in the back, and Kurt, Brandy, and Chips drive another; the Indian stays behind at the compound to phone ahead to the airport and tell them not to let Dallas on the plane as she robbed the bank of England.The search for Dallas goes on throughout town, through shopping markets and crowded streets, Timbo's two brothers following on foot, looking for Dallas as well.Dallas, catching sight of Sean and the others following her, tries to run away, but Timbo and the other two baby elephants keep after her until Dallas is cornered in the lobby of a hotel where she sinks to a chair crying as Sean and the others come up and the scene fades out.That night at the compound, we see Dallas turning out the light and getting into Sean's bed. Sean, leaving his friends in the midst of some celebration, comes into the room and he and Dallas repeat the lines they said when Sean first met Dallas in his room, in his bed.A bleary-eyed Pockets, just like before, comes into the room to talk, and Sean pushes him out, informing him that he and Dallas were married that afternoon.Just then, all three baby elephants enter the room and try to climb into bed with Dallas, breaking it and ending the scene, and the movie.

cult, violence, romantic

tt0056059

Under Siege

The film begins with the American battleship USS Missouri (BB-63) arriving at Pearl Harbor, where President George H. W. Bush makes a speech announcing that after the Missouri's long time service, the ship will be decommissioned in California, making the trip her final voyage. Casey Ryback (Steven Seagal), a Chief Petty Officer assigned as cook, is preparing meals in celebration of the birthday of Captain Adams (Patrick O'Neal), against the orders of his adversarial Executive Officer, Commander Krill (Gary Busey), who is having food and entertainment brought from Hawaii by helicopter after they have set out to sea. Krill provokes a brawl in the galley with Ryback who assaults Krill. Unable to imprison him in the brig without clearance from the captain or attracting attention, Krill detains Ryback in a freezer and places a Marine, Private Nash (Tom Wood), on guard to prevent Ryback from leaving. A CH-46 helicopter lands on the ship's deck with a musical band, along with Playboy Playmate "Miss July '89" Jordan Tate (Erika Eleniak) and a group of caterers who are all really a band of mercenaries led by ex-CIA operative Bill Strannix (Tommy Lee Jones). Shortly after the party begins, Strannix, posing as the band leader (Bad Billy and the Bail Jumpers), pulls out a gun and kills Commander Green (the highest ranking officer in the room). Then, all the caterers and band members pull out weapons to seize control of the ship with the help of Commander Krill (who is revealed to be a turncoat). Several of the officers are killed during the takeover, including Captain Adams, who is shot point blank by Krill. The rest of the ship's company are imprisoned below decks in the forecastle, except for several stragglers in secured areas.Strannix intends to steal the ship's arsenal of nuclear Tomahawk cruise missiles and plans to sell the nuclear weapons on the black market by unloading them onto a submarine Strannix stole from North Korea while on his final CIA mission, which he then kept for himself when the CIA tried to assassinate him to use for private arms trading. Strannix and his men take over the ship's weapon systems for defense, shooting down an F/A-18 Hornet sent to investigate, and plan on covering their escape by launching a missile strike into Honolulu that will obliterate tracking systems in Pearl Harbor.Ryback has become suspicious upon hearing gunfire and tells Private Nash to contact the ship's bridge. An annoyed Krill realizes they forgot about Ryback in the freezer and learns the kitchen is an unsecured area on the ship. Krill lies to Private Nash that the noises were not gunshots, but party poppers before Strannix offhandedly sends mercenaries Cates and Ziggs to eliminate Ryback and Nash. Nash is killed, but Ryback escapes and kills Cates by throwing a knife at him and strangles Ziggs, then plants a bomb in the microwave to go off later. He proceeds to cause havoc amongst the perpetrators and begins killing off the terrorists with the limited help of Jordan Tate, who was only hired as a cover for the festivities. Ryback also gets in contact with Admiral Bates (Andy Romano) at the Pentagon by using a satellite phone, whereupon the Navy then makes a plan to send a SEAL team to retake the ship. Krill discovers that Ryback is really a Chief Petty Officer and former Navy SEAL with extensive special-weapons and counter-terrorism training. He was relegated to his current posting for striking his superior officer who had been responsible for his men being killed in a botched commando mission during the United States invasion of Panama. As a result, he had lost his security clearance and was only able to serve as a yeoman or a cook. To keep the missile-theft plan in place, Krill decides to activate the fire sprinklers in the forecastle, leaving the crew members to drown and the terrorists to set up an ambush when Ryback arrives, presumably by himself to save them. However, Ryback locates a group of sailors in hiding and along with them engages a successful counter-strike, turning off the sprinklers dousing the crew and eliminating a considerable number of Strannix's forces. As Strannix's men regroup, Ryback shuts down the Missouri's weapon systems, in order to allow the incoming Navy SEAL team to land.As the battle for the ship continues, the submarine crew shoots down both the CH-46 helicopter carrying the Navy SEAL team with shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles. The Pentagon responds by ordering an air strike that will sink the Missouri and all aboard. Strannix regains control of the ship's weapon systems and the Tomahawks are loaded onto the North Korean submarine, departing with Krill on board. With the aid of Jordan and his fellow sailors, Ryback uses the battleship's guns, which were not yet decommissioned, to sink the submarine with Krill still inside, killing him and every one on board.Strannix, standing on the deck, suffers a major concussion from being in the proximity of the Missouri's guns as they are fired. He orders the remaining mercenaries out of the control room as he launches two nuclear-tipped Tomahawks towards Honolulu. As the sailors recapture the ship, killing the last group of Strannix's men, Ryback finds his way into the control room where he is caught off-guard and captured by Strannix. Strannix and Ryback realize they know each other from their past covert experiences, but Ryback is disgusted by Strannix's excuses for his behavior. Ryback states that both of them are disillusioned and were essentially "used" by their government, but Strannix says Ryback still believes in his country, whereas he does not. Ryback and Strannix then engage in a knife fight wherein Ryback kills Strannix by poking his eye out, stabbing him in the head with his knife, and finally smashing him through a computer monitor. Ryback then takes the launch codes needed to self-destruct the Tomahawk missiles. One of the two missiles is destroyed by an F/A-18 Hornet, but the other continues on its course. The codes are dialed in and the Tomahawk missile is deactivated, blowing apart before it would have destroyed Honolulu. The Pentagon celebrates wildly, then calls off the air assault on the Missouri.At the end, the remaining crew members are freed from their forecastle prison as the ship sails towards San Francisco harbor. Ryback is checked by a Navy doctor, kisses Jordan and the crew looks on and cheers. The film ends with a funeral ceremony for Captain Adams being held on the decks of the Missouri, showing the Captain's casket with flag draped over it and Ryback saluting in his service dress blue uniform with his full rank and military decorations.

comedy, violence, cult, humor, action, suspenseful

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W.

In center field of Rangers Ballpark, we see George W. Bush (Josh Brolin) standing with a glove on his hand. He turns around and listens to the cheers greeting him as an unseen announcer introduces him to invisible crowds as the 43rd president of the United States of America.We then cut to a cabinet meeting in early 2002, where W is in a deep discussion about how soon they should respond to the recent terrorist attacks on their country by attacking the Axis of either evil or terror (they can't decide which it should be), although Colin Powell (Jeffrey Wright) is reluctant to go to war with either Iraq or Iran, given that it was a non-affiliated terrorist named Osama Bin Laden who was behind it, although both VP Dick Cheney (Richard Dreyfuss) and Condi Rice (Thandie Newton) are quick to remind him that both are terrorist holders. George Tenet (Bruce McGill) supports Colin in his way of thinking as Karl Rove (Toby Jones) and Donald Rumsfeld (Scott Glenn) laugh behind their hands at him. Eventually Axis of Terror is decided on and the war gets greenlit. Before the meeting is adjourned, W gets everyone together and has them bow their heads in prayer, although more than a few of them clearly don't have their heart in it.Thirty-six years earlier, in 1966, we see a much younger W at Yale during pledge week. W and the other fraternity pledges are being endured an alcohol-fuelled hazing the basement of their frat house. One of his fellow pledges is challenged to name as many brothers as he is able to, and he manages to get seven. Another brother challenges someone to beat that, and W steps forward and successfully names all of the frat brothers, stopping only when the lead brother tells him to and getting great cheers for being true Delta Kappa Epsilon material. W tells them that he is pledging the fraternity as a legacy to his father whom was also a plege there, but he states that he has no intrest in persuing his family's business legacy.We then cut to a jail several months later where W is calling his father, George H.W. Bush (James Cromwell) at home, explaining that there was a "misunderstanding" after a football game in Baltimore that has led to his arrest with several of his frat brothers during a victory party which turned into a riot. George bails his son out and tells him that this is the last time he helps his son out.A few years later, following graduation from Yale, we see Bush working on one of his family oil rigs back in Texas. He takes a break for water and when the foreman yells at him to get back to work, he quits instead. Later on, we see him in a bar with his girlfriend Susie (Marley Shelton) and he gives her a somewhat long-winded proposal and gets up on the bar to dance with her.A few years later, though, he is once again coming before his father. This time, W. is asking George to bail him out of the marriage-that-never-got-official. George agrees to it, but then expresses his disappointment with W., especially regarding the fact that he only got Cs at Yale and can't seem to hold a job for more than six months. For his part, W. ignores the criticism and just walks out. (It is implied, but never fully revealed, that George W. Bush is dislexic which would explain his poor grades, with that combined with his growing alcoholism brought during his fraternity hazing at Yale).Present Day, 2002. Cheney and W are sitting down to lunch in the oval office. After a little preamble regarding the upcoming war, Cheney takes out a small folder. He explains that inside are some ideas regarding possible interrogation techniques that could be instituted at places such as Guantanamo. W. balks at first, worried that there would be stuff like pulling out toenails, but Cheney assures him that it would be nothing lethal, using examples such as sleep deprivation and water torture to make his point. W is reassured and promises to look at the three-page report. As lunch ends, W then asks Cheney to kindly keep his ego in check, since he's only the vice-president, and an insulted-looking Cheney nods and walks out. A few days later, at the Bush ranch, W. is having a walk and talk with some members of his cabinet (Rummy, Dick, Condi, a couple others) and General Thomas Franks (Michael Gaston) regarding a start date for the war, which Franks suggests as April/May/June of 2003. Some time later, we see W. watching a college football game and eating pretzels with his dog when he suddenly begins choking. He staggers around the office and comes behind a recliner. He starts pounding himself on the chest with it and is eventually successful in dislodging the pretzel from his throat just as he collapses to the floor, unconscious.In 1972, we see W. and his younger brother Jeb (Jason Ritter) driving up to the Bush home in the middle of the night and both of them "drunk as a skunk". They stagger into the house where George and Barbara (Ellen Burstyn) start yelling at W. about coming home so drunk in the middle of the night. W. starts posturing as though he wants to fight George when Jeb intervenes saying that George was out celebrating his acceptance into Harvard Business School. This changes the attitude of Barb and George, but W. then admits he's not going -- he just wanted to see if he could get in. This admission prompts George to admit that he only got in because George had pulled some strings with the admissions board.Five years later. George W. Bush is playing poker with some friends at Harvard and announcing to them that he plans to run for Congress. At a celebratory barbeque cookout, he meets a beautiful young woman named Laura Welch (Elizabeth Banks). Over drinks and cigarettes, Laura reminds him that they went to junior high together and the two slowly warm to each other, with her telling him that she's a teacher and always tries to see all sides of an argument, making W. want to appoint her his education adviser.Some time later, we see him in a debate against Kent Vance (Paul Rae), whose strategy seems to be pointing out that Bush is not a real Texan, having been born in Connecticut (HEY! *seethes*) and gone to college in Connecticut. Despite W.'s assertions to a softly understanding Laura that this is nothing but tarring and feathering, he still manages to lose the election, albeit by a mere 6,000 votes.Back in 2002, we see Bush standing in the field again, listening to the cheers. Back in reality, we see another cabinet meeting where he and his advisors are discussing the need for a regime change in Iraq.In 1986, W. and Laura are at a 40th birthday party for W where the junior Bush is drinking up a storm with bottle after bottle of wine and hard liquor. During the party, he gets a call from his father George, who wants W. to help with his campaigning for president, which causes W. to announce that he and Laura are moving to Washington when he returns to the restaurant table. Not long after, W. is heading out for a morning run. At one point, he stops due to chest pains and collapses on the side of the road with a heart murmur.Three months later, we see him in an alcoholics anonymous meeting being headed by Rev. Earle Hudd (Stacy Keach Jr). After the meeting has been ended, W. hangs around and prays with Hudd, saying that most of the time he feels this great weight on his shoulders.In 1988, at the convention HQ, George is having a meeting with his advisers, which includes Karl Rove, when W. enters. The meeting is ended and W. shows his father a videotape by the Bush camp smearing Dukakis, citing his decision to give weekend visits to convicted criminals (Willie Horton). This is enough to dissuade voters, who make George Bush Sr. the 41st President of the United States. Despite the celebration, though, W. himself isn't pleased. Late that night, he confesses to Laura that he almost wanted his father to lose the election, since he constantly feels as though he's living in George's shadow and has to live up to him.In 2002, Bush and co. are in a war room, and the current topic of discussion is the location of any possible Weapons of Mass Destruction. Rumsfeld makes the argument that they are most likely in either Tikrit or Baghdad. Cheney agrees and points out that if they don't act they will lose the advantage they have now, although, as Powell points out, they have no exit strategy and no real American presence. However, after a video call to General Franks, they get confirmation that they expect to have over three hundred thousand troops in Iraq, and that that should speed things up nicely.In 1990, W. is having a conversation with his father over whether or not having faith in God would be of help to him in winning the war in the Persian Gulf. One year later, we see George in the war room with his cabinet celebrating their imminent victory in the Gulf. When asked by Powell if he feels they should have pushed, George decisively says that they went far enough and now need to concentrate on winning the next election. Unfortunately, winning the war wasn't enough and the presidency is given over to Bill Clinton during the results of the 1992 presidential elections. George is devastated and W. is angry that Clinton was elected despite his past and of his reputation of being a womanizer.Another year or so later, Bush Jr. decides to run for Governor of Texas, despite his parents George Sr. and Barbara begging him to wait, since Jeb is running for Governor of Florida and they can't be in both states at once, but he refuses to listen. Later on, we see W out campaigning for governorship with Rove's advice, which in brief is to get across that he is who he is and no other Bush (at one point in here, we see him asking the famous, "Is our children learning?" question). Regardless, he gets elected governor and as a congratulations prize is given a pair of cufflinks by George and a note saying how proud he is. However, this is not enough for W., who is instead offended that George still can't tell him he's proud face-to-face.Five years later in 1999, we see W. in his office when he gets a visit from Earle Hudd. He tells Hudd that he feels he has gotten the call, and then explains that he is talking about the call to be president. Hudd is ecstatic for him, and W. says that he thinks that there will be a bad time for the country, and that God wants him as president in order to help the American people through it. Hudd nods in complete belief, and the two get down on their knees to pray for W.'s delivery to the office of the president.Four years later, in 2003, we see W. giving the state of the union as those who wrote it congratulate each other at various points. Back in the cabinet, W. is determined not to jeopardize their chances in Iraq, despite the massive amounts of protest the war is getting. In a meeting with the British prime minister Tony Blair (Ioan Gruffudd), W. tries to barter for some help from Britain, although Tony is reluctant to commit his own country's troops. Regardless, W. is determined to win in Iraq, even as his parents grow more and more worried about how things are going for him.A few months later though, things turn dark for Bush and the rest of his cabinet when they find out that Saddam had lied about having Weapons of Mass Destruction, which makes them all look bad. In truth, the caves that were to have the WMDs were lines of cattle showing up on their scans, an error which forces David Kay to resign from his office. Regardless, W. still holds steady, staying committed and visiting wounded soldiers in hospitals. One young Mexican soldier says that he's sorry he can't fight for him, and W. tells him to not worry, that now they're all fighting for him.One night, he and Laura are heading to sleep, and W. reflects on what he has done and realizes that the only thing he can still do is fight to keep his place. Later, we see him enter the oval office when he finds George Sr. there waiting for him. George says that he's really in deep, even after he pulled W's ass out of that jam in Florida, and he starts posturing as though wanting to fight W (note -- in this scene more than any other, Brolin is the spitting image of W.). W. starts yelling at George to go away and leave him alone when he suddenly wakes up screaming, realizing that it was just a nightmare.Some time later, we see W. at a press conference where he is continuing to hold support for the war, but the looks on the reporters faces indicate that they're not buying it anymore. One reporter asks what W. feels his place in history will be, and W. says, "In history? Well, in history we'll all be dead." Another reporter asks W. if he feels he may have made any mistakes in his presidency, and W. stammers that he's been kind of caught off-guard here. Eventually, the press-conference ends and W. storms off into the residential area of the white house, going to his bedroom. When he opens the door, W. is standing in the middle of Ranger's stadium on a cool autumn night. The invisible crowd is cheering, and the ball is hit towards W. He raises his hand to catch it, and....George W. Bush looks around. The whole stadium is silent. There are no players, no announcers, no crowds, and no baseball. He searches the empty field around him, and he sees that the ball is nowhere nearby. Slightly panicked, W. looks around the field some more, trying to find the ball he lost so he can keep on playing....

revenge, comedy, satire, historical, flashback

tt1175491

El espinazo del diablo

After his father dies in combat during the last months of the Spanish Civil War, young Carlos (Fernando Tielve) is brought to an isolated orphanage in 1939. The orphanage, which also serves as a school to the resident children, is home to several dozen other boys, as well as Carmen (Marisa Paredes), the world-weary headmistress with a prosthetic leg, Dr. Casares (Federico Luppi), the kind and intellectual assistant administrator, Alma (Berta Ojea), a teacher, Jacinto (Eduardo Noriega), a hired hand, and Conchita (Irene Visedo), Jacinto's fiancee and an employee of the institution. Carmen, who is concerned about the expenses of caring for yet another boy, mentions the stash of gold bars she keeps in the building and how she would prefer to be rid of it, as she cannot buy anything with it in its current form, nor divulge its existence to any outsiders during this volatile wartime.A large bomb is lodged in the dirt at the center of the courtyard, having been dropped from a warplane months before. It was deactivated before it could detonate, but was impossible to pull from the ground. Carlos is befriended by two boys his age, Galvez (Adrian Lamana) and Owl (Javier Gonzalez-Sanchez), with whom he shares his toys and comic books. On his first night at the orphanage, Carlos is dared by an older boy, Jaime (Inigo Garces), to sneak to the kitchen for water after their pitcher spills in the dormitory. Carlos agrees, but dares Jaime to accompany him. As the boys cross the courtyard, Jaime whispers that he believes the bomb is still active, as he can hear its "heart" ticking within. The boys reach the kitchen, but Jaime sneaks back to the dormitory, leaving Carlos alone. Carlos hears a chilling whisper from an unknown source, which tells him eerily that "Many of you will die." Frightened, Carlos dashes outside, but is caught by Jacinto.At breakfast the next morning, Dr. Cesares demands that Carlos give up any accomplices who snuck out with him the previous night. Carlos refuses to rat Jaime out, and takes full blame. Later, Jaime confronts Carlos by the cistern under the chapel, in the presence of a few other boys. Though Jaime now holds a higher respect for Carlos, he still feels threatened by the newcomer and pulls out a knife to prove his dominance. In the ensuing scuffle, Jaime falls into the cistern. One of the boys shouts that Jaime cannot swim, and Carlos dives in to save him. Jacinto, the hired hand, appears, breaks up the ruckus, and demands to know the owner of Jaime's knife, which had fallen to the floor. Carlos once again takes the blame, and Jacinto slices Carlos' cheek as a warning before threatening him into secrecy. The boys are all shaken by the incident, but Jaime begins to trust Carlos at last.Later on, Carlos talks with Dr. Caseres, who is treating his cut. Casares shows Carlos how the bulk of the money is made for the orphanage: He sells the spiced rum that is used as a preserving fluid for aborted or stillborn fetuses. He claims that many believe it carries a power that cures many ailments, including impotence. Casares is seen drinking the liquid, suggesting that he suffers from this himself. He and Carmen, the widowed, solemn headmistress, share an unspoken mutual love, but it is insinuated that Casares is ashamed of his lack of skills as a lover. Carmen, meanwhile, is having a loveless affair with the much-younger Jacinto.It is revealed that Jacinto has been at the orphanage since he was a boy, and harbors a passionate hatred for it. He works on the property along with his fiancee Conchita, but his violent side is shown through the way he treats the boys; threatening and sometimes hurting them. Jacinto knows of the stash of gold hidden at the orphanage, and uses his sexual relationship with Carmen as an opportunity to take her keys and search the building for the loot. Carmen is deeply ashamed of fulfilling herself through Jacinto, and suspects that he may have sinister motives.The boys, meanwhile, tell Carlos of the ghost that they believe haunts the orphanage. A boy called Santi (Andreas Munoz), a recent resident and friend of Jaime's, had vanished on the night the bomb was dropped. Some say Santi fled the orphanage in fright and was killed by cutthroats. Strange sighing noises are heard at night, and the boys believe it is the ghost of Santi (while in actuality, it is Carmen and Jacinto in an adjoining room). Carlos decides to locate the ghost himself, after recalling the strange voice he had heard in the kitchen, whispering "Many of you will die." He sneaks out again that night, and encounters the ghost: a pale, delicate figure of a young boy with blood flowing upwards from a wound in his head, as if underwater. The ghost pursues Carlos back into the building, and a terrified Carlos spends the night hiding in the linen closet. Later on, after flipping through Jaime's sketchbook, Carlos finds a drawing of a ghostly figure labeled "Santi," leading him to suspect that Jaime knows more about the subject than the other boys.After witnessing some harsh war brutality in the village nearest to the orphanage, Dr. Casares convinces Carmen that they must evacuate the children to a safer location. Jacinto hears of this plan and confronts Carmen, demanding the stash of gold and crassly bringing up their sexual relationship in front of Dr. Cesares. Enraged, Casares turns a gun on Jacinto and forces him out of the building.As the orphans and faculty prepare to leave, Conchita discovers Jacinto pouring gasoline around the kitchen, in which he had placed numerous other cans of fuel, and preparing to ignite it. Horrified, she threatens him with a gun, and shoots him in the arm when he mocks her. Furious, Jacinto throws his lit cigarette to the floor, starting a raging fire, and flees the building. Conchita alerts Carmen and Casares, who order the children out of the building before the many cans of gasoline in the kitchen explode. Carmen and fellow-teacher Alma attempt to stifle the blaze, but fail to prevent the devastating explosion. Alma is swallowed by the inferno, and many of the children are killed (just as the ghost had predicted). An injured Casares finds Carmen, mortally wounded, inside the wrecked building, and tearfully stays with her as she dies. He and the surviving boys, including Carlos, Jaime, Galvez, and Owl, remain in the charred orphanage, with Casares promising not to leave them. He sets up a chair by a front window and waits there with a shotgun for Jacinto's return.The following night, Jaime finally tells Carlos the details of Santi's disappearance. Jaime and Santi had been collecting slugs at the cistern, when by chance they spied Jacinto attempting to open the safe where the gold was kept. Jaime ran and hid, but Jacinto cornered Santi and attempted to threaten him into keeping his mouth shut about what he had seen. In anger, Jacinto shoved Santi against a stone wall, resulting in the boy receiving a severe head injury and sending him into shock. Jacinto, panicking, tied stones to Santi with ropes before sinking the body in the cistern. A terrified Jaime emerged when the coast was clear and ran into the courtyard, only to have the bomb land several feet from him moments later.Jaime explains that he is no longer scared of Jacinto, and will kill him if he ever returns. Conchita, having survived the explosion, is making the long walk to the nearest town for help when she meets Jacinto and his two cronies driving back to the orphanage to claim the gold. Jacinto threatens her with a knife, telling her to apologize for shooting him. Despite knowing the danger of angering him, she insults him, and he stabs her to death.Carlos has one more encounter with Santi's ghost, and is no longer afraid after hearing the story of Santi's death. The ghost quietly demands that Carlos bring Jacinto to him. Carlos agrees.Dr. Casares finally dies of his injuries while still sitting by the window with the gun. Jacinto and his associates reach the orphanage, and imprison the orphans in one room while they search for the gold. The two other men eventually grow impatient and leave, but Jacinto soon uncovers the stash- hidden in a secret compartment of Carmen's prosthetic leg. The orphans know that Jacinto will kill them once he finds the gold, but Jaime encourages them to fight back, as Jacinto is only one man. The boys fashion weapons from sharpened sticks and broken glass, and escape their room (with help from the ghost of Casares). They attack Jacinto in the cellar, stabbing him multiple times and pushing him into the cistern where he had deposited Santi's body. Jacinto attempts to escape the pool, but is weighted down by the gold bars tied to his belt. Santi's ghost appears from the depths and drags Jacinto to his death.Having vanquished the enemy and escaped with their lives, the remaining boys leave the orphanage and begin the long walk to town. Dr. Casares's ghost watches them from the doorway.

dark, suspenseful, murder, paranormal, haunting, flashback, psychedelic, revenge, storytelling

tt0256009

Big Nothing

The film is set in a small Oregon town, where a brutal serial killer nicknamed the 'Oregon undertaker' has been murdering and mutilating young women. Charlie (David Schwimmer) is an ex-teacher turned disaffected call center employee who is fired on his first day. Distraught at being unable to provide for his daughter Emily and policewoman wife Penelope (Natascha McElhone), he is approached by former colleague Gus (Simon Pegg), an aspiring scam artist who presents Charlie with a seemingly snag-free plan to make some cash: blackmail Reverend Smalls, who is listed in the company database of visitors to illegal porn websites. Gus plans on extorting money from Reverend Smalls, with the intention of publicly exposing his secret shame should he refuse to pay. The normally cautious Charlie reluctantly agrees to play a part in the scam, confident that with the money he will garner from the deal he would be able to support his family. A teenage pageant queen Josie McBroom (Alice Eve), Gus's scheming one-night stand, forces herself into the scheme. Josie convinces Charlie and Gus that she should make the call to Smalls on the grounds that if either of them called, the police could trace their voices and connect them to the job. The plan goes into action, and Gus goes to Smalls' house where he is surprised by the Reverend wielding a gun. From outside the house two shots are heard. At the same time, Charlie arrives at the bar to explain his and Gus' alibi, only to find out that the blind owner of the gas station where Gus has supposedly gone is at the bar celebrating his 80th birthday. Charlie runs away and goes to Smalls' house, where he finds the Reverend dead. Scared, he drags the body outside, and dumps him into a nearby septic tank. He goes back inside the house, tries to call Josie. He then finds Gus and learns that the Reverend shot Gus in the leg, explaining the blood near the corpse. After the first shot, Gus hit the Reverend over the head with a vase, leaving him alive but unconscious. Gus and Charlie leave the house to escape the scene of the crime, but Charlie remembers that he left Josie's card inside. They go back and get it, but in the process Gus stumbles upon a hidden DVD collection of the Reverend. They put one in, and find a video of the Reverend killing and torturing a young girl. They try to flee the house, but are immediately met by a deputy police officer outside the door. The policeman explains that the Reverend was found dead, with three bullet holes in his head. Charlie lets in the policeman, who notices some blood on the floor. Charlie, in the kitchen, grabs a knife and cuts himself, and then goes back to the policeman to explain that he cut himself on a vase. Right before leaving, the policeman decides to see what Charlie had been watching, much to Charlie's protests. He presses play, and watches the beginning of a children's movie Gus had secretly switched in. Satisfied, he leaves the house, but finds marks in the ground that look like someone had been dragged. Charlie follows the policeman to the end of the drag marks, the septic tank. As Charlie is about to open it, Gus smashes a vase against the head of the deputy, who is promptly dragged inside. Inside, Charlie panics about the murder of the Reverend and the kidnapping of a policeman and leaves, where he is met by the Reverend's wife (Mimi Rogers) who has a gun pointed at Charlie. They go back inside, where she explains that she shot the Reverend and that she was going to meet her lover, Max, at the house so they could collect their $2,000,000 the real Reverend had left. Gus and Charlie explain that Max will not be seeing her, and she asks them where the money is, pointing a gun at the tied-up policeman. They frantically try to say that they don't know anything about the money, and right before she is about to shoot the deputy, Josie comes in and lodges an axe in the wife's head. As Charlie and Gus talk over what's been happening, Josie finds the money hidden in the Reverend's oven, and calls Charlie and Gus over. As they are looking at the stacks of hundred dollar bills, they hear cries of "help" from outside. The deputy has escaped through the front door, and, rolling himself along, is soon caught by the three. In his rolling, the deputy drops his badge, which Charlie picks up and puts in his pocket. They agree to dispose the body of the wife. The policeman, still alive, asks to use the toilet. Inside, he tries to escape through a window, but slips and kills himself by breaking his skull on the toilet. Charlie, Gus, and Josie hide the bodies in suitcases and drive away to dispose them, but soon get into an argument. Charlie reveals that the reason why he has been reeling off random facts is because of a neurological disorder. This problem with the neurotransmitter acetylcholine means that eventually his mind will become blank and explains why he was fired from his teaching position. After driving for a while Charlie realises that Gus, who had originally said he needed the money for his daughter's cornea operation, does not really have a daughter, and punches him. In this small fight, they nearly get into an accident with a fat man, who tries to call the police, but is persuaded by Gus to not do so. Charlie, Gus and Josie drive away and get to their disposal point, only to find that one of the bodies is missing. They drive back and hit the Reverend's wife, who had jumped out of the car and was trying to get help. As they look over the body, two police officers arrive, one of them being Charlie's wife, and quickly see the body. Charlie's wife tries to call her deputy, but it goes to voicemail. Josie hurriedly makes up a story, but the three are taken to the station where a special agent is waiting. Agent Hymes (Jon Polito), the fat man the three almost got into an accident with, examines the body with Gus and Josie, seeming to understand the earlier events. However, it turns out not to be the case and he lets them go. In the waiting room, Charlie finds his sleeping daughter, who could not be left alone at the house and was brought by his wife, and gives her his coat. Charlie, Gus and Josie drive to a tar pit, where they plan to dispose of the bodies, but they find that the special agent has been following them. He gets angry at Gus for calling him fat before, and Gus swipes and stabs him with an insulin needle in the foot. The agent throws the gun up, which is caught by Charlie, who then points the gun at the agent. The agent then reveals that Josie is the Wyoming Widow; a murderer who befriended men and killed them with whiskey laced with highly concentrated thallium. She disregards it as nonsense, but Charlie and Gus make her empty her pockets, where they find the tell-tale flask of poisoned whiskey. They make her drink some, and she pretends to die, but soon begins laughing at their foolishness as it is not poisoned. They check for the agent, but as he has disappeared they go looking for him. Gus goes back to the car and tries to hide the money, but is caught by the agent, who complains of his lack of payment for what he does. He shoots Gus twice, killing him, and gets the money. In the mean time, Charlie's wife finds the badge of her deputy in her husband's coat, but drives to a bridge and throws it off, removing the evidence. The agent runs to his car, but is surprised by Josie, who was waiting in the back seat. They make him eat a large sugary lollipop, dangerous because of his diabetes, and leave him for dead. Charlie remarks on what monsters they have become, and is then faced by Josie, who has a gun pointed at his head. She explains that she really is the Wyoming Widow, and then gives him the choice of the bullet or the poisoned whiskey (from her second flask). Charlie tells her not to spend all the money in one place, and drinks the whiskey, dying quickly, but not before he happily sees Josie discover that the bag is filled with nothing but his daughter's stuffed animals. At home, Charlie receives a message on his phone from a publishing firm regarding his book and his dream job and an office. Also, his daughter is seen drawing with marker on some of the hundred dollar bills next to several large stacks of money. Josie tries to hitch a ride away from Oregon, and finally gets one from an old man. The old man goes to the back to "double-check on something", and Josie takes out the poisoned whiskey. The old man covers a bloody leg with a tarpaulin (where it is revealed he is the Oregon undertaker), and goes back into the truck to drive away with Josie.

