synopses_list_imdb.txt

In late summer 1945, guests are gathered for the wedding reception of Don Vito Corleone's daughter Connie (Talia Shire) and Carlo Rizzi (Gianni Russo). Vito (Marlon Brando), the head of the Corleone Mafia family, is known to friends and associates as "Godfather." He and Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall), the Corleone family lawyer, are hearing requests for favors because, according to Italian tradition, "no Sicilian can refuse a request on his daughter's wedding day." One of the men who asks the Don for a favor is Amerigo Bonasera, a successful mortician and acquaintance of the Don, whose daughter was brutally beaten by two young men because she refused their advances; the men received minimal punishment. The Don is disappointed in Bonasera, who'd avoided most contact with the Don due to Corleone's nefarious business dealings. The Don's wife is godmother to Bonasera's shamed daughter, a relationship the Don uses to extract new loyalty from the undertaker. The Don agrees to have his men punish the young men responsible.Meanwhile, the Don's youngest son Michael (Al Pacino), a decorated Marine hero returning from World War II service, arrives at the wedding and tells his girlfriend Kay Adams (Diane Keaton) anecdotes about his family, informing her about his father's criminal life; he reassures her that he is different from his family and doesn't plan to join them in their criminal dealings. The wedding scene serves as critical exposition for the remainder of the film, as Michael introduces the main characters to Kay. Fredo (John Cazale), Michael's next older brother, is a bit dim-witted and quite drunk by the time he finds Michael at the party. Sonny (James Caan), the Don's eldest child and next in line to become Don upon his father's retirement, is married but he is a hot-tempered philanderer who sneaks into a bedroom to have sex with one of Connie's bridesmaids, Lucy Mancini (Jeannie Linero). Tom Hagen is not related to the family by blood but is considered one of the Don's sons because he was homeless when he befriended Sonny in the Little Italy neighborhood of Manhattan and the Don took him in. Now a talented attorney, Tom is being groomed for the important position of consigliere (counselor) to the Don, despite his non-Sicilian heritage.Also among the guests at the celebration is the famous singer Johnny Fontane (Al Martino), Corleone's godson, who has come from Hollywood to petition Vito's help in landing a movie role that will revitalize his flagging career. Jack Woltz (John Marley), the head of the studio, denies Fontane the part (a character much like Johnny himself), which will make him an even bigger star, but Don Corleone explains to Johnny: "I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse." The Don also receives congratulatory salutations from Luca Brasi, a terrifying enforcer in the criminal underworld, and fills a request from the baker who made Connie's wedding cake who wishes for his nephew Enzo to become an American citizen.After the wedding, Hagen is dispatched to Los Angeles to meet with Woltz, but Woltz angrily tells him that he will never cast Fontane in the role. Woltz holds a grudge because Fontane seduced and "ruined" a starlet who Woltz had been grooming for stardom and with whom he had a sexual relationship. Woltz is persuaded to give Johnny the role, however, when he wakes up early the next morning and feels something wet in his bed. He pulls back the sheets and finds himself in a pool of blood; he screams in horror when he discovers the severed head of his prized $600,000 stud horse, Khartoum, in the bed with him. (A deleted scene from the film implies that Luca Brasi (Lenny Montana), Vito's top "button man" or hitman, is responsible.)Upon Hagen's return, the family meets with Virgil "The Turk" Sollozzo (Al Lettieri), who is being backed by the rival Tattaglia family. He asks Don Corleone for financing as well as political and legal protection for importing and distributing heroin. Despite the huge profit to be made, Vito Corleone refuses, explaining that his political influence would be jeopardized by a move into the narcotics trade. The Don's eldest son, Sonny, who had earlier urged the family to enter the narcotics trade, breaks ranks during the meeting and questions Sollozzo's assurances as to the Corleone Family's investment being guaranteed by the Tattaglia Family. His father, angry at Sonny's dissension in a non-family member's presence, privately rebukes him later. Don Corleone then dispatches Luca Brasi to infiltrate Sollozzo's organization and report back with information. During the meeting, while Brasi is bent over to allow Bruno Tattaglia to light his cigarette, he is stabbed in the hand by Sollozzo, and is subsequently garroted by an assassin.Soon after his meeting with Sollozzo, Don Corleone is gunned down in an assassination attempt just outside his office, and it is not immediately known whether he has survived. Fredo Corleone had been assigned driving and protection duty for his father when Paulie Gatto, the Don's usual bodyguard, had called in sick. Fredo proves to be ineffectual, fumbling with his gun and unable to shoot back. When Sonny hears about the Don being shot and Paulie's absence, he orders Clemenza (Richard S. Castellano) to find Paulie and bring him to the Don's house.Sollozzo abducts Tom Hagen and persuades him to offer Sonny the deal previously offered to his father. Enraged, Sonny refuses to consider it and issues an ultimatum to the Tattaglias: turn over Sollozzo or face a lengthy, bloody and costly (for both sides) gang war. They refuse, and instead send Sonny "a Sicilian message," in the form of two fresh fish wrapped in Luca Brasi's bullet-proof vest, to tell the Corleones that Luca Brasi "sleeps with the fishes."Clemenza later takes Paulie and one of the family's hitmen, Rocco Lampone, for a drive into Manhattan. Sonny wants to "go to the mattresses" -- set up beds in apartments for Corleone button men to operate out of in the event that the crime war breaks out. On their way back from Manhattan, Clemenza has Paulie stop the car in a remote area so he can urinate. Rocco shoots Paulie dead; he and Clemenza leave Paulie and the car behind.Michael, whom the other Mafia families consider a "civilian" uninvolved in mob business, visits his father at a small private hospital. He is shocked to find that no one is guarding him. Realizing that his father is again being set up to be killed, he calls Sonny for help, moves his father to another room, and goes outside to watch the entrance. Michael enlists help from Enzo the baker (Gabriele Torrei), who has come to the hospital to pay his respects. Together, they bluff away Sollozzo's men as they drive by. Police cars soon appear bringing the corrupt Captain McCluskey (Sterling Hayden), who viciously punches Michael in the cheek and breaks his jaw when Michael insinuates that Sollozzo paid McCluskey to set up his father. Just then, Hagen arrives with "private detectives" licensed to carry guns to protect Don Corleone, and he takes the injured Michael home. Sonny responds by having Bruno Tattaglia (Tony Giorgio), the eldest son and underboss of Don Phillip Tattaglia (Victor Rendina), killed (off-camera).Following the attempt on the Don's life at the hospital, Sollozzo requests a meeting with the Corleones, which Captain McCluskey will attend as Sollozzo's bodyguard. When Michael volunteers to kill both men during the meeting, Sonny and the other senior Family members are amused; however, Michael convinces them that he is serious and that killing Sollozzo and McCluskey is in the family's interest: "It's not personal. It's strictly business." Because Michael is considered a civilian, he won't be regarded as a suspicious ambassador for the Corleones. Although police officers are usually off limits for hits, Michael argues that since McCluskey is corrupt and has illegal dealings with Sollozzo, he is fair game. Michael also implies that newspaper reporters that the Corleones have on their payroll would delight in publishing stories about a corrupt police captain.Michael meets with Clemenza, one of his father's caporegimes (captains), who prepares a small pistol for him, covering the trigger and grip with tape to prevent any fingerprint evidence. He instructs Michael about the proper way to perform the assassination and tells him to leave the gun behind. He also tells Michael that the family were all very proud of Michael for becoming a war hero during his service in the Marines. Clemenza shows great confidence that Michael can perform the job and tells him it will all go smoothly. The plan is to have the Corleone's informers find out the location of the meeting and plant the revolver before Michael, Sollozzo and McCluskey arrive.Before the meeting in a small Italian restaurant, McCluskey frisks Michael for weapons and finds him clean. Michael excuses himself to go to the bathroom, where he retrieves the planted revolver. Returning to the table, he fatally shoots Sollozzo, then McCluskey. Michael is sent to hide in Sicily while the Corleone family prepares for all-out warfare with the Five Families (who are united against the Corleones) as well as a general clampdown on the mob by the police and government authorities. When the don returns home from the hospital, he is distraught to learn that it was Michael who killed Sollozzo and McCluskey.Meanwhile, Connie and Carlo's marriage is disintegrating. They argue publicly over Carlo's suspected infidelity and his possessive behavior toward Connie. By Italian tradition, nobody, not even a high-ranking Mafia don, can intervene in a married couple's personal disputes, even if they involve infidelity, money, or domestic abuse. One day, Sonny sees a bruise on Connie's face and she tells him that Carlo hit her after she asked him if he was having an affair. Sonny tracks down and severely beats up Carlo Rizzi in the middle of a crowded street for brutalizing the pregnant Connie, and threatens to kill Carlo if he ever abuses Connie again. An angry Carlo responds by plotting with Tattaglia and Don Emilio Barzini (Richard Conte), the Corleones' chief rivals, to have Sonny killed.Later, Carlo has one of his mistresses phone his house, knowing that Connie will answer. The woman asks Connie to tell Carlo not to meet her tonight. The very pregnant and distraught Connie assaults Carlo; he takes advantage of the altercation to beat Connie in order to lure Sonny out in the open and away from the Corleone compound. When Connie phones the compound to tell Sonny that Carlo has beaten her again, the furious Sonny drives off (alone and unescorted) to fulfill his threat against Carlo. On the way to Connie and Carlo's house, Sonny is ambushed at a toll booth on the Long Island Causeway and violently shot to death by several carloads of hitmen wielding Thompson sub-machine guns.Tom Hagen relays the news of Sonny's massacre to the Don, who calls in the favor from Bonasera to personally handle the embalming of Sonny's body. Rather than seek revenge for Sonny's killing, Don Corleone meets with the heads of the Five Families to negotiate a cease-fire. Not only is the conflict draining all their assets and threatening their survival, but ending it is the only way that Michael can return home safely. Reversing his previous decision, Vito agrees that the Corleone family will provide political protection for Tattaglia's traffic in heroin, as long as it is controlled and not sold to children. At the meeting, Don Corleone deduces that Don Barzini, not Tattaglia, was ultimately behind the start of the mob war and Sonny's death.In Sicily, Michael patiently waits out his exile, protected by Don Tommasino (Corrado Gaipa), an old family friend. Michael aimlessly wanders the countryside, accompanied by his ever-present bodyguards, Calo (Franco Citti) and Fabrizio (Angelo Infanti). In a small village, Michael meets and falls in love with Apollonia Vitelli (Simonetta Stefanelli), the beautiful young daughter of a bar owner. They court and marry in the traditional Sicilian fashion, but soon Michael's presence becomes known to Corleone enemies. As the couple is about to be moved to a safer location, Apollonia is killed as a result of a rigged car (originally intended for Michael), exploding on ignition; Michael, who watched the car blow up, spots Fabrizio hurriedly leaving the grounds seconds before the explosion, implicating him in the assassination plot. (In a deleted scene, Fabrizio is found years later and killed.)With his safety guaranteed, Michael returns home. More than a year later, in 1950, he reunites with his former girlfriend Kay after a total of four years of separation -- three in Italy and one in America. He tells her he wants them to be married. Although Kay is hurt that he waited so long to contact her, she accepts his proposal. With Don Vito semi-retired, Sonny dead, and middle brother Fredo considered incapable of running the family business, Michael is now in charge; he promises Kay he will make the family business completely legitimate within five years.Two years later, Clemenza and Salvatore Tessio (Abe Vigoda), complain that they are being pushed around by the Barzini Family and ask permission to strike back, but Michael denies the request. He plans to move the family operations to Nevada and after that, Clemenza and Tessio may break away to form their own families. Michael further promises Connie's husband, Carlo, that he will be his right hand man in Nevada (Carlo had grown up there), unaware of his part in Sonny's assassination. Tom Hagen has been removed as consigliere and is now merely the family's lawyer, with Vito serving as consigliere. Privately, Hagen inquires about his change in status, and also questions Michael about a new regime of "soldiers" secretly being built under Rocco Lampone (Tom Rosqui). Don Vito explains to Hagen that Michael is acting on his advice.Another year or so later, Michael travels to Las Vegas and meets with Moe Greene (Alex Rocco), a rich and shrewd casino boss looking to expand his business dealings. After the Don's attempted assassination, Fredo had been sent to Las Vegas to learn about the casino business from Greene. Michael arrogantly offers to buy out Greene but is rudely rebuffed. Greene believes the Corleones are weak and that he can secure a better deal from Barzini. As Moe and Michael heatedly negotiate, Fredo sides with Moe. Afterward, Michael warns Fredo to never again "take sides with anyone against the family."Michael returns home. In a private moment, Vito explains his expectation that the Family's enemies will attempt to murder Michael by using a trusted associate to arrange a meeting as a pretext for assassination. Vito also reveals that he had never really intended a life of crime for Michael, hoping that his youngest son would hold legitimate power as a senator or governor. Some months later, Vito collapses and dies while playing with his young grandson Anthony (Anthony Gounaris) in his tomato garden. At the burial, Tessio conveys a proposal for a meeting with Barzini, which identifies Tessio as the traitor that Vito was expecting.Michael arranges for a series of murders to occur simultaneously while he is standing godfather to Connie's and Carlo's newborn son at the church:Don Stracci (Don Costello) is gunned down along with his bodyguard in a hotel elevator by a shotgun-wielding Clemenza.Moe Greene is killed while having a massage, shot through the eye by an unidentified assassin.Don Cuneo (Rudy Bond) is trapped in a revolving door at the St. Regis Hotel and shot dead by soldier Willi Cicci (Joe Spinell).Don Tattaglia is assassinated in his bed, along with a prostitute, by Rocco Lampone and an unknown associate.Don Barzini is killed on the steps of his office building along with his bodyguard and driver, shot by Al Neri (Richard Bright), disguised in his old police uniform.After the baptism, Tessio believes he and Hagen are on their way to the meeting between Michael and Barzini that he has arranged. Instead, he is surrounded by Willi Cicci and other button men as Hagen steps away. Realizing that Michael has uncovered his betrayal, Tessio tells Hagen that he always respected Michael, and that his disloyalty "was only business." He asks if Tom can get him off for "old times' sake," but Tom says he cannot. Tessio is driven away and never seen again (it is implied that Cicci shoots and kills Tessio with his own gun after he disarms him prior to entering the car).Meanwhile, Michael confronts Carlo about Sonny's murder and forces him to admit his role in setting up the ambush, having been approached by Barzini himself. (The hitmen who killed Sonny were the core members of Barzini's personal bodyguard.) Michael assures Carlo he will not be killed, but his punishment is exclusion from all family business. He hands Carlo a plane ticket to exile in Las Vegas. However, when Carlo gets into a car headed for the airport, he is immediately garroted to death by Clemenza, on Michael's orders.Later, a hysterical Connie confronts Michael at the Corleone compound as movers carry away the furniture in preparation for the family move to Nevada. She accuses him of murdering Carlo in retribution for Carlo's brutal treatment of her and for Carlo's suspected involvement in Sonny's murder. After Connie is removed from the house, Kay questions Michael about Connie's accusation, but he refuses to answer, reminding her to never ask him about his business or what he does for a living. She insists, and Michael outright lies, reassuring his wife that he played no role in Carlo's death. Kay believes him and is relieved. The film ends with Clemenza and new caporegimes Rocco Lampone and Al Neri arriving and paying their respects to Michael. Clemenza kisses Michael's hand and greets him as "Don Corleone." As Kay watches, the office door is closed.


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In 1947, Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins), a banker in Maine, is convicted of murdering his wife and her lover, a golf pro. He is given two life sentences and sent to the notoriously harsh Shawshank Prison. Andy always claims his innocence, but his cold and measured demeanor led many to doubt his word.During the first night, the chief guard, Byron Hadley (Clancy Brown), savagely beats a newly arrived inmate because of his crying and hysterics. The inmate later dies in the infirmary because the prison doctor had left for the night. Meanwhile Andy remained steadfast and composed. Ellis Boyd Redding (Morgan Freeman), also known as Red, bet against others that Andy would be the one to break down first and loses a considerable amount of cash.About a month later, Andy approaches Red, who runs contraband inside the walls of Shawshank. He asks if Red could find him a rock hammer, an instrument he claims is necessary for his hobby of rock collecting and sculpting. Though other prisoners consider Andy "a really cold fish", Red sees something in Andy, and likes him from the start. Red believes Andy intends to use the hammer to engineer his escape in the future but when the tool arrived and he saw how small it was, Red put aside the thought that Andy could ever use it to dig his way out of prison.Over the first two years of his incarceration, Andy works in the prison laundry. He attracts attention from "the Sisters", a group of prisoners who sexually assault other prisoners. Though he persistently resists and fights them, Andy is beaten and raped on a regular basis.Red pulls some strings, and gets Andy and a few of their mutual friends a break by getting them all on a work detail tarring the roof of one of the prison's buildings. During the job Andy overhears Hadley complaining about having to pay taxes for an upcoming inheritance. Using his expertise as a banker, Andy lets Hadley know how he could shelter his money from the IRS, turning it into a one-time gift for his wife. He said he'd assist in exchange for some cold beers for his fellow inmates while on the tarring job. Though he at first threatens to throw Andy off the roof, Hadley, the most brutal guard in the prison, agrees, providing the men with cold beer before the job is finished. Red remarks that Andy may have engineered the privilege to build favor with the prison guards as much as with his fellow inmates, but Red also thinks Andy did it simply to "feel free."While watching a movie, Andy demands Red "Rita Hayworth". Soon, after asking Red for "Rita Hayworth", Andy once more encountered the Sisters and is brutally beaten, putting him in the infirmary for a month. Boggs (Mark Rolston), the leader of "The Sisters", spends a week in solitary. When he comes out, he finds Hadley and his men waiting in his cell. They beat him so badly he's left paralyzed, transferred to a prison hospital upstate, and the Sisters never bothered Andy again. When Andy got out of the infirmary, he finds a bunch of rocks and a poster of Rita Hayworth in his cell: presents from Red and his buddies.Warden Samuel Norton (Bob Gunton) hears about Andy helped Hadley and uses a surprise cell inspection to size Andy up. The warden meets with Andy and sends him to work with aging inmate Brooks Hatlen (James Whitmore) in the prison library, where he sets up a make-shift desk to provide services to other guards (and the warden himself) with income tax returns and other financial advice. There Andy sees an opportunity to expand the prison library, starting with asking the Maine state senate for funds. He starts writing letters and sending them every week. His financial support practice became so appreciated that even guards from other prisons, when they came for inter-prison baseball matches, sought Andy's financial advice. Andy even ends up doing Norton's taxes the next season.Not long afterward, Brooks, the old librarian, threatens to kill another prisoner, Heywood, in order to avoid being paroled. Andy is able to talk him down and Brooks is paroled. He goes to a halfway house but finds it impossible to adjust to life outside the prison. He eventually commits suicide. When his friends suggest that he was crazy for doing so, Red tells them that Brooks had obviously become "institutionalized", essentially conditioned to be a prisoner for the rest of his life and unable to adapt to the outside world. Red remarks: "These walls are funny. First you hate 'em, then you get used to 'em. Enough time passes, you get so you depend on them."After six years of writing letters, Andy receives $200 from the state for the library, along with a collection of old books and records. Though the state Senate thinks this will be enough to get Andy to halt his letter-writing campaign, he is undaunted and doubles his efforts.When the donations of old books and records arrive at the warden's office, Andy finds a copy of Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro" among the records. He locks the guard assigned to the warden's office in the bathroom and plays the record on a phonograph over the prison's PA system. The entire prison seems captivated by the music - Red remarks that the voices of the women in the intro made everyone feel free, if only for a brief time. Outside the office, Norton appears, furious at the act of defiance and orders Andy to turn off the record player. Andy reaches for the needle arm at first, then turns the volume on the phonograph up. The warden orders Hadley to break into the office and Andy is sent immediately to solitary confinement for two weeks. When he gets out, he tells his friends that it was the "easiest time" stretch ever did in the hole because he thought of Mozart's Figaro. When the other prisoners tell him how unlikely that could be, he tells them that hope can sustain them. Red is not convinced and leaves, bitter at the thought.With the enlarged library and more materials, Andy begins to teach those inmates who want to receive their high school diplomas. After Andy is able to secure a steady stream of funding from various sources, the library is further renovated and named for Brooks.Warden Norton profits on Andy's knowledge of bookkeeping and devises a scheme whereby he put prison inmates to work in public projects which he won by outbidding other contractors (cheap labor from the prisoners). Occasionally, he let others get some contracts if they bribe him. Andy launders money for the warden by setting up many accounts in different banks, along with several investments, using a fake identity: "Randall Stephens". He shared the details only with his friend, Red, noting that he had to "go to prison to learn how to be a criminal."In 1965, a young prisoner named Tommy (Gil Bellows) comes to Shawshank. Andy suggests that Tommy take up another line of work besides theft. The suggestion really gets to Tommy and he works on achieving his high school equivalency diploma. Though Tommy is a good student, he is still frustrated when he takes the exam itself, crumpling it up and tossing it in the trash. Andy retrieves it and sends it in.One day Red tells Tommy about Andy's case. Tommy is visibly upset at hearing Andy's story and tells Andy and Red that he had a cellmate in another prison who boasted about killing a man who was a pro golfer at the country club he worked at, along with his lover. The woman's husband, a banker, had gone to prison for those murders. With this new information, Andy, full of hope, meets with the warden's, expecting he could help him get another trial with Tommy as a witness. The reaction from Norton is completely contrary to what Andy hoped for. Andy says emphatically that he would never reveal the money laundering schemes he had set up for Norton over the years - the warden becomes furious and orders him to solitary for a month. The warden later meets with Tommy alone and asks him if he'll testify on Andy's behalf. Tommy enthusiastically agrees and the warden has him shot dead by Hadley.When the warden visits Andy in solitary, he tells him that Tommy was killed while attempting escape. Andy tells Norton that the financial schemes will stop. The warden counters, saying the library will be destroyed and all it's materials burned. Andy will also lose his private cell and be sent to the block with the most hardened criminals. The warden gives Andy another month in solitary.Afterwards, Andy returns to the usual daily life at Shawshank, a seemingly broken man. One day he talks to Red, about how although he didn't kill his wife, his personality drove her away, which led to her infidelity and death. He says if he's ever freed or escapes, he'd like to go to Zihuatanejo, a beach town on the Pacific coast of Mexico. He also tells Red how he got engaged. He and his future wife went up to a farm in Buxton, Maine, to a large oak tree at the end of a stone wall. The two made love under the tree, after which he proposed to her. He tells Red that, if he should ever be paroled, he should look for that field, and that oak tree. There, under a large black volcanic rock that would look out of place, Andy has buried a box that he wants Red to have. Andy refuses to reveal what might be in that box.Later, Andy asks for a length of rope, leading Red and his buddies to suspect he will commit suicide. At the end of the day, Norton asks Andy to shine his shoes for him and put his suit in for dry-cleaning before retiring for the night.The following morning, Andy is not accounted for as usual from his cell. At the same time, Norton becomes alarmed when he finds Andy's shoes in his shoebox instead of his own. He rushes to Andy's cell and demands an explanation. Hadley brings in Red, but Red insists he knows nothing of Andy's plans. Becoming increasing hostile and paranoid, Norton starts throwing Andy's sculpted rocks around the cell. When he throws one at Andy's poster of Raquel Welch (where it used to hold Marilyn Monroe and Rita Hayworth before), the rock punches through and into the wall. Norton tears the poster away from the wall and finds a tunnel just wide enough for a man to crawl through.During the previous nights thunderstorm, Andy wore Norton's shoes to his cell, catching a lucky break when no one notices. He packs some papers and Norton's clothes into a plastic bag, tied it to himself with the rope he'd asked for, and escapes through his hole. The tunnel he'd excavated led him to a space between two walls of the prison where he found a sewer main line. Using a rock, he hits it in time with the lightning strikes and eventually burst it. Crawling through 500 yards in the pipe and through the raw sewage contained in it, Andy emerged in a brook outside the walls. A search team later found his uniform and his rock hammer which had been worn nearly to nothing.That morning, Andy walks into the Maine National Bank in Portland, where he had put Warden Norton's money. Using his assumed identity as Randall Stephens, and with all the necessary documentation, he walked out with a cashier's check. Before he leaves, he asks them to drop a package in the mail. He continues his visitations to nearly a dozen other local banks, ending up with some $370,000. The package contained Warden Norton's account books which were delivered straight to the Portland Daily Bugle newspaper.Not long after, the police storms Shawshank Prison. Hadley is arrested for murder; Red said he was taken away "crying like a little girl". Warden Norton finally opens the safe, which he hadn't touched since Andy escaped, and instead of his books, he finds the Bible he had given Andy. Norton opens it to the book of Exodus and finds that the pages have been cut out in the shape of Andy's rock hammer. Norton walks back to his desk as the police pound on his door, takes out a small revolver and shoots himself under the chin. Red remarks that he wondered if the warden thought, right before pulling the trigger, how "Andy could ever have gotten the best of him."Shortly after, Red receives a postcard from Fort Hancock, Texas, with nothing written on it. Red takes it as a sign that Andy made it into Mexico to freedom. Red and his buddies would spend their time talking about Andy's exploits (with a lot of embellishments), but Red just missed his friend.At Red's next parole hearing in 1967, he talked to the parole board about how "rehabilitated" was a made-up word, and how he regretted his actions of the past. His parole is granted this time. He goes to work at a grocery store, and stays at the same halfway house room Brooks had stayed in. He frequently walks by a pawn shop, which had several guns and compasses in the window. At times he would contemplate trying to get back into prison, but he remembered the promise he had made to Andy.One day, with a compass he bought from the pawn shop, he followed Andy's instructions, hitchhiking to Buxton and arriving at the stone wall Andy described. Just like Andy said, there was a large black stone. Under it was a small box containing a large sum of cash and instructions to find him. He said he needed somebody "who could get things" for a "project" of his.Red violates parole and leaves the halfway house, unconcerned since no one would really do an extensive manhunt for "an old crook like [him]." He takes a bus to Fort Hancock, where he crosses into Mexico. The two friends are finally reunited on the beach of Zihuatanejo on the Pacific coast.