dark, comedy, neo noir, murder, cult, violence, entertaining, sadist

tt0488085

Dom Hemingway

The first thing we hear is Dom Hemingway (Jude Law) asking, "Is my cock not exquisite?" He continues to praise his cock, saying outlandish things like it ought to win the first ever Nobel Peace Prize to be given to a cock, and that it could save starving children in third world countries. He then orgasms and tells the person giving him oral sex, sorry for not giving him a warning.Chapter 1: 12 YEARS IS A LONG TIMEDom is eating pudding in the prison cafeteria when a guard comes over to talk to him. He tells Dom to put his fork down but Dom insists on finishing his pudding. He relents and speaks to the guard. He tells Dom that the call he's been waiting for has arrived. Dom smiles. He is released from prison, with the other inmates chanting his name and throwing toilet paper out the windows.Dom spots two men standing outside a pub. He asks both of them where to find Sandy Butterfield (Nick Raggett). After he shoves one man's drink out of his hand, the other man tells Dom that Sandy is still working at a garage. Dom goes to this garage and beats Sandy's face in because he got with Dom's wife while he was in prison. Sandy defends his actions because they had been divorced, but Dom continues to pound the guy's face. When he's done, he turns to two other guys and makes friendly talk with them.Dom reunites with his former partner, Dickie Black (Richard E. Grant), in a pub. Dom pulls out a cigarette to smoke, but he's told by the bartender and Dickie that smoking's been banned. Regardless, he lights it up and gives Dickie one to smoke as well. Dickie tells Dom that their former employer, Mr. Ivan Anatoly Fontaine (Demian Bichir) has not forgotten that he owes Dom. Dom had worked for Fontaine as a safe-cracker and served 12 years for not testifying against him. Dom knows he's missed a lot over the years, including a relationship with his daughter Evelyn (Emilia Clarke). In the corner of the pub are two girls, said by Dickie to be sent as gifts to Dom from Fontaine. An eager Dom scoops one of the ladies up and kisses the other. He announces to the pub, "No one call me for three days!"The next day, a hungover Dom ventures with Dickie on a train to head south of France to meet with Fontaine. At the station, a heavyset man meets the two and says he was sent by Fontaine. He tells the two to follow him, and Dom makes him carry his luggage.Chapter 2: A WEEKEND IN THE COUNTRY AMONGST THIEVESThe thieves arrive at Fontaine's villa. Dom's eye is caught by Fontaine's beautiful girlfriend Paolina (Madalina Ghenea). Dickie tells him to not look at her. They find Fontaine out hunting with his rifle. He asks Dom if he ever uses a gun for hunting. Dom says no, but only to hold up a place or threaten someone...or rob them...or pistol-whip them...or scare them, but never for hunting. Fontaine invites the two inside for a drink. He makes a comment about "Leftie" being right about Dom maintaining his vanity and wit, yet Dom has no idea who he's talking about. Fontaine means Dickie, making Dom aware of Dickie's left hand sporting a glove. It was shot off a while ago, but Dom just thought the glove was a fashion statement. Dom then starts to mock Fontaine, calling him "Ivana Anal-tolly", still enraged at being locked up for 12 years because of him. Fontaine never gets angry, but he warns Dom to not make him get rough. Dom calms down and leaves.Dickie finds Dom storming off outside completely nude. He runs out to get him back, reprimanding him for speaking rudely to Fontaine, saying he's lucky that he didn't kill him right there. Dom feels like he shouldn't be there, but Dickie convinces him to stay. Dickie adds that he's not burying Dom out there because he's "too fucking old and he didn't bring the right shoes."Dom apologises to Fontaine and he and Dickie have dinner with Fontaine and Paolina. Fontaine treats the two to a musical performance by Paolina. As she sings, Fontaine tells Dom a story about how he viciously beat his best friend's jaw, nearly completely destroying it, after the man accidentally drove a bicycle into a woman that Fontaine had interest in. He didn't kill Dom for his behavior because he knew that he still owed him.Chapter 3: GOOD THINGS COME TO THOSE WHO WAITFontaine presents Dom with a quarter of a million pounds, plus another half a million. Dom becomes excited and hugs the money.Fontaine invites two women over to party and do coke with his guests, and everybody gets in the pool. One of the women, Melody (Kerry Condon), swims over to Dom. She compliments his chin, and he, in turn, compliments her breasts. Later, the whole party drives down the road. Dom stands up and shouts boastfully, right before the car collides with another car, throwing everybody out. Dom is unconscious, but he hears Paolina's voice calling his name and saying "I want the money". He briefly has a fantasy of her in a sexy swimsuit emerging from the pool before he's awoken by a thunderclap. Dom walks through the rain. He calls out for anybody. Fontaine walks by him, impaled by a piece of the car. He falls against the car, dead. Dom then finds Melody lying face down near a lake. He tries to resuscitate her and is able to revive her. She thanks Dom for saving her life and tells him good luck will come to him for this deed when he least expects it and most needs it. Dickie comes in and finds them. He says he saw Paolina heading down the road.Dom and Dickie return to Fontaine's home for Dom's money. All Dom finds is a few fifty pound notes put together in the shape of a heart. Dom then sees Paolina driving down the road, far away with the money. He runs through the woods to catch up to her, falling right in the middle of the road, inches from where she pulls up. Paolina rolls down the window, and Dom sees his money sitting in the passenger seat next to her. He asks her "Why?" She asks him, "Do I strike you as the type of woman that wants to be poor?" She rolls the window back up and drives away, leaving Dom sitting in the road as the rain pours.Dom shows up at Evelyn's apartment, drinking from a bottle of whiskey and with his face messed up. All she can say is, "You've gotta be fucking kidding me," and Dom drops to the floor like a ton of bricks.Chapter 4: FATHER OF THE YEARDom wakes up to see Evelyn's boyfriend Hugh (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett), along with his father, brother, and son. Later, Hugh introduces Dom to his and Evelyn's son, Jawara (Jordan Nash). Dom questions the name choice, which Hugh defends as it means "peace-loving". Dom jokes that his own name means "unlucky son of a bitch." Hugh tells Dom that Evelyn is mad at him and that she's hurt by his absence. He adds that she will play music with him that evening at a club called Cargo so Dom can check them out. Dom does go see the performance, with Evelyn singing "Fisherman's Blues". Dom is mesmerized by hearing his daughter singing.Dom goes to Dickie's home, lamenting that Evelyn wants nothing to do with him. He decides that he needs to seek employment from Lestor, Jr. (Jumayn Hunter), the son of Dom's old nemesis. Dickie warns Dom that Lestor is worse than his father.Dom finds Lestor jogging with his two goons. Lestor recognizes him and then punches him in the stomach. He hates Dom for killing his cat Bernard when Lestor was a boy. Even though they hate each other, Dom proposes that they do business. Although he doesn't like the idea, Lestor gives him a challenge - Dom is to open a new electronic safe at Lestor's club in under ten minutes, and if he is successful, Dom is to work for him. If Dom fails, Lestor will cut off Dom's cock and use it as a doorstop. Dom agrees, and then gets punched in the gut again as payback for the cat.Chapter 5: AND JUST LIKE THAT, OPPORTUNITY KNOCKSDickie joins Dom as they go to Lestor's club to crack the safe inside a wall. Dom takes a sledgehammer and smashes the wall up until he can see the wires around the safe, which he cuts off with a power saw. He grabs the safe and starts thrusting against it sexually, so that the 'pins are out of alignment' then throws it on the floor, where it finally opens. Dom feels triumphant, until Lestor tells him he only has 52 seconds left. He takes out a smaller safe from a box, revealing that to be the safe he wanted him to open. He forces Dom to drop his trousers so he can cut off his cock. At the last second, two safe security guards run into the room. Dickie smashes a small statue over Lestor's head, and Dom hits his goons with the sledgehammer. They run like hell out of the club, and then split up.Dom waits outside Cargo to find Evelyn after her band's performance. She is still angry with him, stating that he could have served only two or three years if he struck a deal and testified against Fontaine, but he ended up missing his wife dying and most of Evelyn's life. Dom tells her he is going to visit her mother's grave the next day and that she should bring her son with her so they can go together. Evelyn tells him that she only ever wanted a real father, but instead got him. She turns her back and leaves.Chapter 6: A MAN WITH NO OPTIONS SUDDENLY HAS ALL THE OPTIONS IN THE WORLDThe next morning, Dom is out on the streets when he spots Melody riding her motor scooter. He stops her and tells her that he hasn't had any good luck since saving her. Melody asks him what it is that he really wants. Dom firmly states he wants his money back, then he realizes that he just wants Evelyn to talk to him. Melody tells him that by admitting this, the "pendulum of luck" will swing his way because love is what he makes of it.Dom visits his wife's grave, tearfully apologizing and feeling regretful for all the years he's missed and for abandoning her and Evelyn. He looks up and sees Jawara next to him. He tells the boy this is his grandmother's grave. Apparently, she wasn't fond of colored people, but Dom thinks she would have loved him. He walks Jawara out of the cemetery to meet back up with Evelyn. Dom asks her if he can walk around with her and Jawara without having to say anything. She says not today, but he is welcome to take Jawara to school on Monday if he's not too drunk the night before. They walk away, and Jawara waves to Dom. He waves back.Dom walks away, still feeling a lack of closure, until he sees someone and a smile forms on his face. It's Paolina walking into a restaurant with an older man. Dom follows them in and approaches their table. He greets Paolina, who claims to not know who he is. He leans in to place his hand on hers and whisper in her ear menacingly that he is the fucker who will gut her with a butter knife and dump her body in the river without anybody knowing. Paolina trembles in fear. He warns her not to say a word when he removes his hand or else he'll do all of that right now. After all the heartbreaks and sadness, he feels that the pendulum of luck has finally swung back his way. He stands up, drinks her date's wine, and then kisses her. He exits the restaurant and we see him holding something - Paolina's diamond ring. Dom flicks it up and walks away with it, wearing a big victorious grin on his face.

revenge

tt2402105

Shuttle

Mel (Peyton List) and Jules (Cameron Goodman) are best friends returning to Los Angeles from a trip in Mexico. Seth (James Snyder) and Matt (Dave Power) arrive and introduce themselves to them. Jules takes Mel into the bathroom to help her deal with her motion sickness, where Mel tells her that she has broken up with her fiancé. Mel's luggage is lost in the airport, so she must return the next day to get it. Outside, they board a shuttle bus after its Driver (Tony Curran) offers to charge them half the price of a regular shuttle. On board, they meet Andy (Cullen Douglas), a shy family man. Seth and Matt see them and attempt to board, but the Driver tells them he can only make three stops at a time. Jules informs him that the men are with them. During the trip, Mel shows Matt her signing skills while Seth and Jules flirt with each other. While taking an unusual detour, they are run off the road by a car, and the Driver gets out to survey the damage, which turns out to be a flat tire. Jules opts to call a taxi, but there is no service where they are. Matt offers to help change the tire. While his hand is on top of the tire, the Driver looks for some nuts for the wheel. Suddenly, the bus falls off the jack and onto Matt's hand, severing his fingers. They quickly drive off to the hospital. During the ride, the Driver calmly pulls over, much to the astonishment of the passengers. He pulls a gun on them and demands cooperation, taking everyone's phones and wallets. While Mel and Seth argue about doing something, Jules finds a flare under the seat from the safety kit used to bandage Matt's hand, and Mel comes up with a plan to get the window open. Andy sees her and causes a commotion. A struggle ensues and the flare is set ablaze. The Driver sees this, stops the bus and removes the flare. Jules runs for the front and finds the door locked and the key missing. The Driver re-enters and slashes Seth's face with a switchblade as a warning to the others. He informs them of a "change of plans", and drives them to an indoor ATM booth and has Jules extract some money. While she is inside, she knocks some paper into a bin and sets it on fire to set off an alarm. The Driver sees this and rushes towards her, but she slams the door. Mel escapes, but the Driver shouts at her that he will let Jules suffocate from smoke inhalation if she doesn't return to the bus. She has no choice but to surrender. He then takes them to an all-night supermarket, where he tells Mel to buy "nine items" on a list he's written for her and nothing else. On the bus, he chains Seth and Andy together and makes them take valuables and passports from the luggage on board. Seth tells Andy if they get loose, the Driver can only get one of them. Inside, Mel sees a security camera and, through sign language, says she needs help. She goes to the front register, and hands a note to the cashier that tells her to check the security tape and call the police when she leaves. Seth gets free and makes a run for it, only to be run over by the bus. The Driver places the body in the back. He then scolds Mel for buying ice when she didn't need to, but she tells him it's for Matt's fingers. Back in the store, the cashier checks the cameras only to find that they were never switched on. Later, Mel shows Matt a knife she hid in the ice, which she uses to cut their belts off. Matt uses the ice bag to smash the window, and they all shout for help. The Driver walks towards them and pulls out the gun. Mel cuts his wrist with the knife, and Matt hits him over the head with the bag. Mel grabs the gun and threatens to shoot the Driver. She makes him hand over the keys to the belts, and Jules is able to get herself and Andy free. She takes the wheel of the bus and drives, leaving Matt with the gun and Andy with the knife. Andy then nonchalantly stabs Matt in the throat, which no one notices at first. He grabs the gun and puts it to Mel's head, telling her to get away from the pedals. Andy then reveals himself to be in league with the Driver. They stop at a bridge to throw the boys' bodies off, and afterward, Andy torments the girls for a few minutes before the Driver gets him to stop. Later, Mel manages to get a tire iron from under the seat, and keeps it by her side. Andy wraps tape around the girls' mouths and takes a cuff of their hair. Mel hits him several times with the tire iron and the Driver is forced to stop. She pulls herself free, and the Driver attempts to get the gun, only for her to hit him on the hand, and knock it towards Jules. Mel seizes control and drives away, but he rushes towards her. She slams the brakes and accelerates to throw him about. She reaches for a knife and stabs him in the knee. Andy comes over to attack her but she grabs a fire extinguisher and hits him with it. The bus then crashes into a wall during the struggle. After finding Andy dead and the Driver and Mel unconscious, Jules escapes and flags down a passing car. A man gets out and starts to call 911, but he gets plowed by the Driver. The Driver then takes them to a warehouse, where he forcibly removes a tattoo from Jules' body; he also takes the girls' driving licences and puts them in a drawer which is already full of other IDs of people the Driver has kidnapped or murdered before. He has Jules dye Mel's hair blonde, then makes Mel and Jules strip down to their underwear and wear white high heels for an inspection. The man who inspects them is revealed to be the man that ran them off the road earlier, and the same man who was seen observing them at the airport in the opening scene. The Driver inspects their bags and finds that Jules has Antifungal medication for a yeast infection. Since Jules is of no use to the Driver since he needs the girls to both be in good health, he takes her onto the bus and gasses her with a tube connected to the exhaust. He finds Mel, who threatens to cut her face with a shard of glass, which would make her useless to him as well. Instead, she stabs him in the arm with it. He attempts to disarm her, but she stabs it into his thigh before hitting him in the face with some light fixtures. She finds the gun and shoots him, the bullet skimming his head. Thinking he is dead, she tries to escape in the bus. However, before it can start, the Driver attacks her again. They grapple for a minute before he forces her into a large wooden crate, which contains the items Mel purchased earlier in the grocery store: a flashlight, a loaf of bread, two jugs of water, two magazines, kitty litter, and a litter box, as well as her motion sickness pills. Trapped inside the dark crate, Mel yells for help, but no one is there, and when someone with a forklift comes, he turns out to be in on the operation. While being carried away, she finds a photo of seven young white women in what looks like a filthy underground cellar. The photo depicts the despondent-looking girls completely naked, hair dyed blonde, and wearing white high heels (like Mel and Jules were forced to wear). It is heavily implied that these girls were also kidnapped by the Driver at some point and forced to become sex slaves overseas. Mel looks at the photo in horror as she realizes that she is to become a sex slave too. The crate is then loaded onto a cargo ship destined for East Asia. The final shot is of Mel's lost luggage turning up at the airport as another day begins.

murder

tt0880648

Kapringen

The film is about ancient business model, already so common in Mediterranean in middle ages when the people of Europe were taken hostage and often spent years or their whole lives waiting for ransom money to be sent to their mostly Moorish or Arab captors in North African coast. The heart of pirate criminality has become Somalia since the collapse of the state over two decades ago. It emanates malignant danger and threat all over Indian Ocean and in this story the victims are a Danish cargo ship's crew.The chef Mikkel is the one who is facing the biggest pressure. Instead of the ship's engineer or the captain he was chosen as the one the negotiators use for initiating contact with Orion Subway's CEO Peter for ransom money. The negotiators want Mikkel to express desperation and genuine fear when asking for exorbitant sums for the lives of the crew and for returning the ship to its owners.And the game of chess begins. The tormenting conditions of the crew linger on for months. Peter is in need of resolution but weighs the accumulating traumas of his men against massive sums of money to be paid to the callous captors. Hostages are the pawns on the chessboard under constant threat of violence by psychopathic, impulsive, illiterate teens waving deadly weapons at their face. Only the negotiator speaks a common language with the crew, the youthful pirates entertain themselves by humiliating the Danes whenever in the mood. During the protracted process there are also better times when slight bonding happens under the duress of the Ocean, but the crew's status as an expensive and valuable merchandise whose state of expressed misery is measurable by the profits gained by the captors and the termination of the whole ordeal warrants occasional abuse.Peter remains firm and resolute, Mikkel's family is desperate and hostage to their circumstances as faraway collateral victims, and Mikkel has resigned to his fate as a commodity to be traded. He can't do much else. Nerves falter, poker faces won't hold and some chips end up snatched forever...

dramatic, suspenseful, mystery

tt2216240

The Devil's Double

Iraq, 1985. Latif Yahia (Dominic Cooper), an Iraqi soldier fighting in the Iran-Iraq War, is called to become a "fedai" ("body double" or political decoy) for Uday Hussein (also played by Cooper), the playboy son of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein (Philip Quast). Latif comes from an upper-class family and had attended school with Uday, where the other students would remark on their likeness. Latif initially refuses the position, but is imprisoned and tortured, ultimately relenting when his family is threatened.Latif undergoes minor cosmetic surgery to perfect his resemblance to Uday and, over the next three years, practices emulating the young Hussein's mannerisms and wildly volatile persona. He is given access to all of the luxurious benefits of the Husseins' fortune, including massive palaces, expensive wardrobes and Uday's Ferrari Mondial 3.2 and various other exotic cars. Latif tries to resist Uday's exorbitant merrymaking and erratic behavior, at one point fleeing a nightclub in another of Uday's Ferraris to attempt to see his family, who believe he has died in the war. However, he is apprehended by Uday's bodyguards and beaten. After an appearance at a conference with several Kuwaiti leaders, an attempt is made on Uday's (Latif's) life, apparently by a member of a rebel opposition group, possibly a Kurd. The real Uday, though, is more concerned with the Kuwaitis, who he believes have been slant drilling from Iraq's Rumaila oil field. Iraq invads Kuwait in August 1990 which begins the First Gulf War. With the fall of Kuwait, Uday proclaims "The Age of the Sheikhs is over!"Uday's increasingly violent, sadistic tendencies are displayed when he kidnaps a 14 year-old school girl and forces her to escort him to a party. At the party, (based on an actual 1988 celebration honoring Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's wife Suzanne), the strung-out Uday becomes enraged with his father's personal bodyguard Kamel Hana Gegeo (Mehmet Ferda). Uday believes Gegeo facilitated an affair between Saddam and Samira Shahbandar, which devastated his mother, Sajida Talfah, and he also expresses jealousy at the trust his father places in Kamel Hana. When Gegeo disrupts Uday's sexual advances towards his young victim, Uday butchers him with an electric carving knife in front of all of the guests. The next morning, Uday's bodyguards are seen dumping the naked, beaten body of the young girl.Saddam immediately becomes furious over Uday's latest indiscrestion and pays him a visit to a local clinic after Uday accidently takes an overdose of sleeping pills to calm down. While Latif watches, Saddam gives Uday a severe beating in his hospital bed for the killing of Gegeo and even threatens to kill him, but calms down and decides to spare Uday because he is still his first-born son and heir to the leadership of Iraq. As Saddam leaves Uday's room he mutters to Latif, "I should have killed him at birth."In January 1991, Latif, acting as Uday, is sent to Basra to rally support among Republican Guard soldiers as Coalition forces have taken control of the war. At Basra, another attempt is made on Latif's life. To Uday's great concern, Latif nearly loses a pinky in the assault, which presumably would mean Uday would have to have his amputated to maintain their resemblance, but doctors are able to save Latif's finger.Later, Latif is confronted by the father of the young girl that Uday killed. Uday eavesdrops on the conversation and is outraged by the man's pleas for "justice" and "compassion." Uday orders Latif to kill the man, but Latif refuses and instead slits his own wrists, to Uday's amusement. After Latif recovers, he confronts Uday at his birthday party. The confrontation escalates to a shootout and Latif escapes in Uday's Mercedes-Benz 560 SEC with Uday's lover, Sarrab (Ludivine Sagnier) whom has recently become romanticaly involved with Latif. The two escape to Malta, but Sarrab, fearing for her three-year-old daughter in Iraq, calls Uday begging for the chance to return without being harmed. A would-be assassin sent by Uday just misses shooting Latif almost as soon as they arrive on the island. Uday calls Latif and offers him one final chance to return to Iraq, threatening to kill his father if he refuses. Latif says he will not return and his father is killed.Latif confronts Sarrab with her telling Uday where she is out of fear for her daughter's safety. Latif tells her that he will not help her get her daughter out of Iraq and tells her to leave, but gives her some money to live so she can live off of for a while. The distraught Sarrab walks out on Latif and goes off on her own.However, Latif does return to Iraq, not to continue to serve as Uday's double, but rather to kill him, with the help of a man whose bride killed herself after being raped and beaten by Uday on their wedding day. In an adapted version of the attempt on Uday's life made by the 15th Shaaban in 1996, Latif and his partner ambush Uday while he is attempting to lure young girls into his Porsche 911 Targa. They wound him severely, including consistent with unconfirmed reports of the real-life attack mangling his genitals with a direct shot. One of Uday's bodyguards catches up to Latif as he flees the scene. The guard, however, is the same one who Latif could have killed as he fled from Uday's birthday party before leaving the country but spared, and the guard extends him the same courtesy.A disclaimer in the final shots reveals that Latif Yahia currently lives somewhere in Ireland under a false name with his wife and two children and has written a book based on his life. Uday Hussein survived the assasination attempt, but was temporarily crippled, and made a partial recovery. He was later killed in 2003 by American troops during the Second Gulf War.

revenge, historical, murder

tt1270262

Fantastic Voyage

A commercial airliner lands at JFK Airport in New York. A Secret Serviceman (Ken Scott), backed by a large Army contingent, greets the plane. After it taxis to a stop, Lieutenant Charles Grant USN (Stephen Boyd) steps out onto a mobile boarding ramp, verifies the Secret Service escort, and then signals to the other passenger, Jan Benes (Jean Del Val), to deplane with him. Benes walks down and gets into the Secret Service car, but not before warmly shaking Grant's hand one last time.But as the motorcade enters a run-down section of New York, a car hurtles out of an alley and broadsides Benes' car. Hastily the Secret Service transfer Benes to another car, which then must make a quick escape as the Secret Service contingent fights a gun battle with several other assailants in the surrounding buildings.Benes is taken to the underground headquarters of the Combined Miniature Deterrent Forces (CMDF) and given a full physical examination, including an EEG. The results are dire: he has suffered a stroke on the left side, in an inoperable spot. The doctors induce a coma so that his brain will not damage itself, while they decide what to do.The original Secret Service man then picks up Grant and delivers him to an alley, instructing him to stay in the car and wait. Then the car, with Grant alone in it, descends to an underground complex. A small scooter bearing the CMDF logo, which he does not recognize, picks him up and delivers him to the Medical Section. There, Grant meets CMDF's commandant, Lieutenant General Alan Carter USA (Edmund O'Brien). General Carter first shows him Benes, in a coma and on a litter. Then he introduces him to the surgeon, Dr. Peter Duval (Arthur Kennedy), and his assistant Cora Peterson (Raquel Welch), who will operate on Benes, and also to Dr. "Mike" Michaels (Donald Pleasence), who is somehow expected to watch Duval to make sure that Duval does not try to kill his patient while operating. Then Carter explains what CMDF means, and about the miniaturization technique that is at the heart of it all. The problem: the USA (and the USSR) can miniaturize any object, to any size, but cannot hold an object miniaturized for more than 60 minutes. Benes knows how to extend the time, and Grant is the one who brought Benes out when he sought to defect. Now Carter reveals why Grant is there: CMDF will reduce a small submarine to microscopic size, and deliver Duval, Miss Peterson, Michaels--and Grant--into Benes' body, to operate on Benes from the inside.Grant hates the idea. Worse yet, CMDF Medical Officer Col. Donald Reid (Arthur O'Connell) does not want a woman to go along on such a hazardous mission. Duval insists that he will have Cora or no one at his side. Grant also meets Captain Wilfrid Owens (William Redfield), designer and pilot of the submarine. The plan: reduce the submarine with all aboard and inject it into the left carotid artery. They will follow this to the site of the stroke, where Dr. Duval will use a hand-held laser to dissolve the clot. Then they travel back along the left internal jugular to the base of the neck, where they will be removed. The problem: if they stay in longer than 60 minutes, they will grow to a size that the immune system will notice, and Benes' own defenses will mobilize to destroy them.Grant barely has time to take in a briefing before Michaels leads him, Duval, Cora, and Owens to a "sterilization room." There they dress in white SCUBA wetsuits, with white overalls over this, all bearing the CMDF logo, and pass through a corridor that irradiates them gently with UVA to kill any germs on their bodies. As Carter and Reid make their preparations, the crew then climbs aboard their submarine (USS Proteus, U-91035) and make preparations for getting under way. Owens and Grant install a tiny reactor containing a microscopic radioactive particle, that will power the sub once they are shrunk. (Radioactive material cannot miniaturize.) Grant tests the ship's wireless, which will be his station. Owens tells Michaels how he will be able to read Michaels' details charts of Benes' circulatory and lymphatic systems. Cora mounts and tests the laser, while also teasing Grant about his still-obvious fear of being "shrunk." (Grant has, throughout, tried to cover his fear with bad jokes and worse innuendo, and doesn't fool Cora for one second.) Cora also reveals that she is a five-year veteran of CMDF and has worked with Duval all that time.Carter radios them to "prepare for miniaturization." So the crew pull out their seats, strap in, and settle in. Everything goes well, except for the time that Michaels, suffering an attack of claustrophobia, tries to get out through the topside hatch (after they are already submerged in an outsized hypodermic syringe), forcing Duval and Grant to restrain him and calm him down. (Duval and Grant have taken their first shot at working together, as they cooperate with Owens to accomplish the submersion.) With the second miniaturization step, the Proteus can now generate its own power. Eventually, the surgical team injects them into the carotid artery.And then the problems begin. At first the view is fascinating, But then Proteus drifts into a strong current, then into a whirlpool. It catches the crew unaware, so that though Michaels and Duval can regain their seats, Grant and Cora cannot. Michaels' shoulder belts pop, and Duval struggles to hold him in. Cora is dragged into a bulkhead, and only Grant's iron grip on her stops her from breaking her neck. Finally the Proteus comes out of the whirlpool--but now the blood cells surrounding them are blue, not the red they remembered. They realize (as do Carter and Reid, watching from outside) that Proteus has gone through an arterio-venous fistula from the carotid artery into the jugular vein. Now they are headed toward the superior vena cava, and will go through the heart--which will smash them. Michaels urges immediate removal, but the authorities, under Carter's leadership, have another idea: to put Benes into cardiac arrest and let Proteus swim through as fast as her drive can propel her. This they do, and Proteus dives into the right ventricle and goes out through the pulmonic valve, with three seconds to spare.Now they head into the lungs, where they observe oxygenation of the blue corpuscles that surround them. Just then, Proteus develops an air leak, which Owens stops, but only after Proteus has lost so much air that she cannot continue. Grant offers a solution: he will take the boat's snorkel and enter an alveolus to take the air that Benes breathes. Owens insists that everyone else aboard except himself join Grant in the dive, for safety reasons. As they put on their SCUBA gear, Grant discovers that the laser has broken loose and gotten knocked around. He firmly tells Duval and Cora to wait on testing the laser until after Grant finishes his snorkel operation.Grant succeeds in pulling in the air--but then his safety line snaps and he finds himself sucked into a bronchiole with Benes' next breathe-out. When Benes breathes in again, he luckily finds the original alveolus, after which he races to safety, with Duval strenuously pulling him back out into the bloodstream.Proteus gets back underway, heading into the pleural cavity. During this time, Cora disassembles the laser and discovers a smashed transistor and a broken trigger wire. Grant supplies replacements for both by cannibalizing the wireless and sending one last message, to the consternation of Carter and Reid. The transistor is of a good size, but the trigger wire is far too large--but Duval believes that he can scrape it down.Grant also takes time to discuss with Michaels a hard reality: someone has tried to sabotage the mission at least twice. Grant knows that Cora had indeed fastened the laser securely--so someone must have unfastened it, just as someone tampered with Grant's safety line. Michaels protests that he cannot think so ill of Duval, the logical suspect.Proteus enters the lymphatic system and passes through a lymph node. The boat blunders into several reticular fibers, and Owens warns that if they keep running into the seaweed-like fibers, they'll block the water jet intakes, and Proteus' engines will overheat. The crew also observe a stray bacterium, and antibodies attacking it and squeezing it to death.Grant is frustrated with the delay and the slow progress. Duval then suggests going to the inner ear--a very hazardous path, because the slightest noise will kill them, and they cannot warn the operating team. Grant expresses confidence that the surgical team, once they see where they are headed, will keep the required silence. Michaels is still dubious, but reluctantly agrees to navigate to Benes' left ear.Inside the ear, Owens must stop--the engines have overheated. Grant, Cora, and Michaels make another dive to pull the reticular fibers out of the intakes. Topside, a nurse (Shelby Grant) gets the idea of plugging Benes' ear with cotton--but then drops a pair of scissors to the floor. With the result that Proteus and her crew are badly shaken up. Cora gets the worst of it--she is carried into the Organ of Corti and finds herself trapped among the Cells of Hensen. She cries out for help, and Michaels and Grant race to her rescue--but Grant orders Michaels back aboard Proteus when he cannot go any further. Grant frees Cora from the hair cells, and they race back to the airlock--but as they wait for it to re-flood (after Michaels used it), antibodies attack Cora and fasten onto her. Grant hastily guides her into the airlock, closes the hatch--and then raps on the door when Cora makes plain that she simply cannot breathe. Michaels, Duval, and Owens open the airlock before it is fully evacuated, pull Cora out, and, with Grant's help, start pulling the antibody molecules off her body. Soon they start crystallizing and come off easily, so Cora is saved.Proteus gets back under way, passes through the middle ear, and then passes through the endolymphatic duct back into the vascular system. Now they penetrate into the brain and reach the clot. During that passage, Michaels and Duval argue about whether Duval, having repaired the laser, should test it. Duval insists on using the laser as-is, not wanting to strain it.Eventually they reach the clot. But with so little time remaining, Michaels wants Owens to take Proteus back out. But now Grant shuts down the power and insists that Duval and Cora go out and operate. Michaels strenously objects, but Grant firmly overrides him, saying that Duval simply does not fit the profile of a fanatic.Now Grant makes his near-fatal mistake: instead of remaining aboard, he goes out to see if he can "help" Duval and Cora. Duval manages to clear the clot, at least enough to get the blood flowing again and relieve the pressure on a key nerve. But aboard Proteus, Michaels knocks out Owens, and then restores power, takes the helm, and sends Proteus on a collision course for the nerve. Grant asks for the laser, and fires a wide-angle beam at Proteus, raking her port side and sending her away from the nerve and into several nearby dendrites. White corpuscles respond immediately, so Grant slips back aboard, through the tear in the hull, to rescue Michaels and Owens if he can. Owens is only now regaining consciousness, so Grant tells him to suit up as fast as he can. But when he tries to untangle Michaels from the wrecked helm station, a white cell settles over the helmsman's dome, breaks through, and suffocates Michaels. Grant and Owens then abandon ship, before the white corpuscles crush it. Duval keeps the white cells at bay long enough for Grant and Owens to escape, before the laser quits for good.Topside, Carter and Reid reluctantly order the removal of Proteus, because time has run out. Inside Benes' body, the four remaining crew swim as fast as they can along the optic nerve, toward Benes' left eye. Carter allows the attending surgeon to make preparations for a trephination procedure--and then deduces what the crew might do and stops the attending in mid-motion. Reid, too, realizes how they crew can still escape, and rushes down to the operating room and asks for a large magnifier. Through this, he looks into Benes' left eye, in time to make out four members of the crew swimming in Benes' tears. He calls for a microscope slide and uses it to lift out a teardrop, with the crew inside. Then he asks the staff to open the door, and as quickly as he dares, walks out into the miniaturization room and sets the slide gently down on the center hexagon. The crew then grows to full size, and the rest of the staff warmly greet them and assure them that the operation is a complete success.NOTE: The film, as it played, had a number of scientific inaccuracies and plot holes. Isaac Asimov, who wrote the novelization from the final shooting script, repaired these and at least tried to produce a scientifically consistent narrative. The key differences are:* The time limit on miniaturization is not a uniform sixty minutes. Instead, the rule is that energy of miniaturization (which is a function of the proportion of normal size to reduced size), when multiplied by duration of miniaturization, is equal to Planck's constant divided by two times pi. In simpler terms, the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle governs the maximum time of miniaturization at any given size. Benes' secret is another set of variables that the original pioneering scientists overlooked. The sixty minutes that apply to this narrative are a special case of that model.* Grant's role and authority are broader than as depicted in the film version. In the novel, Grant, not Michaels, has the ultimate authority on policy decisions, and is another brain and pair of hands in an emergency. Cora, sensing right away that the CMDF brass put him on board because they suspect Duval of murderous intent, at first resents him bitterly, and then softens toward him and almost pleads with him to understand Duval's politics, that have caused CMDF to doubt him. Those politics are that the Two Sides in the Cold War ought to share scientific discoveries freely, without regard to strategic sensitivity. But Duval is not the saboteur, a thing Grant comes to deduce by process of elimination.* When Grant makes his first dive with the snorkel into Benes' lungs, Owens uses the on-board miniaturizer that Proteus carries, to reduce the air to a size compatible with Proteus and her crew in their shrunken state. Otherwise, Grant would have been trying to draw in oxygen molecules large enough to see.* When Grant's safety line parts, sending him up the bronchiolar tree, Duval suggests that Owens orient the Proteus to face the alveolar wall and shine the boat's headlight into it. That allows Grant to find the right alveolus again. Otherwise he would have been hopelessly lost.* As Carter and Reid watch Proteus enter the inner ear, they do not use their PA system to announce to the surgical team the hazard against making noise. Instead, Carter writes a note and sends an orderly to walk into the OR in his stockinged feet to hand it to the attending. When, later, he wants to suggest plugging Benes' ears, he sends another note the same way. (The nurse does not take that upon herself, but acts only when she gets Carter's second note. And when the scissors fall, she steps on them so that they won't rattle and thus risk more damage than they might already have caused.)* When Cora falls into the organ of Corti and finds herself wedged among the hair cells, the antibodies take time to "taste" her before they come swarming. Benes' body would never have had antibodies specific to her at the moment of contact. This is still a stretch, because the immune system is now known to take much longer than that to raise antibodies to anything, and through a process that is much more complex than that depicted in film or novel.* When the crew pull Cora back aboard, they only have to give one good tug at one clinging antibody molecule, before realizing that all the antibodies crystallize at once, and all they need do is brush them off. The air on board "hits" the antibodies and denatures them immediately. So the dramatic (and suggestive) grabbing procedure is not necessary.* When Duval and Cora make their dive to attack the clot with the laser, Cora wears her wetsuit inside out, in order not to present a recognizable target to any stray antibodies that might be lurking about. Benes might not have been "immunized" against her before, but he is now.* After clubbing Owens, Michaels, unaccountably, bundles him into a wet suit and drops him out the airlock. Perhaps Michaels takes no chances that Owens might come to himself and try to take his ship back. With the result that Grant's quick rescue operation becomes unnecessary.* After the Proteus crashes into the dendrites, Duval worries that the damage that Michaels has done might start a new clot. This apparently does not happen, but at least Asimov acknowledges the possibility, which the original script does not even talk about.* After the white corpuscles eat the Proteus, Grant knows that they can't just leave her in place. Even when crushed, Proteus will grow to a size to kill Benes. (Michaels also realizes this at the last instant of his life, which is why he bursts out laughing as the white corpuscle collapses the glass dome over his head.) So Grant takes out his dagger and slashes at the white cell to attract its attention and induce it to follow them out. Of course, that releases chemotaxins that bring a swarm of white cells, so the crew must swim for their lives to get out ahead of them. (Furthermore, the medical team topside do not stop tracking Proteus even as they prepare for the trephination procedure. When the monitoring techs realize that Proteus seems to be moving again, Carter stops the preparations. That's when Reid realizes that the crew are using an escape route he did not at first consider.)* The crew, swimming toward the eye, do not drop the laser. Instead, Cora tries to carry the laser out. When Cora inevitably starts flagging, Grant takes the laser and its power pack away from her so that she can swim unencumbered.* Finally, when Col. Reid extracts the crew, he does not try to walk with the slide into the miniaturizer room. Instead, he sets the slide on the operating-room floor where he stands and orders everyone out of the room, including Benes, whom the staff wheel out on his litter. When the crew re-magnify, General Carter takes a quick muster with his eyes and realizes, with a sickening feeling in his gut, that Michaels and the Proteus are both missing. Grant stops him and assures him that the pile of metal fragments next to the crew is what's left of both.The novel has a few more dramatic differences--offering a more detailed explanation of the science of miniaturization, and making more of the professional (or personal) relationships between General Carter and Colonel Reid, between Reid and Michaels, between Grant and Benes on the flight in, between Duval and Cora, and especially between Cora and Grant during and after the trip. (See above.) Grant also has a scene with Carter and Reid in which he acknowledges his mistake in going out on the dive with Duval and Cora, instead of remaining on board after he, in effect, had placed Michaels under arrest. The novel ends with an inspiring scene in which Grant, fully grown once more, pays a visit to Benes, who by now has regained consciousness and can even talk to him.BENES: And now I must remember what I came here to tell. It's a little fuzzy, but it's still all in there.GRANT: You'd be surprised to know what's in you, Professor.

cult, suspenseful, psychedelic, claustrophobic

tt0060397

The Mentalist

Northeast SacramentoJane stares at the moon at a crime scene. The victim is Eleanor Ortega, she was shot in the chest. Jane announces she's a musician with calluses on her hands. He finds a hydrangea petal.Cho calls someone for gang intel and a young wannabe gang banger bumps into him. Cho sends him on his way.Jane grows impatient as Lisbon tries to talk to the gathered onlookers. He cuts to the chase, offering $100 for info on the victim. When everyone raises their hand, he tells them it's only $1. Everyone drops their hands. Jane points out the man who never raised his, telling Lisbon his info is so valuable not even $100 can buy it. The man in the plaid shirt and hat runs off. Cho runs to his SUV to give chase, but realizes his keys are gone. The young punk drives off in his ride having lifted his keys.Rigsby and Van Pelt talk to Eleanor's mom, who says she was first chair violin. Her mom is tidying up her convenience store. Eleanor was excited about a private solo performance she had recently given. She recently dated a gang banger named Orlando Iglesias. She dumped him and he wouldn't stop calling. They had to get a restraining order.Her mom finally loses it, crying in the aisle.Back at CBI, Rigbsy confirms Eleanor played a private event with a Stradivarius. Lisbon looks at Iglesias' file and recognizes him as the guy who ran from the crime scene.Officer Bellar from Sacramento PD brings the car thief by. His mother recently died and his father is in jail. Child services can't get him for 48 hours. Lisbon OK'ed Cho supervising him. Anthony puts on a sweet face and calls Cho "sir" and insists he wasn't performing a gang initiation. Cho isn't buying the angel routine. "Whatever, punk," Anthony says. "That's more like it," says Cho.Jane visits the concert hall and is greeted by Kieran Caruthers, the oboist. Jane notices Eleanor's concert master bookmark is very expensive. Jane announces he's looking for a killer. He thinks such driven people are a little nutty.There's a hobnob with donors scheduled for tomorrow. The musicians wanted to postpone but the Maestro Vincent Manhieser didn't agree. "I wouldn't say he's a tyrant, he's just -- not nice," Kieran explains.Vincent comes in and addresses the troops. He promotes Constance to concert master while mocking her leadership abilities. He gives Ariel second chair in recognition of her "keen lust for advancement." They begin rehearsal.Cho brings Anthony a burger. He announces he's a vegetarian. Cho takes out the burger and throws it in the trash. Anthony tosses it on the floor. Rigsby informs him Cho used to be in a gang, the Playboys. Anthony says his dad Lawrence was in the South Side Mafia. Cho says he never heard of him.Van Pelt gets up for coffee and leaves her cell phone on her desk. Anthony swipes it. He sends Rigsby a text. Rigsby finds Van Pelt and asks about the "I want you baby, come to me" text.They realize Anthony is gone. Cho heads him off.Back up in CBI, Cho handcuffs Anthony to a cabinet. Anthony says Orlando isn't in the Hermanos gang any more and joined the Local Pimps. He tells them where to find the gang. Since the gang info is six months old, Cho and Van Pelt decide to check both locations out.During rehearsals, the Maestro stops them and rips people individually. Jane says he's there about a murder. He walks over to the maestro, looks him in the eye and asks him why he killed Eleanor. He calls him a cold-blooded murderer.The maestro protests. Jane laughs it off but finishes off his point with a flourish on the timpanis.Waiting for Orlando, Cho is irritated thinking Anthony misled them. They see Orlando pull up.Lisbon interrogates him. He says he respected her love of music. He says her mother made her take out the restraining order. He says he only wanted good for her.Van Pelt confirms his story about the restraining order. She also learns Eleanor had fired her mother as her manager and they weren't speaking.Cho brings Anthony into an interrogation room to sleep for the night. Anthony is upset, saying he needs to go. He makes a break for it, Cho grabs him as he fights to get free and finally fights back tears. Cho asks what it's really about. Anthony says his dad was arrested for robbing a liquor store, but he didn't do it. He says a guy named Jaden can provide an alibi, but he has to find him. He stole a car to join Jaden's gang so they'd tell him where he is.Cho listens and believes him.Van Pelt and Jane talk to her mother Isabel. She says Eleanor came up to her store the night she was killed, wanting to make up, but she didn't want to. Jane asks if Eleanor was into cats, or ancient pyramids in Egypt.Jane crashes the donor soiree at the concert hall. Jane calls out Kieran for liking Ariel. He tells Ariel, Constance and Kieran that Eleanor was dating someone from the orchestra. They guess. He leads them to think it was the maestro. Then he ads that he was abusing her sexually. He swears them to silence. Jane wanders away to let his little games unfold.Cho visits Anthony's dad Lawrence in prison. He says a store owner picked him out of a line-up. He says he gave up crime a year ago when Anthony's mom died. Cho asks why he hadn't left the South Side Mafia yet. He wouldn't take the DA's deal of two years because he didn't want Anthony to be in foster care. Cho asks about Jaden.Lisbon arrives at the concert hall in time to hear the rumor, which now includes other abuse. Jane tells Lisbon his ruse is to ferret out the person who really had a thing for Eleanor. He has deduced that someone gave her the cat bookmark because it wasn't her taste. He thinks the person who really loved her will track down the maestro. Jane and Lisbon arrive upstairs in time to see Constance the new first violin attacking Vincent.At CBI, Constance admits to Eleanor that she loved her and told her a few weeks ago. She says Eleanor was really nice about it, but wasn't interested. Lisbon tries to get her riled up, asking if she has a temper. Lisbon reveals that the gun that killed Eleanor was in her trunk. Constance sputters that it's not hers. She politely asks for a lawyer.Lisbon tells Jane they're charging Constance. She waits for him to say she didn't do it. He obliges. Lisbon asks for actual evidence.He asks if they noticed flower in Constance's car.Lisbon gets a visit from Osvaldo Ardiles from the DA's office. He's super peeved at Cho for getting involved in Anthony's dad's case and agreeing to track down his alibi witness. Oscar wants Lawrence to flip on the two gang leaders. Lisbon tells Cho they shouldn't get involved.Cho goes to find Anthony but a social worker has him on the elevator and is grabbing onto his collar. He refuses to turn him over. Anthony elbows the man in the gut to break free and Cho grabs him. Cho says he has to prosecute him for battery and takes Anthony away.Jane visits Ariel, who is now first chair. She felt sadness and relief when she got the news. She was thinking of leaving last week, but now she's in the top spot. Jane sees that she's pleased but feels guilty, which he thinks is understandable. He asks if there's a florist nearby.Cho waits outside a gang house in the hood until he hears someone call out to Jaden. Jaden runs and Cho makes a spectacular off-a-front-porch dive and tackles him. A giant man tries to stop them but Cho punches him swiftly in the nose and takes Jaden away.Jane brings Lisbon a hydrangea at the concert hall, but won't tell her why for fear of spoiling his fun.At CBI, Osvaldo from the DA's office tells Cho they're dropping charges against Lawrence. He doesn't buy the alibi buy they had to re-interview the store owner and his testimony got shaky. Oscar says from now on his unit gets no help from the DA's office. He thinks in six months Lawrence will be back in jail. Cho thinks he's wrong, but we can see he has his doubts.At concert rehearsal, Jane has people bring in bouquets of hydrangeas and place them on the end of the stage. Kieran the oboist hits a sour note.Jane interrupts and says Kieran is feeling guilty because he killed Eleanor. Eleanor was carrying a bouquet of them that night and he took them, so seeing them again threw his concentration. He framed Constance. With the first and second chair violinist out of the way, the third got to move up. They tell Ariel that Kieran is obsessed with her. She's horrified and runs off. They stop Kieran.He explains that he followed Eleanor to her performance that night and shot her. He took the flowers because he didn't think she deserved them. He thinks Ariel was ten times the performer Eleanor was.Cho sees Anthony reunited with his dad. Cho tells Lawrence if he hasn't left the gang in a month, he'll know. He tells him not to screw up his chance. Anthony gives Rigsby a giant hug good-bye and runs off. Rigsby finds that odd. Cho tells him to check his pockets.Jane picks up the upright bass at the concert hall and starts an impromptu jazz session.

paranormal, murder

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Dog Day Afternoon

On August 22, 1972, first-time crook Sonny Wortzik (Al Pacino), his friend Salvatore "Sal" Naturale (John Cazale), and Stevie (Gary Springer) attempt to rob the First Brooklyn Savings Bank. The plan immediately goes awry when Stevie loses his nerve shortly after Sal pulls out his gun, and Sonny is forced to let him flee the scene. In the vault, Sonny discovers that he and Sal have arrived after the daily cash pickup, and only $1,100 in cash remains in the bank. To compensate, Sonny takes a number of traveler's cheques. He attempts to prevent the cheques from being traced by burning the bank's register in a trash can, but this causes smoke to billow out the side of the building, alerting the business across the street to suspicious activities. Within minutes, the building is surrounded by the police. Unsure of what to do, the two robbers camp out in the bank, holding all the workers hostage. Police Detective Sergeant Eugene Moretti (Charles Durning) calls the bank to tell Sonny that the police have arrived. Sonny warns that he and Sal have hostages and will kill them if anyone tries coming into the bank. Sal tells Sonny that he is ready to kill the hostages if necessary. Detective Moretti acts as hostage negotiator, while FBI Agent Sheldon (James Broderick) monitors his actions. Howard Calvin (John Marriott), the security guard, has an asthma attack, so Sonny releases him when Moretti asks for a hostage as a sign of good faith. Moretti convinces Sonny to step outside the bank to see how aggressive the police forces are. Using head teller Sylvia "The Mouth" (Penelope Allen) as a shield, Sonny exits the bank and begins a dialogue with Moretti that culminates in his shouting "Attica! Attica!" (invoking the recent Attica Prison riot), and the civilian crowd starts cheering for Sonny. After realizing they cannot make a simple getaway, Sonny demands that a helicopter be landed on the roof to fly him and Sal out of the country. When they are informed that the asphalt roof of the bank will not support a helicopter, Sonny demands that a vehicle drive him and Sal to an airport so that they can board a jet. He also demands pizzas for the hostages (which are delivered to the scene) and that his wife be brought to the bank. When Sonny's wife, Leon Shermer (Chris Sarandon), a pre-operative transgender woman, arrives, she reveals to the crowd and officials one of Sonny's reasons for robbing the bank is to pay for Leon's sex reassignment surgery, and that Sonny also has an estranged divorced wife, Angie (Susan Peretz), and children. As night sets in, the lights in the bank all shut off. Sonny goes outside again and discovers that Agent Sheldon has taken command of the scene. He refuses to give Sonny any more favors, but when the bank manager, Mulvaney (Sully Boyar), goes into a diabetic shock, Agent Sheldon lets a doctor (Philip Charles MacKenzie) through. While the doctor is inside the bank, Sheldon convinces Leon to talk to Sonny on the phone. The two have a lengthy conversation that reveals Leon had attempted suicide to "get away from" Sonny. She had been hospitalized at the psychiatric ward of Bellevue Hospital until the police brought her to the scene. Leon turns down Sonny's offer to join him and Sal to wherever they take the plane. Sonny tells police listening to the phone call that Leon had nothing to do with the robbery attempt. After the phone call, the doctor asks Sonny to let Mulvaney leave and Sonny agrees. Mulvaney refuses, instead insisting that he remain with his employees. The FBI calls Sonny out of the bank again. They have brought his mother to the scene. She unsuccessfully tries persuading him to give himself up, and Agent Sheldon signals that a limousine will arrive in 10 minutes to take them to a waiting jet. Once back inside the bank, Sonny writes out his will, leaving money from his life insurance to Leon for her sex change and to Angie. When the limousine arrives, Sonny checks it for any hidden weapons or booby traps. When he decides the car is satisfactory, he settles on Agent Murphy (Lance Henriksen) to drive Sonny, Sal, and the remaining hostages to Kennedy Airport. Per Sonny's earlier agreement, an additional hostage, Edna (Estelle Omens) is released, and the remaining hostages get into the limousine with Sonny and Sal. Sonny sits in the front next to Murphy while Sal sits behind them. Murphy repeatedly asks Sal to point his gun at the roof so Sal won't accidentally shoot him. As they wait on the airport tarmac for the plane to taxi into position, Maria is released and gives Sal her rosary beads to help him through his first plane journey. Murphy again reminds Sal to aim his gun up so he does not fire by accident. Sal does so, and Agent Sheldon forces Sonny's weapon onto the dashboard, creating a distraction which allows Murphy to pull a revolver hidden in his armrest and shoot Sal in the head. Sonny is immediately arrested and the hostages are all escorted to the terminal. The film ends with Sonny watching Sal's body being taken from the car on a stretcher. Subtitles reveal that Sonny was sentenced to 20 years in prison, Angie and her children subsisted on welfare, and Leon had her sex reassignment surgery.

comedy, atmospheric

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Moonstruck

Thirty-seven-year-old Loretta Castorini (Cher), an Italian-American widow, is a bookkeeper in Brooklyn Heights, New York, where she lives with her family: her father Cosmo (Vincent Gardenia) a successful plumber; her mother Rose (Olympia Dukakis); and her paternal grandfather (Feodor Chaliapin, Jr). Her boyfriend Johnny Cammareri (Danny Aiello) proposes to her before leaving for Sicily to be with his dying mother; she accepts, but is insistent that they carefully follow tradition as she believes her first marriage was cursed by her failure to do so, resulting in her husband's death. Johnny asks Loretta to invite his estranged younger brother Ronny (Nicolas Cage) to the wedding. Loretta returns home and informs her parents of the engagement. Cosmo dislikes Johnny and is reluctant to commit to paying for the "real" wedding Loretta insists on, while Rose is pleased that Loretta likes Johnny but does not love him; she believes that one can easily be driven crazy by a partner whom one loves. The next day, Loretta goes to see Ronny at his bakery. He reveals that he has a wooden prosthetic hand, and he explains that he blames Johnny for the loss of his hand and his own fiancée; Ronny became distracted while talking to Johnny as he cut bread for him, his hand was mangled in the slicer, and his fiancée left him. Loretta insists that they discuss the matter upstairs in his apartment, where she cooks for him and then tells him that she believes he is a "wolf" who cut off his own hand to escape the trap of a bad relationship. Ronny reacts furiously and passionately, kissing Loretta (who responds to his kiss) and then carrying her to his bed where they make love. At the same time, Cosmo is dining with his mistress Mona (Anita Gillette) and giving her jewelry. That evening, Rose's brother Raymond (Louis Guss) and his wife Rita (Julie Bovasso) join Rose and Cosmo for dinner, and they all wonder where Loretta is. Raymond recalls that when he was a boy and Cosmo was courting Rose, he thought that a particularly bright moon one night was somehow brought to the house by Cosmo because of his love for Rose. That night, Loretta remains at Ronny's apartment and sees such a moon; Raymond sees it as well, and it leads him and Rita to make love. The next morning, Loretta tells Ronny they can never see each other again. She slaps him when he claims to be in love with her ("Snap out of it!") and he agrees to never see her again if she will attend the opera (his other great love) with him that night. She agrees. She then goes to church and confesses her infidelity. She unexpectedly sees her mother there, and Rose tells her that Cosmo is having an affair; Loretta is doubtful. Loretta then goes to Raymond and Rita's store to close out the cash register, after which she impulsively goes to the hair salon and buys a glamorous evening gown. Loretta and Ronny (wearing a tuxedo) meet at Lincoln Center, and each is impressed with the other's appearance. Loretta is deeply moved by her first opera, Puccini's La bohème. But as they leave, Loretta sees Cosmo and Mona, and she confronts her father. He sees that she is with Ronny, and he suggests that they simply agree that they didn't see each other at all, but Loretta is conflicted. Loretta then intends to return home alone, but Ronny leads her back to his apartment where he passionately and desperately persuades her into another tryst. The same night, Rose dines alone at a restaurant and sees a college professor, Perry (John Mahoney), being dramatically dumped by a female student, a similar scene having played out with a different girl the night Johnny proposed to Loretta. Rose invites Perry to dine with her, asks him why men pursue women, and then shares with him her belief that men pursue women because they fear death. Perry walks Rose home and tries to convince her to invite him in; she refuses "because I'm married. Because I know who I am." Later, Johnny unexpectedly returns from Sicily after his mother's "miraculous" recovery and goes to Loretta's house; Rose explains that she's not there and then asks him why men chase women. He tells her it may be because they fear death, with which Rose agrees. After this exchange he leaves, planning to return in the morning to see Loretta. In the morning, Loretta returns home in a reverie but is then distressed to learn from Rose that Johnny will be there soon. Ronny then arrives, and Rose notes their matching "love bites" and invites him for breakfast over Loretta's objections. Cosmo and his father emerge from upstairs, and the older man cajoles Cosmo into agreeing to pay for Loretta's wedding. Rose then confronts Cosmo and, after he acknowledges in response to her questioning that she has been a good wife, demands that he end his affair; he is upset but agrees and, after insistence from Rose, also agrees to go to confession, and they then affirm their love for each other. Raymond and Rita also arrive, concerned and seemingly reluctantly suspicious, to find out why Loretta didn't make the previous day's bank deposit; they are relieved to learn that she merely forgot and still has the money. When Johnny finally arrives, he breaks off the engagement, superstitiously believing that their marriage would cause his mother's death. Loretta, momentarily offended by his breaking the engagement, chastises Johnny for breaking his promise and throws the engagement ring at him. Seizing the moment, Ronny borrows the ring and asks Loretta to marry him; she accepts. To Rose's chagrin, Loretta declares that she loves Ronny. The family toasts the couple with champagne and a befuddled Johnny joins in at the grandfather's urging, as he will now be part of the family after all.