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The relocation of Polish Jews from surrounding areas to Krakow begins in late 1939, shortly after the outbreak of World War II, when the German Army defeats the Polish Army in three weeks. Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson), a successful businessman, arrives from Czechoslovakia in hopes of using the abundant cheap labour force of Jews to manufacture enamelware for the German military. Schindler, an opportunistic member of the Nazi party, lavishes bribes upon the army and SS officials in charge of procurement. Sponsored by the military, Schindler acquires a factory for the production of army mess kits and cooking paraphernalia. Not knowing much about how to properly run such an enterprise, he gains a contact in Itzhak Stern (Ben Kingsley), a functionary in the local Judenrat (Jewish Council) who has contacts with the now-underground Jewish business community in the ghetto. They loan him the money for the factory in return for a small share of products produced (for trade on the black market). Opening the factory, Schindler pleases the Nazis and enjoys his new-found wealth and status as "Herr Direktor," while Stern handles all administration. Stern suggests Schindler hire Jews instead of Poles because they cost less (the Jews themselves get nothing; the wages are paid to the Reich). Workers in Schindler's factory are allowed outside the ghetto, and Stern falsifies documents to ensure that as many people as possible are deemed "essential" by the Nazi bureaucracy, which saves them from being transported to concentration camps, or even being killed.Amon Gth (Ralph Fiennes) arrives in Krakow to initiate construction of a labor camp nearby, Paszw. The SS soon liquidates the Krakow ghetto, sending in hundreds of troops to empty the cramped rooms and shoot anyone who protests, is uncooperative, elderly, or infirmed, or for no reason at all. Schindler watches the massacre from the hills overlooking the area, and is profoundly affected. He nevertheless is careful to befriend Gth and, through Stern's attention to bribery, he continues to enjoy the SS's support and protection. The camp is built outside the city at Paszw. During this time, Schindler bribes Gth into allowing him to build a sub-camp for his workers, with the motive of keeping them safe from the depredations of the guards. Eventually, an order arrives from Berlin commanding Gth to exhume and destroy all bodies of those killed in the Krakow ghetto, dismantle Paszw, and to ship the remaining Jews to Auschwitz. Schindler prevails upon Gth to let him keep "his" workers so that he can move them to a factory in his old home of Zwittau-Brinnlitz, in Moravia -- away from the "final solution" now fully under way in occupied Poland. Gth acquiesces, charging a certain amount for each worker. Schindler and Stern assemble a list of workers that should keep them off the trains to Auschwitz."Schindler's List" comprises these "skilled" inmates, and for many of those in Paszw, being included means the difference between life and death. Almost all of the people on Schindler's list arrive safely at the new site, with the exception to the train carrying the women and the children, which is accidentally redirected to Auschwitz. There, the women are directed to what they believe is a gas chamber; after a harrowing experience where their hair is crudely cut off and they are forced to strip, they see only water falling from the showers. The day after, the women are shown waiting in line for work. In the meantime, Schindler had rushed immediately to Auschwitz to solve the problem and to get the women out of Auschwitz; to this end he bribes the camp commander, Rudolf Hss (Hans-Michael Rehberg), with a cache of diamonds so that he is able to spare all the women and the children. However, a last problem arises just when all the women are boarding the train because several SS officers attempt to hold some children back and prevent them from leaving. Schindler, there to personally oversee the boarding, steps in and is successful in obtaining from the officers the release of the children. Once the Schindler women arrive in Zwittau-Brinnlitz, Schindler institutes firm controls on the Nazi guards assigned to the factory; summary executions are forbidden, abuse of the workers is as well and the Nazi guards are not allowed on the factory floor. Schindler also permits the Jews to observe the Sabbath, and spends much of his fortune acquired in Poland bribing Nazi officials. In his home town, he surprises his wife while she's in church during mass, and tells her that she is the only woman in his life (despite having been shown previously to be a womanizer). She goes with him to the factory to assist him. He runs out of money just as the German army surrenders, ending the war in Europe.As a German Nazi and self-described "profiteer of slave labor," Schindler must flee the oncoming Soviet Red Army. After dismissing the Nazi guards to return to their families, he packs a car in the night, and bids farewell to his workers. They give him a letter explaining he is not a criminal to them, together with a ring engraved with the Talmudic quotation, "He who saves the life of one man, saves the world entire." Schindler is touched but deeply distraught, feeling he could've done more to save many more lives. He leaves with his wife during the night, dressed in Polish prisoner clothes, posing as refugees. The Schindler Jews, having slept outside the factory gates through the night, are awakened by sunlight the next morning. A Soviet dragoon arrives and announces to the Jews that they have been liberated by the Red Army. The Jews walk to a nearby town in search of food. A title card informs us that Schindler was declared a "righteous person" by the Yad Vashem of Jerusalem, and himself planted a tree on the Avenue of the Righteous in Israel, which still grows to this day. The fate of Gth is also shown; he was captured near the German town of Bad Tolz and taken back to Paszw where, defiant to the end and announcing his allegiance to Hitler, is hanged for crimes against humanity.As the surviving Schindler Jews walk abreast, the frame changes to another of the Schindler Jews in the present day (in color) at the grave of Oskar Schindler in Israel. The film ends with a procession of now-aged Jews who worked in Schindler's factory, each of whom reverently sets a stone on his grave. The actors portraying the major characters walk hand-in-hand with the people they portrayed, also placing stones on Schindler's grave as they pass. Actor Ben Kingsley escorts Itzhak Stern's wife. The audience learns that the survivors and descendants of the approximately 1,100 Jews sheltered by Schindler now number over 6,000. The Jewish population of Poland, once numbering in the millions, was at the time of the film's release approximately 4,000. In the final scene, a man (Neeson himself, though his face is not visible) places a pair of roses on the grave, and stands contemplatively over it.


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The film opens in 1964, where an older and fatter Jake LaMotta (Robert De Niro) practices his stand-up comic routine before his debut at a comedy nightclub. A flashback shifts to his boxing career in 1941 against his opponent, Jimmy Reeves, in the infamous Cleveland bout. Losing the fight by a fixed result causes a fight to break out at the end of the match. Jake's brother Joey LaMotta (Joe Pesci) is not only a sparring partner to him but also responsible for organizing his fights.Joey discusses a potential shot for the title with one of his mob connections, Salvy Batts (Frank Vincent), on the way to his brother's house in their neighborhood in the Bronx. When they are finally settled in the house, Jake admits that he does not have much faith in his own abilities. Accompanied by his brother to the local open-air swimming pool, a restless Jake spots a 15-year-old girl named Vickie (Cathy Moriarty) at the edge of the pool. Although he has to be reminded by his brother he is already married, the opportunity to invite her out for the day very soon comes true when Joey gives in.Jake has two fights with Sugar Ray Robinson, set two years apart, and Jake loses the second when the judges rule in favor of Sugar Ray because he was leaving the sport temporarily for conscription in the United States Army. This does not deter Jake from winning six straight fights, but as his fears grow about his wife, Vickie, having feelings for other men, particularly Tony Janiro, the opponent for his forthcoming fight, he is keen enough to show off his sexual jealously when he beats him in front of the local Mob boss, Tommy Como (Nicholas Colosanto) and Vickie.The recent triumph over Janiro is touted as a major boost for the belt as Joey discusses this with journalists, though Joey is briefly distracted by seeing Vickie approach a table with Salvy and his crew. Joey has a word with Vickie, who says she is giving up on his brother. Blaming Salvy, Joey viciously attacks him in a fight that spills outside of the club. When Tommy Como hears that the two of them rose fists in a public place, he orders them to apologize and tells Joey that he means business.At the swimming pool, Joey tells Jake that if he really wants a shot, he will have to take a dive first. In the fight against Billy Fox, Jake does not even bother to put up a fight. Jake is suspended from the board on suspicion of throwing the fight, though he realizes the error of his judgment when it is too late. This does little to harm his career, when he finally wins the title against Marcel Cerdan at the open air Briggs Stadium.Three years pass and Jake asks his brother if he fought with Salvy at the Copca because of Vickie. Jake then asks if Joey had an affair with his wife. Joey refuses to answer and decides to leave. Jake decides to find the truth for himself, interrogating his wife about the affair when she sarcastically states that she had sex with the entire neighborhood (including his brother, Salvy, and Tommy Como) and "sucked his brothers cock" after he knocks down the bathroom door where his wife is briefly hiding from him.Running straight towards his brother's house, he starts a fight with Joey. Defending his championship belt against Laurent Dauthuille, he makes a call to his brother after the fight, but when Joey assumes Salvy is on the other end, Jake says nothing. This drags Jake down to when he eventually loses to Sugar Ray Robinson on their final (very violent) encounter, letting Sugar Ray land several hard blows on him as punishment for what he did.A couple of years later, in the middle of a photo shoot, Jake LaMotta surrounded by his wife and children, tells the journalists he is officially retired and that he has bought a new property. After staying all night at his new nightclub in Miami, Vickie tells him she wants a divorce (which she has been planning since his retirement). Arrested for introducing under-age girls (posing as 21-year-olds) to men, he serves a jail sentence after failing to raise the bribe money by taking the jewels out of his championship belt instead of selling the belt itself.In his jail cell, Jake brutally pounds the walls whilst sorrowfully questioning his misfortune, as he sits alone crying in despair. Returning to New York City after serving his sentence, he meets up with his estranged brother Joey in a garage parking lot where they share a nervous hug.Going back to the beginning sequence, Jake refers to the "I coulda' have been a contender" scene from On the Waterfront complaining that his brother should have been there for him but is also keen enough to give himself some slack. Darting across the room at the information of the crowded auditorium by the stage hand, the camera remains pivoted on the mirror as LaMotta chants "I'm the boss" whilst shadow boxing.The film ends on an ambiguous note with a Biblical quote: "All I know is this: Once I was blind, and now I can see." -symbolizing that even men like LaMotta can be redeemed.


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In the early years of World War II, December 1941, the Moroccan coastal city of Casablanca attracts people from all over the world, particularly Nazi-occupied Europe. Many are transients trying to get out of Europe; a few are just trying to make a buck. Most of them -- gamblers and refugees, Nazis, resistance fighters, and plain old crooks -- find their way to Rick's Caf Amricain, a swank nightclub owned by American expatriate Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart). Though we learn later that Rick once harbored enough idealism to put himself at risk to fight fascism, he's now embittered and cynical, professing to be neutral and detached: "I stick my neck out for nobody."Ugarte (Peter Lorre) comes to Rick's with letters of transit he obtained by killing two German couriers. The papers allow the bearer to travel freely around German-controlled Europe, including to neutral Lisbon, Portugal; from Lisbon, it's relatively easy to get to the United States. They are almost priceless to any of the refugees stranded in Casablanca. Ugarte plans to make his fortune by selling them to the highest bidder, who is due to arrive at the club later that night. However, before the exchange can take place, Ugarte is arrested by the police under the command of Captain Louis Renault (Claude Rains). A corrupt Vichy official, Renault accommodates the Nazis. Unknown to Renault and the Nazis, Ugarte had left the letters with Rick for safekeeping, because "...somehow, just because you despise me, you're the only one I trust."Then the reason for Rick's bitterness re-enters his life. Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman) arrives with her husband Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid) to purchase the letters. Laszlo is a renowned Czech Resistance leader who has escaped from a Nazi concentration camp. They must have the letters to escape to America to continue his work. At the time Ilsa first met and fell in love with Rick in Paris, she believed her husband had been killed. When she discovered that he was still alive, she left Rick abruptly without explanation and returned to Laszlo, leaving Rick feeling betrayed. After the club closes, Ilsa returns to try to explain, but Rick is drunk and bitterly refuses to listen.At different times Rick and Ilsa torment themselves by asking the club's piano player, Sam (Arthur "Dooley" Wilson), to play As Time Goes By, a song they loved when they were together in Paris. The famous line "Play it again, Sam," which refers to this song, doesn't actually appear in the movie -- Ilsa says "Play it, Sam," and later, Rick orders "Play it!" While Sam plays the song, Rick reminisces about his affair with Ilsa in Paris. Though she seems happy to be with Rick, her mood near the end of their time together is cautious because she has learned her husband may not be dead. When the Nazis begin to close in on Paris, she receives word that Victor is indeed alive in another part of Europe. She and Rick had been planning to take a train to Southern France to escape the German Army's assault; however, on the platform Rick receives a handwritten letter from her. She writes that she can't explain why she's leaving him but she loves him. Rick and Sam leave without her.The next night, Laszlo, suspecting that Rick has the letters, speaks with him privately about obtaining them. They're interrupted when a group of Nazi officers, led by Major Strasser (Conrad Veidt), commandeer Sam's piano and begin to sing Die Wacht am Rhein (The Watch on the Rhine), a German patriotic song. Infuriated, Laszlo orders the house band to play La Marseillaise in honor of Occupied France. The band leader looks to Rick for guidance; he nods. Laszlo starts singing, alone at first, then long-suppressed patriotic fervor grips the crowd and everyone joins in, drowning out the Germans. In retaliation, Strasser orders Renault to close the club.Later that night, Ilsa confronts Rick in the deserted cafe. He refuses to give her the documents, even when threatened with a gun. She is unable to shoot, confessing that she still loves him. Rick decides to help Laszlo, leading her to believe that she will stay behind when Laszlo leaves.Laszlo is jailed on a minor charge. Rick convinces Renault to release Laszlo, promising to set him up for a much more serious crime: possession of the letters of transit. However, Rick double crosses Renault, forcing him at gunpoint to assist in the escape. At the last moment, Rick makes Ilsa get on the plane to Lisbon with her husband, telling her that she would regret it if she stayed: "Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life."Major Strasser drives up, tipped off by Renault, but Rick shoots him when he tries to intervene. When his men arrive, Renault informs them that Strasser is dead and covers for Rick by sharply ordering them to "round up the usual suspects." He then recommends that they both leave Casablanca. Renault, suggesting they join the Resistance, walks into the fog with Rick who says "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."


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In 1963 Oregon, Randle Patrick McMurphy (Nicholson), a criminal who has been sentenced to a fairly short prison term, decides to have himself declared insane so he'll be transferred to a mental institution, where he expects to serve the rest of his term free of prison labor and in (comparative) comfort and luxury.His ward in the mental institution is run by an unyielding tyrant, Nurse Ratched (Fletcher), who has cowed the patients (most of whom are "voluntary" or there by choice) into dejected institutionalized submission. McMurphy becomes ensnared in a number of power games with Nurse Ratched for the hearts and minds of the patients. All the time, however, the question is just how sane any of the players in the ward actually are.Throughout his stay at the hospital, McMurphy forms deep friendships with two of his fellow patients: Billy Bibbit (Dourif), a suicidal, stuttering manchild whom Ratched has humiliated and dominated into a quivering mess; and "Chief" Bromden (Sampson), a 6'5" muscular Native American who has schizophrenia. Recognized by the patients in the ward as deaf, and unable to speak, they ignore him but also respect him for his enormous size. In the former, McMurphy sees a younger brother figure whom he wants to teach to have fun, while the latter is his only real confidant, as they both understand what it is like to be treated into submission.McMurphy initially insults Chief when he enters the ward, but attempts to use his size as an advantage (for example, in playing basketball, for which his height is favorable). When Mac sees how submissive the patients are under Ratched's tyrannical control, he resolves to antagonize her and undermine her authority as much as possible. At a counseling session, McMurphy proposes that the ward's work schedule be altered so that the patients can watch the World Series on television. When the 1st meeting comes to a halt under Ratched's authority, Mac takes wagers on whether he can lift the ward's marble water-treatment control panel and throw it through a window to escape and watch the Series at a bar. He naturally fails, but puts forth an extreme effort.The next discussion over changing the work detail quickly becomes a battle of wills when Ratched announces that a majority vote will be acceptable. However, Ratched, upon realizing that the vote may go McMurphy's way, alters the rules slightly, stating that votes must be taken from the Chronic and Vegetable patients . When the vote doesn't favor McMurphy, he begins to imagine the game is on TV and rallies most of the other patients behind him, causing a major ruckus.McMurphy leads the patients in a basketball game against the ward's orderlies. Chief Bromden proves to be an effective player, scoring several baskets. While the orderlies claim that the patients are cheating, McMurphy ignores their objections. While the patients later relax in the hospital pool, Mac finds out, from an orderly, that he won't be released at the end of his prison sentence, but will remain in the hospital for as long as the board and Ratched deem necessary.Another counseling session erupts in violence when the subject of Ratched's cigarette rationing is addressed by an upset patient named Charlie Cheswick. A fight breaks out with the orderlies and Mac, Bromden (who'd pulled Mac off one of the orderlies) and Cheswick are sent to a detention area where electro-convulsive therapy is conducted on disruptive patients. Cheswick is sent first to undergo ECT, while McMurphy and Chief wait on the bench. In the few moments they have alone, McMurphy offers Chief a piece of gum, and Chief verbally thanks him. A surprised McMurphy realizes that Chief can speak and has actually been faking his situation at the ward the whole time. McMurphy resolves to allow Chief in on his escape plan because of his hidden wisdom. Ending this scene, a more defiant McMurphy emerges from the detention area to an awaiting Nurse Ratched.Closer to Christmas McMurphy, fed up with Ratched's oppressive methods, sneaks into the nurse's station and calls his girlfriend, Candy, to bring booze and assist in his escape. She brings a girlfriend, and both enter the ward when McMurphy convinces the ward's night attendant, Mr. Turkle, to open one of the ward's secured windows. The patients drink, while Billy flirts with McMurphy's girlfriend.Later in the evening, when McMurphy and the Chief plan to finally leave, Billy, upset at Mac's departure, hints to Mac that he wants a date with Candy. Billy and Candy are given a private room and Mac boosts Billy's confidence & allows him to have sex with her. McMurphy, however, while waiting (believing the encounter will be quick), falls asleep with the rest of the patients.Nurse Ratched arrives in the morning to discover the patients asleep hung over. Though clearly upset and angry, she commands the orderlies to lock the open window and conduct a head count. When they discover that one patient, Billy, is missing, Ratched demands the others to reveal his whereabouts. Billy is discovered with Candy, who is immediately led out of the hospital.Ratched demands that Billy tell him who allowed him to have sex with Candy. Billy, his stutter noticeably gone, tells her that McMurphy did, and that the rest of the ward encouraged him. A passively angry Ratched then threatens to tell Billy's mother, citing her long-time friendship with her. Billy's stutter returns very quickly and, very upset, begs Ratched not to tell his mother. When she explains that he should have thought of the consequences, he breaks down into tears and is dragged away to Dr. Spivey's office, screaming. McMurphy, still in possession of Turkle's keys, unlocks one of the windows and is about to escape when one of the orderlies screams loudly.McMurphy and everyone else rush to the room where Billy had been led to. Having been left alone momentarily, he commits suicide, using a jagged piece of glass to slit his throat. After McMurphy sees what the ward has done to his friend, he explodes into a violent rage, strangling Nurse Ratched until she is near death. She survives, but McMurphy is knocked unconscious by one of the orderlies and taken off the ward.Rumors float around the ward of McMurphy's fate. Some believe he'd escaped, others seem to know he was lobotomized. Late one night, McMurphy is quietly returned to his bed by orderlies. The Chief sneaks over to Mac's bed and finds him unresponsive; he also sees two scars on Mac's forehead, indicating that he'd been lobotomized. Unwilling to leave McMurphy behind, the Chief suffocates his vegetable-like friend with a pillow. He lifts the heavy marble hydrotherapy fountain that Mac was unable to before and, hurling it through a barred window, escapes to Canada.