romantic, humor, entertaining, boring

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Mad Max 2

Against a backdrop of vintage documentary footage and clips from the movie Mad Max and other archival footage of war, a narrator's voice (Harold Baigent) in the near future remembers the time of chaos after the collapse of the oil-based economy, and the apocalyptic world war that followed. The narrator relates how gangs of scavengers took over the roads, pillaging for fuel, and how ordinary men were broken in the decay: men like Max Rockatansky (Mel Gibson), the Road Warrior, who lost his wife and infant child to the gangs, and became an empty "shell of a man."Max and his dog are being chased down an Australian Outback road, two cars and a motorbike pursuing Max's V8 Interceptor. Max deploys his booster and outruns his pursuers, wrecking the two cars. The motorbike riders pull up as Max is collecting fuel from one of the wrecked cars, and the bike's driver, Wez (Vernon Wells), pulls an arrow from his own arm, screaming defiance at Max. Wez rides off, leaving Max on his own. Searching the wrecked truck, Max finds the mutilated body of a dead child, and picks up the child's tiny music box, amused by the tune it plays. Max drives off a short time later.Max spots a gyrocopter by the side of the road. He approaches cautiously, but when he catches the snake guarding the 'copter, a man camouflaged with sand bursts from the ground, aiming a crossbow at him. The Gyro Captain (Bruce Spence) has been using the 'copter to attract the curious, and get their fuel once the snake has done its work. Max warns him the Interceptor's full tanks are booby-trapped. The Gyro Captain orders Max to disarm the bomb. When the Captain opens the passenger door, Max's dog attacks the Gyro Captain and the tables are turned. To save his own skin, the Gyro Captain offers to show Max an oil-refinery not far away, suggesting that the group that lives there will give Max all the fuel he needs. Max takes the man prisoner and drives to the refinery.They arrive on a hill next to the refinery to find it under siege from a gang using all sorts of odd-looking vehicles, from motorbikes to hot-rods. The gang is under the leadership of a huge, masked man calling himself Lord Humungus (Kjell Nilsson). As he watches through binoculars, Max spots Wez arguing with Humungus.Max, the dog and the Gyro Captain settle in for the night. The Gyro Captain pleads for his freedom, but Max reminds him the deal was Max wouldn't kill him. The three eat from a small can of dog food, the Captain getting the last morsels from it after Max and the dog.In the morning four cars make a sortie from the refinery compound, heading in separate directions, with Humungus' people in pursuit. One car is intercepted close to their hide-out, and its driver and co-driver captured and tortured. Watching through binoculars, Max and the Gyro Captain see that one of the victims is a woman, who is raped and then viciously murdered. Max arrives at the scene after all except the rapist have left. He disposes of the rapist with a set of bolt cutters, and releases the badly wounded male victim, Nathan (David Downer), who offers Max as much gas as he likes if he takes him back to the compound.Pulling up outside the compound, Max gets out and enters the compound at gunpoint, carrying Nathan over his shoulder. Max's car (with the dog) is brought inside by the compound's Mechanic (Steve J. Spears), as the leader of the refinery-people, Pappagallo (Michael Preston), interrogates Max about the fate of the other escapees. Max can tell him nothing, and points out he just wants his gas, as Nathan promised. However, Nathan dies and Pappagallo informs Max that whatever arrangement he had died with Nathan. Just then, Humungus' gang approaches, and the gate to the compound (an old school-bus, reinforced with armor plating) is closed, forcing the refinery people to let Max stay inside, cuffed to a pipe.Humungus tells the refinery-people he intercepted all their escapees, and has learned from the captives that they were sent out to find a semi-tractor big enough to haul the fuel-filled tanker from the compound. He offers the refinery-people the chance to walk away free, if they leave the refinery, the tanker and all the fuel to him and his gang. He gives them one day to decide. While Humungus is making his speech, the Feral Kid (Emil Minty) who gets in and out of the compound through hidden tunnels, throws a razor-sharp boomerang at Humungus' gang, killing Wez's companion. Wez goes berserk, and wants to storm the compound immediately, but Humungus wrestles him down, telling him to bide his time - he'll get his revenge once the fuel is theirs. Humungus & his gang drive away.The people of the compound are divided; some want to accept Humungus' offer while Pappagallo and others, among them the Warrior Woman (Virginia Hey), try to dissuade them. As the discussion gets more heated, they forget about Max, who undoes his cuffs. The Feral Kid crawls out of his burrow next to Max, who plays the musical box to entertain him and - when the kid laughs with delight - carelessly throws the toy to him.The discussion isn't going Pappagallo's way: most of the refinery people want to give up, a sticking point being that they have no vehicle that can pull the tanker, and that they're no match for Humungus' brutal gang anyway. Max offers to deliver a rig to haul the tanker, the one he found on the road while being chased by Wez, in return for his car and all the fuel he can carry. The deal is accepted.In the dead of night, Max and the dog set off on foot, Max carrying fuel for the truck in jerrycans. Near Humungus' camp, he stumbles and the noise alerts the guards. The Feral Kid, who's followed Max, draws them off by imitating the call of a wild animal.In the morning, Max arrives at the hill where he left the Gyro Captain shackled to a log, only to find that that resourceful gentleman has set off across the wasteland, dragging the log. Max follows his trail and catches up with him. They arrive at the gyrocopter, finding a dead man who'd been killed by the Captain's snake. Max checks the man for supplies, finding a shell for his sawed-off shotgun (which had empty chambers the entire time). Max, dog and Gyro Captain fly to the truck where Max found the music box when he was chased by Wez. Max gets the truck started and throws the Gyro Captain the keys to the shackles, then drives off with his dog. The Gyro Captain calls "We're partners!" after them.The gyrocopter follows in Max's wake as he heads off to break through the siege. Max takes Humungus' gang by surprise, and - aided by the Gyro Captain who drops snakes on the pursuers - makes it into the compound, although the truck suffers substantial damage. Humungus' gang are in hot pursuit, and Wez gets inside the compound by climbing aboard the truck. The gang now attacks the gate to get inside. In the confusion, no one except Max notices that Pappagallo is wounded while defending the gate. Max runs to take his place, using a flame thrower to prevent the enemy from breaching the gate. Wez brutally kills one of the compound crew and escapes to the outside. The compound people now greet Max as a friend and hero, wanting him to drive the truck for the escape run. Max just wants to get his fuel and go. The Gyro Captain lands in the compound, attracting excited attention. He immediately befriends a pretty young girl (Arkie Whiteley), persuading her to run away with him.That night, Humungus, furious with the turn of events, crucifies and tortures the remaining captives on a hill outside the compound, and threatens that none of them will get out alive. While the compound is listening to his ranting, the Gyro Captain and the girl make for the 'copter, but at the last minute, the girl changes her mind - she won't leave her people. The Captain stays in the compound with her.Meanwhile, Max is fueling up and getting ready to leave. Pappagallo tries to persuade him to drive the truck. Max refuses, and Pappagallo in his disappointment confronts him, calling him a coward, no better than the garbage outside. When Pappagallo asks Max about his history, wanting to know how he became so heartless, Max hits him. Returning to his work, Max finds the Feral Kid has hidden himself in the Interceptor, obviously expecting to tag along. Max evicts him without ceremony. As Max pulls out of the compound at daybreak, The Gyro Captain tells Max he's making a big mistake.Humungus' gang sees Max driving away, and Wez - disobedient to his leader's will - sets off in pursuit with some companions in Humungus' vehicle. Max uses his booster tanks to escape, however, Wez does the same and overtakes Max. Wez hammers Max's windscreen with length of pipe and the Interceptor rolls off the road. Severely injured, Max barely has time to crawl out of the wreck with his dog and hide behind a rock, before Wez's companions scramble down to the wreck. Wez wants Max alive. One of Wez' men kills Max' dog, however, Max is spared from capture when the booby-trapped tank of the Interceptor explodes when opened by Toady, killing Wez's men. Wez pulls away, leaving Max for dead. At the compound, the Gyro Captain sees the smoke from the explosion, and fetches a semi-conscious Max back to the compound on the 'copter.Max wakes up in the infirmary to find the Feral Kid bringing him his gear. Outside, Pappagallo is going over the escape plan with his people. The tanker, driven by Pappagallo, is to leave first, to draw off the attackers, allowing the rest of the people to escape in another direction in the school bus and other vehicles, to rendezvous with the tanker at nightfall. Max convinces them to let him drive the truck, pointing out that - despite his injuries - he's the best chance they've got. One of the women gives Max a small supply of shells for his shotgun.They set off, Max driving the now-fortified truck, pulling the tanker which is guarded by the Warrior-Woman, the Mechanic and another warrior. At the last minute, the Feral Kid (supposed to go in the school-bus) jumps on the truck. The tanker smashes through Humungus' lines and heads off with Pappagallo in an escort vehicle, and the Gyro Captain providing aerial support.The school-bus and the other vehicles quietly leave the compound without attracting interest, just as Pappagallo had predicted. Some of Humungus' people then enter the abandoned compound to take possession, but the compound has been rigged with explosives, and blows up only moments afterward.Humungus has been keeping Wez chained after his disobedience, but now sets him free. They all chase the tanker, and one by one pick off the warriors defending it, Wez killing the Warrior Woman, and Humungus killing Pappagallo. Things are looking bad for Max, as the gang starts shooting out the tires. The Gyro Captain creates a diversion, dropping Molotov-cocktails from above. The 'copter is damaged and goes down, but Humungus has to stop to put out the fire in his vehicle before he can join the pursuit again.Only Max and the Feral Kid remain to battle Wez and another gang-member, who have climbed aboard the truck and are attacking the cab. Max gets rid of Wez by slamming the brakes, throwing him over the front of the truck. The Kid helps Max fight the other guy, and then Max makes a U-turn, heading back the way he came. The Kid goes out on the bonnet to retrieve Max's shotgun shells, when Wez, who's been clinging to the front of the truck, suddenly pops up to grab the Kid. Max hauls the Kid back to safety, just as Humungus, speeding to catch up and realizing too late the truck has turned back, slams into the truck in a horrific head-on collision. Humungus and Wez are destroyed, and the truck goes off the road on its side in a spectacular wreck.When Humungus' people arrive at the wreckage, they can see even from a distance that what's spilling from the broken tanker isn't gas - it's red dirt: the tank was only a decoy. A little later, Max climbs out of the truck, carrying the Kid. He stops by a tap, letting the red dirt run through his fingers. The Gyro Captain comes along, driving his copter on the road. Max and the Captain exchange wry smiles, Max shaking his head tiredly.At sunset, the school-bus and the other vehicles head off, with the Feral Kid waving out the back of the bus at someone. The narrator's voice comes on, telling of their journey north, to safety, with the Gyro Captain as their new leader and that the gas was hidden in canisters in the vehicles all along. The narrator is revealed as the Feral Kid grown to manhood, and the Road Warrior is seen standing alone by the side of the road - "the last we ever saw of him."

comedy, boring, cruelty, murder, cult, violence, atmospheric, good versus evil, action

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Antares

Antares is one of the brightest stars in the Scorpius constellation and due to its reddish appearance it has been attributed with passion and intricate relationships, helpless sexuality, as well as its vehement feelings or emotions that can trigger passionate actions that can lead to frenzy and self-destruction.The film starts with a shocking and unexpected taxicab accident. This tragic accident takes Tomasz straight to the hospital where Eva -a married woman- works as a nurse. Tomasz and Eva are seeing in a several lustful scenes and their affair deepens when Eva has some marital problems.At the same time, there is another couple in some way connected to the other one, and being a portent of what will happen next. Sonja is a young woman working in the local supermarket as a cashier. Her insecurities and possessiveness will make her always jealous of her boyfriend Marco that works posting billboards around the city. She is pretending to be pregnant just to keep him with her.Marco is always reserved and gives Sonja reasons to be jealous. He is in fact involved with Nicole, a divorced-single-mom who is trying to move on in her life away from her former husband Alex, which is obsessed with her and is unable to accept her decision to start her life all over again; his ruthless and unhappiness will make everyone is miserable. One way or another, the couples are connected in a deceitful love triangle. The tension and a state of uncertainly is a result of living a double life. Eva and Tomasz relationship is marked with strong emotions, explicit imagery and very implicit sex scenes. Eva would get deep in a life of sexual desire, intrigue and lies as a response to the lack of affection from her husband Alfred. Her desire for love and excitement would make her look for something different.Although Eva and Alfred seem to have a very stable marriage with a high sense of unity and responsiveness with their daughter and the house chores, their feelings and communication are gone. They would eventually break apart and their daughter would get in a state of desolation that makes her continuously get away from the house. Eva finds in Tomasz an escape and the rebirth of her sexuality bringing back her passion and sensitivity.She learns that Tomasz is married too, but she doesnt care, since this relationship awakens her to a new life where monotony and unhappiness have no place. She would put herself first in her quest of finding the enjoyment in life but it wont prevent to damage her family as a result.The young couple in the other hand is casual, especially in Marcos mind. His carelessness would prevent him to start a family. Sonja is running against time since her lie can be exposed anytime. She would desperately try to get pregnant before he realizes and leaves her. Her possessive personality scares away Marco and makes the relationship quite chaotic. Their disorganized life would lead them to continuous fights and jealousy. This turbulent relationship would have almost a tragic and dramatic end, when she finds out that Marco is secretly seeing Nicole.Nicole at the same time has to deal day by day with the visits of her ex-husband Alex. Alex cannot accept that she is completely moved on with their relationship and wont stop until he gains her back. His deceptions, misery and ill-temper would bring many violent actions that would many people upset. He would try to prove to Nicole that he has changed and that he would treat her with more respect, promising her not to hurt her again.His lies are exposed when he attempts to convince Nicole about being the perfect husband; this does nothing but put her in emotional distress and fears when in her apartment he forces her to listen to him. He tries hard to portrait a good image, but he is betrayed by his unpredictable personality, to the point of being violent towards her.That same night Marco went to see her and Alex confronted him punching him on the face. She would make him leave threaten him with calling the police. Enraged, he leaves her apartment crashing his car against the other cars parked in the parking lot, once leaving the building; he drives like a maniac through the streets, he gets distracted passing a red light and crashing against a taxicab starting the vicious circle of their lives.

sadist

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A Boy and His Dog

Opening: World War IV lasted five days. In the post-apocalyptic world of 2024, rover Vic (Don Johnson) hears a voice from his dog and communicates with him telepathically. The dog is called Blood (voiced by Tim McIntire), and he calls Vic "Albert". Blood is trying to find a female by scent for Vic, and Vic scavenges for food. Only Vic can hear the voice of Blood.As they travel, Blood recounts history and quizzes Vic on various topics in history including the four world wars, from World War I (1914-1918), World War II (1939-1945), World War III (1950-1983), which were a series of wars, also called the Cold War, between the free and unfree world (Korea, Vietnam, Indochina, Congo were among them), to World War IV, also called the Five-Day War, or the Nuclear War of 2007. The setting is what was once the ruins in and around Phoenix, Arizona. The area is a desert wasteland, populated by marauders and rovers who battle for food found in the tops of buildings that was once "civilization" where the desert sands have consumed most of the buildings. There are rumors that what civilization exists now is below ground for the past several years since the nuclear war. The people of these underground civilizations are called "downunders". Neither Vic nor Blood want to venture below to live. Blood finds women for Vic to rape, and Vic supplies Blood with food since he cannot hunt on his own.We learn Blood is a former police dog, and wants to find the "promised land", where farming is possible and several above-ground utopias are said to exist. Blood sniffs out a woman, but rovers have reached her first and have killed her after gang raping her. Vic begins to argue with Blood about his inability to find women. Blood wants to go "over the hill" to paradise. Vic promises that they'll go once Blood finds him another woman for Vic to have sex with.Some time later, Vic and Blood view a small group of scavengers, led by a brutal gang leader, a self-proclaimed "king" named Fellini (Ron Feinberg), who orders his group to dig up a stash of crates containing canned food. Temped by the food, Vic runs forward when Fellini and his men are all in the hole digging and steals some of the bags of canned food, shooting a few of Fellini's men who chase after him. However, Fellini orders his men to let Vic go, impressed by the young man's courage and ablity. As Vic and Blood run away, they are watched from a distance by a small group of mysterious men (unseen from the waist up), where one of whom comments that he just might do. They decide to "put out the cheese" to trap Vic.That evening, Vic and Blood go to an outdoor makeshift movie theater in a shantytown camp to watch some vintage stag films, and Blood smells a female. She is in attendance at the stag film, but in disguise as a male solo. Vic follows the girl to an underground building which is an abandoned YMCA, and he watches her dress. He attacks her and orders her to undress so he can rape her. While she undresses for him, she tells him her name is Quilla June Holmes (Susanne Benton). Blood interrupts them to advise of mauraders nearby. Quilla realizes Blood can talk to Vic telepathicaly. She attempts to communicate with the dog, but Blood just barks at her. Meanwhile, Vic ambushes the mauraders and Blood joins in, killing some of them. Vic imitates the "screamers" (radiation victims) and Blood battles another dog. Vic is about to be shot from behind, and Quilla saves him. The rest of the mauraders run off, but Blood is hurt. Then, the real screamers show up, forcing Vic and Quilla to hide and wait in a storage tank. Vic and Quilla make love repeatedly.Later when morning arrives, Blood goes off to see if the screamers have left, and Quilla tries to convince Vic to go "down under". Blood wants Vic to leave her, and they argue. When Vic goes back to see Quilla, she knocks him out and flees. Vic decides to track her down, but Blood thinks (rightly) that it's a trap. After following Quilla's footprints throught the desert, Vic and Blood come across a small steel obsticle standing in the middle of the desert which leads "down under". Using a key card that Quilla left behind, Vic uses it to open the steel door to the underground. Vic goes down under, leaving Blood alone and injured.Vic climbs down several long ladders through what appears to be an abandoned missle silo, past mysterious machinery, then opens a metal door to find an underground cemetery. He is captured and washed by a clown-faced robot dressed in farmer's garb called Michael (Hal Baylor) with several strangers looking on. After given clean farmer clothes, Vic is dragged by Michael through a local park, walking past picnicers, giggling young girls, a marching band playing Stars and Stripes, and barbershop quartets, all wearing clown face makeup. What we get a glimpse of is a surreal, bizarre re-creation of life in the rural Midwest during the early 20th century with a populace of robotic conformists. Vic stops to talk to a dog similar to Blood, but the dog does not respond. The bizzare underground community wear white clown-faces to distingish themselves from above-grounders that dare to tresspass in their community. Loudspeakers continuously blare announcements, pontificate morals for daily living, and down home recipes.In a church/town hall building, residents may attend the "awards and punishments" at their own discretion. It is led by Lou Craddock (Jason Robards) who reviews blueprints for buildings to be built and passes judgements on transgressors, assisted by Mez Smith (Helene Winston) and Doctor Moore (Alvy Moore), the clownish but cold-hearted rulers of this underground town. Severe judgement (death) is called "farming out" or "going to 3". We learn the underground town is called Topeka. Quilla arrives, and she asks to be put on the committee having served her purpose of luring Vic to their underground community. Lou refuses by claiming that she is too young to rule and arranges for her to get married instead. Quilla leaves and vents her anger to her boyfriend Gary (Michael Rupert) and makes plans to overthrow the ruthless committee, but in the meantime be a good girl and play it safe. At the same time, the dog is brought into the church where he is interrogated by Lou asking if he told Vic anything. But when the dog does not respond, Lou orders the dog to be sent to the farm.Vic is brought before Lou, and Doctor Moore reads his medical statistics. Lou tells the unruly Vic that he and the members of the Topeka Committee have been watching him on the surface for days now, and that Vic has been chosen to help re-populate Topeka, as its male residents are sterile and/or impotent due to their ridiculously wholesome, clean, and subterranean living. Vic laughs hysterically, thinking he'll get to sleep with dozens of women. The sinister Topeka Committee member Mez laughs back hysterically indicating to Vic that sleeping with dozens of women is not what they have in mind.In the next scene, a couple is married in a hospital room, and Vic is in attendance (strapped to a gurney) to provide semen. Quilla arrives and rescues him, subduing the doctors. She tells him he is only going to be allowed to impregnate 35 girls, then will be put to death. They rush out of the hospital with the help of Gary, and find Vic's guns, then Vic starts to leave. Quilla tries to stop him to help her overthrow the dictatorship of Topeka, but Vic wants to return to Blood. The Committee convenes at the town square and begins broadcasting the sentence on Quilla and her friends - the farm. Gary and all of his rebel friends are attacked and killed by Michael. Vic fires at Michael, but the bullets have no effect. One of Vic's gunshots disables "Michael", who is a robot. Vic and Quilla flee firing gunshots at Michael while the committee remains indifferent and begins planning for its next "donor". Lou also orders that another Michael security robot be exhumed from the storage warehouse, with his clowish smile wipped off.Vic and Quilla return to the surface where it is now night. Relieved that the Topeka citizens are not chasing after them, they look around and they find Blood nearby, who is dying. But conditions on the surface have become worse with Fellini and his gang have taken over for the most part. He hasen't eaten for days and will die soon unless Vic provides him with food. Quilla tells Vic that it's too late to save Blood and Vic should come away with her far away if he really loves her. Vic must choose... he looks at Blood, then looks back at Quilla.In the final shot, Vic and Blood are putting out a campfire near the steel dome. Having eaten, Blood feels better and he and Vic walk away from their campfire into the sunrise of dawn. Quilla is nowhere to be seen, but pieces of her wedding gown are seen strewn around the dying campfire. Vic and Blood talk about how Vic was touched by the fact that Quilla June picked him to be with instead of the dictatorship committee of Topeka. Blood remarks, "She had marvelous judgement... if not a particularly good taste (!)" The boy and his dog laugh at the pun and they both walk away "over the hill" toward paradise.

comedy, murder, cult, alternate reality, psychedelic, satire, alternate history

tt0072730

Cat's Eye

The film consists of three stories linked together by a cat as he wanders from city to city, seeking out a little girl (Drew Barrymore) in order to save her from a supernatural danger. As a result of it's wanderings, the cat plays a minor role in the first two stories and a significant part in the third."Quitters Inc."In the first tale, set in and around New York City, the cat is captured by a man who works for a self-help firm called Quitters Inc, that aids people in quitting smoking. On a busy NY street, a man, Dick, is driven to an office building by a friend who tells him "These guys'll change your life." At his first visit, his counselor, Vinnie Donatti, asks Dick for all his cigarettes and crushes them wildly on his desk. Dick tells him that this form of treatment leaves much to be desired, however, Donatti gets to the actual treatment. He opens a large set of curtains in the room, showing a white room containing a cat eating at a small bowl. Donatti flips a switch that sends a low charge of electricity into the floor of the room, causing the cat to jump around wildly. Donatti cuts the power after a few seconds and explains to Dick that the association of pain with eating may one day cause the cat to starve in front of it's dish. Donatti tells Dick that his treatment begins right away; there will be people watching him constantly, night and day. If Dick smokes one cigarette, he will be punished. Dick suggests that they will bring him in and give him the shock treatment. Donatti says it will not be Dick, but his wife that will be tortured in the room. Further treatments will be increased voltage and beatings of both him and his wife. If he's unable to give up smoking after 30 days, he will be killed.Dick goes home very troubled. Late at night, he sneaks into his home office and begins to light a cigarette when he hears a noise from the room's closet. Though he's not completely certain anyone is hiding in the closet, he still tells the person that he didn't actually light the cigarette. Dick is able to keep from smoking for several more days until he's stuck in traffic. He opens his glove compartment looking for some gum and finds an old pack of cigarettes. He ducks below the dashboard and lights up, waving the smoke off. When he looks over to his left, he sees one of Donatti's men drive off, smiling evilly. Dick races home and finds his wife gone. He gets a phone call from Donatti, who tells him to report to Quitters Inc. When he arrives, he sees his wife in the cat's room. He tries to free her by breaking the glass and Donatti's goon subdues him and makes him watch his wife being shocked. Dick is devastated and wonders how he'll explain everything to his wife. Donatti says he may be surprised at how his wife takes the news. His wife seems to understand that Dick has done this for her and for his mentally-impaired daughter, who lives at a special boarding school.Several months later, Dick receives another phone call from Donatti. Dick has been cigarette-free for that long but Donatti says they need to discuss another issue. Dick has gained a significant amount of weight, something that happens to the majority of Donatti's clients. He prescribes some illegal diet pills for Dick and tells him to use them wisely. If he's unable to control his weight, Donatti will send someone to Dick's house to cut off his wife's little finger. Some time after that last meeting, with Dick successful at keeping his weight down, he and his wife have dinner with the man who originally told Dick about Quitters Inc. The group makes a toast to Quitters Inc. Dick's friend's wife, however, is missing her little finger."The Ledge"The second story opens in Atlantic City with a rich businessman, Cressner, betting on the same cat (which had escaped from Quitters Inc), seeing if it can cross a busy street safely. Though it causes a minor car crash, the cat makes it safely and Cressner decides to keep it for a pet.In another part of the city, a man, Johnny Norris, a tennis instructor, is beaten and kidnapped by two of Cressner's thugs. He's brought to Cressner's penthouse where Cressner tells him that he knows he's been having an affair with Cressner's wife. Cressner offers Norris several options: he can agree to indentured servitude to Cressner for several years and be free, but not see Cressner's wife again, or he can skirt the entire outside of the building on a ledge about five inches wide, about 300 feet above the ground. If he completes the entire circuit, he'll be free and he can have Cressner's wife. If Norris refuses both options, the police will be tipped off about a kilo of pure heroin Cressner's thugs have hidden in the trunk of Norris' car.Norris agrees to walk the ledge outside the building. Completing the entire circuit around the building takes him about three hours. Along the way, he encounters sheer winds at the corners and is constantly taunted by Cressner himself, who sneaks into the penthouse opposite his own and honks a horn in Norris' ear through an open window. After Norris battles a pigeon that pecks his ankle, nearly sending him plummeting to the street, he stops in the window well of another penthouse. When Cressner discovers him there, he uses a fire house to soak him and threatens to blast him over the side.Before Norris makes it back to the outdoor balcony of Cressner's penthouse, Cressner has his goon, Tony, bring in a bag of money and a small Styrofoam crate, telling Tony to "put it on top of the money" in the bag. When Norris finally makes it to Cressner's balcony, he climbs over the railing and is immediately grabbed by Tony, who takes him at gunpoint to his boss. Cressner says he'll honor the bargain and give Norris the money and his wife, however, when he kicks the bag, a severed head flies out... it is his wife's head. Cressner orders Tony to shoot Norris; as Tony takes aim, Cressner's cat trips him up and he loses his gun (the cat runs out the apartment's open door to freedom). Norris seizes it and shoots Tony, then holds Cressner hostage. Cressner pleads for his life, offering several million dollars. Norris refuses and makes a simple wager... the next scene shows Cressner on the same ledge he forced Norris to skirt. Cressner gets moving, making it around the first corner. However, when he reaches the side of the building where the pigeons roost, one begins pecking his ankle. Cressner kicks a bit too hard at the bird, loses his balance and falls to the street. On the ground, the cat silently witnesses his impact."The General"The cat makes his way to a suburban town on a delivery truck in Wilmington, North Carolina. There, he is taken in by a young girl, Amanda (the same girl from the vision in the opening scene), who names him "General." Amanda's mother immediately disapproves of her keeping the cat as a pet, saying that "cats can steal a young girl's breath" while they sleep. That night, the cat sleeps in Amanda's room. While the child sleeps, a hole opens up in a baseboard and a small, ugly troll emerges. He tries to climb up on Amanda's bed, but is startled by the cat and a short battle ensues, resulting in the troll's escape back into the hole it opened, which is immediately closed up. Amanda's parents, having heard the ruckus, burst into her room. Her mother immediately blames the cat for all the damage and assumes the cat was attacking her daughter. Amanda defends General, telling them about the troll. Naturally, they don't believe her, thinking she had a nightmare.The next day, while Amanda is at school, her mother lures General into a pet carrier and takes him to the pound, which leaves Amanda very upset after she gets home. At the pound, General is to be euthanized; Amanda's mother had told the staff there that the cat had attacked her daughter. One of the staff opens his cage and the cat escapes, running back to Amanda's house.In the girl's bedroom, the troll again emerges from the baseboard and places a small wedge under the door to keep intruders out. He crawls up to Amanda's bed, where she's fast asleep. He begins to use a form of magic that draws Amanda's breath from her mouth. Amanda quickly becomes distressed, finding it difficult to breath in her sleep. After a few moments, General finds his way in through the chimney shaft and immediately attacks the troll. They battle again throughout the room until the cat corners the troll on Amanda's small record player. General hits the button that starts the record, spinning the monster around. General then hits the switch that changes the rotation to 78 rpm; the troll is unable to hold on very long and is flung across the room into a fan, where it's mutilated, leaving behind a few recognizable body parts. Amanda's parents, who had been pounding on the door but unable to enter because of the doorstop wedged there, finally burst in. The mother is furious at seeing Amanda holding the cat, however, Amanda is able to defend General this time, pointing them toward the wrecked fan and the troll's remains. Her father sees one of the monster's arms, as well as it's tiny sword. They look at the weapon, bewildered. Amanda's mother makes her daughter promise she'll never talk about the troll outside of their family. Amanda slyly asks if the cat can stay and her mother allows it. Later that night the cat crawls into Amanda's parents bed where she's sleeping with them. She sees him & cuddles him.

cult, entertaining, sadist

tt0088889

Bloomington

Jackie Kirk (Sarah Stouffer), a 19-year-old former child actress begins attending college in Bloomington, Indiana to get away from the public spotlight of Hollywood. During her first week there at orientation, Jackie catches the eye of an infamous, womanizing lesbian teacher, named Catherine Stark (Allison McAtee). Catherine invites Jackie over to her house and before long, both are in bed making love.Catherine and Jackie begin a secret and scandalous affair that draws Jackie away from the college social life. Catherine and Jackie grow closer as they help each other discover more about themselves, when suddenly Jackie gets the chance to return to acting. Catherine becomes uncomfortable with their situation, seeing how it could seemingly never work out, with Jackie having to constantly visit Catherine under the guise of her just being a "friend", as it would be hazardous for both of them for should their romance ever got out.Catherine attempts to distance herself from Jackie by trying to declare they were never in a formal relationship, and that Jackie is not worth it in Catherine's eyes, while Jackie claims Catherine is worth it. The next day Jackie shows up at Catherine's doorstep... beat up after defending Catherine's reputation. Catherine sees paparazzi taking pictures and quickly drags Jackie into the house. While Catherine is taking care of Jackie, she notices Catherine is wearing a dress. When questioned about it, she reveals she is attending a party, Jackie asks if she is going alone, Catherine says no but will not reveal her date, and will not let Jackie replace her date, claiming she would just be attention starved. Jackie offends Catherine by insulting her for not being financed by her own means.Jackie stays on the couch at Catherine's house when Catherine returns from the party, acting passive-aggressive towards Jackie, she brings her date, a male closer to her age, into her room, causing Jackie to leave. Jackie goes to a party and hangs out with college friends.After leaving for L.A. to set up for the release of a new show Jackie's been cast in, Catherine loses her job due to her relationship with Jackie being partially exposed.Months later, Jackie and Catherine are shown sleeping together one last time. Saying their goodbyes as a formal end to their romance, Jackie leaves the next day for her new role back in California.

romantic

tt1409004

The Wolf Man

The 1941 version of the Wolf Man opens with the Universal Picture airplane and globe logo and theme, followed by title and credits. The featured players are shown with the actor's name and character's name. We zoom in on a shelf of books. An encyclopedia is opened to the article on Lycanthropy. Talbot Castle is mentioned in the old legend.The chauffeur (an uncredited Eric Wilton) drives Lawrence Stewart Talbot, known affectionately, as Larry (Lon Chaney, Jr.) to the family home, Talbot Castle. He is greeted, very formally, by his father, Sir John Talbot (Claude Rains). They enter a large room and Larry is introduced to Captain Paul Montford (Ralph Bellamy), the chief constable of the district. Larry expresses his sorrow over the death of his older brother, and heir to the family estate, John. Sir John apologizes for being so distant. Larry has been away for eighteen years. Two butlers enter the room carrying a large crate: a part for the telescope. Sir John and Larry walk up to the attic, now serving as an observatory. Larry works on the telescope, having worked for an optical company in California. He proudly explains one job was on the Mt. Wilson observatory. Larry trains his telescope on the town below and spots Gwen Conliffe (Evelyn Ankers) in her room putting on earrings. He takes a trip to Conliffe's antique shop hoping to meet Gwen in person. He does and asks for earrings as a gift. Larry asks for a very specific pair, then tells Gwen she has a pair up in her room. He decides to buy a cane. Larry grabs one with a silver wolf's head and jokes that it would make a good golf putter. Larry is trying to be charming, but balks at paying three pounds until Gwen explains, "Well, that's a very rare piece. It shows the wolf and the pentagram, the sign of the werewolf." She tells him a bit of the legend. She recites the old poem, "Even a man who is pure in heart and says his prayers by night, may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms, and the autumn moon is bright." A noise outside draws Gwen to the street outside. An old gypsy woman, Maleva (Maria Ouspenskaya) and her son Bela (Bela Lugosi) are riding into town with their cart and wagon.Larry returns to the house and asks his father about the legend. Sir John repeats the poem which leads the conversation to Gwen. Sir John encourages Larry to get to know the townsfolk. Gwen exits the shop that evening, and at the appointed time, Larry arrives. Gwen introduces Jenny Williams (Fay Helm). So Larry is resigned to a three-person date. Jenny sees wolfbane blooming and gathers some, reciting the poem. The three enter the gypsy camp. Bela greets them. They've come to have their fortunes told. Jenny insists on having her fortune told first. Maleva stares at Gwen and Larry, and then enters her tent. Bela tells Jenny to cut the cards. Larry and Gwen go off for a walk. Larry admits he watched her through his telescope. Gwen has an admission of her own, she's engaged to be married soon. Bela arranges the cards and stares at the flowers. Annoyed, Bela throws the flowers off the table and brushes his hair aside. There is a pentagram star on his forehead. Jenny demands to know what Bela saw in the cards. Bela asks for her hands, the left shows the past and the right shows the future. Bela sees the pentagram in a circle on her right hand: the next victim of the werewolf. Bela is now in a panic and demands Jenny leave, and quickly. Jenny runs through the woods, Larry and Gwen hear a wolf howl. Jenny screams and Larry runs off to help her. He sees a wolf attacking Jenny. The wolf turns on Larry and they struggle. He beats the animal with his cane, using the silver wolf's head to kill the beast. Larry was bitten in the struggle and staggers away. Gwen finds Larry and calls for help from Maleva who is passing in her cart. Maleva agrees to help and take him home to the castle.The butler, Kendall (an uncredited Leyland Hodgson), goes to the door and admits Larry, Gwen and Maleva. Gwen and the butler help Larry to an entry table. Maleva makes a quiet exit. A villager reports the death of Jenny, and Montford leaves with the man to investigate. Sir John and the butler take Larry upstairs to his room. A doctor is called. Twiddle (Forrester Harvey) takes notes as Montford dictates. Dr. Lloyd (Warren William) examines Jenny's remains and his observations are added to the notes. Frank Andrews (Patric Knowles) finds the body of Bela near Jenny. Larry's cane is found next to Bela's body.Larry wakes in his bedroom in Talbot Castle. Sir John, Dr. Lloyd and Montford enter the room. Montford asks Larry if the cane his is holding belongs to Larry. Larry says, "Why, of course. That's the one I killed the wolf with." Sir John tells his son that Bela the gypsy was killed and his cane was found near the body. The bite marks are gone. Sir John has an explanation for the scene of the crime and the doctor agrees, but Montford is not satisfied.In town, Larry is present when Bela's casket is brought into the church for services. Larry enters the church. Before he can open the lid and examine the body, the minister and Maleva enter the church. The minister is upset at the pending pagan celebration for Bela. Maleva opens the casket and recites, "The way you walked was thorny, through no fault of your own. But as the rain enters the soil, the river enters the sea, so tears run to a predestined end. Your suffering is over, Bela, my son. Now you will find peace."Charles Conliffe (J.M. Kerrigan) reassures his daughter, Gwen, that there is nothing the authorities can accuse her of. Gwen is still upset over Jenny's death. Jenny's mother, Mrs. Williams (an uncredited Doris Lloyd), along with other women of the village, confront Mr. Conliffe over Gwen's involvement in her daughter's death. Things escalate and Conliffe demands they all leave. Larry enters the shop and confronts the women. They exit in a hurry. Larry enters the parlor to talk to Gwen. She wants to know exactly what happened. Frank Andrews enters the shop with his dog. He walks to the parlor to talk to Gwen and Larry. The dog begins to bark at Larry. Gwen suggests her fiancé take the dog outside. Gwen and Larry discuss Frank while he is attending to his dog. Gwen explains that Frank is the gamekeeper on Sir John's estate. Larry extends his hand to Andrews, but Frank just stares at his hand, but does not shake it. Larry excuses himself. Gwen asks, "Frank, why were you so rude?" He explains he was mesmerized by the walking stick, and adds, "Well, there's something very tragic about that man. I'm sure that nothing but harm will come to you through him."Gwen and Frank attend the gypsy carnival and celebration for Bela. Larry shows up to watch the dancing. The three walk over to the target shooting booth. Larry does well with the rifle until a wolf figure pops up on the board. Larry walks over to the encampment. Maleva is there and wants to talk. She tells him she expected him sooner. Larry and Maleva enter the tent. She tells Larry that the wolf was Bela. She explains, "Bela became a wolf, and you killed him. A werewolf can be killed only with a silver bullet, or a silver knife, or a stick with a silver handle." Larry insists he killed an ordinary wolf. Maleva gives him a charm with a pentagram on it. She tells him, "It can break the evil spell." Maleva recites another section of the legend, "Whoever is bitten by a werewolf and lives, becomes a werewolf himself." Larry admits the wolf bit him. Maleva places the charm around Larry's neck and tells him to keep it on and over his heart, always. She asks to see the wound. Larry runs off, and Montford sees Maleva exit her tent. The word is spread amongst the gypsies and they break camp and prepare to leave the area.Larry bumps into Gwen. She and Frank had a quarrel so Larry volunteers to walk her home. She asks about the curious charm. He divulges that he is now a werewolf and gives Gwen the charm for her protection. Larry steals a kiss, but the noise of the gypsies scares Gwen off. One gypsy tells Larry they are frightened because there is a werewolf in camp. Larry reflects on the events of the past and runs home. In his room, Larry checks himself for any physical changes. He removes his shoes and one sock. To his horror his leg and foot are covered with tufts of hair. He removes the other sock and both feet and legs are now covered with a thick matting of long hair. The feet transform to animal paws. Larry stands and walks on his toes. He finds himself outside, prowling around the cemetery. His hands are now claws, and his face is dark and hairy. He sports sharp, long, canine teeth. Richardson, the gravedigger (an uncredited Tom Stevenson) is finishing up Jenny Williams grave and spots the Wolf Man. It growls at the gravedigger, then attacks and kills him. The howling wakes the townsfolk. Montford and Twiddle are joined by three other men by the body of the gravedigger. A severed jugular is the cause of death--the same as Jenny Williams. They spot wolf tracks in the dirt.The next morning an open window with wolf prints on the windowsill are seen. They lead to Larry Talbot's bed and a fully dressed Larry just waking up. On his chest is the mark of the five pointed star. He tries to wipe away the footprints, and then sees Montford investigating the garden below his window. Sir John informs his son that Richardson, the gravedigger, was killed and that the tracks lead up to the castle. Father and son discuss the legend until the church bell rings for morning services. The chauffeur drops the pair off at church. They greet the Conliffes outside then enter the church. Larry is uneasy and holds back. Everyone turns around to stare at the heir apparent to the Talbot estate. Larry quickly departs as the services begin.Sir John, Montford and Dr. Lloyd discuss the next steps needed in the main room of the castle. Larry enters the room and the discussion. Larry explains what they seek is a werewolf. Dr. Lloyd tells Larry it is a mental disorder. Andrews and Montford leave to set traps to catch the beast. After Larry leaves, Dr. Lloyd tells Sir John, "Your son is a sick man. He's received a shock that has caused definite psychic maladjustment. You must send him out of this village." Sir John accuses Lloyd of talking like a witch doctor, and believes that Larry staying in town is the best for his cure. Traps are set and covered with leaves.That night Larry is back out on the prowl and is snared in one of the traps. He growls and pants, dragging the trap around the woods. Men with dogs approach. The Wolf Man is frantic to escape. The dogs have lost the scent. Maleva rides up in her cart. She finds the Wolf Man and sees the trap on his leg. She repeats the chant, "The way you walk is thorny," speech, the same as she delivered for Bela. The Wolf Man changes back to Larry. She explains she is there to help. Larry removes the trap and runs off, but is stopped by two villagers on the hunt for the wolf. They recognize Master Larry and talk. Larry limps off and Montford follows. Larry goes into town and wakes Gwen. She lets him into the shop. He tells her he must go away. She agrees to accompany him, but he admits to killing Bela and Richardson. He is afraid he may hurt Gwen. He recoils when he sees the sign of the pentagram in her palm. Larry rushes home. He tells his father he killed Bela and that he will kill Gwen next. Sir John now sees that Maleva is the cause of Larry's delusions. Sir John ties Larry to a chair to humor him. Sir John leaves to join the hunt. Larry convinces his father to take the cane with the silver wolf's head handle. Sir John joins the hunt and explains his rationale to Dr. Lloyd. Maleva confronts Sir John. She assures him he should not fear the night as he has the silver cane for protection. As Sir John and Maleva discuss events gunshots are heard. Sir John runs off. The Wolf Man is back on the prowl. Gwen runs up to Maleva and inquires about Larry. Maleva warns her, "Don't go through the woods." Maleva begs Gwen to accompany her, but Gwen runs off. The Wolf Man spots Gwen and stalks her in the woods. It closes in and she freezes. It attacks Gwen and she screams. Sir John is attacked and he strikes at the beast. They struggle, but Sir John gets a very good look at the mythical creature. Sir John knocks the Wolf Man to the ground, then beats it to death. Maleva drives up, gets out of her cart, and crouches down by the body of the Wolf Man. She repeats her, "The way you walked was thorny," speech and to the astonished look of Sir John, it transforms back into his son, Larry. Sir John looks at the cane and realizes he killed his son and heir. He drops the cane and walks over and looks down on Larry's lifeless body. The posse runs towards the scene. Montford concludes, "The wolf must have attacked her, and Larry came to the rescue. I'm sorry, Sir John." We close with Gwen in Andrews arms. She says, Larry!

good versus evil, cult, gothic, murder, haunting

tt0034398

Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger

In the kingdom of Charak, a celebration is taking place for the coronation of Prince Kassim. But Kassim's evil stepmother, Zenobia (Margaret Whiting), places a curse on him and turns Kassim into a baboon (one of Harryhausen's stop-motion creations) just as he was going to be crowned caliph. Sinbad (Patrick Wayne), sailor and Prince of Baghdad, moors at Charak, intent on seeking permission from Prince Kassim to marry Kassim's sister, Princess Farah (Jane Seymour). He quickly gets used to the city and its people, but finds it under curfew. When Sinbad and his men shelter in a nearby tent, one is poisoned and are attacked by Rafi, Zenobia's son, but Sinbad defeats him. Soon a witch (whom the audience later learns is Zenobia) summons a trio of ghouls, which emerge from a fire and attack Sinbad and his men. Sinbad disposes of the ghouls by crushing them under a pile of huge logs. Sinbad meets with Farah, who believes Kassim's curse is one of Zenobia's spells and if Kassim cannot regain his human form within seven moons, then Zenobia's son will be caliph instead. Sinbad, Farah, and the baboon Kassim set off to find the old Greek alchemist named Melanthius (Patrick Troughton), a hermit of on the island of Casgar, who is said to know how to break the spell. Zenobia and Rafi (Kurt Christian) follow in a boat propelled by the robotic bronze Minoton, a magical creature created by the sorceress which looks like a Minotaur. During the voyage, Farah proves to be the only person capable of calming the baboon. Sinbad is convinced that the baboon is Kassim after he witnesses it playing chess with Farah and writing his name on the wall. Sinbad and Farah land at Casgar and find Melanthius and his daughter Dione (Taryn Power), who agree to help them. Melanthius says they must travel to the land of Hyperborea where the ancient civilization of the Arimaspi once existed. On the way to Hyperborea, Melanthius and Dione also become convinced that the baboon is Kassim. Besides Farah, Kassim enjoys having Dione's company and develops a love interest towards her. Zenobia uses a potion to transform herself into a gull to spy on Sinbad. Once aboard his ship, she turns into a miniature human and listens in as Melanthius tells Sinbad how to cure Kassim. Alerted by Kassim, Melanthius and Sinbad capture Zenobia. Unfortunately, her potion spills and a wasp ingests some of it. The wasp grows to enormous size and attacks the two men, but Sinbad kills it with a knife. Zenobia takes what is left of her potion, turns into a gull, and flies back to her own ship. But there is too little of the drink left: While Zenobia is restored to human form and full size, the lower part of her right leg remains a gull's foot. After a long voyage, Sinbad's ship reaches the north polar wastes. Sinbad and his crew trek across the ice to the land of the Arimaspi, but are attacked by a giant walrus. It destroys most of their supplies and kills two men, but Sinbad and the others fend it off with spears. Zenobia uses an ice tunnel to reach the land of the Arimaspi, and she, Rafi, and the Minoton climb subterranean stairs to emerge in the warm, Mediterranean-like valley above. Sinbad and his crew also reach the valley. While resting, they encounter a troglodyte a 12-foot (3.7 m) tall creature somewhat like a fur-covered caveman, with a single horn coming out of the top of its head. The troglodyte proves not dangerous, but rather friendly and follows the adventurers to the giant pyramidal shrine of the Arimaspi. Zenobia and Rafi arrive at the shrine first, but she has no key to enter. She orders the Minoton to remove a block of stone from the pyramid's wall. He succeeds, but the block crushes the Minoton and destabilizes the shrine's power. Sinbad and his friends arrive minutes later, and realize Zenobia has entered the pyramid. They enter the shrine's main chamber, the interior of which is covered in ice and is guarded by a Smilodon frozen in a block of ice. Zenobia orders Rafi to attack Melanthius and is about to hurt Dione with a knife, but he is attacked by Kassim and is killed falling down the temple stairs. Momentarily overcome with grief, Zenobia cradles her son while Sinbad and Melanthius investigate how to get Kassim into the column of light at the top of the shrine which will break the spell. Having come to her senses again and seeing Kassim restored to human form, Zenobia transfers her spirit into the Smilodon. Breaking free of its icy prison, the giant cat attacks the group but the troglodyte then enters the scene and engages the Smilodon in combat. Initially gaining the upper hand and even slamming the beast to the ground, the Smilodon disarms the troglodyte of its spear and pins it to the wall, inflicting more damage before killing it via biting the neck. Sinbad and his men fight against the Smilodon but overpowered by its speed and Maroof is killed. The Smilodon then attacks Sinbad who uses the troglodyte's spear to jab it in the chest, killing the Smilodon and Zenobia. With the spell on Kassim is broken and Zenobia dead, and the adventurers flee the temple as it collapses and buried in snow and ice. Sinbad, Kassim, Farah, Melanthius, and Dione and return home just in time for Kassim to be crowned Caliph. Sinbad and Farah share a kiss. The film fades to black, and the eyes of Zenobia appear on the screen.

good versus evil, revenge, cult

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Bowling for Columbine

In Michael Moore's discussions with various figures, including South Park co-creator Matt Stone, the National Rifle Association's then-president Charlton Heston, and musician Marilyn Manson, he seeks to explain why the Columbine massacre occurred and why the United States has a high violent crime rate (especially crimes involving guns).The film title originates from the story that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the two Colorado high school students who were responsible for the Columbine High School massacre/shooting spree on April 20, 1999, attended a school bowling class early that morning, at 6:00 a.m., before they committed the attacks at school starting at 11:19 a.m. Later investigation showed the bowling session was based on mistaken recollections, and Glenn Moore of the Golden Police Department concluded that they were absent from school on the day of the attack.Nevertheless, Michael Moore incorporates the bowling theme into his documentary. For example, Moore films men of the Michigan militia using bowling pins for their target practice. When interviewing former classmates of the two boys, Moore notes that the students took a bowling class in place of physical education. When he notes that this might have very little educational value; the girls he interviews generally agree. They note how Harris and Klebold led a very introverted lifestyle and had a very careless attitude toward the game, and that nobody thought twice about it. Moore asks if the school system is responding to the real needs of their students or if they are reinforcing fear. Moore also interviews two young residents of Oscoda, Michigan in a local bowling alley, and learns that guns are relatively easy to come by in the small town. Eric Harris spent some of his early years in Oscoda while his father was serving in the U.S. Air Force.Moore compares gun ownership and gun violence in other countries with that in the United States and concludes that there is no connection between gun ownership and gun violence. In search of the reason for the United States' trigger mania, Moore discovers a culture of fear nurtured by the government and the media. He says that fear leads Americans to arm themselves, to gun manufacturers' advantage. Moore suggests sarcastically that bowling could have been just as responsible for the attacks on the school as could have Marilyn Manson; or even Bill Clinton, who launched bombing attacks on several countries around that time."Free gun for opening a bank account"An early scene depicts how Moore discovered a bank in Michigan that would give customers a free hunting rifle when they made a deposit of a certain size into a time deposit account. The film follows Moore as he goes to the bank, makes his deposit, fills out the forms, and awaits the result of a background check before walking out of the bank carrying a brand new Weatherby hunting rifle. Just before leaving the bank, Moore jokingly asks, "Do you think it's a little dangerous handing out guns at bank?"About 20 minutes into the film, The Beatles song "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" plays during a montage in which the following footage is shown:People buying guns; residents of Virgin, Utah, a town that passed a law requiring all residents to own guns; people firing rifles at carnivals and shooting ranges; footage of Denise Ames operating an assault rifle; footage of Carey McWilliams, a visually impaired gun enthusiast; footage of Gary Plauche killing Jeff Doucet, a man who had kidnapped his son and molested him; the suicide of Budd Dwyer; a 1993 murder wherein Emilio Nuñez shot his ex-wife Maritza Martin to death during an interview on the Telemundo program Ocurrió Asi; the suicide of Daniel V. Jones; a man who takes his shirt off and is shot during a riot."Weapons of mass destruction"Moore links the violent behavior of the Columbine shooters to the presence in Littleton to a large defense establishment manufacturing rocket technology. It is implied that the presence of this facility within the community, and the acceptance of institutionalized violence as a solution to conflict, contributed to the mindset that led to the massacre. Moore conducts an interview with Evan McCollum, Director of Communications at a Lockheed Martin plant near Columbine, and asks him:"So you don't think our kids say to themselves, 'Dad goes off to the factory every day, he builds missiles of mass destruction. What's the difference between that mass destruction and the mass destruction over at Columbine High School?'"McCollum responded: "I guess I don't see that specific connection because the missiles that you're talking about were built and designed to defend us from somebody else who would be aggressors against us.""What a Wonderful World" (montage) The film then cuts to a montage of rather treacherous American foreign policy decisions, with the delibrate intent of proving wrong McCollum's statement by citing examples of how the United States has frequently been the aggressor nation. This montage is set to the song "What a Wonderful World" performed by Louis Armstrong. The following is a transcript of the onscreen text in the Wonderful World segment:1953: U.S. overthrows Prime Minister Mohammed Mosaddeq of Iran. U.S. installs Shah as dictator.1954: U.S. overthrows democratically-elected President Arbenz of Guatemala. 200,000 civilians killed.1963: U.S. backs assassination of South Vietnamese President Diem.1963-1975: American military kills 4 million people in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War.September 11, 1973: U.S. stages 1973 Chilean coup d'état in Chile. Democratically-elected President Salvador Allende assassinated. Dictator Augusto Pinochet installed. 5,000 Chileans murdered.1977: U.S. backs military rulers of El Salvador. 70,000 Salvadorans and four American nuns killed.1980s: U.S. trains Osama bin Laden and fellow terrorists to kill Soviets. CIA gives them $3 billion.1981: Reagan administration trains and funds the Contras. 30,000 Nicaraguans die.1982: U.S. provides billions of dollars in aid to Saddam Hussein for weapons to kill Iranians.1983: The White House secretly gives Iran weapons to kill Iraqis.1989: CIA agent Manuel Noriega (also serving as President of Panama) disobeys orders from Washington. U.S. invades Panama and removes Noriega. 3,000 Panamanian civilian casualties.1990: Iraq invades Kuwait with weapons from U.S.1991: U.S. enters Iraq. Bush reinstates dictator of Kuwait.1998: Clinton bombs possible weapons factory in Sudan. Factory turns out to be making aspirin.1991 to present: American planes bomb Iraq on a weekly basis. U.N. estimates 500,000 Iraqi children die from bombing and sanctions.2000-2001: U.S. gives Taliban-ruled Afghanistan $245 million in aid.Sept. 11, 2001: Osama bin Laden uses his expert CIA training to murder 3,000 people.The montage then ends with handheld-camera footage of the second WTC plane crash, the audio consisting solely of the hysterical reactions of the witnesses, recorded by the camera's microphone."Climate of Fear"Moore attempts to contrast this with the attitude prevailing in Canada, where (he states) gun ownership is at similar levels to the U.S. He illustrates his thesis by visiting neighborhoods in Canada near the Canada-U.S. border, where he finds front doors unlocked and much less concern over crime and security.In this section, a montage of possible causes for gun violence are stated by several social pundits. Many claim links with violence in television, cinema, and computer games; toward the end of the montage, however, a series of statements all claim Marilyn Manson's responsibility. Following this is an interview between Moore and Manson backstage in Manson's dressing room after a concert. Manson shares his views about the United States' climate with Moore, stating that he believes U.S. society is based on "fear and consumption", citing Colgate commercials that promise "if you have bad breath, people are not going to talk to you" and other commercials containing fear-based messages, and that the media would rather point at him as the one responsible for the killings instead of the President, who ordered more bombings on Kosovo that specific day than any other. When Moore asks Manson what he would say to the students at Columbine, Manson replies, "I wouldn't say a single word to them; I would listen to what they have to say, and that's what no one did.""Statistics"Moore follows up his climate of fear thesis by exploring the popular explanations as to why gun violence is so high in the United States. He examines Marilyn Manson as a cause, but states that Germany listens to more Marilyn Manson and has a greater Goth population than does the United States, with less gun violence (Germany: 381 incidents per year). He examines violent movies, but notes that they have the same violent movies in other countries, showing The Matrix with French subtitles (France: 255 incidents per year). He also examines video games, but states that violent video games come from Japan (Japan: 39 incidents per year). He concludes his comparisons with the suggestion that the United States' violent history is the cause, yet negating that with the violent histories of Germany, France, and the United Kingdom (UK: 68 incidents per year), Moore ends his segment with gun-related deaths-per-year statistics of a few major countries.United States - 11,127 (3.601/100,000) Germany 381 (0.466/100,000) France 255 (0.389/100,000) Canada 165 (0.484/100,000) United Kingdom 68 (0.109/100,000) Australia 65 (0.292/100,000) Japan 39 (0.030/100,000)"K-Mart refund"Moore takes two Columbine victims, Mark Taylor and Richard Castaldo, to the American superstore K-Mart headquarters in Troy, Michigan, ostensibly to claim a refund on the bullets still lodged in their bodies. After a number of attempts to evade the issue, a K-Mart spokesperson says that the firm will change its policy and phase out the sale of handgun ammunition; this comes after Moore and the victims go to the nearest K-Mart store, purchase all of their ammunition, and return the next day with several members of the media. "We've won," says Moore, in disbelief. "That was more than we asked for.""Charlton Heston and Me" (The Charlton Heston interview)At the climax, Moore visits actor and current National Rifle Association chair Charlton Heston in his Hollywood home for an up-close and personal interview where Moore asks him about American firearm violence. Heston's long response includes the suggestion that the United States has a "history of violence" and more "mixed ethnicity" than other countries, which he claims contributes to the skyrocketing violent crime. Moore then asks Heston if he'd like to apologize for leading NRA rallies in Flint after the Buell Elementary School shooting and in Littleton after the Columbine shooting. Heston (caught off-guard and slightly angered) tells Moore that neither he nor the NRA are responsible for the gun violence in America and claims that guns don't kill people... the wrong people who have guns do. Heston claims that it's every American's right to bear arms. When Moore begins asking more abrasive questions about his role in NRA rallies and support of gun ownership and Heston's opposition to handgun control laws to limit or make illegal sales of all firearms, Heston walks out of the interview and firmly tells Moore and his film crew to leave his house.

brainwashing, violence, satire, murder, stupid

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Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny

As a young man, JB (Jack Black) leaves his religious family and oppressive Midwestern town for Hollywood on a quest to form the world's most awesome rock band. There he meets acoustic guitarist KG (Kyle Gass), who is performing on the street, and begins worshipping him as a rock god because of his skills and attitude. KG feeds JB's fantasy by pretending to be famous with a self-named band ("The Kyle Gass Project"), and exploits him to do work such as cleaning his apartment and buying him weed (under the promise that JB can audition for his fictitious band.) After JB learns KG is actually unemployed and living off his parents, the two become equal, and KG apologizes to JB by giving him a brand-new guitar. They create their own band: Tenacious D, named for birthmarks found on their derrieres. (JB has a birthmark which says: "Tenac", and KG has a mark which reads: "ious D".) Soon JB and KG learn the deepest secret of rock: all the rock legends used the same guitar pick, The Pick of Destiny, which has supernatural powers. It was created by a dark wizard from a piece of Satan's tooth, as a gift to a blacksmith who saved his life from the great demon. The pick gives its holder unnatural abilities with stringed instruments. Infatuated by the prospect of becoming the next great rock star, JB immediately sets Tenacious D on a quest to steal the Pick of Destiny from a rock history museum. Along the way, the band briefly splits up, when KG decides that sex comes first in "sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll", while JB wants to stick to the mission at hand. But soon, JB and KG come back together when they realize they need each other as friends. The two manage to steal the Pick of Destiny due to incompetent security at the rock museum. Armed with this supernatural pick, they plan to use the winnings from a local bar's talent contest to pay their rent, but before they can go on stage, greed overcomes them, and they fight over the pick, snapping it in half accidentally. After a pep-talk from the bar's owner, they decide they are good enough to go onto the contest without the pick, not knowing that the owner is Satan in human form, looking for his missing tooth piece. Coming back outside (deciding they can both use half of the pick), they are confronted by Satan, who is "complete" when he places the Pick of Destiny back on his broken tooth, giving him the ability to use his supernatural powers on Earth. He threatens to make Tenacious D his first victim. To save their lives, Tenacious D challenge Satan to a "rock-off", which he cannot deny, as the "demon code" strictly forbids him from declining such a challenge. As the bargain goes, if Tenacious D wins, Satan must return to hell on his own and pay their rent. But if Satan wins, he gets to take KG back with him as a sex slave. Ultimately, they lose (KG sings, "That was a masterpiece! / He rocks too hard because he's not a mortal man."), and Satan attempts to shoot KG with a bolt of energy. JB jumps in the way, and the bolt bounces off his guitar, blowing off a piece of Satan's horn. JB is able to send him back to Hell with a magical incantation. (As explained earlier, should Satan become "incomplete", he can be banished from the Earth with said incantation.) The two turn Satan's horn into the "Bong of Destiny" and the movie closes with the two smoking from it as they write new songs.

bleak, cult, comedy, satire, entertaining

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Fuk sau che chi sei

The Rainy season, the days were especially darker, the city seemed to be enveloped by a skin of dust. The Police discovered two homicide cases involving pregnant women. The media widely reported the incident because of the similarities of the two cases: Pregnant woman dissected alive, husband put to death in 100 degree of boiling water. The media nicknamed the cases: The Dissector The Police combed the areas nearby the murder scenes to look for the assailant! Led by undercover detectives Jeff and Kwok Wah they set up roadblocks to catch the suspect! The original 5 member undercover detective team has now become 2 with Du Ge their leader leaving the force more than 6 months ago! They detain a suspect at the roadblock..Chan Kit Chan Kit remains silent throughout the brutal interrogation. Another murder occurs. A pregnant girl named Cheung Wing is dissected alive, same as the first two cases. Cheung Wing survives after 10 hrs in the intensive care unit. The name of the assailant is close at handthe city waits. But to the surprise of allits not Chan Kitjeff and Kowk Wah are adamant that its him but have no evidence and is forced to release Chan Kit. They too are also relieved of their duty! Jeff and Kwok Wah contacts Du Ge their ex-boss to find a way to quell the situation! Chan Kit and Cheung Wing are destined to be together but Jeff, Kwok Wah and Du Ge are destined to find them. Pain once again has been brought back, hatred once again. has been aroused

violence, revenge, sadist

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Twilight

Seventeen-year-old Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) has decided to leave sunny Phoenix, Arizona, to spend some time with her father Charlie Swan (Billy Burke), the chief of police in the perpetually cloudy and rainy city of Forks, Washington, on the west coast of the Olympic Peninsula, so that her mother Renée (Sarah Clarke) and her minor league baseball-playing stepfather Phil Dwyer (Matt Bushell) can go on the road together for spring training and perhaps even move to Jacksonville, Florida.Bella's relationship with her father is cool, even though she hasn't seen him in several years. When she arrives in Forks, he surprises her with the gift of a red pickup truck he purchased from his best friend, Billy Black (Gil Birmingham). Bella remembers making mudpies with Billy's son Jacob (Taylor Lautner) and looks forward to having at least one friend at Forks High School, until Jacob reminds her that he is a Quileute Indian and goes to school on the Reservation. Not to worry. On her first day of school, Bella is befriended by Eric Yorkie (Justin Chon), the school's "eyes and ears", and he introduces her to some of the other students. Everything is looking cool so far.Cool, that is, until she meets Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson). Edward is one of five foster kids adopted by Dr Carlisle Cullen (Peter Facinelli) and his wife Esme (Elizabeth Reaser). There's also Alice (Ashley Greene) and Emmett (Kellan Lutz) Cullen and the twins, Rosalie (Nikki Reed) and Jasper (Jackson Rathbone) Hale. From the moment Edward lays eyes on Bella, he can't stop scowling at her. When Bella is assigned as Edward's lab partner in Biology, her stepping in front of the classroom fan makes him react as though he's getting sick. After Edward storms out the door when the bell rings, Bella is puzzled as to what she could have done to anger him. When she overhears him in the office attempting to transfer out of Biology, she decides to confront him and ask him what is his problem. However, she doesn't get the chance because Edward is absent for the next several days. When Edward does return to school, he seems changed. He introduces himself to Bella and asks her about herself, her family, and whether or not she likes the cold, rainy climate in Forks. Bella notices that his eyes seem a different color than previously, and he answers awkwardly before walking away. Later that day, as Bella is about to get into her truck, another car careens out of control in the school parking lot. Within seconds, Edward has crossed the lot, pulled Bella out of the way, and seemingly stopped the car with his bare hand, leaving Bella more puzzled than before. When she tries to ask Edward how he did it, he simply chalks it up to an "adrenalin rush" and refuses to talk about it. Further, he says that they probably shouldn't even be friends.That doesn't stop Bella from asking Edward to be her date when the kids decide to go surfing at La Push Beach on the Indian Reservation, but Edward doesn't show. When the kids are joined on the beach by Jacob Black and two of his friends from the Reservation and they learn that Edward Cullen was supposed to be Bella's date, one of Jacob's friends remarks, "The Cullens don't come here." Later, Bella asks Jacob what was meant by that remark, and Jacob tells her of a Quileute legend that says the Quileutes are descended from wolves whereas the Cullens are descended from an enemy clan. The legend also goes that the Quileutes and the Cullens made a pact that required the Cullens to stay off Quileute land in exchange for the Quileutes keeping it secret what the Cullens really were. Although Jacob calls it just an 'old story,' Bella suspects otherwise. She googles Quileute legends and notices that there is a bookstore in Port Angeles that sells several books on Quileute legends, so she goes along with her new friends, Jessica Stanley (Anna Kendrick) and Angela Weber (Christian Serratos), when they decide to go shopping in Port Angeles for their prom dresses.After purchasing her books, Bella heads to the restaurant where she planned to meet Jessica and Angela for dinner before heading back to Forks. Along the way, however, she is stopped by four guys with no good on their minds. Suddenly, Edward drives up, forces the guys to back off, and orders Bella to get into the car. When Edward and Bella finally join Jessica and Angela, the girls have already eaten. Edward offers to see that Bella gets some dinner and then to drive her back to Forks, so Jessica and Angela take off, giving Bella and Edward a chance to talk privately. Edward reveals that he was following Bella because he has developed very protective feelings towards her. He also lets it slip that he could read what was in the minds of those low-lifes and that he can read just about anyone's mind...except for hers.On the drive back to Forks, Bella accidentally touches Edward's hand and is amazed at how cold it is. As they pass the Forks Police Department, they see several police cars, including that of Bella's father, with their lights flashing. Dr Cullen's car is also there, so Bella and Edward stop to see what's happening. They learn from Carlisle that the body of Waylon Forge, a good friend of her father, was just found lying in a boat, dead from what looks like an animal attack, this being the second animal attack to happen near Forks. Later, after Bella has returned home with her father, she starts paging through the books she purchased and comes across a Quileute legend about "The Cold One." Googling it, she learns that "The Cold One," aka Apotamkin, is a fanged creature, described as undead, immortal, possessing incredible speed, strength, and cold skin. It is said to drink human blood and variously equated with other legends about vampires.The next day, Bella confronts Edward with her findings. He doesn't deny it. He takes her to the top of a mountain, out of the cloud bank, and shows her how a vampire's skin sparkles in the sunlight. He explains how the Cullen family has learned to live on animal blood and consider themselves "vegetarian vampires." Still, he's a killer, he says, and admits that his hostile reaction to her is because her blood smelled so appetizing that he wanted to kill her and feed on her. He's never wanted a human's blood as much as he wants hers. Bella replies that she doesn't care and insists she trusts him to maintain control. Edward goes on to explain that Carlisle turned him in 1918 when he was dying of Spanish influenza and that Waylon was killed by some other vampires...not the Cullens. The relationship between Bella and Edward progresses to the point where Edward decides to take Bella home to meet his family. But suddenly he announces complications and drives away, as Billy and Jacob are arriving at Bella's house. As Edward's car passes theirs, he exchanges suspicious, wary glares with the two. Billy asks Charlie about the investigation into Waylon's death and the conversation shows that Billy suspects what really happened to him; looking knowingly at Bella.The next day, Edward brings Bella to the Cullen home, a beautiful house on the outskirts of town. Upstairs, Bella finds the Cullens preparing a meal for her, although Bella has already eaten as she knows the Cullens don't eat and didn't expect to be fed. Most of the Cullens are super-welcoming to Bella, especially Alice. Jasper is polite but distant, as refraining from human blood is still difficult for him. The one Cullen who's not pleased with Bella is Rosalie, who is concerned that the relationship between Edward and Bella may end badly (i.e., Edward will end up harming Bella), implicating the entire family and forcing them to move again. However, Edward is super careful not to lose control when he's around Bella, and the relationship continues to grow.One rainy afternoon, Edward takes Bella out to play baseball with his family. In the middle of the game, three figures come walking out of the mist. Fearfully, the Cullens regroup, hiding Bella behind him. The intruders are the rogue vampires who have been feasting on humans, including Waylon Forge. They introduce themselves as Laurent (Edi Gathegi), Victoria (Rachelle Lefevre), and James (Cam Gigandet) and ask whether they can join the Cullens for a game. Thinking quickly, Carlisle agrees, saying that some of the family were leaving, and Laurent and the others can take their places-- a cue for Edward to get Bella safely away before she is detected. Everyone moves back into the field to take their places. But suddenly, the wind shifts so that James catches Bella's scent and realizes that there is a human in their midst. "You brought a snack," he sneers and heads toward Bella. Edward jumps between them. Laurent backs off and agrees to leave, taking James and Victoria with him. "Get Bella out of here," Carlisle warns Edward. As they quickly drive away, Edward explains to Bella that James is a tracker. Edward's reaction to his catching her scent made this into his most exciting hunt ever, and now he won't give up until he has her. Bella's only salvation is, if they can get to James first, rip him apart, and burn the pieces.Edward's plan is to catch a ferry to Vancouver, B.C.; but Bella insists on going home first, against Edward's better judgement. They plan a ruse to get Bella quickly in and out of the house without her father knowing what's happening. When Bella gets home, she runs into the house and slams the front door, shouting, "It's over!" at Edward. She then informs her father that she's got to get away from here...now! She packs a nightbag and, against her father's protests, gets in the truck (where Edward is waiting), and they drive away. Unfortunately, James has already tracked Bella to Charlie's house and is on their trail. First, they stop at the Cullens' house, where Laurent has shown up to warn them about James and Victoria. The plan now is for Alice and Jasper to drive Bella south, while the others, including Rosalie and Esme dressed in Bella's clothes, attempt to create a false trail through the woods. It doesn't take long, however, for James to realize that he's been duped.When James changes his course, Alice senses the change and has a vision of James heading to a ballet studio in Phoenix where Bella once took lessons. While Jasper and Alice check them into a hotel in Phoenix, Bella gets a call on her cellphone from her mother, frantically worried about her. Suddenly, James comes on the line and informs Bella that he got her Phoenix address from Forks High School and arrived there just as her worried mother also got there. If Bella wants to save Renée's life, she must ditch Jasper and Alice and meet James in her old ballet studio. Bella takes a taxi to the studio; but, when she gets there, she finds that it was a trick. James got an old movie from her house, and it was only Renée's voice Bella was hearing. James then taunts her further by threatening to film their "time together" to break Edward's heart.As the camera rolls, James bats Bella around the room, then breaks her leg. Suddenly, Edward shows up, having gotten there faster than the others because of his greater speed. With their vampire strength, James and Edward toss each other around the room, breaking mirrors and windows with the impact of their bodies. At one point, James manages to swoop down on Bella and bite her arm. Just then, Carlisle, Alice, Emmett, and Jasper show up. Alice races to Bella's side, while Carlisle pulls Edward off James, telling him that Bella needs him more. Overpowered by the smell of Bella's blood, Alice asks Carlisle to take over for her. While Carlisle bends over Bella, Alice breaks James' neck; and she, Jasper, and Emmett start a fire to burn his body. Carlisle says that Bella's femoral artery is severed and she's losing a lot of blood...but even more important is the fact that she's been bitten, and the vampire venom has begun to affect her. Edward has a decision to make...either let the change happen or suck out the venom. Although Alice says she's seen a vision of Bella becoming a vampire, Edward refuses to allow the change, so he decides to suck out the venom even though it means that he might not be able to stop.When Bella awakens, she is in the hospital, her mother at her side and Edward "asleep" in a chair (he'd previously told Bella that he doesn't require sleep). Bella claims not to remember anything that happened, so Renée tells her how Edward and his father came down from Forks to persuade her to return; and, when Bella went to see them at their hotel, she tripped, fell down two flights of stairs, broke her leg, went through a window, and lost a lot of blood. The story is believable because Bella is a very clumsy and awkward person. When Renée leaves to get Charlie, who's waiting in the hospital cafeteria, Edward quickly "wakes up." He tells Bella that they took care of James and that Victoria ran off. Then he lowers the boom. He wants Bella to move to Jacksonville with her mother so that she can't be hurt anymore by her association with him. Bella refuses.Bella moves back to Forks with her dad. With her leg still in a cast, Bella attends the prom with Edward. When Edward goes off to park the car, Jacob sits down next to Bella. He tells her that his father wants her to break up with Edward and that he sent a warning: "We'll be watching you." Bella laughs. Later, as Bella and Edward dance in the gazebo, she asks him why he didn't let her turn. "If you just let the venom spread," she says, "I could be like you by now." She informs him that she's made the decision to be with him forever and offers him her neck. Edward bends over to bite her neck but ends up simply kissing it. "Is it not enough just to have a long and happy life with me?" he asks. "For now," Bella replies.From a window overlooking the gazebo, Victoria watches Bella and Edward kiss. She turns away, lets down her hair, and smiles to herself.