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The film opens in Tara, a cotton plantation owned by the proud Gerald O'Hara (Thomas Mitchell), a self-made man of Irish descent, in the Confederate State of Georgia near Atlanta. The date is April 1861. He and his wife, Ellen (Barbara O'Neil), have three beautiful daughters; Suellen (Evelyn Keyes), Carreen (Ann Rutherford), and the headstrong 16-year-old Scarlett (Vivien Leigh). Scarlett spends her days having fun, tormenting the household servants, and flirting, especially with twins Brent and Stuart Carleton (Fred Crane, George Reeves). The brothers anticipate the next ball and hope Scarlett will choose one of them to attend the ball. The Carletons speculate the impending war between the North and the South. Scarlett finds the latter topic boring and is certain that there will be no war. She runs off to meet her father who is riding home through the fields. He returns home with some news.Neighbor John Wilkes (Howard C. Hickman) hosts a barbecue party at his Twelve Oaks plantation. Scarlett pines for Wilkes' son, Ashley (Leslie Howard), a lanky, soft-spoken young man of refined bearing, though he doesn't reciprocate her feelings. Scarlett continues to flirt with other boys despite her willful obsession for Ashley. All the young women go inside for an afternoon nap while the men meet in the parlor for cigars and brandy. Most of them boast of how the South will surely win the war but one gentleman, Rhett Butler (Clark Gable), a visitor from Charleston, South Carolina, disagrees. He states that the South cannot win a protracted war purely through the exhibition of pride and notes how the North is better equipped and industrially superior, able to produce weapons of war quickly. Charles Hamilton (Rand Brooks) is offended by Rhett's opinion and openly tells him so, even going so far as to suggest a duel. Rhett, knowing full well that he's a much better shot than Charles and that this argument is not worth his life, leaves. Charles brands Rhett a coward but Ashley assures him that Rhett would have killed him in the duel.While the other girls are sleeping, Scarlett slips away from the nap room to speak to Ashley in the parlor. She declares her love for him but Ashley tells her that he intends to marry his cousin Melanie Hamilton (Olivia de Havilland), Charles' sister. Scarlett is infuriated and berates Ashley for making her think he was in love with her. She maintains that Melanie is too fair and can't compete with Scarlett's looks, despite the fact that Melanie is admired for her kindness and altruism. Ashley then walks out of the parlor. In her anger, Scarlett throws a vase at the wall, breaking it to pieces. Rhett Butler suddenly pops up from the couch where he'd been resting and jokingly asks whether the war has begun. Scarlett is outraged and defends Ashley when Rhett mocks him. When Scarlett leaves, Rhett laughs to himself: Scarlett has announced that she would hate Ashley forever, but she defended him five seconds afterwards!The start of the war is finally announced and all the young gentlemen rush to enlist. Charles Hamilton is betrothed to Ashley's sister, India (Alicia Rhett) but, when Scarlett flirts with him to get a rise out of Ashley, he proposes to her instead. Still angry at Ashley for rejecting her, Scarlett agrees. They quickly marry before Charles leaves for the front lines. Scarlett offers herself to Ashley but he denies her again, kissing her lightly on the cheek. Just a few months later, news comes of Charles' death from illness while stationed at the front.Wishing for her widowed daughter to cheer up (though Scarlett is sullen for the wrong reasons), Ellen suggests that she go to Atlanta to live with Melanie and her Aunt Pittypat (Laura Hope Crews). Scarlett agrees to go, but only because it will give her the chance to see Ashley again. Her nurse, Mammy (Hattie McDaniel), believes this decision is not in Scarlett's best interest and tells her so.In 1862, Scarlett attends a fundraising ball for the Confederate Army in Atlanta where she, as a recent widow, is not supposed to enjoy herself and must remain off to the side wearing a black gown. She dances surreptitiously behind the counter of her charity stall, receiving looks of disapproval as the people around her whisper rumors of her supposed mourning. Rhett Butler is also in attendance, now known as an arms smuggler to benefit the Southern cause despite his cynical attitude towards the war's aims. His motivation is simply to make a profit and his skills in smuggling allowed him to obtain the ball decorations and make it past Southern blockades. Melanie, by now having married Ashley, offers her wedding ring as a war contribution, a generous move that Scarlett feels obliged to follow. This incites Rhett to sarcastically praise her consideration. An auction is then held for the men to bid on a dance with a girl of their choosing. Rhett wins the auction and chooses Scarlett, causing consternation in the crowd because of Scarlett's position as a widow. However, she accepts Rhett's invitation to dance and, while they do, Rhett tells her that he someday wants to hear her say that she loves him. Scarlett confidently proclaims that will never happen as long as she lives.Another year later, Christmas of 1863 arrives and Ashley returns home from the war front on furlough. Still in love with him, Scarlett once again attempts to woo him but with no success. Just before Ashley's departure day, Scarlett manages to see him alone and gives him a present, tearfully confessing that she only married Charles to hurt him. Ashley makes Scarlett promise to take care of Melanie before they share one passionate kiss. Ashley leaves once more to rejoin the war effort.Eight months pass, during which the war drags on and the situation in the South worsens. Food becomes scarce and nearly every family has lost loved ones to battle. Scarlett and Melanie, now pregnant with Ashley's child, volunteer as nurses caring for wounded soldiers. Scarlett despises her new role, doubled upon her responsibilities as the sole person to manage Aunt Pittypat's home since Pittypat is incompetent and Melanie grows weaker due to her difficult pregnancy. Scarlett faces the harsh realities of war as she listens to a dying soldier (Cliff Edwards) reminisce about his brother Jeff and witnesses another (Eric Linden) suffer a leg amputation without anesthetic. The useless Aunt Pittypat leaves the city, finding the noise of artillery annoying, and renders Scarlett to care for the weakened Melanie with no one but the house servant, Prissy (Butterfly McQueen), to help.When Melanie goes into labor, Scarlett, intent on keeping her promise to Ashley, employs the help of Dr. Meade (Harry Davenport) who had previously been watching Melanie's progress. However, he is unable to leave the train station where he is tending to hundreds of wounded and dying Confederate soldiers. When Prissy, who had claimed to know all there is to childbirth, admits that she knows nothing, Scarlett takes control, fueled by her anger. Though Melanie's labor is long and complicated, she eventually gives birth to a son (Patrick Curtis) but is left severely weak.Scarlett sends Prissy to find the one man who can get them all safely out of Atlanta before the approaching Union troops take siege: Rhett Butler. Prissy finds him enjoying himself at a local brothel run by Belle Watling (Ona Munson). Though Rhett mocks Prissy, he agrees to assist Scarlett who insists on returning home to Tara. Rhett steals a horse and cart and fetches Scarlett, Melanie, her baby, and Prissy, taking them through Atlanta as the city burns in wake of the Union advance. Once safely outside the city, Rhett leaves them to continue to Tara alone, telling Scarlett that he is to enlist in the Confederate army because he believes only in lost causes 'when they are really lost'. Scarlett begs him not to go and he professes his love for her, claiming to have never loved anyone else so fiercely. Scarlett rebuffs his advances but he kisses her, paying for it with a slap across the face. Rhett mounts one of the horses from the cart and rides off laughing, leaving Scarlett in tears.The women continue on their journey to Tara alone, traveling mostly by night to avoid enemy Federal troops. When Melanie can no longer lactate for the baby, they resolve to milk a stray cow for sustenance. They pass the Wilkes' plantation which has befallen the same fate as many others, having burned to the ground. Melanie tries to stand but collapses upon seeing the scorched crosses marking the graves of her entire family. Under moonlight and just as their horse dies of exhaustion, they arrive at Tara to find it still standing but derelict, having been used as headquarters for Northern troops. The fields are untended and the grounds have been pillaged but Scarlett finds that her father, sisters, and two of their servants, Mammy and Pork (Oscar Polk), remain, the rest of the servants/slaves having either run away or forced into the Union army. Scarlett discovers that her mother recently passed away from typhoid fever, leaving her already disturbed father practically insane. With barely any food, no livestock to speak of, and no money, Scarlett wanders into the fields to clear her head. She pulls a fresh carrot out of the ground to bite into it, only to throw up immediately afterwards. Resolving not to give up, she stands defiantly, saying, "As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again!"IntermissionMonths pass and the war enters its final stages. General Sherman marches his Northern armies through Georgia in his so-called 'March to the Sea', leaving destruction in his path. Scarlett and her sisters have been forced to make the best of things, performing manual labor themselves to keep Tara running and in repair. Melanie remains weakened from childbirth and is reduced to staying in bed for the most part. At the moment when Scarlett is scolding her for getting out of bed again, wishing to help, a renegade Union soldier (Paul Hurst) enters the home. He claims that he's simply looking for valuables to move on with but, when he threatens Scarlett, she takes a gun and shoots him in the face and he falls dead down the staircase. Melanie, having witnessed this, promises not to tell the others what happened while Scarlett searches the soldier, finding legitimate cash and other valuables. They dispose of the body and explain to Scarlett's father and sisters that her gun had accidentally discharged.Some months later, in spring of 1865, the war is finally over. Confederate soldiers amble back home in the wake of General Lee's surrender. One of them, Frank Kennedy (Carroll Nye), arrives at Tara and, having long been in love with Suellen, asks Scarlett's permission to marry her. Tara soon becomes a haven for passing soldiers who are given food and rest, mostly at the behest of Melanie. One soldier (Phillip Trent) gives Melanie the news that Ashley is still alive but is a prisoner at a Yankee camp. Soon enough, Ashley arrives at Tara and Melanie rushes to embrace him. Scarlett is urged to do the same but is held back by Mammy; she has no rights to him. To her torment, Ashley stays at Tara with Melanie and his son (Ricky Holt).During the first year-and-a-half of Reconstruction, high taxes are imposed on the Southern plantations by Northern carpetbaggers, much to Scarlett's dismay. Terrified that she will lose Tara, she seeks comfort from Ashley though Mammy doesn't believe a thing of good will come of it. Scarlett begs Ashley to come away with her to Mexico where they can start anew. He kisses her and admits that he loves her and admires her courage but simply can't leave Melanie and his son behind. Ashley reminds Scarlett that she still has Tara which she should love more than him and thrusts some of its red dirt into her hand. He tells her that the Southern civilization is and way of life with slavery is lost forever and that he intends to move to New York City with his family to work as a banker. Scarlett throws a tantrum at this and, when the commotion attracts Melanie's attention, she naively suggest that she and Ashley remain in Tara to help Scarlett. Dejected, Ashley gives in.Jonas Wilkerson (Victor Jory), former overseer of Tara, now prosperous due to collaboration with the carpetbaggers, offers to buy Tara from Scarlett. Though the tax has risen to nearly $300, Tara rejects the offer and humiliates Jonas by throwing a clump of dirt in his face. As he leaves, Scarlett's father, his mind all but completely lost, chases him down on his horse, attempting to upbraid him. However, the horse falls while attempting to jump over a fence and O'Hara is killed in the fall.After burying her father, Scarlett seeks the help of the only man she knows of, yet again. Rhett Butler, despite holding a Captain's rank, is being held in jail in Atlanta by Union forces who are threatening to hang him unless he hands over his Confederate gold. Conditions in the jail, however, are hardly bleak: Rhett gambles and drinks with Union soldiers and receives female visitations. Scarlett decides to dress up for the occasion and enlists Mammy to create a new dress for her out of the curtains hanging at Tara. Mammy accompanies Scarlett to Atlanta to keep her out of trouble. Scarlett is allowed visitation to Rhett at the city jail and attempts to present herself with an air of elegance. Rhett, however, sees through the deception when he notices her roughened hands from working the fields. Despite her anger, she continues to beg for money and even offers to be his mistress. Rhett dismisses her. On her way out, Scarlett passes Belle Watling waiting for a visit. Noticing how well-dressed she is, Scarlett figures that she knows how to get the money.While walking through town, Mammy and Scarlett come across Frank Kennedy, now a successful businessman selling hardware and wood for which the city is being rebuilt. Frank claims to be saving all his money to marry Suellen and bring her to the city. Sensing an opportunity, Scarlett tells Frank that Suellen has married another man and presents herself open to Frank, despite Mammy's disapproving looks. Arriving back at Tara, Suellen is heartbroken and sullen as a widow, having just learned that Scarlett hastily married Frank and that he has paid off Taras debts. She scolds Scarlett for having been married twice already and relents that she seems to be destined as a spinster.Throughout that year (1866), Frank's hardware and lumber store flourishes under Scarlett's management. She refuses credit to her poor neighbors and makes lucrative deals with Northern businessmen. They expand further, buying a sawmill, and Tara starts to regain part of its former splendor. Scarlett hires hungry convicts who are exploited by a cruel, former prison overseer (John Wray).One day, Scarlett comes across Rhett Butler, who is now free and very wealthy. He laughs, saying that she could have married him and become rich if she had waited. She brushes him off and leaves alone for the sawmill. Rhett points out that the shantytown on the way to the sawmill is full of dangerous criminals and deserters but Scarlett shows him that she carries a gun.On the way to the sawmill, two men attack Scarlett from behind and overpower her before she can use her gun. Panicked, Scarlett faints. The men appear to be on the verge of raping her when Big Sam (Everett Brown), a former slave at Tara, saves her by beating up the two men who flee. News of the event spreads quickly through the town. That evening, Frank drops Scarlett and Mammy off at the Wilkes' home while he and Ashley go out to a political meeting. The women sense that something is afoot and Melanie reads aloud from the book 'David Copperfield' in an attempt to relieve the tension. Rhett appears and tells the women that the men have formed a vigilante group to punish the attackers but that the Union army has been tipped off and those at the meeting are now in danger. Melanie tells Rhett where they are meeting, considering him trustworthy despite Scarlett's advice to the contrary. Rhett says he will do what he can.Several hours later, Rhett appears back at the home with Ashley and Dr. Meade, with a squad of Union soldiers right behind them. The three men seem to be completely drunk and Rhett tells the Yankee captain (Ward Bond) that they have just spent the evening at the bordello establishment of Belle Watling, who should confirm their story. The women are shocked and embarrassed, but the captain accepts the explanation and departs. Rhett drops the curtain and instantly sobers (having just pretended to be drunk), revealing there was a skirmish in the shantytown. Ashley is wounded, having been shot in the shoulder but the two men who attacked Scarlett are now dead, along with several others. More worried about Ashley, Scarlett neglects to inquire about her own husband, Frank. Rhett finally mentions that he was killed in the skirmish.Some days later, Melanie meets with Belle Watling and thanks her for helping their men stay out of trouble by backing up their false alibi. Belle says that she has a son studying up North and helped the men because of Melanie rather than Scarlett. Belle cautions Melanie about speaking to her in public from now on as it would damage Melanie's reputation but Melanie persists that she would be happy to speak to Belle anytime.A few days later Rhett visits Scarlett, again a widow. He realizes that she has been drinking heavily despite her attempts to cover up the smell with cologne. She tells Rhett that she will never love him because she's in love with another man, but she will marry him because of his money. Rhett says that they are two of a kind; partners in crime, and he marries her anyway. Rhett and Scarlett have a luxurious honeymoon in New Orleans and return to Tara so that Scarlett can use her new riches to restore its full glory. Rhett also buys a large mansion in Atlanta where they will live on a regular basis. In time they have a child whom Rhett confidently names Bonnie Blue Butler after Melanie remarks (newborn: Kelly Griffin, 2 year-old: Phyllis Douglas) on her brilliant blue eyes.After her daughter's birth, Scarlett becomes depressed over her waning youth and her unrequited love for Ashley. She informs Rhett that she wants no more children and will no longer sleep with him. Furious, Rhett storms out to find consolation at Belle Watling's. Although he has grounds for divorce, Rhett continues with the sham marriage in order to keep up social appearances for Bonnie's sake. Bonnie becomes a sort of substitute for Scarlett in Rhett's eyes. Over the next few years, Rhett dotes on the child, spoiling her and giving her the best of everything, including a pony and riding lessons.In 1871, India Wilkes and Mrs. Meade (Leona Roberts) discover Scarlett hugging Ashley at the hardware store. Although the hug was rather innocent, Scarlett knows that rumors will fly. That night is Ashley's birthday party and Rhett, who has heard the gossip, forces Scarlett to go in a daring red taffeta dress which would be considered very inappropriate for the occasion. Melanie is the only person who welcomes Scarlett. Back at the Atlanta mansion, Scarlett finds Rhett completely drunk. They have an angry confrontation and, this time, Rhett refuses to take no for an answer. He carries Scarlett off to the bedroom. The next morning, Scarlett seems deliriously happy. When Rhett arrives to apologize and propose a divorce, her good mood vanishes. Rhett promises to take care of Scarlett financially but insists on taking Bonnie away with him. Scarlett rejects his offer, as it would be a disgrace. Rhett then leaves on an extended trip to London, England and takes Bonnie with him.In London, Bonnie (Cammie King Conlon) has nightmares and can't sleep in the dark. Her stuffy English nurse (Lillian Kemble-Cooper) believes that the ordeal will build the child's character but Rhett dismisses her and lets Bonnie sleep with a candlelight on. The homesick Bonnie begs to return to her mother. When Rhett and Bonnie return to Atlanta, Scarlett tells him that she's pregnant again. Rhett reacts coldly and Scarlett ups the ante by saying she wishes the baby were not his, to which Rhett retorts, "Maybe you'll have an accident." In the ensuing row at the top of the stairs, Scarlett takes a blind swing at Rhett who dodges it. The momentum causes Scarlett to fall down the stairs and loses her baby.Later, at the behest of Melanie who has become pregnant again, Rhett makes an effort to be kind to Scarlett. Sitting on the back terrace of their Atlanta mansion, Rhett and Scarlett discuss the possibility of Scarlett giving up the lumber business to devote herself to her husband and child. A reconciliation begins to seem possible when, at that moment, Bonnie insists stubbornly on jumping a fence with her pony. Scarlett remembers her father's death and has a premonition of disaster. Her worst fears come true as the pony refuses to jump and fatally throws Bonnie over the fence. Rhett is devastated by Bonnie's death and refuses to release the child's body for burial for several days despite Scarlett's wishes. Rhett locks himself in his room with the body after shooting the pony, refusing to allow anyone in, including Scarlett who can only bang on the door screaming at him.Melanie arrives at the mansion and is led upstairs by Mammy, who tearfully relays the past few days events. Melanie manages to allow Rhett to come out of the room and allow undertakers to take away Bonnie's dead body. But Melanie, overwrought with emotion, collapses and goes into labor. Upon a doctor's examination following the birth, he determines that Melanie is dying from internal bleeding. In a final meeting with Scarlett, Melanie asks her to look after Ashley. When Melanie dies, Ashley is left a broken man and he tells Scarlett that Melanie was always his true love, a devastating revelation to Scarlett, who then realizes that he never really loved Ashley and can only wish that he had been clearer about his own feelings for her.Scarlett returns to her Atlanta mansion to seek Rhett. Having seen Scarlett with Ashley at Melanie's house, Rhett tells her that she will never stop loving Ashley and so he is leaving her, for good, to start a new life back in his hometown of Charleston. As Rhett begins to pack his suitcase to leave, Scarlett insists that she now realizes that she loves Rhett and never truly loved Ashley but Rhett maintains that any chance of saving their marriage died with Bonnie, and on top of all that, he's tolerated Scarlett's drama long enough. As he prepares to walk out the door, Scarlett begs him one last time, asking what will happen to her if he leaves. Indifferent, Rhett replies, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn!" and strides out of the house into the evening fog.Scarlett collapses on the stairs in anguish. She pulls back from despair only when she thinks of the other great love of her life, Tara, through a series of voice-over reminiscences. Scarlett is determined to return to Tara, make a new start, and try to somehow get Rhett back, saying to herself, "After all, tomorrow is another day!"In the final shot, we see Scarlett silhouetted against Tara as the sun sets over the hill, having arrived back at her childhood home and now facing an unknown, but new, future.