fantasy, gothic, murder, boring, cult, violence, good versus evil, romantic

tt1099212

Guardians of the Galaxy

On planet Earth in 1988, young Peter Quill (Wyatt Oleff) sits in the waiting room of a hospital, listening with headphones to "Awesome Mix Tape no. 1" on his Walkman. His grandpa (Gregg Henry) comes out and gets him so he can say goodbye to his mom, who is dying of cancer. His mom gives him a present and tells him his father was an angel and that Peter is just like him. She asks for his hand, but he's too scared to take it. Just then, she dies. The distraught Peter runs outside and is abducted by a spaceship.Twenty-six years later on the planet Morag, an adult Peter Quill, a.k.a. Star-lord (Chris Pratt), is searching for a mysterious Orb whilst listening to Awesome Mix Tape no. 1. He finds the Orb and takes it out of a laser enclosure. Almost immediately, Korath (Djimon Hounsou) and his henchmen find Peter. After a shootout, Peter makes it to his ship, the Milano, and escapes.His partner/mentor Yondu (Michael Rooker) calls and tells Peter to give him the Orb. Peter decides he's going to sell it on his own.On the Kree warship the Dark Aster, Korath reports to Ronan (Lee Pace) that he failed in getting the Orb and that it's in the hands of Peter.  Ronan wants the Orb because he can trade it to Thanos in exchange for Thanos destroying Xandar.  Ronan plans to send Nebula (Karen Gillan) after Peter, but Gamora (Zoe Saldana) volunteers. Over Nebula's complaints, Ronan sends Gamora.On the planet Xandar, Peter takes the Orb to a broker (Christopher Fairbank) and asks what it is, because Ronan's goons are after it too. On hearing Ronan's name, the broker suddenly doesn't want anything to do with the Orb. He kicks Peter out of his shop. Outside, Gamora jumps Peter and tries to retrieve the Orb herself. Nearby, Rocket Raccoon (voice: Bradley Cooper) and Groot (voice: Vin Diesel) see there's a bounty on Peter's head, so they also try to capture him. (Stan Lee has a cameo appearance as an old man on Xandar, chatting up a young lady. Rocket calls him a pervert.). Its not too long before Peter, Gamora, Rocket, and Groot are arrested by Nova HQ and sent to a space prison called the Kyln.Pretty much everyone in prison wants to kill Gamora because she's the daughter of Thanos. Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista) has a vendetta against her because Ronan killed his wife and daughter, so he wants to avenge them by taking the life of one of Ronan's family members in return. Gamora explains that she's not related to Ronan and she was planning on double crossing him. Peter argues in Gamora's favor.Meanwhile, at Sanctuary, Ronan reports to Thanos (Josh Brolin) that Gamora is a traitor. Thanos tells him to take care of her and get the Orb. He also notes that Gamora is his favorite daughter, which angers Nebula (his other daughter).Back at the space prison, Gamora has a plan to sell the Orb to someone else. Peter, Rocket, and Groot agree to help and split the reward. Rocket has a plan to escape the prison. He needs one of the guard's wrist devices, a prisoner's prosthetic leg and a battery from a tall column in the prison. As he explains that it's very important to take the battery last, Groot grabs it first. The alarms go off and security droids fly in. Gamora goes to get a wrist device as Peter negotiates for the prisoner's leg. Drax decides to join in the escape, realizing that eventually Ronan will go after Gamora and then he can kill Ronan himself.Everyone gets the item they agreed to get, and they all make it to a guard station near the top of the prison. Rocket is surprised that Peter actually got the leg and says that he (Rocket) was only kidding, and he didn't really need it. Just as it seems that they have run out of time, Rocket rigs up the stuff to turn off the gravity in the prison and to use the security droids as jets to fly the guard station out of the prison. They escape, but Peter leaves the others, telling Rocket that he left something behind. It turns out that he is retrieving his Walkman with the Awesome Mix Tape from one of the guards.Yondu goes to his broker and finds out Peter still has the Orb.Everyone on Peter's ship gets to know one another better. They don't like each other at all. Soon they arrive at Knowhere (a space station built in the severed head of a former god-like being) to meet with the Collector. While they wait for their appointment, Drax, Rocket, and Groot get drunk and gamble. Gamora and Peter bond over music. He explains that his mom made him the mix tape of her favorite songs. She listens and likes it. He asks her to dance, but she doesn't trust him. He says it reminds him of an old fable about other people who didn't dance. It was called Footloose. He makes a pass at her, but she says she's not one of the doe-eyed girls he's used to and she won't fall for his pelvic sorcery.Before they can meet with the Collector, Drax, Rocket, and Groot (all drunk) get into a big fight. Drax thinks Groot is dumb and Rocket is tired of people calling him a rodent. Peter talks them out of fighting. The Collector's assistant fetches them and they all go to meet him. Drax goes off on his own and makes a call.The Collector (Benicio Del Toro) has a giant assortment of collectibles, including many from the Marvel Universe, and even Cosmo the Soviet space dog. The Collector puts the orb into a kind of lathe, which unscrews the two halves of the Orb to reveal an Infinity Stone. The Collector explains that the Infinity Stone is an all-powerful thing. There are more of them and they can destroy planets. The Collector's assistant suddenly grabs the stone. The Infinity Stone is poisoning her, and then she and everything in the area blow up. Most of the people survive, along with Cosmo the Soviet space dog. Peter and the others manage to escape with the Orb holding the Infinity Stone. They decide the safest place to take the stone is Nova Headquarters. It's too dangerous to be anywhere else.Suddenly the group is ambushed by Ronan and his crew. They find out that Drax called Ronan. Drax was tired of waiting to face Ronan, so he told Ronan where they were. Yondu shows up too. Gamora, Rocket and Quill take off in single passenger ships while Nebula and some of Ronan's goons chase after them. Drax tries to fight Ronan, but gets beaten up badly. Ronan says he doesn't even remember killing Drax's family, nor will he remember killing Drax now.Nebula chases Gamora's ship above the atmosphere and blows it up. Nebula gets the Infinity Stone and leaves Gamora floating in space to die. Peter realizes that he can't allow Gamora to die, so he calls Yondu to tell him where he is, then exits his ship, and floats to Gamora, where he gives her his mask to keep her alive.Yondu arrives and collects Peter and Gamora with a tractor beam right before they would have died. This is where we see that Yondu's ship is the same ship that abducted Peter as a child.Meanwhile, onboard the Dark Aster, Ronan tells Thanos that now that he (Ronan) has the Infinity Stone, he can cut Thanos out of the deal. Instead, he will destroy Xandar himself and then go after Thanos. He puts the Infinity Stone into his hammer.Back on Yondu's ship, Yondu is going to kill Peter for double-crossing him, but he doesn't when Peter says that he has a plan to get the Orb back. Meanwhile on Knowhere, Drax, Groot, and Rocket decide to join forces and save Peter and Gamora from Yondu. They fly the Milano to Yondu's ship and threaten to blow it up with a special weapon Rocket built unless Yondu releases Peter and Gamora. Peter emerges from the crowd aboard Yondu's ship, and persuades Rocket that he doesn't need to be rescued.Now on board the Milano, Peter explains that they must prevent Ronan from touching the Infinity Stone to the ground of Xandar, which will wipe out the planet, and that he has a plan to stop Ronan. The others ask Peter if he really has a plan, or if he was lying. He says he has part of a plan. After much discussion, he says that he has 12% of a plan. Everyone scoffs, except Groot who says (translated by Rocket) that this is more than 11% of a plan. Rocket says that they will most likely die if they try to stop Ronan. Peter points out that they've already lost so much, that at this point they have nothing to lose. Slowly, each of them stands up and announces that he will join the fight against Ronan.Peter warns Nova HQ that Ronan is coming to destroy them and they should get ready, telling them that they should believe his message, because he's not 100% a dick.Rocket's idea is to blow a hole in Ronan's ship so Peter, Groot, Drax and Gamora can board it. Gamora is going to cut the power for Ronan's security and then they're going to blow him up with a cannon that Rocket made.They start the plan. Rocket blows a hole in the Dark Aster and then helps Yondu and his men defend Xandar against Ronan's fighter ships. Yondu is shot down. On the ground, told to surrender, he instead uses his arrow weapon to take out an entire platoon of goons.On the Dark Aster, Gamora and Nebula get into a big fight, while Drax, Peter and Groot go to the bridge of the ship.Dozens of Nova ships link together to form a giant net and slow the descent of the Dark Aster. Gamora finally beats Nebula, who falls, landing on a Ravager ship and commandeers it, throwing the Pilot of the ship out the window and flying away. Ronan orders his ships to kamikaze into Xandar. Rocket and Yondu's men shoot as many of the ships down as they can.Almost to the bridge, Drax kills Korrath. Groot grows a long thin branch and impales many goons. He then whips them around taking out even more. Everyone makes it to the bridge to fight Ronan. Again, he's too strong for them, but Peter manages to shoot Ronan with Rocket's super cannon. It does nothing. Rocket crashes the Milano into the bridge and seems to have destroyed Ronan. The entire ship is plummeting towards Xandar, so Groot forms a giant nest around all of them for safety. Rocket is upset because he knows that what Groot is doing will end up killing him. Groot, who up to this point has only said "I Am Groot," responds with "We are Groot."The ship crashes. Everyone except Groot is okay. Groot is a pile of twigs strewn all about. The battle isnot over though, because Ronan is still fine. He sarcastically calls Peter and his crew the Guardians of the Galaxy. As he raises his hammer for a final blow, Quill stands up and starts to dance to the song "Ooh-ooh Child," and challenges Ronan to a dance-off. Ronan asks what he's doing. Peter responds "distracting you" as Drax and Rocket shoot Ronan's hammer at Ronan, releasing the Infinity Stone. Peter grabs the Infinity Stone before Ronan. Peter starts to be affected in the same way as the Collector's assistant. Holding the stone is going to kill him, but Gamora tells him to take her hand. He flashes back to when he didn't have the courage to take his mom's hand, and he now grabs Gamora's. Drax and Rocket hold hands with the others, and the power from the Infinity Stone is spread among the four of them, and they all survive. They kill Ronan. Rocket collects one of the sticks that was once Groot.Yondu appears and demands the Stone as per his original deal with Peter. Peter hands him the Orb. As Yondu and his men take off, one of them notes that he likes Peter and he's glad they didn't take him back to his dad like they were supposed to all those years ago.Gamora is upset that Peter gave up the stone. Peter reveals that he switched the Orbs, and he still has the one with the stone.At Nova HQ, they turn over the Orb that contains the Infinity Stone and Peter learns he's only half human and half something ancient and unknown. They speculate that his nonhuman genes allowed him to hold the Infinity Stone without dying.There is a party on Yondu's ship. His crew is celebrating but Yondu looks suspiciously at the Orb and then decides to open it. In it is a troll doll. He smiles.Peter finally opens the present his mom gave him before she died. It's a cassette labeled "Awesome Mix Tape no. 2." He asks the Guardians where they want to go. Gamora says, "You lead, Star-lord." He asks if they want something good or something bad. He then decides they should do something that is both. Rocket holds a pot in which he has stuck the stick that he retrieved after Groot's sacrifice. We can see the face of a tiny Groot on the stick.End CreditsDuring the credits, the baby Groot (slightly larger than in the previous scene) dances in his pot to Quill's 1980s music, with Drax in the background. The baby Groot stops when Drax looks at him, but he starts again when Drax looks away.After the credits: The Collector is sitting on the wreckage, drinking, when Cosmo the Soviet space dog comes up and licks his face. We hear a voice that says that's gross. The camera turns to reveal Howard the Duck sitting on a broken cage, drinking as well.

fantasy, murder, violence, flashback, good versus evil, psychedelic, humor, action, comic, revenge, entertaining, sci-fi

tt2015381

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Two years after the events of 'The Avengers', retired soldier Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) jogging around Washington, D.C. Catching up to him very quickly is Steve Rogers, aka Captain America (Chris Evans). Steve completes multiple laps over Sam until the latter gets tired and sits to rest. The two of them formally introduce themselves to each other. Sam is a war veteran and he knows Steve has been adjusting to life in the 21st century, and that he has a lot to catch up on. He recommends Steve listen to Marvin Gaye's "Trouble Man" soundtrack to get up to speed on the last few decades. Steve adds it to his list, along with things like "Star Wars/Trek" and "Rocky". Steve then gets a text telling him to stand by the curb. A car pulls up, driven by Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson). She greets the two men and has Steve hop in the car.The duo join other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, led by Brock Rumlow (Frank Grillo), as they fly over the Indian Ocean. A S.H.I.E.L.D. vessel, the Lemurian Star, has been taken over by pirates, led by Georges Batroc (Georges St-Pierre). They are holding hostages, including Agent Jasper Sitwell (Maximiliano Hernandez). Steve, in his Captain America outfit, dives out of the jet armed only with his shield and no parachute. He lands in the water and climbs onto the ship, beating every goon that comes in his way. Natasha and the other agents drop down to aid Cap. The agents defeat the pirates and rescue the hostages while Batroc tries to run and is caught by Cap. They fight on the deck of the ship, with Batroc getting quickly back up on his feet even when Cap manages to take him down. "I thought you were more than a mask," he says smugly. Steve removes his mask and replies, "Let's find out." He continues the fight and knocks Batroc down for good with his shield.Steve finds Natasha extracting files from the ship's computer using a S.H.I.E.L.D. flash drive. He calls her out on this as they're supposed to be helping Rumlow get hostages out. She pulls the flash drive out, moments before a pirate runs past and throws a grenade at the two. Steve grabs Natasha and jumps through a window before it explodes.At the Triskelion, S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters in Washington DC, Steve confronts Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) about the motives behind Natasha's task. Fury knew Steve wouldn't be comfortable with it, so he asked Natasha. Fury reminds Steve that he can't trust anybody, even those who work closely with him. He takes Steve into an elevator down to the underground level where there are three Helicarriers being worked on as part of Project Insight, an operation that connects the Helicarriers to spy satellites used to prevent any possible terrorist attacks. This is in part a response to the events that took place in New York, but Steve sees this as more of an aggressive form of protection. Fury insists that he get with the program.Steve visits the Smithsonian Museum to check out an exhibit dedicated to Captain America. A child recognizes him in disguise, but Steve holds a finger to his lips asking the kid not to point him out. The kid understands and keeps quiet. Among the displays are mannequins with costumes of Steve's old commando squad, and one of his old friend Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), whom Steve saw fall to his death (in the first Captain America film). Steve checks out a video of his old love, Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell), in which she commemorates Steve on his actions as Cap. He later visits an elderly Peggy, who has since been married and had children. She is ill and although she initially appears to recognize Steve, she slips back into a state where she believes to be seeing him again for the first time since he was lost, shocked to see him alive. He merely says, "I couldn't leave my best girl. Not when she owes me a dance."Fury tries to access the files that Natasha got on the flash drive, but he is unable to get past security, something that was apparently set by himself. He goes to meet with Defense Secretary Alexander Pierce (Robert Redford) as he is meeting with the World Security Council over the matter of the hijacking of the vessel. Fury tells Pierce that they need to delay Project Insight. Pierce says 'okay', but he wants Fury to have Iron Man stop by his niece's birthday.Steve finds Sam counseling other veterans suffering from PTSD. After the group meeting, Sam reveals to Steve that he lost his friend Riley in battle in Iraq after he was shot down in the air with an RPG. Despite this, Sam still loves flying. He asks Steve what makes him happy. He doesn't know.As Fury drives, he contacts Agent Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) to rendezvous with him. As he stops at an intersection, a police car pulls up alongside Fury's car on his passenger's side. Fury notices that the officers driving the car are looking at him very suspiciously as a black man driving a very expensive SUV. The driver then hits his siren for a quick second and pulls forward.Just as Fury pulls into the intersection, another police car appears and T-bones Fury's car from the drivers' side, sending it into some bollards. The first police car then suddenly stops, and backs up straight into Fury's car. A third police car simultaneously plows into Fury's car from behind, and several more units quickly arrive, boxing Fury's car in. The first police car to hit Fury then backs up. A second later, a black windowless van screeches to a halt, discharging a full SWAT team. The patrol and SWAT officers draw submachine guns and assault rifles and take up positions around Fury's car. The onboard computer informs Fury that the DC Metropolitan Police dispatch shows no units in the area.Seconds later, the police officers open fire, riddling the car with bullets, to no avail, since the windows are made of bulletproof glass. The police decide to move to their next strategy: four men from the SWAT team grab a hydraulic battering ram from their van. They unfold a tripod, and plant it next to the car. The operator then pushes a button so that the tripod drills holes into the pavement to stabilize it, before firing it. Each hit rocks the car sideways and weakens the window drastically. Just as the window's integrity reaches 1%, Fury grabs a hidden minigun and returns fire through the window. Most of the cops on the scene are immediately hit and killed, while the SWAT van and one of the police cars are blown up by a grenade launcher. After a prolonged exchange of gunfire, he commands the car to drive itself out. Fury's car takes off, with two police cars in hot pursuit.A lengthy pursuit unfolds through the streets. After forcing their way through stopped traffic, and another running shootout, the two police cars catch up to Fury and begin to trade paint with him. Fortunately for Fury, his onboard computer detects a box truck about to catch up to them at the next intersection. Fury slams on the brakes for his car, while the two police cars continue on and are promptly T-boned by the truck.Fury commands the vehicle's computer to get him to a safe location and speeds off. Before the computer can find a safe spot for him, he sees the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) standing in the middle of the road. The Winter Soldier promptly shoots a sticky bomb that attaches itself to the underside of Fury's car. It explodes and flips the car over. The Winter Soldier walks over to Fury, ready to finish him off, but he escapes in time by burning a hole through the roof of the car and the street below with a laser weapon.Steve goes back to his apartment to find his pretty neighbor, Sharon Carter (Emily Van Camp) going to do laundry. He offers to let her use his machine, but she says she just spent a lot of time in the diseased ward of the hospital and doesn't want to pass any sickness to Steve. She tells him that he left his stereo on.Steve hears music as he cautiously enters his house, grabbing his shield for protection. He finds an injured Fury sitting on his couch. Out loud, Fury says his wife kicked him out, but he shows Steve through text on his phone that anybody could be listening. Before he can say anything else, Fury is shot three times. Steve looks out the window for the shooter. Fury hands him the flash drive and tells him not to trust anybody. The neighbor comes in, armed with a gun. She is Agent 13 of S.H.I.E.L.D., and she tends to Fury. Steve runs after the Winter Soldier. Steve smashes through the walls to catch up to the Winter Soldier outside. He throws his shield at him, but the Winter Soldier catches it with one swift move in his left hand, then throws it back to Steve. Steve catches the shield and is shoved back a bit and looks up, only to find the Winter Soldier has disappeared.Natasha meets up with Steve at the hospital as they watch doctors operating on Fury. Joining them is Agent Hill. The doctors try to revive him, but Fury flatlines. They call in his death. Afterwards, Natasha asks Steve why Fury was in his apartment. He claims to not know, right as Rumlow tells him they need him back at S.H.I.E.L.D. Natasha calls Steve a bad liar, and they separate. We see that Steve also hid the flash drive behind a pack of gum in the vending machine.Steve is brought in to speak with Pierce. He also asks Steve why Fury was in his apartment, hoping to find clues to who killed him. They suspect Batroc after he was found the previous night in a safe house. Pierce insinuates that Fury hired the pirates to infiltrate the ship so that he could acquire classified information, and was then killed after the deal went wrong. Steve denies the claim. Pierce asks him again why Fury was there. Steve only says that Fury told him not to trust anybody.Steve hops on the elevator, which becomes occupied with more S.H.I.E.L.D. agents at each floor it stops at, including Rumlow. Steve notices one agent looking sweaty, and others looking very suspicious, itching for their pistols. He asks anybody if they'd wish to get out, prompting them all to attack him. They strap him magnetic cuffs to his wrists and hold an electric stunning rod to him, but Steve overpowers them and knocks everyone out cold. Agent Sitwell sees the battle through a monitor and orders the STRIKE team to get to the elevator. Steve breaks off the cuffs with his shield and sees the STRIKE team heading his way. He breaks off the elevator wires to send the elevator down. The team still approaches, so Steve breaks through the glass in the elevator, falling dozens of floors and hits the plaza, landing on his shield. He runs to the garage and rides out on his motorcycle, evading the obstacles laid out by S.H.I.E.L.D. A Quinjet emerges to shoot at Steve. He throws his shield into the propellers, jamming it, and giving him an opportunity to hop over it and escape.Sitwell orders S.H.I.E.L.D. agents to be on the lookout for Steve. Agent 13 demands to know why they're issuing a manhunt for Captain America. Pierce comes into the room and brands him a fugitive for withholding information on Fury's death.Steve goes back to the hospital to retrieve the flash drive from the vending machine, but it's gone. Natasha appears, chewing some gum. Steve pushes her into a room and demands to know what she knows about the mysterious assassin. She knows the assassin as the Winter Soldier. He nearly killed her on a mission in Iran, during which the target she was assigned to protect was killed, and has reportedly been responsible for over 200 assassinations over the past 50 years. They decide to use the flash drive to find out what they can on Winter Soldier's whereabouts.Pierce meets with the WSC members again, defending Fury as a martyr, though they believe he was killed for trying to cover up his own illegal dealings. They all opt to reactivate Project Insight.Steve and Natasha go to a mall, disguised as a civilian couple. They take the flash drive to an Apple Store and pop it into a MacBook Pro to find signal coming from Wheaton, New Jersey. Natasha tells Steve that they have 9 minutes or less before SHIELD agents find them. The duo spot Rumlow and other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents coming around every corner. Natasha pulls Steve in for a kiss on the escalator to draw attention away from themselves, since public displays of affection make people uncomfortable. The ruse works and Rumlow doesn't spot them.Steve and Natasha drive to an abandoned military base where the signal led them to. Steve recognizes it as his old training base in New Jersey, and he briefly envisions his former, smaller self running past him. He enters the facility with Natasha, which is discovered to be an original S.H.I.E.L.D. office. They find framed portraits of Howard Stark and Peggy, along with Col. Chester Phillips. Steve looks behind a bookshelf and uncovers a room full of computers. The only modern type of technology in the room is a small port for the flash drive to be stuck in. Natasha places it in there and activates a computer. A German voice speaks and analyzes the two. The voice belongs to Arnim Zola (Toby Jones), former accomplice of the Red Skull. He transferred his consciousness into a computer once his body had failed him because of a disease. Zola tells the duo that his and Red Skull's group HYDRA was formed on the belief that humanity could not be trusted with its own freedom, and after the war, S.H.I.E.L.D. recruited him and other HYDRA operatives, where they conspired against their new employers. He reveals that they were directly responsible for targeting people such as the President, along with causing the car accident that killed Howard and Maria Stark. Zola adds that a missile is heading for their location in less than 30 seconds. Steve and Natasha jump into a hole as the missile hits, destroying the computers. Steve protects himself and Natasha as the place crumbles. Rumlow and his goons search the place to make sure there are no survivors.In his home, Pierce bids goodbye to his housekeeper, Renata (Branka Katic), just as the Winter Soldier appears in his kitchen. He never speaks a word. Pierce starts to talk to him when Renata comes back to get her phone. Remarking that he wishes she'd knocked, Pierce shoots her twice because she's seen him and the Winter Soldier talking.Steve and Natasha hide out at Sam's home, knowing they can trust him. Natasha expresses remorse over her involvement with HYDRA agents. Sam agrees to help the two, utilizing a military project called Falcon.Back in D.C., Sitwell walks away from meeting Senator Stern (Garry Shandling; reprising his role from "Iron Man 2"). Before they part ways, Stern leans in and whispers to Sitwell, "Hail HYDRA". Sam calls Sitwell's phone and orders him to walk to a car to meet with him and his friends. The heroes force Sitwell up to the roof of a tall building. Steve holds Sitwell over the edge, threatening to drop him. Sitwell knows this isn't Steve's style. Steve agrees...letting Natasha kick Sitwell off the roof. Moments later, Sam, in his Falcon jet-pack suit with wings, flies up to the roof holding Sitwell. The now terrified traitor confesses that Zola created an algorithm to locate certain people around the world based on any personal facts or data. He name-drops Tony Stark (Iron Man), Bruce Banner (The Hulk), and Stephen Strange (hinting to a future "Doctor Strange" movie). The targets are picked based on their past actions. This makes Sitwell realize that Pierce may very well kill him.En route back to the Triskelion, the Winter Soldier jumps onto the heroes' car and pulls Sitwell out through the window, and throws him into the path of a truck. The assassin is joined by other HYDRA agents in attacking the car. Steve pulls Natasha and Sam out, sliding on the car door through the streets. They fight off the villains, with Winter Soldier pursuing Natasha while the HYDRA agents fight Steve and Sam. Winter Soldier thinks he's found Natasha hiding behind a car and he shoots a bomb to her, but it was really a recording played back on a phone. When he does find Natasha, he shoots at her. Steve jumps out and battles Winter Soldier. The assassin is just as fast and even stronger than Steve. Steve manages to remove his mask, and he finally learns the assassin's identity -- Bucky Barnes. Steve stares at the man who was once his friend, unable to believe that he is standing before him alive and trying to kill him. "Bucky?", he asks. "Who the hell is Bucky?", Winter Soldier responds. The HYDRA agents then take Steve, Sam, and Natasha into custody.The heroes are taken in a prison van. Sam notices Natasha is bleeding from her shoulder, telling the guards she needs assistance. One guard pulls out an electric rod, neutralizing the other guard. The first guard turns out to be Agent Hill in disguise. She takes the heroes to a secret facility to treat Natasha, but first she shows them Fury lying in bed, very much alive. He survived with an anti-stress serum developed by Banner, originally to control his Hulk problem. When he and Natasha are a little more rested, they gather with the other heroes over the fact that Project Insight is set to take place within hours, where the Helicarriers will form a triangular shape and lock sights on their targets around the globe. Fury takes out three chips that they will use to override the Helicarriers' systems. He turns control over to Steve to give orders.Within a bank, the HYDRA agents work to fix up Winter Soldier's metal arm after his fight with Steve. He has brief flashbacks to his old life, from the fall he took to the moment he was recovered by Zola and the HYDRA agents. His left arm was amputated and replaced with the bionic metal arm. When he began to freak out, Zola had him sedated and later put on ice. Pierce comes in, praising the Winter Soldier's work and asking him to come back to do it again. Winter Soldier asks about Steve, claiming to know him. Pierce orders the agents to get him back to his original killing mindset.Steve stands on a bridge, reminiscing about his time spent with Bucky. A flashback shows Bucky with Steve after the funeral of Steve's mother. Bucky offers Steve to let him stay with his family, and all he'd have to do is shine his shoes. Sam comes over, prepared to join Steve in the fight. Steve tells him to suit up before going to the Captain America exhibit to get his old suit. The elderly security guard (Stan Lee) sees the suit missing and comments that he's gonna get fired.The WSC members arrive at the Triskelion, guided by Pierce. He gives them electronic pins that will give them access to anywhere in the building. Rogers and Falcon break into the headquarters. Cap accesses a mic that patches him through to every speaker. He tells the agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. that Pierce is a traitor who is working with HYDRA agents, and that they must stop Project Insight from happening. Rumlow and his goons break into the control room. He forces an agent to release the Helicarriers, but Agent 13 intervenes. She forces Rumlow to drop his gun. He does, then grabs his knife and cuts 13's arm, leading to a gunfight between the S.H.I.E.L.D. and HYDRA agents. Rumlow, amidst the bullets, manages to release the Helicarriers himself.Cap and Falcon make their way to the Helicarriers as the HYDRA agents try to shoot at them. Cap gets the first chip into one Helicarrier, while Falcon flies around, avoiding getting shot. He manages to get a heat-seeking missile that was aimed at him to hit a Helicarrier to give him an entrance, allowing him to place the second chip in there. Hill, meanwhile, monitors their progress while fighting off HYDRA agents trying to kill her.Pierce tries convincing the WSC members to join him in their project, making it sound as a peaceful effort to subdue potential attacks around the world. He hands Councilman Singh (Bernard White) a glass of champagne, but Singh refuses to join him and tosses the glass. Pierce pulls out a gun and aims at Singh, but Councilwoman Hawley (Jenny Agutter) kicks Singh away, then takes down the other HYDRA goons in the room before taking the gun. She removes her disguise to reveal Natasha. Her backup comes when Fury steps out of a helicopter, to Pierce's surprise. Knowing Pierce probably changed the retinal scan, Fury removes his eyepatch to reveal his scarred dead eye to override Project Insight along with Pierce, as they are the only two agents of the highest degree needed for that. Pierce then sets off the pins he gave the council members, causing it to burn deeply into their sternum. He threatens to set it on Natasha, forcing her to walk out with him. Natasha activates it herself, burning herself, but not as deep. Fury then shoots Pierce twice, killing him. His last words are "Hail HYDRA."The Winter Soldier is set loose, killing off the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents trying to aid Cap and Falcon in taking down the last Helicarrier. He rips off Falcon's wing and throws him off the Helicarrier. The HYDRA agents begin to lock on their targets, with over 700,000 and counting. Falcon manages to get his parachute out, leaving him grounded. He runs back into the Triskelion to fight Rumlow. Cap confronts Winter Soldier inside the Helicarrier, trying to get through to his best friend by reminding him that millions could die. Unwilling to listen, Winter Soldier battles Cap again. Cap runs to grab the chip and replace it, but Winter Soldier swipes it from him. Cap manages to wound both of Winter Soldier's arms, then puts him in a headlock until he releases the chip. Cap rushes to place the chip into the system, but Winter Soldier shoots him three times. He still succeeds in placing the chip, calling Hill to override the Helicarriers. The targets go offline, to the surprise of the dumbfounded HYDRA agents. With the systems overriden, Hill has the Helicarriers open fire upon each other. One Helicarrier crashes into a dam beneath the Triskelion. The second crashes through the Triskelion, catching Rumlow in the destruction. Sam runs like hell out of the window as Natasha and Fury fly their chopper in time to catch him.The third Helicarrier continues to fall with Cap and Winter Soldier inside. Cap chooses not to fight his friend, dropping his shield out of the Helicarrier. Winter Soldier mercilessly punches him repeatedly across the face, even as Cap chooses to stick it out with him until the end. Before he delivers the fatal blow, Winter Soldier looks at Cap with hesitance, almost as if he is starting to remember. The Helicarrier crashes, throwing Cap out and sending him into the water below. He slips into unconsciousness, but not before seeing a hand reaching out for him. Winter Soldier drags Cap to the shore before walking away for good.In the aftermath, we see Steve in a hospital recovering as Marvin Gaye's "Trouble Man" plays. He wakes up to hear the music. We also see Agent 13 at a shooting range, Agent Hill about to undergo a lie detector test at Stark Industries, Senator Stern getting arrested, and Rumlow being treated by doctors, still alive but terribly burnt. Natasha is brought to a hearing to answer for her ties to S.H.I.E.L.D. She defends herself by saying that even if they wanted to put her in an institution, they could not because the council members know they need her and her allies. She coolly walks away. Meanwhile, Fury gets rids of any trace of his existence, including his passports and eyepatch, burning them for good.Fury meets Steve and Sam at a cemetery at his own grave. On the headstone are Fury's name and the words "The path of the righteous man...." This is a reference to the fake Bible verse that Samuel L. Jackson's Pulp Fiction character, Jules Winnfield, liked to quote. Fury tells Sam and Steve that if anybody asks for him, they only need to come here to his grave.Fury leaves as Natasha arrives to tell the guys this is Fury's way of saying "Thank you." She hands Steve a file that he wanted, then suggests he ask out Agent 13, whose name is really Sharon Carter. Steve looks at the file, which concerns Bucky and his Winter Soldier transformation. Sam realizes that Steve is going to look for Bucky. Steve tells him that he doesn't have to go with him. Sam replies, "I know. When do we start?"Mid-Credits Scene:Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker (Thomas Kretschmann) is discussing recent events with a fellow HYDRA agent in an underground lab somewhere in Europe. Even though some of their agents have been lost, they have many other followers around the world. They are performing an experiment with secret weapons, including Loki's scepter. Von Strucker guides the agent to "the twins" -- Pietro and Wanda Maximoff, aka Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch (Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen). They exhibit superpowers of their own, with Pietro having superhuman speed, and Wanda having telekinetic powers, which she is seen using destructively. Von Strucker observes them and comments, "This is the age of miracles..."Post-Credits Scene:Bucky/Winter Soldier walks through the Captain America exhibit at the Smithsonian and comes across the display of himself. He stares at it pensively, hoping to regain memory of his old life.