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It's 1941, and newspaper tycoon Charles Foster Kane (Orson Welles, who also directed and co-wrote the script) is dead. The opening shots show Xanadu, Kane's vast, elaborate, and now unkempt estate in Florida. Interspersed with segments of his newsreel obituary are scenes from his life and death. Most puzzling are his last moments: clutching a snowglobe, he mutters the word "rosebud." Kane, whose life was news and whose newspapers not only reported but formed public opinion, was central to his time, a larger-than-life figure. The newsreel editor feels that until they know who or what Rosebud is they won't have the whole story on Kane. He assigns a reporter called Thompson (William Alland) to investigate Rosebud.Thompson digs into Kane's life and hears a lot of stories, but none of them reveal the meaning of Rosebud. The reporter sees Susan Alexander Kane (Dorothy Comingore), the tycoon's ex-wife; she's drunk and won't speak to him. Then he reads the unpublished memoirs of Mr. Thatcher (George Coulouris), Kane's early financial adviser and childhood guardian, who later became a prime target of the Kane newspapers' trust-busting attacks. In one of many flashbacks, the Thatcher memoir shows Kane's mother signing guardianship of the boy and his fortune over to Thatcher, despite his father's objections. When Charles objected violently to being sent away with Thatcher, Kane Sr. remarked, "what the kid needs is a good thrashing." Mrs. Kane responded, "That's why he's going to be brought up where you can't get at him." (Some present-day fans of the film interpret this to mean that Mr. Kane was abusive. 1940s audiences were more likely to have believed that Mrs. Kane was over-protective and that if Charles had been allowed to grow up enjoying the love and discipline of his parents, his life would have turned out better.)Years later, as he was about to get control of his business affairs, Kane's interest in newspapers was piqued when he noticed that he owned the struggling New York Daily Inquirer. Don't sell it, he famously wrote to Thatcher: "I think it would be fun to run a newspaper" -- a statement that exasperates Thatcher greatly. A scene where Thatcher visited Kane at the Inquirer to talk him out of throwing so much money away on low-class journalism showed Kane using the paper to instigate the Spanish-American War. But in the same scene Kane earnestly told Thatcher that he wanted to use journalism to protect the interests of ordinary people.Next, Thompson interviews Bernstein (Everett Sloane), the general manager of Kane's newspaper empire. In further flashbacks, Bernstein recalls how he, Kane, and Kane's college friend Jedediah Leland (Joseph Cotten) took over the stuffy, unprofitable Inquirer and transformed it into a money-maker, eventually hiring the staff of the rival New York Chronicle.At Bernstein's urging, Thompson seeks out Leland, who recounts the story of Kane's first marriage (to Emily Norton, Ruth Warrick) and makes some negative comments about his one-time friend's character. ("Charlie was never brutal, he just did brutal things." "He married for love -- that's why he did everything. That's why he went into politics. It seems we weren't enough. He wanted all the voters to love him, too. All he really wanted out of life was love. That's Charlie's story -- it's the story of how he lost it. You see, he just didn't have any to give." "He never believed in anything except Charlie Kane.")Leland goes on to describe Kane's second marriage, to Susan Alexander. Kane started seeing her while he was still married to Emily, during his campaign for governor. He ran on an anti-corruption platform, promising to investigate and bring down his opponent, political boss Jim Gettys (Ray Collins). Gettys found out about Susan and threatened to tell the press unless Kane withdrew from the race. Kane refused, the story came out, and he lost the election along with his first marriage. He married Susan (who the non-Kane newspapers describe disparagingly as 'a "singer"') soon after his divorce from Emily was final. Around the same time he allowed a drunken Leland, who served as the New York paper's drama critic, to transfer to the same job at Kane's Chicago paper.Although her singing talent was modest, Kane was ambitious on his wife's behalf. He paid for voice lessons, built an opera house in Chicago ("Cost: three million dollars!" the obituary reel notes), and financed an elaborate production for her debut. (The work Susan stars in is identified as Salammbo in the newspaper coverage, but it's a fictionalized version -- the music was written specially for Citizen Kane.) After the opening night performance, Kane arrived at the offices of the Chicago Inquirer to find Leland drunk again and passed out over his typewriter, his cheek resting on his unfinished -- and very negative -- review of Susan's performance. Kane finished the review in the same negative vein and ran it in all his papers, but fired Leland. Susan wanted to quit, but Kane insisted she keep performing until a suicide attempt convinced him she needed to give up singing. (By this time Thompson is interviewing Susan herself.)The couple moved to Florida and Kane went to work on Xanadu ("Cost: no man knows"), where most of the remaining scenes are set. Kane's 49,000-acre "private pleasure ground," ostensibly built for Susan, includes a man-made mountain, a golf course, vast gardens, a zoo, and, of course, a mansion. In a huge, echoing, and nearly empty stone hall, Susan did jigsaw puzzles and longed to be in New York. Kane declined to leave Xanadu, but did arrange an event he called a picnic, involving an overnight stay in the Everglades, a large animal spit-roasted over a fire, richly furnished tents, musicians, and many guests. In their tent, Susan accused him of trying to buy love, despite never loving anyone but himself, and of never giving her anything that mattered; he slapped her. Shortly thereafter she left him. She almost wavered in her resolve to go when he begged her not to, saying she'd have everything her own way. He lost her when he turned the emphasis back on himself, saying "you can't do this to me!" From the Kanes' butler Raymond (Paul Stewart), Thompson hears how Kane trashed Susan's room after she left but stopped when he came across the snowglobe (which we recognize from the deathbed scene). As Kane pocketed the snowglobe, Raymond heard him say "rosebud." Raymond has no idea what it means. However, he tells Thompson that he was in the room to hear Kane say "rosebud" again just before he died.In Xanadu's big stone hall, the reporters are getting ready to leave. The place is jammed with packing crates full of art and household goods, some valuable, some not. (There's a shot of all the crates that's a clear ancestor of the warehouse shot at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark.) Thompson explains to the other reporters that he never found the meaning of Rosebud, but that it doesn't matter. "I don't think it explains anything. I don't think any word explains a man's life." The camera pans across the crates and finds the sled that Kane played with in the scene where his parents turned him over to Thatcher; the word Rosebud is stenciled on it. In the final scene, men are tossing trash into an incinerator. Raymond says, "Throw that junk in, too," and in goes the sled Rosebud, probably the only thing that always stayed with Kane."He was a man who got everything and then again lost everything, Rosebud must've been something he lost or something he wanted but never got". The flames consume it. In an exterior shot, the camera pulls back from the smoking chimney to the chain-link fence with the "No trespassing" sign with which the movie opened, and then to Xanadu's "K" gate.

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Dorothy Gale (Judy Garland) is an orphaned teenager who lives with her Auntie Em (Clara Blandick) and Uncle Henry (Charley Grapewin) on a Kansas farm in the early 1900s. She daydreams about going "over the rainbow" after Miss Gulch (Margaret Hamilton), a nasty neighbor, hits Dorothy's dog Toto (Terry) on the back with a rake, causing Toto to bite her. Miss Gulch shows up with an order to take Toto to the sheriff to be euthanized, but Toto jumps out of the basket on the back of Miss Gulch's bicycle and runs back to Dorothy. Fearing that Miss Gulch, who does not know that Toto has escaped, will return, Dorothy takes the dog and runs away from home. She meets an itinerant phony fortune teller, Professor Marvel (Frank Morgan), who immediately guesses that Dorothy has run away. Pretending to tell her fortune and wishing to reunite Dorothy with her aunt, he tells her that Auntie Em has fallen ill from worry over her.Dorothy immediately returns home with Toto, only to find a tornado approaching. Unable to reach her family in their storm cellar, Dorothy enters the house, is knocked unconscious by a loose window, and apparently begins to dream. Along with her house and Toto, she's swept from her sepia-toned world to the magical, beautiful, dangerous and technicolor land of Oz. The tornado drops Dorothy's house on the Wicked Witch of the East, killing her. The witch ruled the Land of the Munchkins, little people who think at first that Dorothy herself must be a witch. The Wicked Witch of the West (Margaret Hamilton again), who is the sister of the dead witch, threatens Dorothy. But Glinda (Billie Burke), the Good Witch of the North, gives Dorothy the dead witch's enchanted Ruby Slippers, and the slippers protect her. Glinda advises that if Dorothy wants to go home to Kansas, she should seek the aid of the Wizard of Oz, who lives in the Emerald City. To get there, Dorothy sets off down the Yellow Brick Road.Before she's followed the road very far, Dorothy meets a talking scarecrow whose dearest wish is to have a brain. Hoping that the wizard can help him, the Scarecrow (Ray Bolger) joins Dorothy on her journey. They come upon the Tin Woodman (Jack Haley), who was caught in the rain and is so rusty he can't move. When they oil his joints so he can walk and talk again, he confesses that he longs for a heart; he too joins Dorothy. As they walk through a dense forest, they encounter the Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr), who wishes for courage and joins the quest in the hope that the wizard will give him some. Dorothy's three friends resemble the three farmhands who work for Dorothy's aunt and uncle back in Kansas.On the way to the Emerald City, Dorothy and her friends are hindered and menaced by the Wicked Witch of the West. She incites trees to throw apples at them, then tries to set the scarecrow on fire. Within sight of the city, the witch conjures up a field of poppies that cause Dorothy, Toto, and the lion to fall asleep. Glinda saves them by making it snow, which counteracts the effects of the poppies.The four travelers marvel at the wonders they find in the Emerald City and take time to freshen up: Dorothy, Toto and the Lion have their hair done, the Tin Woodman gets polished, and the scarecrow receives an infusion of fresh straw stuffing. As they emerge looking clean and spiffy, the Wicked Witch appears on her broomstick and skywrites "Surrender Dorothy" above the city. The friends are frustrated at their reception by the "great and powerful" Wizard of Oz (Frank Morgan again) -- at first he won't receive them at all. When they finally see him (the doorkeeper lets them in because he had an Aunt Em himself), the Wizard declines to help them until they bring him the broomstick of the Wicked Witch of the West. Daunted but determined, they set off again.The witch sends winged monkeys to attack Dorothy's party before they reach her castle; the monkeys snatch Dorothy and Toto and scatter the others. When the witch finds that the Ruby Slippers can't be taken against Dorothy's will as long as the girl is alive, she turns her hourglass and threatens that Dorothy will die when it runs out. Meanwhile, Toto has escaped and run for help. Dressed as guardsmen, the Lion, the Tin Man, and the Scarecrow sneak into the castle and free Dorothy. They're discovered before they can escape, however, and the witch and her guards corner them and set the Scarecrow on fire. Dorothy douses him with a pail of water, splashing the witch by accident. The water causes the witch to disintegrate ("I'm melting!"). The guards are happy to let Dorothy have the witch's broomstick, and Dorothy and her friends return to the Emerald City.The wizard isn't pleased to see them again. He blusters until Toto pulls aside a curtain in the corner of the audience chamber to reveal an old man who resembles Professor Marvel pulling levers and speaking into a microphone -- the so-called wizard, as the Scarecrow says, is a humbug. He's abashed and apologetic, but quickly finds ways to help Dorothy's friends: a diploma for the Scarecrow, a medal of valor for the Lion, and a testimonial heart-shaped watch for the Tin Man. Then he reveals that he's from Kansas himself and came to Oz in a hot-air balloon, in which he proposes to take Dorothy home.The wizard appoints the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Lion rulers of Oz in his absence. Just as the balloon is about to take off Toto runs after a cat and Dorothy follows him. Unable to stop, the wizard leaves without Dorothy. But Glinda appears and explains that Dorothy has always had the power to get home; Glinda didn't tell her before because Dorothy wouldn't have believed it. Bidding her friends a tearful good-bye, Dorothy taps her heels together three times, repeats "There's no place like home," and the Ruby Slippers take her and Toto back to Kansas.Dorothy wakes up in her own bed with Auntie Em and Uncle Henry fussing over her. Professor Marvel and the farmhands Hunk (Ray Bolger again), Hickory (Jack Haley again), and Zeke (Bert Lahr again) stop by to see how she's doing. She raises indulgent laughter when she tells them about Oz, but she's so happy to be home she doesn't mind that they don't believe her. Miss Gulch is never mentioned again.


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In 1996, treasure hunter Brock Lovett and his team aboard the research vessel Keldysh search the wreck of RMS Titanic for a necklace with a rare diamond, the Heart of the Ocean. They recover a safe containing a drawing of a young woman wearing only the necklace. It is dated April 14, 1912, the day the ship struck the iceberg. Rose Dawson Calvert, claiming to be the person in the drawing, visits Lovett and tells of her experiences aboard the ship.
In 1912 Southampton, 17-year-old first-class passenger Rose DeWitt Bukater, her fianc Cal Hockley, and her mother Ruth board the Titanic. Ruth emphasizes that Rose's marriage will resolve the DeWitt Bukaters' financial problems. Distraught over the engagement, Rose considers committing suicide by jumping from the stern; Jack Dawson, a penniless artist, convinces her not to. Discovered with Jack, Rose tells Cal that she was peering over the edge and Jack saved her from falling. Cal is indifferent, but when Rose indicates some recognition is due, he offers Jack a small amount of money. After Rose asks whether saving her life meant so little, he invites Jack to dine with them in first class the following night. Jack and Rose develop a tentative friendship, though Cal and Ruth are wary of him. Following dinner, Rose secretly joins Jack at a party in third class.
Aware of Cal and Ruth's disapproval, Rose rebuffs Jack's advances, but later realizes that she prefers him over Cal. After rendezvousing on the bow at sunset, Rose takes Jack to her state room and displays Cal's engagement present: the Heart of the Ocean. At her request, Jack sketches Rose posing nude wearing it. They evade Cal's bodyguard and have sex in an automobile inside the cargo hold. They later visit the forward deck, witnessing a collision with an iceberg and overhearing the officers and designer discussing its seriousness.
Cal discovers Jack's sketch of Rose and a mocking note from her in his safe along with the necklace. When Jack and Rose attempt to tell Cal of the collision, he has his butler slip the necklace into Jack's pocket and accuses him of theft. He is arrested, taken to the Master-at-arms' office, and handcuffed to a pipe. Cal puts the necklace in his own coat pocket.
With the ship sinking, Rose is desperate to free Jack. She flees Cal and her mother, who has boarded a lifeboat, and rescues him. They return to the boat deck, where Cal and Jack encourage her to board a lifeboat; Cal claims he can get himself and Jack off safely. After Rose boards one, Cal tells Jack the arrangement is only for himself. As her boat lowers, Rose decides that she cannot leave Jack and jumps back on board. Cal takes his butler's pistol and chases Rose and Jack into the flooding first class dining saloon. After using up his ammunition, Cal realizes he gave his coat and consequently the necklace to Rose. He later boards a collapsible lifeboat by carrying a lost child.
After braving several obstacles, Jack and Rose return to the boat deck. All the lifeboats have departed and passengers are falling to their deaths as the stern rises out of the water. The ship breaks in half, lifting the stern into the air. Jack and Rose ride it into the ocean and he helps her onto a wooden panel only buoyant enough for one person. Holding the edge, he assures her that she will die an old woman, warm in her bed. He dies of hypothermia but she is saved.
With Rose hiding from Cal en route, the RMS Carpathia takes the survivors to New York. There she gives her name as Rose Dawson. She later learns that Cal committed suicide after losing everything in the 1929 Wall Street Crash.
Lovett abandons his search after hearing Rose's story. Alone on the stern of the Keldysh, Rose takes out the Heart of the Oceanin her possession all alongand drops it into the sea over the wreck site. While she is seemingly asleep in her bed, photos on her dresser depict a life of freedom and adventure, partly inspired by Jack. A young Rose reunites with him at the ship's Grand Staircase, applauded by those who perished.


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In 1935, T. E. Lawrence (Peter O'Toole) is killed in a motorcycle accident. At his memorial service at St Paul's Cathedral, a reporter tries to gain insights into this remarkable, enigmatic man from those who knew him, with little success.During the First World War, Lawrence is a misfit British Army lieutenant stationed in Cairo, notable for his insolence and knowledge. Over the objections of General Murray (Donald Wolfit), he is sent by Mr. Dryden (Claude Rains) of the Arab Bureau to assess the prospects of Prince Faisal (Alec Guinness) in his revolt against the Turks.On the journey, his Bedouin guide is killed by Sherif Ali (Omar Sharif) for drinking from a well without permission. Lawrence later meets Colonel Brighton (Anthony Quayle), who orders him to keep quiet, make his assessment of Faisal's camp, and leave. Lawrence promptly ignores Brighton's commands when he meets Faisal. His knowledge and outspokenness pique the Prince's interest.Brighton advises Faisal to retreat to Yenbo after a major defeat, but Lawrence proposes a daring surprise attack on Aqaba which, if successful, would provide a port from which the British could offload much-needed supplies. While strongly fortified against a naval assault, the town is lightly defended on the landward side. He convinces Faisal to provide fifty men, led by a sceptical Sherif Ali. Two teenage orphans, Daud (John Dimech) and Farraj (Michel Ray), attach themselves to Lawrence as his servants.They cross the Nefud Desert, considered impassable even by the Bedouins, travelling day and night on the last stage to reach water. Gasim (I. S. Johar) succumbs to fatigue and falls off his camel unnoticed during the night. The rest make it to an oasis, but Lawrence turns back for the lost man. Sherif Ali, won over, burns Lawrence's British uniform and gives him Arab robes to wear.Lawrence persuades Auda abu Tayi (Anthony Quinn), the leader of the powerful local Howeitat tribe, to turn against the Turks. Lawrence's plan is almost derailed when one of Ali's men kills one of Auda's because of a blood feud. Since Howeitat retaliation would shatter the fragile alliance, Lawrence declares that he will execute the murderer himself. Stunned to discover that the culprit is Gasim, he shoots him anyway. The next morning, the intact alliance overruns the Turkish garrison.Lawrence heads to Cairo to inform Dryden and the new commander, General Allenby (Jack Hawkins), of his victory. During the crossing of the Sinai Desert, Daud dies when he stumbles into quicksand. Lawrence is promoted to major and given arms and money to support the Arabs. He is deeply disturbed, confessing that he enjoyed executing Gasim, but Allenby brushes aside his qualms. He asks Allenby whether there is any basis for the Arabs' suspicions that the British have designs on Arabia. Pressed, the general states they have no such designs.INTERMISSIONLawrence launches a guerrilla war, blowing up trains and harassing the Turks at every turn. American war correspondent Jackson Bentley (Arthur Kennedy) publicises his exploits, making him world famous. On one raid, Farraj is badly injured. Unwilling to leave him to be tortured, Lawrence is forced to shoot him before fleeing.When Lawrence scouts the enemy-held city of Daraa with Ali, he is taken, along with several Arab residents, to the Turkish Bey (Jos Ferrer). Lawrence is stripped, ogled and prodded. For striking out at the Bey, he is severely flogged, then thrown out into the street. Lawrence is so traumatised by the experience that he abandons all of his exploits, going from having proclaimed himself a god, to insisting he is merely a man. He attempts to return to the British forces and swear off the desert, but he never fits in there. In Jerusalem, Allenby urges him to support his "big push" on Damascus, but Lawrence is a changed, tormented man, unwilling to return. After Allenby insists that Lawrence has a destiny, he finally relents. Lawrence naively believes that the warriors will come for him rather than for money.He recruits an army, mainly killers, mercenaries, and cutthroats motivated by money, rather than the Arab cause. They sight a column of retreating Turkish soldiers who have just slaughtered the people of the village of Tafas. One of Lawrence's men from the village demands, "No prisoners!" When Lawrence hesitates, the man charges the Turks alone and is killed. Lawrence takes up the dead man's cry, resulting in a massacre in which Lawrence himself participates with relish. Afterward, he realises the horrible consequences of what he has done.His men then take Damascus ahead of Allenby's forces. The Arabs set up a council to administer the city, but they are desert tribesmen, ill-suited for such a task. The various tribes argue among themselves and in spite of Lawrence's insistence, cannot unite against the English, who in the end take the city back under their bureaucracy. Unable to maintain the utilities and bickering constantly with each other, they soon abandon most of the city to the British. Promoted to colonel and immediately ordered home, his usefulness at an end to both Faisal and the British diplomats, a dejected Lawrence is driven away in a staff car.


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The Godfather Part II presents two parallel storylines. One involves Mafia chief Michael Corleone in 1958/1959 after the events of the first movie; the other is a series of flashbacks following his father, Vito Corleone from 1917 to 1925, from his youth in Sicily (1901) to the founding of the Corleone family in New York.The film begins in 1901, in the town of Corleone, Sicily, at the funeral of young Vito's father, Antonio Andolini, who has been murdered for an insult to the local Mafia lord, Don Ciccio. During the procession, Vito's older brother is murdered because he swore revenge on the Don. Vito's mother goes to Ciccio to beg for mercy, but he refuses, knowing that nine-year-old Vito will seek revenge later in life. The mother takes Ciccio hostage at knifepoint, allowing her son to escape, and Ciccio's men kill her. They search the town for the boy, but he is aided in his escape by the townspeople. Vito finds his way by ship to New York, and at Ellis Island an immigration agent chooses Vito's hometown of Corleone as his surname, and he is registered as "Vito Corleone".In 1958 in a scene similar to the opening of the first film, Michael Corleone (Al Pacino), Godfather of the Corleone family, deals with various business and family problems during an elaborate party at his Lake Tahoe, Nevada compound to celebrate his son's First Communion. In his office, Michael meets with corrupt Nevada Senator Pat Geary (G. D. Spradlin), who despises the Corleones, to discuss the price of the gaming licenses for the hotel/casinos the Family is buying.Michael deals with his self-indulgent younger sister Connie (Talia Shire), who, although recently divorced from her second husband, is planning to marry a man named Merl Johnson (Troy Donahue) with no obvious means of support and of whom Michael disapproves. He also talks with Johnny Ola (Dominic Chianese), the right hand man of Jewish gangster Hyman Roth (Lee Strasberg), who is supporting Michael's move into the gambling industry. Belatedly, Michael deals with Frank "Five Angels" Pentangeli (Michael V. Gazzo), a business associate who took over Corleone caporegime Peter Clemenza's territory in New York City after his death, and now has problems with the Rosato Brothers, who are backed by Roth. Pentangeli leaves abruptly, after telling Michael "your father did business with Hyman Roth, your father respected Hyman Roth, but your father never trusted Hyman Roth."Later that night, Michael barely escapes an assassination attempt when his wife Kay (Diane Keaton) notices the bedroom window drapes are inexplicably open, which allows two unseen hitmen to spray the bedroom with bullets. The two hitman are found dead having been killed by a "mole" within the compound. Afterwards, Michael tells his lawyer and associate Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall) that the hit was made with the help of someone close, and that he must leave, entrusting all his power to Hagen to protect his family.Flashback: In 1917 New York City, the adult Vito Corleone (Robert De Niro) works in a grocery store in the Lower East side with his friend Genco Abbandando. The neighborhood is controlled by a member of the "The Black Hand," Don Fanucci (Gastone Moschin), who extorts protection payments from local businesses. One night, Vito's neighbor Clemenza (Bruno Kirby) asks him to hide a stash of guns for him, and later, to repay the favor, takes him to a fancy apartment where they commit their first felony together, stealing an elegant rug.The film flash-forwards to Michael's time. Michael meets with poushal Hyman Roth in Miami, Florida who tells Michael that he believes Frank Pentangeli was responsible for the assassination attempt, and that Pentangeli will pay for it. Traveling to Brooklyn, Michael lets Pentangeli know that Roth was actually behind it, and that Michael has a plan to deal with Roth, but he needs Frankie to cooperate with the Rosato Brothers in order to put Roth off guard. When Pentangeli goes to meet with the Rosatos at a local bar, he is told "Michael Corleone says hello," as he is attacked from behind but the attempted murder is accidentally interrupted by a policeman. Pentangeli is left for dead, and his bodyguard, Willi Cicci (Joe Spinell), is struck by a car while shooting at the Rosatos as they drive away.Back in Nevada, Tom Hagen is called to a brothel in Carson City run by Michael's older brother Fredo (John Cazale), where Senator Geary is implicated in the death of a prostitute, and Tom offers to take care of the problem in return for "friendship" between the Senator and the Corleone family.Meanwhile, Michael meets Roth in Havana, Cuba, in late 1958, at the time when dictator Fulgencio Batista is soliciting American investment, and communist guerrillas are trying to bring down the government. At a birthday party for Roth, Michael mentions that there is a possibility that the rebels might win, making their business dealings in Cuba problematic. Earlier that day, Michael had witnessed a communist rebel kill a Havana policemen by detonating a grenade that also killed the rebel himself. The comment prompts Roth to remark, privately, that Michael has not delivered the two million dollars to firm their partnership.Fredo, carrying the promised money, arrives in Havana and meets Michael. Michael mentions Hyman Roth and Johnny Ola to him, but Fredo says he has never met them. Michael confides to his brother that it was Roth who tried to kill him, and that he plans to try again. Michael assures Fredo that he has already made his move, and that "Hyman Roth will never see the New Year."Instead of turning over the money to Roth, Michael asks him who gave the order to have Frank Pentangeli killed. Roth avoids the question, instead speaking angrily of the murder of his old friend, Moe Greene, which Michael had orchestrated (as depicted at the end of the first film).Michael has asked Fredo, who knows Havana well, to show Senator Geary and other important officials and businessmen a good time, during which Fredo pretends to not recognize Johnny Ola. Soon after, at a sex show, Fredo comments loudly that Johnny Ola told him about the place, contradicting what he told Michael twice earlier, that he didn't know Roth or Ola. Michael now realizes that the traitor is his own brother, and dispatches his bodyguard to deal with Roth.Johnny Ola is strangled, but Roth, in a delicate state because of his heart condition, is taken to a hospital, where Michael's enforcer is shot trying to kill him. At Batista's New Year's Eve party, at the stroke of midnight, Michael grasps Fredo tightly by the head and kisses him: "I know it was you Fredo; you broke my heart." When guerrillas attack, the guests flee, but Fredo refuses to go with Michael, despite Michael's pleas that Fredo is still his brother and that it's the only way out.Flashback (1917): Don Fanucci of the Black Hand is now aware of the partnership between Vito, Clemenza and Sal Tessio (John Aprea), and wants his share of their profits every week. Clemenza and Tessio agree to pay, but Vito is reluctant and asks his friends to leave everything in his hands so Fanucci will accept less and indeed, Vito manages to get Fanucci to take only one sixth of what he demanded ($100 out of $600). Immediately afterward, during the neighborhood festa, Vito murders Fanucci in the hallway outside his apartment and then rejoins his wife and four children on the stoops outside his apartment building where Vito tells the infant Michael that his father loves him very much.In January 1959, Nevada, Michael returns to his snow-covered Lake Tahoe compound after fleeing Cuba, where Tom Hagen tells him that Roth escaped from Cuba after suffering a stroke and is recovering in Miami, that Michael's bodyguard is dead, and that Fredo is probably hiding in New York. Hagen also informs Michael that Kay had a miscarriage while he was away. Michael is distraught at the news and furiously demands to know the sex of the child, but Tom is unable to tell him.Flashback (1920): with Fanucci dead and with no one else apparently to take over the Black Hand, Vito earns the respect of the neighborhood and begins to intercede in local disputes, operating out of the storefront of his Genco Pura Olive Oil Company (named after his friend Genco Abbandando) which he manages as well as give out "favors" to others in the community such as a local young woman threatened with eviction. Vito intimidates her landlord into letting her stay for a few extra weeks... rent free.In Washington, D.C. of 1959, a Senate committee, of which Senator Geary is a member, is conducting an investigation into the Corleone family. They question disaffected "soldier" Willi Cicci about his role as a button man in the Family, but he cannot implicate Michael, because he never received any direct orders from him. When Michael appears before the committee, Senator Geary makes a big show of supporting Italian-Americans and then excuses himself from the proceedings. During questioning, Michael denies all criminal allegations against him, from the murder of Sollozzo and Captain McCluskey back in 1946 (in the first Godfather movie), and to his business status of operating several gambling casinos in Nevada. Michael makes a statement challenging the committee to produce a witness to corroborate the charges against him. The hearing ends with the Chairman promising a witness who will do exactly that.Frank Pentangeli, who did not die in the attack by the Rosato Brothers, has made a deal with the FBI, and will testify against Michael. Tom Hagen and Michael discuss the problem, observing that Roth's strategy to destroy Michael is well planned. Michael's brother Fredo has been found and persuaded to return to Nevada, and in a private meeting he explains to Michael his betrayal: upset about being passed over to head the family in favor of Michael, he wants respect and his due. He helped Roth thinking there would be something in it for him, but he swears he didn't know they wanted to kill Michael. He also tells Michael that the Senate Committee's chief counsel is Roth's man. Michael then tells Fredo: "You're nothing to me now. Not a brother, not a friend, nothing", and privately instructs soldier and button man Al Neri (Richard Bright) that nothing is to happen to Fredo while their mother is still alive.At the hearing in which Frank Pentangeli is to testify, Michael arrives accompanied by Pentangeli's brother, brought from Sicily, and whose presence causes Frank to recant his previous statements about Michael. When Pentangeli is pressed, he claims that he just told the FBI what they wanted to hear. With no witness to testify against Michael, the committee adjourns, with Hagen, acting as Michael's lawyer, loudly demanding an apology.At a hotel room afterwards, Kay tries to leave Michael, taking their children with her. Michael at first tries to mollify her, but loses his temper and hits her violently when she reveals to him that her recent "miscarriage" was actually an abortion to avoid providing another child into Michael's criminal inheritance. She also tells him that the baby was a boy, further infuriating Michael.Flashback (1925): While visiting Sicily for a family vacation for the first time in 20 years, Vito Corleone is introduced to the elderly 90-year-old Don Ciccio as the man who imports their olive oil to America, and who wants his blessing. When Ciccio asks Vito who his father was, Vito says, "My father's name is Antonio Andolini, and this is for you!", cutting the old man's stomach open with a knife, avenging the death of his father, mother, and brother. As they make their escape from Ciccio's compound and his men, Don Tomasello is shot in the leg by one of Ciccio's bodyguards... the injury gives him a permanent limp.In April 1959, Carmella Corleone (Morgana King), Vito's widow and the mother of his children, dies, and the whole Corleone family is reunited for her funeral. Michael still shuns Fredo, who is miserable, but relents when Connie implores him to. Michael and Fredo embrace, but at the same time Michael signals to his capo that Fredo's protection from harm, in effect while their mother lived, has now run out.Michael, Tom Hagen, and Rocco Lampone discuss their final dealings with Hyman Roth, who has been unsuccessfully seeking asylum from various countries, and was even refused entry to Israel as a returned Jew. Michael rejects Hagen's advice that the Corleone family's position is secure, and killing Roth and the Rosato brothers for revenge is an unnecessary risk. Later, Hagen pays a visit to the imprisoned Frank Pentangeli on a military base and suggests that he take his own life, in the manner of unsuccessful ancient Roman conspirators who, in return, were promised that their families would be taken care of after their suicide.With the connivance of Connie, Kay visits her children, but cannot bear to leave them and stays too long. When Michael arrives, he coldly closes the door in her face.The movie reaches its climax in a montage of assassinations and death, reminiscent of the end of Part One:As he arrives at an airport to be taken into custody, Hyman Roth is killed by Rocco Lampone, disguised as a journalist, who himself is immediately shot dead by Roth's bodyguards.On the military base, Frank Pentangeli is found dead, having followed Hagen's instructions and committed suicide in his bathtub.Fredo is murdered by Al Neri while they are fishing on Lake Tahoe - while Fredo is saying a Hail Mary to help catch a fish.The penultimate scene takes place in 1941, and the Corleone family is preparing a surprise birthday party for their father Vito. Sonny (James Caan) introduces Carlo Rizzi (Gianni Russo), Connie's future husband and betrayer of Sonny, to his family. They all talk about the recent attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese, and Michael shocks everybody by announcing that he has just enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. Sonny ridicules Michael's choice, and Tom Hagen mentions how his father has great expectations for Michael. Fredo is the only one who supports his brother's decision. Sal Tessio comes in with the cake for the party, and when Vito arrives, all but Michael leave the room to greet him.The final scene in the film is Michael sitting by himself at Lake Tahoe, in silent contemplation.


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In a Phoenix hotel room on a Friday afternoon, Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) and her out-of-town lover Sam Loomis (John Gavin) end a stolen lunchtime interlude with yet another disagreement about their future. Marion wants to marry Sam, but debts inherited from his father and his own alimony payments do not leave him enough money to support her as he would like. As they have done so often before on Sam's business trips to Phoenix, they part leaving their future uncertain.Marion returns to the real estate office where she works as a secretary, arriving just ahead of her boss Mr. Lowery (Vaughn Taylor) and his client Cassidy (Frank Albertson) who buys a house from Lowery with $40,000 in cash. Lowery tells Marion to put the money in the safe deposit box at the bank until Monday. Pleading a headache, Marion asks to take the rest of the day off after her errand to the bank.But Marion doesn't go to the bank. On the spur of the moment, she decides to keep the money, packs a suitcase, and starts driving out of town, only to be spotted by her boss at an intersection where he gives her a suspicious look. Worried that she has been found out already, she still proceeds out of town on her way to Fairvale, California, where Sam lives. All the while she keeps looking behind her, fearful that she's being followed. She drives well into the night and parks alongside the road to sleep.In the morning, a highway patrolman (Mort Mills) stops to investigate her stopped car, and awakens her. Startled and nervous, she arouses the patrolman's suspicions. He looks at her license and registration, taking note of the plate number. He allows her to go on, but follows her for a while, which intensifies Marion's agitation.Realizing that her car can easily give her away, Marion decides to trade it in for a different car. She stops in at a used car lot, hurriedly pays the salesman (John Anderson) $700 cash for a likely substitute, and completes the deal as the same highway patrolman watches from across the street. Nervous, she drives away and continues toward Fairvale.As night falls on this second night, with her fears of pursuit crowding in around her, she drives into a rainstorm. Unable to see the road clearly, she spots the lighted sign of the Bates Motel, and decides to take a room for the night. As there are no other cars there, and no one in the motel office, she honks her horn upon seeing a light on in the house behind the motel, and a silhouette in the window; a young man soon comes down the path to greet her, and he introduces himself as Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins). He is a soft-spoken and shy young man who tells Marion that he lives in the large house with his mother. The motel seldom has guests anymore since the new interstate bypassed the local highway, and Marion realizes that she probably took a wrong turn in the storm. Still nervous about being tracked by the police, Marion registers under a false name, and Norman checks her into cabin 1 just next to the office. When she asks about food, Marion learns that Fairvale is only fifteen miles away.Norman offers to share his supper with her so she doesn't have to go out again in the rain, and he goes back to the house. She begins unpacking, taking time to repack the money inside a newspaper which she sets aside on the bed table. Then she overhears a shouted argument between Norman and his mother coming from the house. Mother Bates seems to have a low opinion of beautiful young women, and doesn't want Norman associating with them. He brings sandwiches and milk back to the office where Marion joins him in the parlor just behind the check-in desk.Marion is taken aback by Norman's stuffed birds that fill the parlor, a product of his taxidermy hobby. In their conversation over sandwiches, Norman talks about being trapped. Just as Marion presently feels trapped by her guilt, Norman is more permanently trapped in his co-existence with his mother and her madness. But as Norman observes, we all go a little mad sometimes. Taking Norman's situation as a cautionary tale, Marion decides to return to Phoenix to make amends, and try to pull herself out of the trap she's gotten herself into before it's too late.When Marion goes back to her room, Norman takes down a picture from the wall and looks through a peephole where he can watch Marion changing. With a new burst of intensity, Norman hurries up the hill and goes into the house.In her room, Marion sits in her robe and calculates some figures, working out how she can repay the $700 she has already spent. Then she tears up the paper containing the figures, and flushes the pieces down the toilet. With newfound peace of mind, she slips out of her robe and slippers, and steps into the tub to enjoy a cleansing shower.Unseen behind her, the bathroom door opens. A figure approaches and pulls back the shower curtain. It is the shadowy figure of an old woman wielding a large kitchen knife. Marion screams. The blade lifts high into the air, and then strikes, and strikes again, and again. Marion cannot escape the slicing blows of the knife. The savage attack continues, over and over again, and then her killer leaves, the job done. Marion sinks down, reaching for the shower curtain which rips down around her, and she falls over the edge of the tub. The shower continues to run over her, and her diluted lifeblood flows away down the tub drain, her lifeless eyes fixed in a final hopeless stare.From the house, Norman's voice yells out in shock, "Mother! Oh, God! Mother! Blood! Blood!" He comes running down the hill and into Marion's cabin to find the aftermath of Mother's knife attack. He quickly cleans up the murder scene. He wraps Marion's body in the shower curtain and places her in the trunk of her car, and gathers her belongings into the trunk as well. At the last moment he spots the newspaper on the bed table and tosses it into the trunk, not knowing that it contains the stolen money. He drives to a swamp near the motel, where he pushes the car in and watches it slowly disappear into the dark bog.One week later, Sam Loomis is sitting in the back office of his hardware store in Fairvale, writing a note to Marion. He has changed his mind, and if it's not too late he wants to marry her right away even if his finances are limited right now. Marion's sister, Lila Crane (Vera Miles), comes into the store and asks if Marion is there. Sam tells her she isn't. A private investigator named Arbogast (Martin Balsam) also enters the store and asks for Marion's whereabouts. His interest is in recovering the stolen $40,000, which Lila knew about, but Sam did not. Arbogast is convinced that Marion is somewhere in this town close to her boyfriend, so he sets out on a search of hotels and boarding houses around Fairvale to track her down.When Arbogast gets to the Bates Motel, Norman tells him he hasn't seen Marion, and that there haven't been any guests in weeks. But Arbogast manages to look at the register and sees the false signature in Marion's handwriting. Caught in his lie that here hadn't been any recent guests, Norman admits to remembering her now, and says she stayed that Saturday night and left early on Sunday morning. Arbogast spots Mother's silhouette sitting at the window of the house and asks to see her, but Norman refuses, saying that his mother is an invalid and shouldn't be disturbed. When Norman lets slip his Mother's impressions of Marion, Arbogast becomes determined to talk to her, but Norman insists that he leave.Arbogast phones Sam and Lila to tell them that Marion had registered the previous Saturday night at the Bates Motel in cabin 1, and that he means to sneak back and talk to Mrs. Bates regardless of Norman's objections. When he gets back to the motel, Arbogast looks into the office and the parlor briefly to see if Norman is there, and takes a quick look into the motel safe which is standing open. Then he heads up to the house and goes inside. Sensing that no one is downstairs, he starts up the stairs. As he nears the top of the stairs, Mother Bates emerges from the bedroom and stabs him. He stumbles backwards down the stairs and falls to the floor, where he is set upon and stabbed yet again.At the hardware store, Lila and Sam have been waiting for Arbogast, and they are now out of patience. They expected Arbogast to be back three hours ago, so they decide to look for him. Sam tells Lila to stay behind while he goes out to the motel. When he gets there, he calls out but no one answers. Norman, standing by the swamp, hears Sam call out for Arbogast.Sam returns to the store, having seen no one at the motel or the house. No Arbogast, no Bates, only a sick old lady unable or unwilling to answer the door. Sam suggests they go see Sheriff Chambers (John McIntire) to report the missing Arbogast. At the sheriff's house, Chambers and his wife (Lurene Tuttle) listen to Sam and Lila tell their story. At their urging, Chambers phones the motel and talks to Norman, who says that the detective had been there but had left. When Lila presses Chambers about the mother, Chambers tells them that Norman's mother has been dead and buried for the past ten years, having poisoned her lover and herself in the only murder-suicide in Fairvale's living memory. But Sam and Lila insist that there is an old woman out there, and that Arbogast had told them that Norman wouldn't let Arbogast see his mother because she was too ill. That makes the sheriff wonder, if Norman's mother is up there at the motel, then who is buried in that grave in Green Lawn Cemetery?Norman is worried about all the people who have been snooping around. His concerns lead to another unseen argument with Mother in which he tells her she should hide in the fruit cellar for a few days. She refuses. Norman says he will pick her up and carry her downstairs. She berates him, and insists she could walk if she wanted to, but she doesn't want to. In spite of Mother's protests, Norman carries his mother down the stairs.The next morning, Sunday morning, Lila and Sam meet Sheriff and Mrs. Chambers coming out of church. The sheriff has already been to the motel before church services. Norman is alone out there, he says. He saw the whole place. The detective has probably just moved on to pursue a lead without telling them. He suggests that Lila report a missing person and a theft, and let the law find her sister. And with that, the Chambers go their way. Unsatisfied, Lila and Sam decide to go out to the motel for themselves. Their plan is to register as husband and wife and check into a cabin. Then they will search every inch of the place, inside and out.Norman assigns them to cabin 10, and Sam insists on signing the register. As he pays and asks Norman for a receipt, Lila takes the key and goes ahead toward their cabin. On the way she checks that the door to cabin 1 is unlocked. After a brief stop in cabin 10 to talk matters over, and after they are sure Norman is not nearby, Sam and Lila enter cabin 1 to search for clues. The only thing they can find is a scrap of paper with something subtracted from 40,000, proving Marion had been there. But that was never in doubt. Lila wants to talk to the old woman, because she must have told Arbogast something. She wants Sam to distract Norman while she goes to the house. Sam tries to dissuade her, but she insists she can handle a sick old woman.Sam finds Norman in the office and starts talking with him, while Lila circles around behind the motel to the house. She goes in and looks through all the rooms upstairs. She goes into Mother's bedroom, a scene of old-fashioned lavishness gone to ruin. The outline of the woman's body is deeply impressed into the old mattress. She looks into Norman's bedroom, a little boy's room frozen in time.Meanwhile, Sam has been trying to get Norman to talk about money, looking for some indication that Norman has the stolen cash. Norman begins to grow agitated. When Sam suggests that Norman's mother might know something about the $40,000, Norman begins to realize that his other guest may be snooping around at the house. Sam tries to keep Norman from leaving, and they struggle. Norman knocks Sam over the head, and Sam falls dazed to the floor.Lila is just coming down the stairs when she sees Norman running toward the front door. She ducks around behind the stairs and partway down the cellar steps to avoid him. Norman heads upstairs. Lila starts to come back up, when she notices the cellar door at the bottom of the steps. This is a room she hasn't examined yet, and she risks the opportunity to look into it.Walking through a storage room and into the barren fruit cellar beyond it, she sees an old woman sitting in a chair facing the far wall. She whispers, "Mrs. Bates." But the woman doesn't respond. She taps the woman on the shoulder. The chair swivels around to reveal the desiccated remains of an old woman's corpse, her face contorted into a near-skeletal grin and seemingly staring out of eyeless sockets.Lila screams and turns away, and her flinching reaction sets the bare hanging light bulb to swinging. At that moment, the living semblance of an old woman enters at the door wielding a large knife, blocking the only escape route from the cellar. In the next moment, Sam's timely arrival saves Lila, as he subdues the would-be assailant from behind. The "woman's" wig falls away to reveal Norman Bates dressed in the guise of his mother.Lila, Sam, and Sheriff Chambers are among a bewildered group of interested persons who sit in an office in the County Court House, waiting to hear from a psychiatrist who has been called in to examine Norman. The psychiatrist (Simon Oakland) enters to tell them he has gotten the whole story, but not from "Norman." He got it from Norman's "Mother." As a personality, "Norman" no longer exists. The other half, the "Mother" half of Norman's mind has taken over, probably for all time.Years ago, he tells them, after the disturbing death of Norman's father, Norman came to depend on the undivided attention of his mother. But when she took a lover, the already deranged Norman felt as if he had been replaced. His jealousy could not stand to share her. So he poisoned both his mother and her lover. Instead of letting her be buried, he stole the corpse and treated it to preserve it as best he could.His crime of matricide overwhelmed his already fragile mind, and he began to divide his mind with his mother, to give her back part of the life he had stolen from her. He went to great lengths to preserve the illusion that she was still alive so that he could deny to himself that he had killed her. He began to think and speak for her. He walked around wearing her clothes and a woman's wig to further enhance the illusion. At times he could be both personalities and carry on both sides of conversations. Other times, the "Mother" half, the dominant half, took over completely. He was never all "Norman," but he was often only "Mother."And because he was so pathologically jealous of her, he assumed she was just as jealous of him and would not let him be attracted to other women. When Norman met Marion, he felt a strong attraction to her. That attraction set off the jealous "Mother," and it was "Mother" who killed Marion, the latest in a series of young women to meet a similar fate. Afterwards, "Norman" would return as if from a sleep and dutifully clean up after "Mother's" crimes, sinking all evidence into the swamp near the motel. But now it looks as if "Mother" has won the inevitable battle that always develops between multiple personalities, and has driven "Norman" out completely.In a locked and guarded room, the physical shell of Norman Bates sits unmoving as "Mother's" thoughts dominate the mind, free of "Norman's" mental presence. She regrets that she had to condemn her own son, but she couldn't let him say that she had killed those people. As if she could commit murder. As if she could do anything except just sit and stare. She knows they must be watching her. But she'll show them what kind of person she is. She won't move a muscle. She won't even swat that fly. Then they'll see. They'll say, "Why she wouldn't even harm a fly!" And with that, "she" stares ahead motionlessly as "her" face contorts into a near-skeletal grin.In a final image, a tow chain begins pulling Marion's car out of the bog.END OF FILM