murder, violence, flashback, good versus evil, humor, action, brainwashing, suspenseful

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The Hamiltons

A suburban family harbors a dark secret: When their parents are killed in a tragic accident, eldest Hamilton sibling David (Samuel Child) relocates the surviving family members to a quiet California suburb and assumes the responsibility of caring for his orphaned teenage siblings; Wendell (Joseph McKelheer), Darlene (Mackenzie Firgens), and Francis (Cory Knauf). While twins Wendell and Darlene seem to share a bizarre incestuous bond that separates them from the rest of the siblings, Francis acquires a video camera that previously belonged to his deceased parents and sets out preparing a school project about his family. The all-seeing lens of Francis' roving camera begins to reveal that something malevolent is going on inside the Hamilton's picturesque abode. David finds work in a meat-packing warehouse, and is shown to bring some stuff from work home with him, while it is also implied that he is interested in men as he regularly invites male co-workers to go with him to a nearby motel for an evening. One evening, Wendell kidnaps two young girls whom he meets in a local bar and they are tied in their storeroom. Older brother David drains blood off one of them till she slowly dies. Francis gets attracted to the other girl who tries to get him to help her. But things come to a head when Wendell and Darlene murder one of her classmates and feed off her blood. When David tries to kill the other girl, Francis hits him in the head and carries her off to a safe hideout at the meat packing plant which is closed for the night. Wendell asks David to follow Francis, as he is the only one capable of persuading him to return. At the barn, Francis, seeing an open wound on the girl's hand, is unable to control his bloodlust and he kills the girl and feeds off her. When David appears, Francis is crying and we see his fangs. Though terribly sad at his actions, he finally seems to be accepting what he really is: a vampire. With the death of Darlene's classmate, David decides to move somewhere else, and they go to the basement to retrieve the creature locked there, who turns out to be their little brother Lenny. The family, the Hamilitons, is revealed to be a new breed of vampires who are born that way, not made. They move from place to place to hide their secret of their thirst for blood and to avoid detection from the authorities. In the final scene, we see them introducing themselves to their new neighbors, as the Thompsons, and Francis, now having embraced his newfound status as a vampire, is shown making a happy video of his now complete family.

cruelty, murder, home movie

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Asoka

The movie begins with an opening crawl, giving the viewer some context. Asoka is a child when his grandfather, Chandragupta Maurya, decides to renounce the throne to become a Jainist monk. Before his departure, Asoka's grandfather finds out that Asoka stole his sword and he confronts him. Chandragupta tells Asoka that his sword is cursed to taste blood whenever it is drawn, and he throws it into a creek. After he leaves, Asoka finds the sword and keeps it. The throne goes to Asoka's father, Bindusara, and the movie skips to Asokas adulthood. Bindusara is about to renounce the throne to his successor. He names his son Susima, who has the support of all his brothers except Asoka. When the movie picks up, Asoka is leading his troops in battle against the Takshila army, who have an advantage in numbers. Asoka prevails and kills the leader of the Takshilas. He comes home alive and unharmed, which angers Susima. Susima had ordered General Shivrath to make Asoka conquer Takshila with half an army, expecting Asoka to die in the struggle. Susima orders Shivrath dead and hires an assassin to kill Asoka while he is bathing. Asoka kills the assassin with ease and goes to visit his mother. His mother expresses concern and tells Asoka to leave the city, threatening to take a vow of silence if he does not. Not wanting his mother to never speak to anyone again, Asoka reluctantly leaves. Asoka wanders around, going under the name Pawan, and encounters a beautiful woman. He is immediately stricken with love, and he follows her. After hearing a request for the capture of Princess Kaurwaki and Prince Arya of Kalinga, Asoka saves the woman from attackers who wanted to collect the reward. He discovers that the woman is Princess Kaurwaki and she is escaping from the capital after the prime minister assassinated their parents. After getting to know Kaurwaki and Arya, Kaurwaki's bodyguard decides to go, leaving Asoka alone. The next day, Kaurwaki and Arya are assaulted by bounty hunters. The bodyguard fends off some but leaves to fnish them off. While waiting for him to come back, Kaurwaki and Arya encounter more enemies and try to defend themselves when Asoka comes out and defeats them all. Asoka continues to accompany Kaurwaki in her travels, training her to defend herself while trying to earn her love. At the same time, Kaurwaki develops feelings for Asoka. Bheema, the bodyguard, objects to these feelings, and after a heated argument with Kaurwaki, reveals that Kaurwaki is an adopted child, which shocks her. He tells Asoka, who decides that they should get married. After the marriage, a servant of Asokas mother tells him she is ill. He travels home alone to find his mother in full health. She is ecstatic to see him, and surprised but pleased to find that he has gotten married. However, the king tells Asoka that he must attack Kalinga to prevent an uprising. He goes to find Kaurwaki, who are hiding in the home of a loyal peasant. Their village is attacked by men trying to find Kaurwaki and Arya, and the daughter and grandson of the peasant take the place of Kaurwaki and Arya to protect them. Asoka returns to the burnt remains of the village. He finds Bheema, who is injured. Asoka believes Kaurwaki and Arya are dead and loses his will to live. He begins a devastating campaign and wins battle after battle until he is wounded and taken to a Buddhist monastery. There, he meets a woman named Devi, who, in a struggle, kills a man trying to assassinate Asoka. Because she committed murder, her marriage to another Buddhist is cancelled, so Asoka decides to marry her instead. He remains aching after the loss of Kaurwaki but loyal to Devi. Kaurwaki and Arya return to Kalinga and remove the prime minister from power. Asokas wife is pregnant, and Asoka believes it must be a son and shows intent to train him in the art of murder, which is against the will of Devi. Susima, desperate to stop Asoka from getting the throne, hires an assassin to kill Asokas child. In the attempt, Asokas mother dies, driving Asoka into a murderous rampage culminating in the death of Susima. Asoka kills all but one of Susimas brothers and takes the throne. Asoka leads a massive assault into Kalinga, who is holding the last brother. As he fights into Kalinga, he gains a reputation as a tyrant. Bheema tries to assassinate him but fails and dies in the attempt. Kaurwaki decides to fight in honor of Bheemas sacrifice. The battle commences and Kaurwaki is struck down. Asoka wins the battle. After the battle, he hears that Devi gave birth to twin, a girl and a boy, but she does not recognize Asoka as the father because of the evil he has commited. Asoka wanders the battlefield, heartbroken, when he overhears two soldiers discussing Kaurwaki and how they took her horse. Asoka takes the horse back and searches for Kaurwaki. While witnessing the horrors of his actions in the battlefield, Asoka finally finds Kaurwaki. She tries to attack him, but gives up and embraces him. As they hug, Arya calls out to Asoka. He comes closer and falls; he had been hit by three arrows to the back. After the battle, Asoka reminisces about the tragedies he caused. He returns to his home and throws his sword into the same creek he found it before. The movies ends with a closing crawl telling Asoka's spread of Buddhism.

violence, historical, murder, storytelling

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Bataan

The film opens with long lines of tired and grim soldiers and civilians moving through a congested town away from the advancing Japanese (who are not shown but the hopelessness of the situation hangs heavy). Sergeant Bill Dane (Robert Taylor) of the 31st Infantry and his companion Corporal Jake Feingold (Thomas Mitchell) are seen manning a defensive position. They casually discuss the possibility that they will be ordered to retreat again back toward the presumed safety of Bataan.Their commander orders them to report to a Captain Lassister for a special assignment. The town then suffers a violent Japanese air attack with civilians and soldiers caught in the open and killed. Dane and Feingold reach Lassiter. A pretty American nurse boards the last ambulance out while casting a long, soulful look back at Lassier (Lee Bowman). Lassiter puts Dane in charge of a group of 13 men, all of whom had been separated from their commands, with orders to hold a a strategic bridge after the last refugees cross. Lassiter makes it clear they are to demolish the bridge, stop the "Japs", and hold until MacArthur can consolidate in Bataan. They are given such equipment and supplies as is available and left alone.After the army and some civilians cross the bridge, Dane, Feingold, and a group of eleven hastily assembled soldiers from different units is assigned to blow it up and delay Japanese rebuilding efforts as long as possible. In addition to Sgt. Dane, Cpl. Feingold and Captain Lassier, the rear guard is a mixed lot, making up of:Corporal Barney Todd (Lloyd Nolan), who claims to be a signalman;Private Felix Ramirez (Desi Arnaz), a Mexican American California National Guardsman;Private Wesley Epps (Kenneth Lee Spencer), a black demolitions expert;Private Matthew Hardy (Phillip Terry), a conscientious objector in the Medical Corps;Private Francis X. Matowski (Barry Nelson), an engineer;Private "Yankee" Salazar (Alex Havier), a Philippine Scout;Private Sam Molloy (Tom Dugan), a cook;Seaman Leonard Purckett (Robert Walker), a naive young navy musician;Army Air Corps Lt. Steve Bentley (George Marshall), a pilot;Corporal Juan Katigbak (Roque Espiritu), Bentley's Philippine mechanic.The group sets up camp and firing positions on a cliff overlooking the bridge, blow the bridge, and settle down to wait for the Japanese. Following is several minutes of exposition which set the tone for the rest of the film. Quinine, food and ammo are in short supply. Dane establishes his credibility and toughness as Sgt. of the group. Bentley reveals that he is an Army AF pilot repairing his damaged plane, Todd is soon revealed to be a prickly bully who clashes with everyone. Dane suspects Todd is using an alias and may be the man who seven years earlier murdered a young private in a barracks card fight and ruined Dane's army officer career in the process. Todd is evasive and Dane elects not to push the issue.The Japanese move up and work at night on the bridge. The Americans talk, eat, sit by their weapons, and wait. The calm is interrupted when an unseen sniper catches Capt Lassiter in the open and shoots him dead with a bullet through his head. Purckett wants to play taps at the burial but Dane angrily orders him not to - explaining that the Japs know taps and will start counting the dead. At the burial it is sadly revealed that Lassiter had recently married the nurse seen on the ambulance.That night, Ramirez finds a battery powered radio and tunes in the Tommy Dorsey band live from Hollywood. The aching contrast between these familiar sounds of home and their own isolation and mortal peril is not lost on the men or the viewer. Dane orders Matowski to climb a tree and report on enemy movement. He carelessly shows himself, is shot by a sniper, and falls with a blood curdling scream to his death.The next day Dane and Todd go out alone, hurl grenades at the bridge, and blow it up one more time. Dane notes that Todd throws left handed like the murderer of seven years ago but again doesn't push the issue. Alone with Feingold afterwards, Dane begins to question whether he and the men will break from the strain and run, but the brave Feingold calmly assures him they will do their duty to the end.In succession, more men die as the Japanese pressure increases. Their Phillipino guide tries to break through the Japanese lines and get to Bataan for help, is captured, tortured and strung up for the Americans to see. Ramirez dies of malaria, Malloy is killed in a strafing air attack.Bentley repairs his plane and attempts to fly out under cover of night. They succeed, but Katigbak is killed (with a samurai sword one night) and Bentley is mortally wounded when he tries to lift off in his airplane. He asks Dane to load two boxes of dynamite on the plane. Dane refuses until Bentley pulls rank and orders him to do it. In a last dying act, Bentley flies into the bridge and demolishes it in a tremendous explosion.The remaining soldiers repel a massive frontal assault, inflicting grievous losses on the attacking Japanese troops, ultimately fighting hand-to-hand with bayonets fixed on their M1903 Springfield rifles. Epps and Feingold are killed. Only Dane, Todd and a wounded Purckett are left.Purckett is shot by an another unseen Japanese sniper, and Todd stabbed in the back by a Japanese soldier who had only feigned being dead. Before he dies, Todd admits to Dane that he is Burns.Now alone, Dane stoically digs his own marked grave beside those of his fallen comrades and waits in it. The Japanese troops crawl close to his position before opening fire and charging at Dane. Dane fires back, yelling, "We're still here.....we'll always be here, why don't you come and get us!" When his Tommy gun runs out of ammunition, he continues firing with the heavy machine gun as the Japanese close in on him.... the machine gun points to the audience as the final credits roll (rather then showing his death at the hands of the Japanese).The end story board states that the sacrifice of the defenders of Bataan helped slow the Japanese down, making possible America's later victories in the Pacific War.

cult, violence

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Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer

In the opening shot, a naked and bloody dead woman is seen lying in grass in a field.In a local diner, a man named Henry (Michael Rooker) finishes his meal, pays his tab, buys a pack of Kool brand cigarettes, and tells the waitress: "real nice smile you got there". Henry walks to his beat-up dark-green 1970 Chevy Impala and drives off.In a convenience/liquor store, a middle-aged man and woman are seen lying dead beside the counter, and the sounds of their murder are heard. In other shots, a woman is seen lying dead in the bathroom of a motel room. Another nude woman is seen lying dead in a creek.Henry drives around Chicago listening to his car radio and staring at the people on the street. He drives to a suburban neighborhood and sees several women walking to their cars in a shopping mall parking lot. He follows one woman to her house, but leaves when he sees a man greet her in the driveway. Henry drives on until he picks up a female guitar-carrying hitchhiker.Meanwhile, a man named Otis (Tom Towles) meets his younger sister Becky (Tracy Arnold) at a terminal at Midway Airport. She has just arrived from Texas to stay with him for a while. Otis tells Becky that she looks terrible (from the bruises on her face). In his car driving from the airport, Otis says he always knew that Becky's husband, Leroy, was no good for her. Becky tells Otis that she is not sure how long she will stay.Otis and Becky arrive at Otis' seedy second floor apartment located at 1801 North Road in Chicago. They are seated at the kitchen table talking when Henry walks in. Henry has the hitchhiker's guitar and gives it to Otis as a gift. Otis introduces Henry to his sister, and Otis tells Becky that Henry is currently heading west and has been staying with him for a few weeks.The next day, Henry is seen working as an exterminator, spraying a kitchen. Henry's boss arrives as he is leaving and tells Henry that this is all the work he has for a while, but tells him to hold onto the spray can. He gives Henry some money for his job and sends him on his way. Henry drives to the house of the same woman that he followed from the mall a few days earlier. He still his spray tank with him. He knocks on the woman's front door and introduces himself as an exterminator and asks if she needs her house fumigated. She lets him inside. Afterwords, the woman is seen laying dead on her living room couch, having been strangled with an electrical cord.Meanwhile, Otis is seen working as a fuel pump operator at a local gas station. A teenage boy visits Otis at the station and asks if Otis has any more of the stuff that he sold the boy last week. He gives Otis some money, and Otis agrees to meet with the teen later.That evening, Becky is in the kitchen cooking dinner and she asks Otis how he met Henry. He tells her that they met in prison a few years ago and that Henry was inside for killing his mother and one of her boyfriends with a baseball bat. After dinner, Henry helps Becky clear the table as well as wash and dry the dishes, while Otis leaves to go to his meeting with the teenager. While playing cards with Henry, Becky asks him about his father, and then tells him that her own father used to rape her. She asks Henry if he killed his mother and repeats what Otis told her. Henry tells Becky that he did kill his own mother but he didn't beat her to death with a baseball bat. He stabbed her. Henry explains that his mother was a prostitute who brought men over and make Henry watch while she had sex with them. When Henry would refuse, she would beat him. When Henry mentions about shooting his mother, Becky reminds him that he told her that he stabbed her. Henry corrects himself.The following evening, Becky again cooks dinner for Henry and Otis and mentions that she got a job as a shampoo girl at a local beauty parlor downtown to help out financially. Otis mentions that Becky's previous job was a stripper and that she used to dance naked at various strips clubs, and asks when she will dance for them. Otis tells Becky to get him a beer. When she comes back to the table with a can, he pulls her by her arm as if to give her a kiss. Henry suddenly grabs Otis' hair and yells "Don't do that, Otis! She's your sister!" Henry makes Otis apologize and promise not to do it again. Otis seems upset, so Becky suggests the two men go out for a beer.While driving along a seedy part of Milwaukee Avenue, Henry and Otis pick up a couple of women. The car pulls into an alley where they begin to make out with the two women. In the back seat, Henry suddenly kills her. The other woman, in the front seat with Otis, screams and tries to get out of the car, but Otis grabs her while Henry reaches up and snaps the woman's neck. He pulls the bodies out and leaves them in the alley. Otis is unsettled, but Henry pacifies him by getting him something to eat. At Otis' apartment later, Henry talks about killing people, and Otis seems to agree with Henry's philosophy that "it is either you or them".Another evening later, Otis in his living room and getting bad TV reception and kicks in the screen. He decides that they need a new television. Otis and Henry drive to a garage where they meet a portly man surrounded by television sets and other appliances. The three men discuss different TV's and a $500 video camera before Otis settles on a $50 black-and-white TV. The fat man is angry that they wasted his time to settle for a cheap TV and is rude towards Henry, who responds by stabbing him in his hand and then in the stomach. Then the two of them bash the $50 TV over his head and plug it it, killing the fat man. A little later, Otis, Henry and Becky are playing with the stolen video camera at Otis' apartment and watch TV with a new and stolen TV set.Another few days later, Otis goes to see his parole officer to discuss his job status. Later, Otis goes to a high school parking lot where he meets with the same teenage boy for a drug transaction. Otis touches the boy's leg, and receives a punch to his face by the homophobic youth who runs out of the car.That evening, a furious Otis tells Henry that he wants to go out and kill someone. Henry and Otis drive around Chicago and feign car trouble at Lower Wacker Drive where Otis shoots and kills a man who stops to offer help.The next day, while out filming with the video camera, Henry advices Otis about his MO for killing and tells him to kill in different ways so that the police will not find a pattern. Henry also says that it is important to keep moving and never stay in one place for too long. That evening, the two men head over to a house where they stage a home invasion. Henry films Otis tormenting a woman, while her husband is lying on the floor bound and gagged. The couple's teenage son returns and Henry drops the camera, runs to the boy and breaks his neck. Otis breaks the woman's neck and Henry stabs the man. Otis fondles and kisses the dead woman, and Henry orders him to stop. Later, Henry and Otis are back in the apartment watching the video. Otis rewinds the tape saying, "I want to see it again."Another day or two later, Becky is working at her job at the beauty parlor and during a break, she talks on the phone with her mother long distance and asks how she is doing.Meanwhile, Henry and Otis are driving around in Henry's car. As Otis leans out with the video camera, the camera is hit and broken. Otis throws it out the window and the two men argue. Henry warns Otis that he is getting careless and out of control with his antics. The growing warped Otis says that he wants to stop for a beer, and Henry forces him to get out of the car.Henry arrives back at the apartment where Becky tells him that she just quit her job so she can go back to Texas to live with her daughter and mother, and she asks Henry to go with her. Henry suggests going out to get a steak dinner at a local restaurant so they can talk about it some more. Plus, Henry wants to try out his new credit card (obviously stolen from one of his recent victims).The couple returns a few hours later to find Otis passed out drunk on the living room couch. Becky takes Henry to her bedroom where she takes off her shirt and begins to unbutton his, clearly wanting to have sex with him. Henry seems reluctant. Otis suddenly appears in the doorway and says "I ain't interuptin' nothin', am I?" Henry leaves the apartment and goes for a walk. He goes to a convenience store to buy some more Kool cigarettes. He is angry, but backs out on wanting to kill the store clerk. Outside in an alley, he meets a middle-aged woman walking a dog. He follows the woman for a while, but again backs out from killing her and heads back to the apartment.Upon arriving back at the apartment, Henry finds Otis on top of a partially unclothed Becky, clearly raping her while choking her with his shirt. Henry kicks him off and beats him until Otis breaks a liquor bottle over his head. Just when Otis is about to stab Henry with the broken bottle's jagged edge, Becky leaps up and stabs Otis in his eye with the sharp edge of a steel comb. Henry crawls to the wounded and screaming Otis and stabs him in the stomach with his hunting knife, killing him at last. Becky yells at Henry to get the police, but Henry tells her to shut up and let him think. After a minute, he tells Becky help him clean up the mess and pack up so they can leave since their names are not on the lease of the apartment. While Becky cleans up the blood, Henry chops up Otis in the bathtub and puts his remains in several black plastic trash bags and then puts the bags in a suitcase. Henry and Becky leave the apartment carrying several suitcases as well as the guitar case. They drive to a bridge and throw the suitcase containing Otis' cut up body into the Chicago river.While driving out of the city, Henry says that they are going to hide out at his sister's ranch out west and they will send for Becky's daughter. Becky tells Henry that she loves him. Henry replies unemotionally, "I guess I love you too." The two of them drive to a rural motel and check in for the night. Becky plays with the guitar while Henry looks at himself in the bathroom mirror. He tells Becky that they need to get some sleep for they have a long drive tomorrow.The next morning, Henry showers, shaves, packs up and leaves the motel by himself. He stops his car a short distance from the motel along a rural road, pops open the car trunk and takes out Becky's blood stained suitcase. He drives away, leaving the suitcase (obviously containing Becky's dismembered body in it) behind.

dark, psychological, grindhouse film, murder, cult, horror, violence, insanity, sadist