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The film opens with the camera tracking down Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, California as police cars begin racing down it. The lifeless body of a young man, Joe Gillis (Holden) floats in the swimming pool of a palatial mansion. As the police begin converging on the house Joe's voice narrates, in flashback style, the events leading up to his own murder.Six months earlier, Joe was down on his luck, unable to find work as a screenwriter, having only made a few undistinguished films in his short career. Broke and on the verge of having his car repossessed, with no other options except a low-paying newspaper job in Ohio, Joe tries to persuade Paramount Pictures producer Sheldrake (Clark) to buy his most recent script, but fails after script reader Betty Schaefer (Olson) gives Sheldrake a harsh critique of the script in her summation. Joe then tries unsuccessfully to borrow money from his friends. Fleeing from repossession men in his car, one of Joe's tires blows out in front of a large and seemingly deserted mansion on Sunset. Hiding the car in the garage, he sets out to explore the decaying house, when a woman inside calls to him. Mistaken for the undertaker to a recently deceased pet chimpanzee, he is ushered in by the mysterious butler, Max Von Mayerling (Von Stroheim). Meeting the woman who owns the house, he recognizes her as long-forgotten silent-film star Norma Desmond (Swanson). When she learns that he is a writer, she invites him in and asks for his opinion on an immense script she has written for a film about Salome that she hopes will revive her faded acting career. Although Joe finds the script awful, he flatters Norma into hiring him as an editor.Joe is put up in her guest room. The next morning he objects when he sees that Max has moved his belongings to the mansion on Norma's orders, and that she has paid his overdue rent. Though he hates being dependent on her, he accepts the situation and begins living at the mansion, first in a room over the garage, then in the mansion itself. As he works on Norma's script, he comes to see how unaware she is of how her fame has died. She refuses to hear any criticism of her work, and makes him watch her old films in the evenings. Although she still receives fan mail, Joe later learns that Max feeds into Norma's fantasy by sending the letters himself. He explains that Norma's state of mind is fragile, and she has attempted suicide in the past.Over the next few weeks, Norma lavishes attention on Joe and buys him expensive clothing, including a tuxedo for a private New Year's Eve party attended only by the two of them. Horrified to learn that she has fallen in love with him, he tries to let her down gently, but she slaps him and retreats to her room. Joe, thinking his time with her is over, escapes to a party at his friend, assistant director Artie Green's (Webb) house, where he meets Betty Schaefer again. While still unimpressed with most of his work, she believes a scene in one of his scripts has potential. Joe half-agrees to work on it with her, and calls the house on Sunset to tell Max he is leaving. However, when Max informs him that Norma has attempted suicide with Joe's razor blade, Joe leaves the party and returns to the mansion, where he apologizes to Norma and makes love to her.After a while, Norma considers her script complete, and sends it to Cecil B. DeMille at Paramount and waits for his answer. Not long afterwards, calls from Paramount asking for Norma begin to arrive. They come from an executive named Gordon Cole, and Norma petulantly refuses to speak to anyone other than DeMille himself. Eventually, she has Max drive her and Joe to the studio in her 1929 Isotta Fraschini Tipo 8A, a rare vintage luxury car. While DeMille entertains Norma, many of the older guards, technicians and extras on the set recognize her and welcome her back. Joe and Max, meanwhile, learn that Cole had called because the studio wants to rent her car and has no interest in her script (DeMille tells an assistant in private that the script is awful). Max insists that they hide these facts from her. He later confesses to Joe that he was once a respected film director who discovered Norma as a girl, and was also her first husband, and that he now remains as her servant because he cannot bear to leave her.While Norma undergoes a rigorous series of beauty treatments to prepare for her comeback, Joe has secretly begun to work with Betty on a screenplay. Though she is now engaged to Artie, she falls in love with him. Although he likes her, Joe is dismayed at the triangle in which he is now caught. When Norma discovers the script with Betty's name on it, she phones Betty and insinuates what sort of man Joe really is. Joe, hearing her, invites Betty to the mansion to see for herself. When she arrives, he coldly terminates their relationship by letting her believe that he is a gigolo and prefers to live off Norma. After Betty leaves the mansion in tears, Joe begins packing, having decided to return to Ohio. He bluntly informs Norma of the truththat there will be no comeback, her fan letters come from Max, and she is forgotten. He ignores Norma's threats to shoot herself, and in a fit of passion she shoots him as he leaves, leaving him dead in the pool.The scene returns to the opening. Still narrating, Joe expresses fear over how Norma will be unable to cope with the disgrace, and the discovery of how forgotten she truly is. By the time the police arrive, however, she has completely broken with reality and slipped into a delusional state of mind, thinking the news cameras are set up for a film shoot. To help the police coax her down the stairs, Max plays along with her hallucination that she is on the set of her new film. He verbally sets up the scene for her, and yells "Action!"; Norma dramatically descends her grand staircase. Joe, in voiceover, remarks that life has decided to spare her the pain of that discovery, and that "The dream she had clung to so desperately had enfolded her." Norma makes a short speech at how happy she is to be back making a film, and delivers the film's most famous line: "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up."


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A woman's face gives way to a kaleidoscope of credits, signalling the start of Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo to Bernard Hermanns haunting score.A criminal climbs up the rungs of the ladder on a dark San Francisco night. John "Scottie" Ferguson (James Stewart), a detective, and a police officer are hot on his trail. They chase him across the top of buildings. The thief jumps between two buildings, making it across. The police officer follows, but Scottie can,t get his footing. He slips. Scottie hangs on to the gutter as his fear of heights kicks in. The police officer tries to grab his hand, but he falls to his death. Scottie witnesses this and clutches to the gutter.Months after the incident, Scottie reclines in the home of Marjorie Midge Wood (Barbara Bel Geddes), a painter and underwear designer. She is concerned about Scottie's plans now that he is back in shape. He has quit the police force due to his acrophobia, and does not want to be a desk jockey. Midge and Scottie used to be engaged back in college (Midge had called it off). She urges him to take a vacation. "Don't be so motherly", responds Scottie. They discuss an old college buddy, Gavin Elster (Tom Helmore), who wants to meet with Scottie. Before Scottie prepares to meet Elster, he explains his plan to get over his fear. He first stands on a step stool. Midge gives him a ladder chair, and Scottie is able to handle the first two steps, but when he reaches the top, he looks out the window and panics. He collapses in her arms.A familiar pedestrian crosses the street near the docks. Scottie meets Gavin who is in the shipping business. Gavin had married into the successful shipping business, and he wants Scottie to tail his wife. He does not suspect infidelity, but has suspicions that his wife has been possessed by something. Her words would fade, and she would become distant. She wanders, and even moves differently. Scottie initially thinks he is crazy, but is intrigued. Gavin tells him to meet them at Ernie's Restaurant the following night.Ernie's Restaurant is a lavish, upscale eatery, plush and scarlet. Scottie first spots Madeleine Elster (Kim Novak) who is stunning, with platinum blonde hair and a green shawl. He is mesmerized by her.The next morning, he stalks her outside of her house. She wears a simple gray suit with white gloves, as she gets into her green automobile. Scottie trails her through the streets of San Francisco, as she visits a flower shop and purchases a small bouquet. He then trails her to the Mission Dolores, where she goes through the chapel to the cemetery, where she stands at a grave. As she exits, Scottie notes the headstone, which reads "Carlotta Valdes born: December 3 1831 died: March 5 1857". He then follows her to the Palace of the Legions of Honour, an art museum. Madeleine sits, staring at the painting for hours. Scottie notices that the bouquet she had purchased is just like the one in the drawing. Also, her hair is done exactly like the woman in the painting. Scottie discovers from the curator, that the painting is titled "A Portrait of Carlotta". Finally, he follows her to the McKittrick Hotel, where Scottie observes Madeleine on the second story. Scottie enters the hotel, which has a very baroque look to it. Scottie asks the manager of the McKittrick Hotel (Ellen Corby), who is the occupant of the room. She hesitates to tell him, until Scottie reveals his badge. The manager then notes that she has not been in the room all day. Scottie finds this impossible, and goes up to her room. He looks down the street to discover that her car is gone.Scottie returns to Midge's home where she tells him of San Francisco historian Pop Liebel (Konstantin Shayne), who owns the Argosy Book Shop. Pop tells Scottie that a rich man built the house for Carlotta Valdes, and they had a child. However, the rich man threw Carlotta out, and took her child. Carlotta went from depressed to insane, and took her own life.On the drive home, Midge and Scottie talk about the portrait; he shows her the catalogue picture. The resemblance is uncanny. Another conversation with Gavin reveals that Madeleine had started to wear Carlotta's jewellery, particularly a ruby pendant shown in the painting. Madeleine's great-grandmother was Carlotta Valdes, a fact that Madeleine does not know. Gavin only knows this fact, because Madeleine's mother told him.Scottie follows Madeleine the next day to the Palace of the Legions, where she watches the portrait. Then he follows her to Fort Point near the Golden Gate Bridge. Madeleine strolls by the shore, throwing petals into the bay, until she jumps in. Scottie dives after her. He tries to revive her, but she is out cold, and he takes her back to his apartment.She wakes up naked in his bed, where she is handed a red bathrobe. He asks her if she remembers anything, and explains that he rescued her from drowning. Madeleine maintains that she fainted and fell. He questions her, "Has this ever happened to you before?" He gets a telephone call from Gavin, concerned about the whereabouts of his wife. Scottie reassures him that Madeleine is at his apartment. Gavin confides that Madeleine is twenty-six - the same age at which Carlotta Valdes committed suicide. Scottie hears the door close, and realises that Madeleine has left. As Madeleine drives away from Scottie's house, Midge arrives just in time to have a misunderstanding. She believes that Scottie and Madeleine are in a relationship.The next morning, Scottie trails Madeleine through the streets of San Francisco, only to find that Madeleine has been looking for Scottie's house. Scottie catches her leaving a thank you letter for saving her. She did not know the address, but followed the Coit Tower. Scottie insists that they wander together, because they are both alone.They arrive at Big Basin Redwoods State Park, where they admire the ancient redwoods. As they view a cross-section of a tree with the approximate dates of historical events. Madeleine goes into a trance, seemingly becoming Carlotta, recounting the dates of her birth and death. Madeleine wanders deeper into the woods, and Scottie follows her. He confronts her about the jump, and tries to bring Madeleine back. By the shore, Madeleine begins to reveal fragments of her vague memories: an empty grave with no name, waiting for her; an empty room in which she sits alone; and finally a tower, bell, and garden in Spain. Madeleine admits she is not crazy; she does not want to die. They kiss as the waves crash onto the rocks. Scottie promises he will never leave her.Midge had sent a note to Scottie, who arrives at her house. Midge had been painting a picture of herself as Carlotta Valdes. Scottie is not amused. Distressed, he leaves her home. Midge ruins the painting, upset that she admitted she had fallen for him again.Madeleine returns to Scottie's house, where she tells him of an awful dream, with a tower, a bell, and a village. As she describes the location in detail, Scottie finishes her descriptions. "You've been there!" he exclaims. Scottie is talking about the San Juan Bautista, a mission that has been converted into a museum. They drive to the mission.When they arrive at the mission, they enter the livery stable, where Scottie tries to dismiss the dreams logically. He points out certain objects that are real. They kiss. Madeleine explains she must do something. She asks him if he believes she loves him. He replies yes. "And if you lose me, then you'll know I, I loved you. And I wanted to go on loving you'', she says. She starts to go to the church, when Scottie realizes she is going to the bell tower. Scottie chases her into the chapel, and sees her run up the stairs. He follows her, but as he looks down, his acrophobia sets in: he gets vertigo. He cannot follow her up to the top of the bell tower. He watches, helpless, in fear and horror as Madeleine's body plunges to the tiles below. Scottie staggers out of the mission, sun blinding his eyes, dumbfounded.At the a judicial hearing concerning Madeleine's death, the judge is particularly cruel to Scottie, as he insults him for letting his weakness get in the way of saving Madeleine. The court rules the incident a suicide. Gavin comforts Scottie, while telling him that, with the loss of his wife, he can no longer stay in San Francisco. Gavin sets off to Europe.Scottie has trouble sleeping. Blue and purple flashes signal his nightmare, as an animated bouquet unravels. He hallucinates of Carlotta Valdes at the hearing, with special emphasis on the ruby necklace. Scottie walks into the cemetery where there is an open grave. Scottie falls into a tunnel, then his body lands next to Madeleine's on the tiles of the mission. He wakes up in a cold sweat.Midge arrives to care for Scottie in a psychiatric ward. She tries to comfort him, "mother's here". Scottie will not speak, he is in a daze. The doctor believes that Scottie will be incapacitated for a year due to stress and anxiety from his depression and guilt.When Scottie gets out of the hospital, he visits the old Elster home, and spots the green car. In the distance, a woman in gray suit is getting in it. Unfortunately for him, it is not Madeleine; it is an old neighbour who bought the car from Gavin. At Ernie's he spots a woman in grey, but again, it is not Madeleine. He even sees Madeleine at the Palace of the Legions, but once again, it is not her. While looking at a bouquet at a flower shop, he sees a striking brunette in a green suit. Although she doesn't resemble Madeleine in dress, style, or movement, the face is a dead ringer. He follows her to the Hotel Empire, and sees her through the fifth floor window.When Scottie knocks on the door, the woman is concerned that he is a creep. He reassures her he just wants to talk. He spits questions at her, and she reveals that she is Judy Barton (Kim Novak again) from Salina, Kansas. Judy realises that Scottie's heart is broken for his former flame, and she takes pity on him. She agrees to go for dinner with him at Ernie's.Scottie leaves and Judy tells her story via flashback. She WAS Madeleine, running up the steps of the bell tower. At the top, Gavin Elster was there, holding the body of the REAL Madeleine Elster, dressed in exactly the same wardrobe as Judy. It was the real Madeleine's body that was thrown off the bell tower, with Judy letting out the scream. Judy reveals the gray suit that she wore as her disguise, hidden in the back of her closet. She begins to write a letter to Scottie, explaining that she was Gavin's accomplice in the murder of his wife. She had become her doppelgnger to fool Scottie, and use him as a witness to explain that Madeleine was mentally unstable. Gavin had known about his vertigo, and knew that Scottie would never make it to the top of the bell tower. Judy reconsiders this letter, and tears it up.That night, Scottie suspects he sees Madeleine at Ernie's. He escorts Judy home that night, her apartment flooded with the green neon light of the Hotel Empire sign. Although he loves Madeleine, there is something about Judy that he can't shake. They agree to meet the next morning.They engage in a series of dates, with Scottie becoming happier with the relationship. However, he begins to buy her clothes, searching obsessively for the gray suit and white gloves that Madeleine used to wear. As Judy begins to break down, Scottie also realizes that she must dye her brown hair, platinum blonde. Although Judy begs him to love Judy Barton, she has fallen so in love with him that she will conform to his image.Her makeover complete, she returns to a waiting Scottie who has her pull her hair back for the final transformation. In a dreamlike state, with the green glow all around them, they embrace and kiss. The room turns into the livery stable from the Mission, Scottie's last kiss with Madeleine, and then back to the apartment.A couple of nights later, the two decide to go out to Ernie's. Judy dresses up, and wears the ruby pendant. Scottie realizes that something is amiss. He suddenly becomes distant. He passes Ernie's and continues driving past the Redwood trees. He tells her he has one final thing to do. They arrive at the mission, where Scottie forces Judy to re-enact Madeleine's death. He wants to use this as a second chance to save Madeleine and exorcise his demons forever.As he reaches the top of the bell tower, conquering his acrophobia, he puts the whole puzzle together. He realizes that Judy was the counterfeit all along. He never knew Madeleine. He was being set up as Gavin Elster's witness in the murder of Elster's wife. He pulls Judy to the top of the tower, where she protests. Judy pleads that she had fallen in love with Scottie. They kiss. The sudden appearance of a nun, however, shocks Judy, who plummets to her death off the ledge. A stunned Scottie is distraught, losing the same woman twice in the same fashion.


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Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) once dreamt of being a great prize fighter, but now works at the docks of Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb) , the corrupt boss of the dockers union. He witnesses a murder by a couple of Johnny's thugs, but won't betray Friendly, who is both his brother's (Rod Steiger) boss and a long-time friend of his family.What he sees at the docks repulses Terry. In an economically depressed environment in which many are out of work, more gather by the docks each morning hoping to secure work for that day than can be hired, placing Johnny Friendly and his forces in a position to exploit them. Those who complain of the working conditions or wages one day don't work the next day, or are placed in harm's way. Consequently, most tolerate being abused.After befriending both the sister (Eva Marie Saint) of the murdered man and the local priest (Karle Malden), Terry gradually becomes a man of deeper morality, and starts to speak of acts against Friendly, who will soon go on trial. Terry finds his breaking point when his brother is murdered by Friendly's thugs, and causes him to entertain thoughts of testifying against Friendly. Still, he struggles to find the courage to do so, until the priest persuades him to.Once he betrays Friendly, Terry is without the work that always came his way when he and his brother were trusted and valued associates. Still, he confronts Friendly by the docks and when all the dock workers are witness to the brutal beating of Terry by Friendly, they refuse to work unless Terry is also allowed to work. This is the catalyst for a new tone of understanding between the workers and the dock bosses.Terry had neither wanted nor intended to be a hero, but, as a man of principle, he had become not only a hero, but a symbol of the workers' intolerance of exploitation by the dock bosses.===================================Terry Malloy, a former boxer, works as a stevedore on the urban waterfront near New York City. When the story opens, he's leaving the office/shack of Johnny Friendly, the head of the local dockworker's union. Johnny tells Terry "You take it from here, Slugger." Terry goes to the tenement of Joey Doyle, another dock worker and calls him out, saying that he recovered one of Joey's carrier pigeons. Joey cautiously accepts and tells Terry to meet him on the roof of the tenement. Terry looks up and sees two shady men waiting on the roof.Terry goes to Friendly's bar and stands outside with two of Friendly's enforcers, Truck and Tillio. Truck asks him if Doyle went to the roof and Terry tells him he did. A moment later, a scream is heard and Joey falls from the roof. Though everyone seems to accept that Joey simply slipped and fell, everyone also knows that he was murdered on orders from Friendly because Doyle had planned to testify to the Waterfront Crime Commission about unsafe and unfair working conditions in Friendly's local union. Terry himself seems upset that a nice kid like Joey, who was well-liked in the neighborhood, would be killed by Johnny's men when he believed they would simply intimidate him into forgetting about his testimony. Truck and Tillio laugh over Doyle's death, calling him a "canary" (slang for an informant who would betray the union.)In the bar, Terry is still upset. One of Friendly's cronies, Skins, drops by with money for Johnny from a payoff and, when the money is counted, he comes up short. Johnny viciously searches the man and comes up with the missing money and forcibly throws the man out. When he sees that Terry is upset, he begins to lecture him on how violence is necessary to enforce his rules and keep everyone in line. Johnny also admits to ordering Doyle's murder. For setting Doyle up, Johnny tells his foreman, Big Mac, to give Terry a cushy job during the next day's shift at his pier.Out in the alley where Joey was thrown off the roof his sister, Edie, and Father Barry, the local Catholic priest, look over the body of Joey. Edie angrily pleads with other people in the neighborhood about why Joey, well-liked by his friends and the local kids, would be murdered. Everyone knows, but none want to say anything. Edie also becomes angry with Father Barry, saying he doesn't know about the violence in the area because he's too busy with running his church to actually visit the waterfront.The next day, the dockworkers gather at Johnny Friendly's pier. Big Mac runs a shape-up system where tags are given to selected men to work the ship. Edie is there, with Father Barry, who tells her that she was right; he has come down to see just how bad the situation is. Edie's father, Pop Doyle, also shows up because he needs to earn money for his son's funeral. He also gives his dead son's coat to another worker, Kayo Dugan, who accepts it.While waiting for his name to be called, Terry is approached by two officials from the Waterfront Crime Commission. One of them recognizes Terry from his boxing days and asks him if he'll testify to the commission about Joey's murder. Terry flatly refuses. The other man tells Terry they'll supoena him if necessary.Mac calls out the names of men who get regular work, and Terry is among them. The remaining tags are passed out at Mac's discretion; when the men who aren't chosen become angry with him, Mac throws the tags behind them and a minor riot breaks out. Pop is pushed out of the crowd by the younger men. When Edie tries to grab a tag for her father, Terry grabs it first and won't give it to Edie. When one of the other men points out to Terry that she's Joey's sister, he gives her the tag. Edie gives it to her father; Pop admonishes Father Barry for letting Edie witness the riot. The other men are disheartened and Barry tells them that no union would ever let what just occurred happen. The men explain how a "trigger local" works: anyone who gets out of line is eliminated by Johnny and his goons. They also explain that meetings among union members are impossible since Johnny has spies working everywhere. Barry suggests they all meet in the basement of his church.In the ship's hold, Terry is loafing on a pile of sacks when his brother, Charley "The Gent", Johnny's right-hand man, finds him and gives him a small job to do. Johnny wants Terry to be a spy during the meeting Father Barry called that night at the church. Terry is reluctant but Charley reminds him that he and Johnny have done a lot of favors for Terry. Terry agrees to go.At the church that night, Barry calls the meeting to order, noting that attendance is very low. He explains to the men what they already know: working conditions are bad and their union is powerless as long as it's run by Friendly's gang. Barry also suggests that if they can talk openly about why Joey Doyle was murdered then they'll make progress. Edie asks Joey's best friend, Jimmy, to say something, but he turns her down. Barry tells them that they only way they'll be able to make better lives for themselves is to stand up to Johnny. One of the tougher men in the crowd, Kayo Dugan, tells Barry that the rule is everyone is "deaf and dumb" about Johnny. Dugan also notices that Terry is sitting in one of the back pews and recognizes him as a spy. Despite his attempts at coaching, Barry is unable to convince the men. As Barry's fellow priest calls the meeting to an end with a prayer, a window is suddenly smashed in and the rattling of pounding clubs is heard outside: Johnny's men have surrounded the church. Anyone who tries to escape is severely beaten. Terry takes Edie out of the church safely. Dugan, while trying to escape, is beaten bloody by Johnny's goons but is rescued by Father Barry. Barry angrily asks Dugan if he still wants to remain deaf and dumb and seems to get through to Dugan. Dugan promises to testify as long as he has Barry's support. Dugan also warns Barry that Johnny's goons won't hesitate to lean on a priest as well.In the park in front of the church, Terry sees that Edie gets out of the area safely. While they talk, a homeless man confronts them, asking for money. The man recognizes both Terry and Edie. When he begins to talk about Joey's death and how Terry set him up, Terry yells at him to leave. The man does.When she gets home, Edie finds her father packing her things. Edie, a student at an upstate Catholic college, had been visiting her family. Pop tells her that she should leave the neighborhood because of the violence she's seen so far. He also tells her he knows she was with Terry Malloy and how Terry is connected to Johnny Friendly. Edie refuses to leave, driven by her need to know why her brother was killed.On the roof of his building, Terry tends to his flock of carrier pigeons. Terry talks to a couple of kids from the neighborhood and sees Edie over at Joey's coop. Terry goes to her and they talk for a while, about how pigeons are victims of predatory birds in the city, mostly hawks. Terry offers to take Edie out for a drink at a local bar and she accepts. While they talk, she tells Terry of her interest in solving Joey's murder. Terry warns her not to snoop around too much because it could be dangerous. They dance for a while at a wedding being held in the bar when one of Johnny's men, Barney, tells him that Johnny wants to meet with him. Terry tells him he'll go when he's ready to. Terry also runs into of of the Crime Commission agents who hands him a supeona. Terry is still steadfast and tears up the papers, refusing to "eat cheese" (become an informer).Later, Terry walks home and is stopped by Johnny and Charlie. Johnny asks Terry about the church meeting and Terry tells him it was run by Father Barry and that very little was discussed that could threaten Johnny's position. Johnny counters, telling Terry that KO Dugan had gone to the crime commission and gave a sworn statement about the illicit operations and corruption of Johnny's union. Johnny suggests that they use their "muscle" to eliminate Dugan. Johnny also feels that Terry didn't do his job fully and tells him he won't have his cushy job in the yard anymore, that he's going back to work in the "hole". Charlie also admonishes Terry about his budding relationship with Eve Doyle, saying it's "unhealthy" for him to be dating the sister of the man they killed.The next day Terry is working alongside Dugan in the ship's hold, unloading crates of Irish whiskey. Terry feels the need to warn Kayo about Johnny's intentions but Kayo ignores him. As one of the pallets loaded with crates is hoisted out, the crane operator drops it on Kayo, killing him in what looks like an accident. Later, after Kayo's body has been uncovered, Father Barry gives a stirring speech to the entire workforce, telling them that Johnny and his men are using them for cheap labor and killing them when they choose to stand up for their rights. Johnny's men begin to throw rotten fruit and cans at Barry, who calmly continues to talk. One of the men, Tillio, is about to throw something when Terry stops him and punches him out. One of the men gives Joey's jacket back to Edie (she later gives it to Terry). Kayo's body is hoisted out of the hold, with Barry and Pop Doyle riding the pallet.Terry, whose conscience has been bothering him, meets with Father Barry. He tells Barry he may just testify to the Crime Commission but he doesn't want to implicate his brother or his friends. He also tells the priest that he set Joey Doyle up to be killed. Barry tells Terry that his loyalty to Charlie and Johnny is misplaced. He also tells Terry that a good step to take would be to tell Edie what he did. Edie had been coming to see Barry herself and Barry convinces Terry to tell her. Terry meets her and tells her, while a ship's whistle blows, making what he tells her inaudible. Edie is horrified and runs away.Terry later checks on his pigeons on his roof. He sees one of the men from the Crime Commission who approached him on the docks. Terry asks the advice of one of the boys who hangs out with him on the roof about testifying; the boy tells him it's not a good idea to get involved, especially since Terry founded the gang the kid is now a member of. The officer tries to talk to Terry and is mostly unsuccessful until he mentions the fight Terry had boxed in years before involving another man named Wilson. Terry is suddenly quite chatty with the man, hinting that he'd thrown the fight so that Charlie, Johnny and their friends could win a huge purse by betting on Wilson. Terry tells the officer straight out that he could have beaten Wilson easily and talks about his technique. Though we don't hear the rest of the conversation, it is strongly hinted that Terry may testify against Johnny.At Johnny's office, one of Johnny's spies reports that he'd seen Terry talking to the agent. Charlie tries to defend Terry, saying that Edie has Terry's emotional state mixed up. Johnny is unfazed however and orders Charlie to talk to his brother. If Terry won't "dummy up" then Charlie will take him to one of Johnny's hit men, Jerry G. Charlie is shocked ad tries to reason with Johnny, who refuses to listen. Charlie leaves Johnny's office to find Terry.Charlie picks up Terry in a taxicab and they two have a lengthy conversation where Charlie asks Terry about his supeona and if he plans to rat out Johnny in court.Terry still seems undecided and Charlie reminds him about all the favors he and Johnny have done for him over the years and even offers Terry a cushy job at another pier Johnny will be opening soon. When Terry seems more likely to testify, Charlie tells Terry to make up his mind before they arrive at Jerry G's place. Terry is stunned that his own brother would suggest that he'll be turned over to a hit man, Charlie pulls out a pistol and tells Terry to take the job he was offered. Charlie suddenly comes to his senses and breaks down. He recounts how Terry was once a potentially great athlete and says that Terry's manager was responsible for ruining whatever career he might have had as a boxer. Terry counters, saying that Charlie was responsible for his downfall, betting on Wilson all those years ago and destroying whatever shot Terry might have had at a prestigious boxing title. Charlie realizes how badly he's treated his brother over the years and gives Terry the gun, telling him "you're gonna need it." He orders the driver to pull over and let Terry out. The driver, one of Johnny's spies, suddenly pulls into Jerry G's place nearby, where Johnny's waiting.Terry goes to Edie and Pop's apartment. Edie refuses to open the door for him and Terry breaks in, telling her she loves him. She tells him to leave and he grabs her and kisses her, Edie showing little resistance. A voice calls to Terry from the alley below, telling him his brother is there and wants to see him. Terry rushes down to the alley and begins to walk toward the voice. Edie follows, stopping momentarily to talk to one of her neighbors, who mentions that her own son was killed when he went looking for a man who was calling him into the alley. While Edie runs to Terry, a truck starts up and rushes toward them both; Terry breaks the window of a nearby door and they jump out of the way. Terry looks at the truck as it speeds off and sees his brother hanging by a longshoreman's hook piercing his coat. There are several bullet holes in his chest. Terry, his arm bleeding from the broken glass, hauls his brother down, and distraughtly tells Edie to get Father Barry and stay with Charlie until he arrives.Terry goes immediately to Friendly's bar and holds everyone hostage at gunpoint. Tillio shows up and Terry orders him to stay as well. Father Barry shows up; Terry remains defensive with the pistol while Barry tells him to give it up. Terry tells Barry to "go to Hell" and Barry hits him in the face and Terry's hostages escape. Terry begins shouting about how the situation isn't Barry's concern and Barry tells him that shooting Johnny would be useless since the law would favor Johnny. Barry tells Terry that the best thing he can do to avenge his brother's murder is to testify in court and strip Johnny of his power. He also tells Terry to get rid of the gun unless he's too cowardly. He gives Terry a beer; Terry takes a sip and throws the pistol at a picture of Johnny with an important-looking city official, shattering it.At the waterfront crime hearings, Terry testifies about Joey's murder. He's grilled at length about not only being the last person to see Joey alive but also about how Johnny Friendly had angrily said that it was necessary to have Joey killed to protect his interests in the union. In another office, a man watches the hearings on TV and hears Terry's testimony. He orders the TV shut off and tells his assistant that he won't accept any calls from Johnny Friendly. Terry finishes on the stand and, as he walks past Johnny, who's been called to the stand. Johnny mutters threats and becomes furious and attacks Terry, finally calming down.Terry goes home, followed by two cops. He tells them to stop following him and they scoff. He passes a friend on the stairs, who refuses to talk to him. In his apartment, Edie is waiting. Terry talks about losing many friends because he testified and Edie asks if they are "real" friends to him anyway. Terry goes up to the roof and finds that his young friend has killed all of his pigeons. Edie suggests that they leave the waterfront and go to a farm out west where they'll be left alone. Terry notices a ship coming in to Johnny's pier and, grabbing his hook and donning Joey's jacket, goes to the pier.At the pier, Terry recieves a cold welcome from his former friends. He stands there while Big Mac calls the workers in. Mac passes Terry over for a job and when Terry suggests they need more men, Mac hires the first homeless man standing in the area. Terry becomes enraged and marches down to the gangplank leading to John Friendly's office. He throws his hook at the door and Johnny emerges. Knowing that attacking Terry in public would get him into deeper trouble, he tells Terry to get lost. Terry begins to berate Johnny openly, telling him he's happy that he testified against Johnny, especially for killing anyone who crossed him. Johnny goads Terry into charging him and the two begin to fight. When it becomes obvious that Johnny will lose, he calls his goons in to help and they viciously beat Terry. Father Barry and Edie arrive on the scene just as Johnny orders his thugs to stop. The owner of the ship that arrived demands to know when the men will begin unloading the cargo and Johnny begins to muscle his way through the crowd, ordering the onlookers to begin working. When he reaches Pop Doyle, he grabs him. Pop pushes Johnny off the gangplank and into the water; the crowd cheers. A few of the men find Terry and see how badly he's been beaten. Barry encourages Terry to get up and walk to the pier to go to work (he tells Terry that Johnny is taking bets that he won't make it); if he does, the other men will follow him and oust Johnny as their leader. Terry walks up to the pier, stumbling and falling. He reaches the pier entrance and the ship's owner calls the rest of the men to work. They enter and the door rolls shut behind them.


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The film begins with a feather falling to the feet of Forrest Gump who is sitting at a bus stop in Savannah, Georgia. Forrest picks up the feather and puts it in the book Curious George, then tells the story of his life to a woman seated next to him. The listeners at the bus stop change regularly throughout his narration, each showing a different attitude ranging from disbelief and indifference to rapt veneration.On his first day of school, he meets a girl named Jenny, whose life is followed in parallel to Forrest's at times. Having discarded his leg braces, his ability to run at lightning speed gets him into college on a football scholarship. After his college graduation, he enlists in the army and is sent to Vietnam, where he makes fast friends with a black man named Bubba, who convinces Forrest to go into the shrimping business with him when the war is over. Later while on patrol, Forrest's platoon is attacked. Though Forrest rescues many of the men, Bubba is killed in action. Forrest is awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his heroism.While Forrest is in recovery for a bullet shot to his "butt-tox", he discovers his uncanny ability for ping-pong, eventually gaining popularity and rising to celebrity status, later playing ping-pong competitively against Chinese teams. At an anti-war rally in Washington, D.C. Forrest reunites with Jenny, who has been living a hippie counterculture lifestyle.Returning home, Forrest endorses a company that makes ping-pong paddles, earning himself $25,000, which he uses to buy a shrimping boat, fulfilling his promise to Bubba. His commanding officer from Vietnam, Lieutenant Dan, joins him. Though initially Forrest has little success, after finding his boat the only surviving boat in the area after Hurricane Carmen, he begins to pull in huge amounts of shrimp and uses it to buy an entire fleet of shrimp boats. Lt. Dan invests the money in Apple Computer and Forrest is financially secure for the rest of his life. He returns home to see his mother's last days.One day, Jenny returns to visit Forrest and he proposes marriage to her. She declines, though feels obliged to prove her love to him by sleeping with him. She leaves early the next morning. On a whim, Forrest elects to go for a run. Seemingly capriciously, he decides to keep running across the country several times, over some three and a half years, becoming famous.In present-day, Forrest reveals that he is waiting at the bus stop because he received a letter from Jenny who, having seen him run on television, asks him to visit her. Once he is reunited with Jenny, Forrest discovers she has a young son, of whom Forrest is the father. Jenny tells Forrest she is suffering from a virus (probably HIV, though this is never definitively stated). Together the three move back to Greenbow, Alabama. Jenny and Forrest finally marry. The wedding is attended by Lt. Dan, who now has prosthetic legs and a fiancee. Jenny dies soon afterward.The film ends with father and son waiting for the school bus on little Forrest's first day of school. Opening the book his son is taking to school, the white feather from the beginning of the movie is seen to fall from within the pages. As the bus pulls away, the white feather is caught on a breeze and drifts skyward.


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The widowed, retired Austrian naval officer, Captain Von Trapp (Christopher Plummer) has made his Austrian home one of overly restrictive and harshly enforced discipline, one that, most unintentionally, causes his seven children to be underfed when it comes to joy and love. Being a nun living in a convent is similarly restrictive and unfulfilling for Maria (Julie Andrews), who breaks rules to try to change it. The reverend mother (Peggy Wood) decides that Maria, who is not cutting it as a nun, should leave and take on a job as governess at the nearby Von Trapp household in Salzburg.Through music and various outings, Maria gives the children a taste of a more fulfilling, joyous, life than they have ever known, and they come to love her very dearly. The Captain grows closer to his children, too, coming to understand the value and beauty of the freedoms that Maria has given them. Ironically, the freedom of all Austrians to live their lives to the fullest is in danger, for it is 1938, and Germany is marching into Austria. The Captain is a patriot, passionate about the fulfilling life that Austria has always offered its citizens.In his personal life, the Captain is having a romance with a wealthy, cultivated, and lovely Baroness (Eleanor Parker), but he is becoming more and more captivated by Maria, and is falling in love with her, and she, too, feels growing affection for him. She is a nun, however, and unschooled in dealing with the situaiton. Frightened by the developments, Maria runs back to the convent, where the reverend mother convinces her that she must face, rather than run from, the situation, causing Maria to return to the Captain's home. It seems, though, that she is too late, learning that the Captain and the Baroness have become engaged.The Captain, who had surely concluded that he could never have Maria for a wife, confides to the Baroness that he loves Maria, but the Baroness admits she had sensed it long ago, and the engagement is called off. The Captain and Maria marry, but an ugly situation befronts them upon return from their honeymoon -- the Captain has been summoned, in a telegram, by the Third Reich to serve in its navy.Due to the Captain 's unwillingness to serve the Third Reich, the Captain and Maria resolve to leave Austria, and, after escaping the pursuit of some Nazi officers, they set out, with the children, for the mountains of Switzerland on foot.


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A fight set to music between an American gang, the Jets, and a rival gang, the Sharks, who have moved into the Jets' territory from Puerto Rico. We are introduced to the leader of the Jets, Riff (Russ Tamblyn), and the leader of the Sharks, Bernardo (George Chakiris). The Sharks start the fight when they jump Baby John, one of the most developed characters.
The police arrive, led by Lieutenant Schrank (Simon Oakland) and Officer Krumpke (William Bramley), and demands that the gang disperse.When they are alone, the Jets begin to discuss what they will do about the Sharks. Riff declares that they will end the conflict on their terms by challenging the Sharks to one last all out fight, or "rumble". they deliver the challenge to the Sharks at the dance being held that night at the local gym, which is considered neutral territory. Action (Tony Mordente) asks to be Riff's lieutenant for the challenge and council, but the Jets leader insists on using Tony (Richard Beymer), Riff's best friend, and co-founder of the Jets. Tony has since begun to drift away from the gang, and the Jets think he doesn't belong any more. Riff tells them firmly that once you're a Jet, you stay a Jet and reassures them of their invincibility before going off to find his friend ("Jet Song"). Riff meets Tony, who now has a job at a local store run by a man named Doc (Ned Glass), and tries to persuade him to come to the dance at the gym that night. Having no real interest in the Jets' conflict with the Sharks, Tony initially refuses and tries to explain to Riff that lately he expects something very important will be coming into his life, but later reconsiders out of loyalty, when he thinks about what might happen there ("Something's Coming").We are then introduced to Bernardo's sister, Maria (Natalie Wood). She is complaining to Bernardo's feisty ladyfriend, Anita (Rita Moreno), that she never gets to do anything exciting. Bernardo arrives and takes her to the dance, where she meets some friends, Rosalia and Consuelo. Bernardo meets up with his friends. The Jets meet, and a dance montage takes place ("Dance At The Gym"). Glad Hand (John Astin), the chaperon at the dance, tries to make the gangs mix with a get-together dance, but when he is not looking, the boys swap back to their original partners.In the midst of all the excitement, Tony and Maria see each other, and immediately fall in love. They begin to dance, but are interrupted by Bernardo, who angrily orders Maria home, and tells Tony to stay away from his sister. Tony leaves in a happy daze ("Maria") while Riff invites Bernardo to the "war council", for which they agree to meet at Doc's Candy Store.Back at the Sharks' tenement building, Anita defends Maria's right to dance with whom she pleases, as do the other girls, but Bernardo will not listen. A bitter argument ensues, in which it emerges that the girls love their life in America while the boys hate it ("America").Tony visits Maria at her tenement block, mirroring the balcony scene in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, and they confirm their love ("Tonight"). They arrange to meet the next day at Madame Lucia's bridal shop, when Maria has finished her work. The same night, after the dance, the Jets and Sharks meet to decide where their planned rumble will take place. Before the Sharks arrive, the Jets, accompanied by Anybodys (Susan Oakes), a tomboy who desperately wants to be one of them, are visited by Officer Krupke, who warns them not to cause trouble on his beat. When he leaves, they lampoon him, along with judges, psychiatrists and social workers ("Gee, Officer Krupke"). Tony bursts in while the Jets and Sharks are in conference, and demands that they have a fair fist fight instead of a rumble. Riff agrees, and Bernardo reluctantly accepts.The next day, Maria and her friends are working at the bridal shop, and Maria is in an unusually happy mood. The other girls wonder what has come over her, and Maria explains ("I Feel Pretty"). Tony arrives. Everyone except Maria and Anita has left. Anita likes the couple, but is clearly afraid of what might happen if Bernardo knows they are seeing each other. She demands that Maria be home soon, then goes home to pretty herself up -- she and Bernardo have arranged to have a little quality time after the Rumble. Maria demands that Tony stop the fight altogether, but before Tony leaves, they pretend that the bridal clothes in the shop are for them, and imagine their engagement and wedding ("One Hand, One Heart").Next is a musical montage showing everyone's respective feelings. The Jets and Sharks are ready in case the fight becomes a rumble after all, Tony and Maria are looking forward to seeing each other that night, and Anita is getting ready for her date with Bernardo ("Quintet").The fight, which is between Bernardo and Ice (Tucker Smith), Riff's second in command, is about to begin when Tony appears. When Tony tries to stop the fight, Bernardo attacks him. When Tony does not retaliate, the Sharks mock him. Unable to stand by and watch while his best friend is mocked and humiliated, Riff punches Bernardo, trying to defend Tony, and the two gang leaders draw their switchblades ("The Rumble"). Tony tries to stop Riff, but Ice and Tiger hold him back. In the midst of the fight, Bernardo kills Riff. Before the stunned members of both gangs can react, Tony, enraged at the murder of his best friend, picks up Riff's blade and stabs Bernardo, killing him instantly. This sets off a free-for-all amidst the gang members. As police sirens start blaring in the distance, everybody takes off, leaving behind the bodies of Riff and Bernardo.Blissfully unaware of what has happened, Maria is waiting for Tony on the tenement roof. She is still in a gay mood, and dances around the roof, until another Shark, Chino (Jose De Vega), who loves her, appears, worn out from the fight. Without thinking, Maria demands to know what has happened to Tony, betraying her feelings. Angered, Chino tells Maria that Tony killed her brother, then leaves. Tony arrives as Maria prays that Bernardo is not dead; realizing that it's true, Maria lashes out at Tony, who can only tell her what happened, and asks her to forgive him before he goes to the police. Maria finds that in spite of everything, she still loves Tony and begs him to stay with her. They reaffirm their love ("Somewhere").Ice has taken over as leader of the Jets. He tells them they will have their revenge on the Sharks, but must do it carefully ("Cool"). Anybodys appears from infiltrating the Sharks' turf and warns the Jets that Chino is now after Tony with a gun. The Jets scatter out to find Tony, including Anybodys, whose deed officially makes her a Jet.Back at the flat, Tony and Maria are sleeping together. Anita arrives. Maria and Tony make whispered arrangements to meet at Doc's and run away together. Anita comes in, sees Tony running away (and being informed of Chino by Anybodys), and chides Maria for loving him ("A Boy Like That"). Maria will not listen, and Anita looks as though she has to restrain herself from hitting her. But Maria's heartfelt love ("I Have A Love") wins over Anita, for she remembers she felt the same way about Bernardo. Anita then tells Maria about Chino searching for Tony with a gun.Lieutenant Schrank arrives and questions Maria about the events leading up to the Rumble. He knows about the argument, and Maria lies that the boy she danced with was another Puerto Rican. She sends Anita to Doc's on the pretense that she is sending her to fetch a medicine for her headache -- she asks Anita to say she has been detained, explaining she would have gone herself otherwise. Anita's real purpose is to tell Tony (who has now taken refuge in the cellar of Doc's drugstore) that Maria is detained from meeting him.But when Anita enters Doc's, the Jets maul her, simulating a gang rape. In black anger, Anita delivers the wrong message -- she says Maria is dead, shot by Chino for loving Tony. When Doc breaks the news to Tony, he leaves the shop in despair. Tony then runs through the streets shouting for Chino and begging him to kill him too.Wandering onto the playground, he sees Maria, at first thinking that it is only in his mind, then realizing it really is her, but as they run towards each other, Chino appears out of nowhere and shoots Tony. As the Jets and Sharks appear, Maria and Tony reaffirm their love ("Somewhere"), but Tony dies in her arms. Maria takes the gun from Chino and accuses everybody in sight of the deaths of Tony, Bernardo, and Riff. The police and gang members arrive. When they see Tony dead, some of the Jets lift him, and the Sharks join them, while Chino is taken away by the police. As in Romeo and Juliet, tragedy has brought the feuding between the two gangs to an end.Romeo and Juliet equivalentsTony=Romeo, Maria=Juliet, Bernardo=Tybalt, Riff=Mercutio, Doc=Friar Lawrence, Chino=Paris, Anita=Nurse,