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In Time

A voiceover describes the state of the world. A place where time has become currency. Thanks to scientific advances people can stop aging at 25, but it comes with a catch: after reaching 25 a person is genetically-engineered to live only one more year. The time is used as currency, you can earn more at work but you sell it for goods and other services. Once your time runs out, you die.Will Salas (Justin Timberlake) is a young man living in Dayton, a poor ghetto in the southwest USA. He lives day by day, making just enough to pass each day sharing time currency with his perpetually youthful mother, Rachel Salas (Olivia Wilde). She is 50 today, but has two days work in the garment district, she gives Will 30 mins for lunch. They will celebrate when she gets back. Everyone has a luminous green digital clock on their arms, counting down. Will is generous and easily gives 5 mins to a young beggar girl, Maya.On the way to work he buys a coffee, the price has just gone up. Walking to work they see dead bodies in the streets. Will works in a metal stamping plant, making shiny cassettes. After his shift he notices he is paid less, quotas have gone up. Will meets his friend Borel (Johnny Galecki) at a bar. There they see a man treating everyone to drinks and drawing attention to his arm, which lists him as having over 116 years. Will knows that the man did not belong to the ghetto and was likely to draw attention to himself. Sure enough the Minutemen, a criminal gang, shows up, armed and ready to forcibly take the man's time. The gang leader, Fortis (Alex Pettyfer) is actually age 75. Borel and the rest of the bar scatter but Will interferes and helps the man escape. The two flee from the Minutemen and eventually find an old building to hide in. The man introduces himself as Henry Hamilton (Matt Bomer) and tells Will of the time-is-currency system. It had been established as a means of population control after the advances made in anti-aging processes, but as people were still surviving. Inflation and lower 'wages' were designed to keep the population in control. This currency system also meant that the rich could live much longer then normal and essentially become immortal, while the poor died. Henry however is tired of living for so long, an indignant Will tells him that the rich basically did not deserve their time. He tells Henry he doesn't want his time. Unwilling to abandon the depressed man, Will offers to stay with the man until the morning. At dawn, Henry passes his time to a sleeping Will.Will wakes alone, with the 116 years of time and a message telling him not to waste it. Through a window, Will sees Henry seated on the edge of the bridge and realizes the man plans to commit suicide. He runs out to stop him, but just misses him as Henry's time runs out and he falls into the storm water channel. Will sees street cameras recording him and runs back home.Will meets Borel with his family, and shows him his new time. To thank Borel for being his friend for so long, Will gives him a decade. Borel warns him that staying in Dayton with that much time was going to get him killed. Will wants to take his mom to New Greenwich.Rachel pays off a 2 day loan at a Weis ATM machine. Sh tries to board a bus to get home but the fare has gone up to 2 hours and she has only 90 mins left. In a panic she has to run. Will is waiting at the bus stop, realizes something is wrong and runs toward Rachel. They meet somewhere in between, but too late, the mother dying in the son's arms. Later Will calls a private stretch Lincoln limo to pick him up and take him to a richer Time Zone. He passes through 4 toll booths with progressive fares into a gleaming modern but sparsely populated City center, New Greewich. He has cleaned himself up to dine at a nice restaurant, a young lady across the room takes notice. The waitress tells him to slow down, to blend in with the rich, and suggests a casino nearby.Meanwhile, Henry's body is discovered by the Timekeepers, a body of authority much like the police. Raymond Leon (Cillian Murphy) notices the street cameras and examines the footage. When he expresses surprise at seeing Will's photo, his colleagues ask him if he knew the suspect and whether or not he had a criminal record. Raymond corrects them, telling them he did not know the current Will Salas but he did know the senior Will Salas. Timekeepers are mobilized to locate Will Salas.At the casino, a tuxedoed Will meets Phillipe Weis (Vincent Kartheiser), arguably the richest man in the world. At a high stakes poker game, Will goes all in and comes out as victor, now with over 1000 years. Phillipe is impressed, as is Sylvia (Amanda Seyfried), his beautiful but sheltered daughter, the girl from the restaurant. Phillipe invites Will to his mansion for another party, and partially to see Sylvia again, Will agrees. Knowing to be prepared, he purchases a Jaguar E type and drives to the Weis mansion on the coast. There Phillipe reintroduces him to Sylvia, as well as his wife Michele (Bella Heathcote) and mother-in-law, all three of whom look the same age due to their wealthy background. The women are followed by guards all the time, but Will convinces Sylvia to let loose and have fun. Feeling oppressed by her father and his men, Sylvia agrees and the two go skinny dipping in the ocean. Sylvia admits wishing that she could often do something wild and crazy. Phillipe had always restricted his family members though, and sure enough he soon comes looking for her. Sylvia and Will manage to dress and make themselves presentable again when the Timekeepers appear and confront Will.Raymond arbitrarily takes back the 1000 years as they don't believe Will's story. Raymond hints he knew Will's father and leaves. Will fights off the other Timekeepers and takes Sylvia hostage, escaping out the mansion. Raymond commits himself to chasing them, even taking personal risks that other Timekeepers avoided. After a car chase, Will manages to throw Raymond off their trail and escapes back to the country with Sylvia, who pleads to be let go. As soon as they return to Dayton the car is wrecked in a trap set by the Minutemen. While Will and Sylvia remain unconscious, the Minutemen discover that Will only has a little time left and was thus worth nothing, Sylvia however had about a decade and so they take hers instead. The men are forced to run before they could take all her time, Sylvia panics because she has never been reduced to having so little time. Will tells her that she should not be worried, as regular people live day by day. Instead, he brings her to find Borel, hoping that he could give them some time. To his grief, he learns that Borel had drunk himself to death with his riches leaving his wife and newborn alone.Will manages to buy them more time by pawning off Sylvia's diamond earrings, but knows it isn't enough. He calls Phillipe and demands a 1000 year ransom for Sylvia's return, to be sent to the time welfare office. Raymond listens to the call and warns Will not to follow his father's path. Will learns that his father's crime was not stealing time but "something much more serious". Raymond, deduces where Will was hiding and assures Weis he would bring his daughter back safely. At Will's apartment he explains his father was an arm "fighter" with a trick to win time contests, he demonstrates that you let the other win at first, they get overconfident and distracted just as the last few seconds run down, then the arm can be flipped and the flow reversed.The next day the ransom is unpaid, Will says to Sylvia that it was likely because her father was prevented by the Timekeepers but Sylvia saw it as proof that her father didn't care about her. Nevertheless, Will decides to let her go and tells her to make a call to her family. Since they were in the ghetto after all, he also gives her a gun to protect herself. They kiss and just as they split so that Sylvia can make her call, Raymond appears and nearly shoots an unsuspecting Will. A panicked Sylvia shoots Raymond instead, and Will corners Raymond and attempts to take his time. Raymond however has very little, for it is Timekeeper practice to carry only a little time to avoid being targets. Since Will was planning to take Raymond's car he graciously transfers 4 hours of his own time to him before hijacking the black Challenger car and leaves him alone in the ghetto.Sylvia realizes that using a police car was essentially asking for attention. They end up robbing another limo and passenger, a blond woman dressed like a hooker. They learn that they had both been placed on a wanted poster with a reward of ten years to anyone who could bring about their arrest. Phillipe studies a large map of the world with colored lights and numbers, he assures his business partners that his daughter would not crash the current economic system. An injured Raymond manages to escape the ghetto, verbally harassed the whole time, and meets with Phillipe. Weis attempts to bribe Raymond into 'rescuing' his daughter but Raymond tells him that due to Sylvia's actions, an arrest warrant will be placed for her as well. If Phillipe interferred and tried to save his daughter, Raymond will see him arrested as well.Will trains Sylvia how to use a handgun, she offers to help him get time. Will and Sylvia drive an armoured car through a Weis bank window and scoop up many time cassettes. They invite the onlookers to grab what they can also. The large status board shows the imbalance. This endears them to most people in the ghetto. Weis watches the news report of the robbery as his wife chides him for suffocating them. In a motel the two get closer, then sense something is up and just manage to escape Ray and his squad. Ray alone takes after them over rooftops in a running gun battle, refusing to let them go. They manage to bribe a bus driver and escape.At a seedy hotel they rent the whole building for privacy. Fortis and his gang roust civilians until one admits where he saw the two runaways. In the hotel room the young couple describe how each went through the change at age 25 when the green numbers begin counting down. Fortis arrives and explains it is not just the rich and the Timekeepers oppressing the normal citizens, the Minutemen are being allowed to do so as long as they did not start preying on the rich as well. Fortis challenges Will to an arm fight to the death, as the two men lock arms together Will's time runs down fast. Will uses his trick to reverse the flow, then manages to pull a gun from his boot, kills the henchmen and times out Fortis. Will is dismayed and figures it will take a million years to change the system. Sylvia knows where they could find that time.Sylvia returns home, pretending to turn herself in, distracting her father and his multiple guards, so that Will could sneak up on him. Under gunpoint, they take Weis to his office and open a large vault where they find a single cassette with 1 million years. Phillipe tries to say it is always in an individual's interest to live forever even at the cost of another's, but the two runaways are unconvinced. After locking Phillipe in the office the two again return to Dayton. While keeping the Timekeepers distracted, they pass the one-million cassette to Maya, the little girl.Raymond pursues Will and Sylvia to a remote area running toward Livingstone, the next town over, just as they all begin to run out of time. Will sees that Ray is a Dayton homeboy, an honest cop just doing his job, but the timekeeper has forgot to get his per diem and dies in front of them as he times out. With only seconds to spare Will notices the police car in the distance, runs and manages to transfer the timekeeper's per diem from the centre console device to himself. He runs back to Sylvia and just manages to transfer some time, saving her life. The two of them only have enough for a day.The Daytons stop work and march toward New Greenwich. Watching the news, the Timekeepers decide that their jobs are finished. With 100 years bounty on them, pulling up in front of a large institution, Will and Sylvia draw their guns to make their biggest heist.

suspenseful, boring, murder, mystery, thought-provoking, violence, flashback, revenge, sci-fi

tt1637688

Night of the Lepus

The movie opens showing a news report about how overpopulation is not just a human problem, but exists in the animal kingdom as well, using the rabbit population explosion in Australia in the 1950s as an example. There was a similar plague of rabbits getting out of hand in the American Southwest, especially in Arizona, where the rabbits were devouring crops, destroying property, and out-competing livestock for a finite supply of food and water.Moving to the action in Arizona, our first view is of rancher Cole Hillman, riding his horse. The horse steps into a rabbit hole and injures itself, and Cole must shoot it and walk home. He instructs one of his ranch hands to take the truck to go get his saddle, then makes a phone call to the university in Ajo, hoping to find a cure for the rabbit infestation. He meets Dr. Elgin Clark, but his first suggestion is for the same person who killed all the coyotes that were keeping the rabbits in check. Cole is hesitant to make the same mistake twice, but agrees to visit the Bennett family, scientific researchers who are looking for more ecologically friendly ways of controlling wildlife.We meet the Bennetts, father Roy, mother Gerry, and daughter Amanda. Roy was capturing bats for an experiment. They want to control the bats' flight pattern, hoping to use them to kill mosquitoes, without the nasty side effects of DDT and other insecticides. Elgin Clark comes to see him and asks him to visit Cole, to see if he could come up with an ecologically friendly way to solve the rabbit problem. On the way there, they see ranchers desperately shooting at rabbits trying to preserve their livelihoods.At Cole's ranch, Cole explains his problem. Although hardly an environmentalist, Cole has reasons of his own for not wanting to use poison to kill the rabbits. The poison would harm his cattle, so he would have to sell them at distress prices, and eventually his land would become toxic and barren. He can hold out only a few more weeks before using the cyanide, and the other ranchers are anxious to use it sooner. Roy suggests interfering with the rabbits' hormones, or introducing a disease that affects only rabbits, and takes several rabbits with him to begin experiments. Meanwhile, their daughter Amanda becomes friends with Cole's son Jackie.Back at the university, the experiments are not producing any useful results. They will never have a solution in time to save Cole's ranch. He tries one last injection, in an untested rabbit, over the objections of Amanda, who has become attached to the rabbit in question. While her parents' backs are turned, the mischievous little girl switches the rabbit with another one from the control group, hoping to protect it from further harm. Then she pesters her parents into letting her adopt it as a pet. They think that the rabbit is from the control group and thus has had no injections.They return to Cole's ranch to pick up more rabbits for experimentation, but Jackie does not like Amanda's new pet, since the rabbits are a menace to his family and they killed his chickens at one point. He seizes the rabbit and releases it, and it runs away. Amanda forgives him and they go off together to talk.At the university, the experiments have failed. Some of the rabbits have grown enormously, but are otherwise unaffected. Roy, depsite his misgivings, calls Cole to tell him to do what he needs to do. Cole has one more try, though. He sets part of his range on fire, sacrificing some of his land in hopes of creating a strip of charred land that is completely devoid of food and water, that the rabbits will not be able to cross. Some of the other ranchers are skeptical, but they trust Cole's judgment enough to delay their own use of poisons a little longer. The fire drives away the rabbits, for awhile.While inspecting the land, the Bennetts and Cole find an unusual animal track. They don't know what the animal was, but they know that it was big. Meanwhile, Jackie takes Amanda to meet a friend of his, Captain Billy, who has a gold mine in the hills. Arriving at the mine, they find no one home. He sends Amanda into the mine to look while he looks outside. Jackie finds more animal tracks, while Amanda sees the shadows of enormous rabbits. Then she sees a dead body, presumably that of Billy. She screams and runs out of the mine. We next see her being examined by a doctor, who determines she only had a shock and will be fine. Jackie describes what he could remember, but everything happened very fast; he doesn't remember much.At night, a driver with a refrigerated truck stops to check his truck, and hears the thunder of paws and heavy breathing nearby, but it's too dark to see what's going on. He fails to get back in the truck while the getting is good, and is attacked by the rabbits. The next morning, a policeman finds the abandoned truck, its cargo of vegetables scattered over the ground, and then finds the driver's body. He calls for the sheriff to examine the body. While he is there, he gets a call. The body has been recovered from the mine, and it is Captain Billy, looking as badly mutilated as the truck driver.Back in town, the coroner determines that the bodies and boxes of vegetables were not chopped with an axe, but were chewed or gnawed. He can't think of what animal could cause so much destruction, except maybe a saber-toothed tiger. Meanwhile, another policeman finds more mutilated bodies nearby.At the university, Roy and Elgin realize that the huge rabbits that Amanda saw are likely the cause of the destruction, and are probably the result of their experiment. They debate calling the sheriff, but Elgin, fearing the bad publicity that it would draw to the university, talks them out of it until they can gather more evidence. Roy tells Gerry to go call Cole, intending to go see him the next day to look for the rabbits, and try to destroy them.The next day, Elgin, the Bennetts, Cole, and his ranch hands Frank and Jud, arrive at the mine with cyanide and dynamite. Elgin and Frank go up into the hills to look for more holes and plant dynamite, while Jud and Cole plant dynamite at the main entrance. Elgin drops a rock into one of the holes and listens to the noises the rabbits make in reaction, holding out his radio microphone so that Roy and Gerry can hear it too. Roy and Cole go into the mine, hoping to capture a rabbit, or if that isn't possible, take a picture. They go in, camera and shotgun in hand. The others are apprehensive as Roy and Cole remain inside the mine, out of reach. Finally, Roy and Cole reach the chamber where the rabbits are holed up, and realize that using the gun may cause a cave in. They see them clearly for the first time, describing them as big as wolves and just as vicious. Roy takes several pictures, but the rabbits start to chase them, and they must escape. They didn't mark their way, so they are in danger of making a wrong turn and becoming trapped. Meanwhile, another giant rabbit burrows out of the ground outside and attacks Jud, and Gerry must save him by shooting the rabbit, and treat his injuries. Time passes, and the groups outside become more worried for Roy and Cole's safety. Finally, they reach the entrance of the mine and run out, and Elgin sets off the dynamite, collapsing the mine and burying many rabbits.At the university, Elgin examines the photographs, and he realizes that it is time to inform the sheriff. They plan to go back to the mine the next day, to make sure all the rabbits are dead. Roy, realizing that the press will be all over the place soon, advises Gerry to take Amanda and go to another town, for their privacy, until the whole thing blows over. Next, we see rabbits leaving the mine; obviously the cave-in left a significant number of them to escape and raise more havoc. The thunder of paws panics Cole's horses, waking him up. The horses soon escape. Cole gets his family together in the storm shelter under his house, while the rabbits attack the horses. Jud, still panicked from his encounter with the rabbits earlier, runs to the truck and flees. He encounters the herd of rabbits and quickly turns around and drives back to the ranch. In his panic, he crashes the truck, knocking out the phone lines to Cole's house, just when Cole was trying to call for help. Jud runs from the truck, but the rabbits have arrived and they pounce on him. Cole shoots at them, but it's too late to save Jud. He joins his family in the shelter. There is a tense moment as the rabbits try to scratch through the door, but they are driven off. The rabbits get into the house's main floor and destroy everything inside. Cole and Frank keep them from scratching through the floor by shooting at them.At the store in the town of Galanos, the switchboard operator Mildred is unsure what to think of Cole's telephone line going out suddenly, while Cole sounded agitated. It's late, so her husband and a friend take off to go home. Soon, she can hear the thunder of paws, too, and she looks out the window to check. The rabbits have arrived and they jump through the window to pounce on her. The rabbits also reach her house, where they catch and kill her husband before he can get inside.In the morning, Cole and Frank go outside; the rabbits have holed up somewhere for the day. They mourn Jud, and Cole tells Frank to stay with Jackie while he goes to town. The horses are gone and his truck is wrecked, so his only option is to walk, shotgun in hand. Meanwhile, Roy sends Gerry and Amanda off in their RV to Wooddale. She promises him to call him when she gets there. Roy and Elgin contact the sheriff, who has already been informed of the rabbits. They get into a helicopter to check the area around the mine. Meanwhile, Cole has a long walk. He tries to flag down passing motorists, but traffic is light, and few people are going to pick up a man with a shotgun. Perhaps realizing this, Cole ditches the gun and continues. Gerry's RV becomes stuck in the sand on the way to Wooddale, leaving her and Amanda stranded.Hours later, Cole finally makes it to town, and finds the store that was attacked by the rabbits the previous night. The rabbits are still inside, feasting on the food as they wait for the sun to go down. Finding no help here, Cole takes off again on foot, needing to find help, or at least shelter, before dark. During the day, Roy, Elgin, and the sheriff arrive at the mine, and they find it empty. The sheriff calls the National Guard. In the afternoon, Cole finally is able to get a ride with a priest.The sheriff gets authorization to use the National Guard, but he is unable to contact Cole, since the switchboard at Galanos is out. Cole, riding with the priest, finally reaches a phone and calls in, and tells the sheriff where the rabbits are. The sheriff sends a deputy out to pick him up, but it will be dark soon, and the National Guard will not be able to arrive in time to catch the rabbits before they start moving again. They will likely move toward Ajo, so the sheriff decides to evacuate the town. Meanwhile, Roy is getting worried, since he has not yet heard from Gerry. It gets dark, and the rabbits start to move again, leaving the ruins of Galanos behind. The policemen get more reports of death and destruction from the areas in the rabbits' path and proceed with the evacuation as best as they can. His deputy, who has picked up Cole, reports that the rabbits are right behind them, moving fast and coming in a front about two miles wide, and they have but 50 minutes to prepare before the rabbits reach Ajo.The National Guard major realizes he doesn't have enough men to handle a front of rabbits that long. Roy has an idea involving using the railroad. He calls the railroad dispatcher, and asks him to isolate a siding near town. The deputies can then hook electrical power up to the isolated section of railroad, and the rabbits will be electrocuted as they cross it. The National Guard will use its men to funnel the rabbits onto this section of railroad. However, there is a freight train on the tracks, and they will have to wait for it to pass before implementing the plan.Needing more help, the sheriff goes to the local drive-in movie theater, and enlists the help of the patrons. He has them line up their cars with the lights on to help drive the rabbits in the desired direction. Roy still hasn't heard from Gerry, and he asks the sheriff to check. There have been no calls, and Elgin has called Wooddale and Gerry has not yet arrived. He asks the sheriff to being the helicopter back so that he can go look for her.Meanwhile, Gerry and Amanda are still trying to free their RV from the sand. It's dark now, and they have made no progress. Hearing the noises from the rabbits in the distance, Gerry sends Amanda into the RV while she gets the emergency flares from the glove compartment. From the air, Roy can see lots of rabbits on the road that Gerry was supposed to take. The rabbits arrive at the RV, and Gerry holds them at bay with the flares, but she has a finite supply of them. Finally, the helicopter arrives. The noise and lights drive off the rabbits, and the family is saved. The rabbits attack a herd of cattle instead, causing a stampede.The sheriff has the deputies ready to electrify the railroad, but the train still hasn't cleared the tracks, and the rabbits are getting closer to town. Roy and his family return in the helicopter and the deputy turns the power off just as the train starts passing, amid more reports of death and destruction from the area. When the train passes, the men set wooden stakes in the railroad to keep the section of track isolated, and then turn the power on. The trap is set. Soon, the rabbits come into sight, and the National Guardsmen start shooting at them. The lights from the cars repulse the rabbits just as hoped, and they run straight for the railroad. When they reach it, the electricity does it work, killing the rabbits that reach the tracks. Sparks fly from the overtaxed transformers overhead, but the power stays on. Few rabbits make it past, and the men have no trouble shooting them with their guns. Eventually, the ground is covered with thousands of dead rabbits.Some time later, Cole reports that life is getting back to normal and he has repaired his ranch. Better still, some coyotes have been heard nearby, keeping the normal rabbits in check naturally. He invites them to visit the ranch some time.

cult

tt0069005

14 Going on 30

14-year-old Danny O'Neil (Gabey Olds) is madly in love with his teacher, Miss Peggy Noble (Daphne Ashbrook). Given the fact that she is engaged to the cold-tempered and vicious gym teacher, Roy Kelton (Rick Rossovich), who is nicknamed Jackjaw for his constant threat of breaking his pupils' jaws, Danny goes through his school days somewhat uninspired and suffers in silence. One day, he oversees his geeky friend Lloyd Duffy (Adam Carl), who happens to live next door with his uncle Herb (Harry Morgan) and aunt May (Irene Tedrow), growing fruits with an experimental growth accelerator. Danny becomes enthusiastic of turning himself into a grown man with the same machine, in order to break up Miss Noble's engagement, as well as convincing her to give him a chance. Lloyd is reluctant to help him out, aware of everything that could go wrong, so Danny secretly uses the machine at night. He saw that the timing was perfect, considering that his parents will leave the house for a week. Unaware of the consequences, he turns into a 30-year-old man (Steve Eckholdt). The next day, Lloyd immediately starts working on a machine with the opposite effect so Danny will be able to return to his 14-year-old body soon. During this process, Danny visits the high school to pursue Miss Noble. When he arrives, he is mistaken as the school's newest principal, Harold Forndexter. He not only impresses his assistant Louisa Horton (Loretta Swit) with the introduction of his new rules - which include having as much fun as possible - but also Peggy, who admires his youthful approach of life. Much to the dismay of Kelton, she agrees to go on a date with 'Harold'. Even though Kelton follows their every step, Peggy has a splendid evening with the new principal, and they almost kiss at the end of the night. During a school dance, 'Harold' convinces Peggy that Kelton is not right for her, and she breaks off the engagement. Immediately after, 'Harold' and Peggy become a couple. Kelton, refusing to accept this, tries to find out more on Forndexter, and finds out that 'Harold' is an impostor, as the real Forndexter (Alan Thicke) looks quite differently. He immediately warns the police, who arrive quickly to arrest him. While 'Harold' tries to escape, Lloyd informs him that his machine is complete. After getting rid of the cops, 'Harold' tells Peggy that he has to leave town for good and then becomes 14 again. Peggy witnesses this transformation, and realizes that 'Harold' was actually Danny, one of her favorite students. Because she has fallen in love with him, she uses the same machine to turn herself into a 14-year-old (Amy Hathaway), which enables her to be with Danny. Meanwhile, Lloyd turns himself into an apparently middle-aged professor, Mr. Lloyd (Sal Viscuso), and starts working at the same high school as a teacher.

romantic

tt0094592

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

The Mummy-Tomb of the Dragon Emperor This is a walkthrough I wrote myself for the latest videogame version of the latest addition to the popular Mummy franchise. I have done as good a job that I can explaining the steps. I have also created abbreviations for phrases used. Currently, I only have a walkthrough for Act I. I will post the rest later. Below is a list:Ps2 - Play Station 2--- LAS - Left Analog Stick--- RAS - Right Analog Stick--- DB - Directional Buttons--- T - The Triangle button on a Ps2--- S - The Square button on a Ps2--- X - The X Button on a Ps2--- O - The Circle Button on a Ps2--- R1 - The Upper Right button on a Ps2--- R2 - The Lower Right button on a Ps2 L1 - The Upper Left button on a Ps2 L2 The Lower Left button on a Ps2--- LO - To use the L1 button to lock-on to a target--- RP - The points on a level where you re-spawn if you die--- R - Right--- L - Left--- U - Up--- D - Down--- C - Clockwise--- CC - Counter-Clockwise--- A - The hidden artifacts throughout the game. The first one in the level will be called A1, the second A2, etc.You play as either Rick or Alex OConnell, with a few exception times. Below is a description of who you play as:Richard Rick OConnell The hero of the Mummy movies. He carries 2 Colt Peacemakers, 2 Shotguns, a Thompson Sub-Machine Gun, and hand-grenades.Alexander Alex OConnell Son of renowned adventurers Rick and Evy OConnell. He carries 2 Walter P38 Pistols, a shotgun, a Russian PPS Personal Assault Weapon, and hand-grenades.Abominable Snow Monster Yeti This enormous snow creature helps our heroes when they are in despair. He carries no weapons, but has enormous strength in his punches.Controls: X Jump S Punch. After grabbing an enemy, you may use this button to punch your grabbed enemy. T Kick. After grabbing an enemy, you may use this button to knee your grabbed enemy in the stomach. O Grab LAS Move. RAS Move Camera(sometimes) DB Choose Weapon. U for Grenades, R for machine gun, D for pistols, L for shotgun. R1 Fire R2 Reload L1 LO O+LAS Throw grabbed enemy in the direction the LAS is pushed.There are some combo moves also available also. The button combinations can be viewed by selecting Controls from the Pause Menu.During each level you must find 4 hidden artifacts.WALKTHROUGH Act 1- Emperors Mausoleum Goals: Hidden Artifacts 4 Gun Kills 15 Melee Kills 15 Grab/Throw Kills 15 Completing these goals get you bonuses like better weapons, better ammo boxes, etc. Finding all 24 artifacts unlocks all cheats.After an introduction video, you start out in the archaeological pit where the door to the dragon emperors tomb is located.A1 When you first start out, you can see the professor. Walk *away* from the professor to the end of the pit. In the corner will be A1.After retrieving A1, proceed on to the professor.You must now fight some enemies during Melee Training. This part is easy, just follow instructions. When all enemies are dead, proceed to the white (I call it a sparkle because it is easy to remember) by the door. Doors are easy to work if you havent turned hand gestures off. But I will give you the sequence anyway. Dont do it too fast; RAS-R, LAS-L, RAS-R, LAS-L, RAS-R, LAS-L. Rotate RAS C, then pull both RAS & LAS down, then down again.From now on keep an eye out for Ammo. Walk up to the first platform and press X to jump up and grab on. Press X again to climb up on top. Jump from platform to platform until you get across. Walk over to the sparkle and press X. Rotate RAS CC.A2 Before you climb the wall in the next stage, walk along the ground to a crate. Smash the crate. Inside will be A2.Jump up to a ledge where a brick falls down when you pass it. Jump up again. Then again. Climb along the ledge right using the LAS until you stop. Drop down to a lower ledge by pressing T. Climb right until you stop. Jump up. Climb right until you stop. Drop down. Walk through the door by the ammo box to get to the next RP.RP - Melee Training - Now you will have to fight some more enemies, but this time you have guns. TIP: When a soldier is on the wooden platform, toss a grenade at him to blow up him *and* the platform. Grappling Training Now follow the instructions to learn how to grab and throw your enemies. TIP: After grabbing an enemy, point the LAS toward the nearest edge and press O. This will throw the enemy off the edge. When you are done, walk over to the iron door. Take your pistols and lock-on to the chain. POW! Walk through the door to the next RP.RP - Jump up and grab the ledge. TIP: Before you do so, climb down the ladder and grab the ammo. There is two packages. After grabbing the ledge, crawl right until you cannot go any further. You will now have to jump this gap. To do so, hold down the LAS in the direction you want to jump and press X. Crawl around the corner until you stop. Drop down. Jump right across this gap. Crawl right until you stop. Jump up. Now you must get to the ledge behind you. To do so, hold down on the LAS and press X. Now crawl right until you stop. Wait for the blade to pass by beneath you, then drop down. When the arrows have finished hitting the ledge beneath you, drop down again. Wait for the blade beneath you to pass by, then drop down again before the arrows hit you. Crawl right until you stop. Jump to the ledge behind you after the blade passes by. Jump up twice, Wait for the blade behind you to pass by and the arrows to finish flying, then jump to that ledge. Jump up quickly, then up again. Crawl right until you stop. Wait for the tiny blades to your right to finish flying. Jump to the ledge to your right. Drop down. Walk to the sparkle and press X. Rotate RAS C, then proceed to the next RP.Jump to the gap nearby. Drop down. Wait for the arrows to stop flying beneath you, then drop down again. Wait for the blade to pass by beneath you, then drop down again quickly. With for the tiny blades to the right of you to stop flying , and the blade on your right to pass, then jump across the gap on your right. Wait for the blade above you to pass, then jump up. Crawl right, then jump up again. Crawl right.A3 As you crawl right, you will see it above you. When you are directly beneath it, press X to climb up and get it.Walk out of the area where A2 is and let yourself drop to the ground. Walk to the right toward the tile pattern on the floor.RP You must now fight some more enemies. Watch out for the ones on the upper ledge; they will be throwing knives at you! Blast them to prevent them from killing you. When all enemies are dead, walk over to the sparkle and press X. Rotate the RAS C, then enter to proceed to the next RP.RP Straight ahead of the camera is a ledge; jump and grab it. Wait for the blade to your right to pass by, and wait for the tiny blades to stop flying, then crawl right until you stop. Wait for the blade beneath you to pass by, then drop down. Drop down again. Walk over to the scaffolding, and jump up and grab on, then climb up. Press X. Pull the RAS down three times, with a small pause in between each time. A timer will start. To the right of the scaffolding is a ledge. Proceed to it and jump up and grab on. Jump up again. Beware of flying arrows! Jump across the gap to you right. Crawl right until you stop drop down. Proceed through the doorway to the next RP.RP Around the emperors chariots are four levers. Get to all and pull them Pull the RAS down to do so. The whole floor will rise to the next level, and then enemies will attack you. After killing enemies, go pull the lever.(only one this time).A4 On this level, before you pull the lever next to the professor, the fourth artifact will be found. In a crate in a corner.RP Get to the wall opposite the man by the lever. Grab the ledge, then crawl left until you stop. Jump left across the gap, then continue left until you stop. Jump up, then move left until you stop. Drop down, then move left until you stop. Drop down, then move left until you stop. Jump up, then move left until you stop. Jump up, then move left.RP A timer will start. Travel back to the elevator the same way you came, only this time keep an eye out for blades and arrows and other hazards! Walk over to the remaining lever and pull.RP - Enemies will attack you. Finish them!Act II Shanghai Museum Now you play as Rick OConnell. Follow the hallway until you come to a door. Press X. Pull the LAS & RAS down to open it.A1 Now is a good time to retrieve A1. It is in the hallway you just came from. It is super easy to sea if you walk back down the hallway, traveling in the opposite direction from the way you came from.RP - Defeat the enemies. Walk over to the chain and lock on. POW! Hop up on the crate that falls down, and grab the ledge. Jump up again. Crawl right until you stop. Jump right across the gap, then crawl right until you stop. Jump up, then crawl right until you stop. Climb up out the window. Defeat the enemies as quickly as possible. TIP: Be sure to shoot the guy shooting you from the ledge. If not, they will continue to bombard you with bullets and grenades. After enemies are dead, walk over to the sparkle. Shoot the two chains. Press X, then pull both the LAS & RAS up. Jump off the ledge inside. Defeat the enemies. Walk over to the sparkle by the sparkle by the control panel and press X.A2 Pull the RAS to the right once, and only once! Walk over to the crossbow and jump up on the platform at the base of the crossbow. Jump up to grab on to the back end of the crossbow. Crawl right , and then hop up on the ledge where you can plainly see the artifact.Walk over to the control and press X again. Pull the RAS right once. Walk back over to the base of the crossbow where the sparkle is and press X. Pull both the LAS & RAS down, up, down, up, down, up, down. POW! Walk back over to the control panel and press X again. Pull the RAS right. Walk back over to the crossbow and jump up and grab on. Crawl right until you stop. Jump across the gap to your right. Do so again. Crawl right until you stop. Climb up through the window to the hallway. Proceed up the hallway to the next RP.RP Walk up the stairs to the door and press X. Pull the LAS & RAS down. Kill enemies. Jump up and grab onto the scaffolding supporting the dinosaur. Jump up again. Climb up onto the platform. Grab onto the hanging dinosaurs leg. The dinosaur will fly out the window with you holding on. Kill the enemies outside. Walk over to the crank and press X. Rotate the RAS C. Hop up on the box in front of you. Grab onto the ledge above the box. Climb up on top. To the right will be a drainpipe. Grab on to it. Crawl right until you stop. Jump to the drainpipe behind you. Climb right until you stop. Drop down onto the platform. Jump from the platform over the fence to the next RP.RP This part is tough, *if* you do not do things in the right order. First, do not grab the ammo right away! Pull out your weapon (I recommend the machine gun), then walk around the corner. Quickly lock on to the guy at the top of the hill, and shoot him. Then hide behind the corner again and wait for the big group of barrels to roll by. You may now grab the ammo, and walk up the hill, dodging the individual barrels as they roll down. This is easy. At the top of the hill is the next RP.RP Kill the enemies, then blast the lock attached to the ladder. Climb up the ladder. Walk to the left along the scaffolding, then shoot the enemies in the windows (I suggest the shotgun). Jump across to the scaffolding in front of you, then blast the lock. A plank will fall down. Walk across the plank. Walk across it, then climb up the ladder and blast these enemies. Shoot the lock. A plank will fall down. Walk to the sparkle. Press X, then push the LAS & RAS up. Kill enemies. Open the next window using the same process as before.RP Jump off ledge, then walk down alley until you reach the enemies.A3 While killing enemies, in a corner behind some barrels/boxes is A3.After enemies are dead, blast the lock on the gate. Proceed. A turret gunner will start shooting you, kill him quickly with your machine gun. Kill the rest of the enemies, then blast the lock on the gate.A4 *Before* walking up the stairs, turn left. In the far left corner is A4.Proceed up the stairs to the turret.RP Mow down the enemies with the turret.RP Fight enemies, be wary of grenade thrower! Blast the lock on gate, then proceed down the stairs. Walk to the sparkle and press X. Pull RAS down. Walk back up the stairs, and walk to the *other* sparkle. Press X, then pull RAS down. Climb up ladder, then climb up next ladder. Walk along balcony until you come to the edge. Jump off and grab the rope.RP Kill enemies, then proceed to gate.

suspenseful, violence

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