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Note: Italicized paragraphs denote scenes added for the film's 1997 special edition and updated for its DVD release.An opening title card reads:'A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...'It is a period of civil war. Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire. During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire's ultimate weapon, the DeathStar, an armored space station with enough power to destroy an entire planet. Pursued by the Empire's sinister agents, Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) races home aboard her starship, custodian of the stolen plans that can save her people and restore freedom to the galaxy.'The movie opens with a space battle between two starships in orbit around the desert planet of Tatooine. A small Rebel blockade runner, the Tantive IV, is being pursued by a mammoth Imperial star destroyer, the Devastator. Inside, protocol droid C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) and utility droid R2-D2 (Kenny Baker) are tossed about as their ship endures a barrage of laser bolts, and 3PO concludes that escaping capture will be impossible. The Rebel ship is so heavily damaged that its main power reactor must be shut down. It is caught in the Imperial destroyer's tractor beam, pulled into the hold of the larger ship, and boarded by stormtroopers from the Empire's 501st Legion.A huge firefight ensues in the corridors of the Rebel ship, with many Rebel soldiers being lost in the battle. When the smoke clears, Darth Vader (David Prowse; voice: James Earl Jones), a man dressed in a black cape, black armor, and a black helmet that obscures all his features, briefly surveys the damage before interrogating the ship's captain, who claims that the ship is on a diplomatic mission to the planet Alderaan. Vader perceives that he is lying, noting that a consular ship would have an ambassador on board, which they don't. (Actually they do -- Leia -- but she is hiding from Vader, the second-ranking man in the Empire, which tends to support Vader's thesis that somebody on this ship is up to something.) Upon learning that the plans were not downloaded into the ship's computer, Vader strangles the captain. He then tells the troops to search the entire ship and look for "the plans" and to bring all the passengers to him -- alive.C-3PO and R2-D2 manage to escape damage from the firefight. R2-D2 meets up with Princess Leia, who loads him with the stolen plans, and records a holographic message for the small droid to take to the planet's surface. R2-D2 and C-3PO get away from the ship aboard an escape pod to go to the planet below; Imperial troops choose not to destroy the pod, as their scans detect no living organism on board, and presume it ejected due to a malfunction. Moments later the princess is shot by a stun gun and taken to Vader. He tells her that the Rebels have stolen some secret Imperial plans and transmitted them to her ship, and that he wants them back. She feigns ignorance and protests to Vader that she is a member of the Imperial Senate on a diplomatic mission to the planet Alderaan, but Vader doesn't believe her. Vader's adjutant aide, Commander Jir (Al Lampert), insists that holding her captive is dangerous; news of her captivity would generate sympathy for the rebellion against the Empire. Vader instructs Jir to deceive the Senate and permanently erase any trace of Leia's whereabouts by faking her [accidental] death. Upon being notified by another officer that an empty escape pod was jettisoned during the firefight, he concludes that the princess hid the stolen plans in the pod.C-3PO and R2-D2 land on the desert planet; R2-D2 mentions a mission to deliver some plans, but C-3PO is more concerned with staying in one piece long enough to find civilization. The two split up, and both are eventually captured by a group of diminutive scavengers called Jawas. The Jawas are junk traders, and R2-D2 and C-3PO are their newest assets. Meanwhile, a unit of Imperial Sandtroopers find the crashed pod, and discover droid parts, and tracks leading away from the crash site.The Jawas travel to the Great Chott Salt Flat settlement to sell droids and equipment to local homesteaders, eventually arriving at the homestead of Owen Lars (Phil Brown), a moisture farmer. The farmer purchases C-3PO for his translation skills, as he is fluent in six million forms of communication, but initially decides to buy a cheaper utility droid, R5-D4, which breaks down almost immediately after purchase. Eager to deflect accusations of selling shoddy merchandise, the Jawas offer R2 as a consolation. Owen accepts and tells his nephew, Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), to clean them up and put them to work. Luke had plans to meet some friends in the nearby town of Anchorhead, but his plans are put aside for work. During the cleanup, Luke stumbles across a short clip of the message stored in R2 by Princess Leia. The message is for someone named 'Obi-Wan Kenobi', and is a desperate plea for help. R2 insists that the message is simply a malfunction ("old data"), but Luke insists on hearing the complete message. R2 then states that if Luke removes his restraining bolt, he might be able to play the rest of the message. Luke removes the bolt, but R2 doesn't play the message and claims not to know what Luke is talking about. Luke is called away for dinner (forgetting to replace the bolt) and asks C-3PO to finish cleaning R2.During dinner, Luke tells his aunt and uncle that the droids may belong to someone called Obi-Wan Kenobi. This news greatly disturbs Uncle Owen, but he won't say why. Luke asks if Obi-Wan is possibly related to a local hermit named Ben Kenobi who lives several miles away in the Dune Sea area, a vast terrain of sand and rocky canyons. Owen claims that Ben is "just a crazy old man," and that Obi-Wan is dead; Owen makes a comment which seems to indicate that Obi-Wan Kenobi knew Luke's long-deceased father, Anakin, but when Luke presses Owen for details, his uncle quickly changes the subject and instructs Luke to erase the droids' memories the next morning. Luke -- who hopes to leave home for training at a nearby Imperial Military Academy to become a space pilot -- leaves the room angrily to return to cleaning the droids. Luke's Aunt Beru (Shelagh Fraser) tells Owen that Luke is too much like his father to remain, but Owen holds out hope that Luke's desire for adventure will subside -- and expresses a fear that Luke is too much like his father... suggesting that Owen may know something of the terrible thing that happened to Anakin.After dinner, Luke discovers that R2-D2 (now without his restraining bolt) has escaped to find Obi-Wan Kenobi. Luke tells 3PO that it's too late to look for R2 because of the dangerous Sand People (also called Tusken Raiders) in the area, and that they will set out first thing in the morning to go look for him (hopefully before Owen discovers that due to Luke's negligence, his newest investment has disappeared).The following morning, Luke and 3PO set out in Luke's landspeeder to find R2. They locate him on the scanner and catch up with him. As soon as they find him, R2 informs them that his own scanner is picking up several creatures closing in on them. Luke fears the Sand People have found them, and confirms it using a set of minoculars. One ambushes them, hitting Luke over the head and knocking him unconscious. C-3PO goes tumbling down the side of a sand dune. R2 runs and hides.After stealing some parts off of Luke's speeder, the Sand People are frightened away by the sound of a vicious beast. We see that the sound is coming from a mysterious hooded figure approaching. The figure checks on Luke and takes his hood off to reveal his features. He is an old, bearded man. Luke comes to and recognizes the man as Ben Kenobi (Alec Guinness). Luke tells the man that his droid claims to belong to an Obi-Wan Kenobi. This knowledge startles the old man, who reveals (with a look of ancient mystery on his face) that he is Obi-Wan Kenobi but that he hasn't gone by that name in many years. After rescuing C-3PO, they go to Obi-Wan's home to discuss the matter.At Obi-Wan's home, Luke learns that Obi-Wan knew Anakin and that they were both Jedi Knights of the Old Republic. Luke had been told by his uncle that his father was a navigator on a spice freighter; Owen had been trying to protect Luke from the truth about his father, or perhaps simply trying to keep him safe. (Note: it's not clear that Owen knows the truth about Luke's father, other than that he was killed in a dangerous line of duty). Obi-Wan then retrieves Anakin's lightsaber, an energy sword which was the chosen weapon of the Jedi Knights; he seems to have kept it safe for some time. He gives the weapon to Luke, saying that Anakin wanted him to have it when he was old enough, but Owen would have none of it. Obi-Wan explains that a Jedi receives his power from the Force, an energy field that is created by all living beings that "surrounds us, penetrates us, and binds the galaxy together." But there is also a Dark Side to the Force, which draws power from negative emotions and baser impulses. A young Jedi named Darth Vader, who was once a pupil of Obi-Wan, was seduced by this Dark Side. Vader betrayed and murdered Anakin, then became the Dark Lord of the Sith, the most feared enforcer of the Emperor. In this capacity, he proceeded to hunt down his former comrades, and the Jedi Order is now all but extinct.At this point R2 decides to play his message for Obi-Wan. The princess reminds Obi-Wan of his past service to her father in the Clone Wars, and conveys his plea to assist in the Rebellion against the Empire. She senses that her mission to bring Obi-Wan to Alderaan has failed, and tells Obi-Wan that she has embedded information crucial to the rebellion in R2's memory banks. She asks Obi-Wan to deliver the droid to her father on Alderaan so that the information can be retrieved, and repeats her plea that he is now her only hope.Obi-Wan cannot hope to undertake such a mission alone due to his advanced age, so he tells Luke that he should learn the ways of the Force and accompany him to Alderaan. Luke is adamant that he can't go, and that he must stay on Tatooine and help his uncle. Obi-Wan counters that the Rebellion needs Luke's help, and that the young woman in the message needs Luke's help (though she has not mentioned any personal request for help). They decide to go to the city of Anchorhead so that Obi-Wan can book a transport.Meanwhile, the Devastator has docked at the Death Star, a gargantuan space station resembling a small moon. Vader rendezvous with Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin (Peter Cushing), commander of the station and governor of the Imperial Outland Regions, and they enter a conference room where they meet the station's Command Triumvirate: Admiral Conan Motti (Richard LeParmentier), High General Cassio Tagge (Don Henderson), and Chief Officer Mordramin Bast (Leslie Schofield). As the Triumvirs argue about the best way to exploit their newest "technological terror", Tarkin tells them that the Emperor has decided to dissolve the Imperial Senate and use the Death Star to intimidate all of the Empire's star systems into submission, suggesting that fear of force is preferable to its actual use. Motti is extremely confident in the new space station, calling it 'the ultimate power in the universe'. However, Tagge is adamant that the Death Star is not invincible, and that the Rebels will figure this out if they have a chance to read its schematics. Vader tells them that the ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force. Motti callously mocks Vader's Jedi heritage, noting that the Force has not helped him recover the stolen schematics or pinpoint the Rebellion's headquarters. Angered, Vader uses the Force to strangle Motti, until Tarkin orders him to stand down. The commanders decide to focus on interrogating Leia until she gives up the location of the Rebel Headquarters. They will then use the Death Star to destroy it, killing two birds with one stone.As Luke and his companions travel to Anchorhead, they find the Jawa sandcrawler, completely destroyed with all the Jawas slaughtered; although they appear to be victims of the Sand People, Obi-Wan recognizes signs which indicate an attack by Imperial stormtroopers. Luke realizes that the only reason Imperial troops would kill Jawas is because they are looking for the droids which escaped the battle, and he races home, over Obi-Wan's objections that he is likely endangering his own life, hoping to warn Owen and Beru.He is too late. The Imperials have apparently come and gone, burned the homestead, and killed his aunt and uncle. Luke returns to Obi-Wan (who has used the opportunity afforded by Luke's trip to accord the massacred Jawas some measure of dignity), saying that with no reason to remain, he wants to go with him to Alderaan. More importantly, he declares his wish to learn the ways of the Force and become a Jedi.Luke and Obi-Wan travel to the Tatooine capital of Mos Eisley, a large spaceport (and hotbed to crime and near-lawlessness) with the two droids to find transport to Alderaan. Upon entering the spaceport they are approached by Imperial troops at a roadblock asking questions about the two droids they have with them. Obi-Wan appears to induce a trance-like state in the lead guard, persuading him that these are not the droids they are looking for. When Luke is puzzled by the ease of their passage, Obi-Wan explains that the Force can have a strong influence on the weak-minded.At the Mos Eisley Cantina, Luke gets into a scuffle with two criminals who try to kill him. When one of the creatures pulls a gun on Kenobi, the old Jedi Knight defends himself with his lightsaber - slashing off the creature's gun arm before it can shoot. Moments later they meet smuggler Han Solo (Harrison Ford), captain of the Millennium Falcon, and his first mate, Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew), a 7-foot-tall, 200-year-old Wookiee. Upon learning that Obi-Wan and Luke are trying to avoid Imperial capture, Captain Solo gives his price as 10,000 credits for the trip. Luke balks at that price, stating that they could almost buy their own ship for that, but Han is dubious that they could fly it themselves. Obi-Wan tells Solo that they will pay him 2,000 credits now and 15,000 more once they reach Alderaan. Han agrees.After Luke and Obi-Wan leave, Han tells Chewbacca that 17,000 credits could really save his neck. As Chewbacca leaves to make pre-flight preparations, Han hangs back to take care of their bar tab, and is stopped by Greedo (Maria De Aragon and Paul Blake), a bounty hunter working for feared crimelord Jabba Desilijic Tiure. Jabba had hired Han to transport a shipment of glitterstim spice (an illegal narcotic), but Han had to dump the shipment due to an unexpected Imperial boarding. As Greedo points a blaster pistol at Solo and forces him toward a secluded section of the bar, Han insists that he has the 8,000 credits he needs to cover the loss. Greedo suggests that Solo pay him instead of Jabba (as a bribe not to turn him over to Jabba), forcing Han to admit that he doesn't actually have the money yet. Realizing that Greedo will either turn him over to Jabba or kill him for the bounty that Jabba has placed on him, Solo quietly removes his heavy pistol under the table, and when Greedo admits that he would just as soon see him dead as alive, Solo pre-emptively fires in self-defense and kills him.At the docking bay, Han is confronted by Jabba the Hutt and several other associates. Jabba expresses frustration over Greedo's death, and reminds Han of the nature of their business; he cannot "make any exceptions" to those who fail or cross him, lest he appear weak. Han insists that he will soon have enough money to pay off his debt, with interest, he just needs more time. Jabba reluctantly agrees, but warns Han that this is his last chance.Luke sells his speeder to raise money for their initial payment to Captain Solo. They head to the docking bay where the Millenium Falcon is being prepared for flight. Luke is somewhat perturbed to discover that the Falcon is a 60-year-old YT-1300 freighter, but Han assures him that he has made extensive modifications to ensure that she can run rings around any modern capital ship. Meanwhile, Imperial troops believe they are hot on the trail of the two droids when a local informant tells them the whereabouts of the fugitives after recognizing Luke and Obi-Wan.No sooner do Luke, Obi-Wan and the droids board the Millennium Falcon than the Imperial troops come running into the docking bay, hoping to arrest Luke and Obi-Wan and capture the droids. The troops fire at Solo and the Falcon, but the ship manages to escape. Once they clear the planet, they are immediately pursued by two huge Imperial star destroyers. Solo remarks that his passengers must be of particular interest to the Empire. They jump to light speed, escaping the Imperial ships.Princess Leia has been tortured and undergone a mind probe in order for the Imperials to extract the location of the Rebels' home base. They have found nothing. Tarkin, Vader, and Motti threaten to destroy the Princess's home planet of Alderaan if she won't reveal the Rebels' location. She reluctantly tells them that the Rebel base is on the planet Dantooine. Tarkin then orders his officers to proceed with Alderaan's destruction (which they do), noting that Dantooine is too remote to make an effective demonstration of the Death Star's power. But when Imperial ships scout Dantooine, they find that while there once was indeed a Rebel base there, it has by now been abandoned for some time. Outraged at Leia's successful trickery, Tarkin orders her scheduled for execution.On board the Millennium Falcon, Obi-Wan is training Luke in the ways of the Force when he is greatly disturbed by a tremor in the Force. He feels that millions of people have died in an instant amidst great suffering, though he doesn't know how. He decides to meditate on this further as Luke continues an exercise in allowing the Force to guide his reflexes. Han is not impressed, and explains that he does not believe in the Force. Luke, however, manages to use his lightsaber to deflect four laser bolts in a row from a remote droid -- all while wearing a helmet which covers his eyes.Luke realizes that he is learning how to sense the Force. One of the Falcon's signals informs them that they are approaching Alderaan, but upon exiting light speed, they find the Millennium Falcon is in an asteroid field instead of Alderaan's orbit. Han confirms that they are in the right location but that the planet is missing; Obi-Wan quietly states that the planet has been destroyed by the Empire, but Solo laughingly insists that all the Empire's ships combined wouldn't have enough firepower to destroy a planet. Moments later they are overflown by an Imperial Twin Ion Engine (TIE) snubfighter. Obi-Wan concludes it is too small for long range flight, so there must be an Imperial base nearby. As they chase after the fighter to keep it from notifying the Empire of their location, they see the fighter heading toward a small moon -- which turns out to be the Death Star. They are caught in the Death Star's tractor beam and, helpless to resist, are pulled aboard the station into a docking bay. Obi-Wan tells them that neither fighting or surrender are viable choices, but a third option is available to them.Imperial troops board the Falcon, but its crew are hiding in smuggling compartments below the floor. Vader orders scanning equipment to be brought aboard to look for life signs. While standing near the Falcon, he senses a presence he has not felt for some time. Vader leaves the hangar, pursued by the frustrating sense he is overlooking something of great importance.When two stormtroopers go aboard the Falcon to set up their scanning equipment, Luke and Solo shoot them both and steal their armor uniforms. The helmets conceal their identity and allow them to infiltrate a troop command center outside the docking port. Inside the command center, R2 plugs into the station computer system and discovers the location of the tractor beam generator. Obi-Wan sets out to shut down the generator so that the ship can leave. Luke wants to accompany him, but Obi-Wan orders Luke to stay, noting that Luke's destiny now splits paths from his own. Perhaps sensing that this is the last time he will see Luke in this reality, he tells Luke, "The Force will be with you... always."After Obi-Wan leaves, R2 discovers that the princess is being held prisoner on board the station. Luke suddenly takes the initiative, sparing no effort to convince Solo and Chewbacca to assist him in what is surely going to be a very risky rescue. Han, initially scared for his own neck, eventually agrees, but only after Luke suggests that a great monetary reward would surely follow her rescue. Luke and Han take Chewbacca "captive" and assume their trooper identities in order to infiltrate the prison block. In the prison block, the officer in command becomes suspcious of their arrival since he was not notified. As a result, Luke and Han's escorted "prisoner" escapes and a firefight erupts between the Imperials and Luke, Han, and Chewbacca. They manage to take out all the Imperials, but set off an alarm in the process. A squad of troops are sent to investigate. Han and Luke know they have only moments to find the princess's cell and escape.They find the princess, but the arriving troops cut off the only escape route. Leia shoots a hole in a garbage chute and tells everyone to dive in. They escape the Imperials, only to find themselves trapped in a large garbage compactor. To make matters worse, the compactor also houses a large, serpent-like creature -- the DiaNoga -- which manages to pull Luke under the murky, stagnant water in the compactor, almost drowning him. The creature inexplicably lets Luke go, but just as they catch their breath, the compactor activates, threatening to crush Han, Luke, Leia, and Chewbacca. Luke calls 3PO on the communicator and orders him to have R2 shut down all garbage compactors in the detention level. R2 complies just in time to save them.Meanwhile, Vader informs Tarkin that he senses through the Force that Kenobi is aboard the station. Tarkin is doubtful, but the discussion is soon interrupted by an emergency report -- Princess Leia has escaped! Vader tells a shocked and bewildered Tarkin the true explanation for Leia's impossible escape -- "Obi-Wan is here. The Force is with him." Sensing that Obi-Wan wishes a final showdown, Vader sets off to find him. Unbeknownst to anyone, Kenobi has deactivated the tractor beam generator.After their escape from the compactor, Luke and Han dispose of their stormtrooper armor, but keep the troopers' utility belts and weapons. On their way back to the ship they're cut off by more troops. They are split up, with Han and Chewbacca fighting together and Luke and Leia running on their own.After being cornered between a great air shaft and a group of troopers, Luke shoots a blast door's controls with his blaster, locking the troops on the other side of the door. Unfortunately, the blast also destroys the controls that extend the bridge across the air shaft. After a gunfight with stormtroopers on the other side of the shaft, Luke uses a cable from his freshly confiscated Imperial utility belt to swing himself and Leia safely across the gorge.Obi-Wan, on his way back to the Falcon, encounters Vader. They exchange barbed comments, with Vader boasting to his former master that he is now so much more experienced and powerful than he was the last time they met, that the tables have now turned, with Vader the senior of the two, and Obi-Wan replying that Vader's turn to evil has made him oblivious to the Force's true power. A ferocious lightsaber duel ensues.Luke, Leia, Han and Chewbacca meet at the entrance to the docking bay. The lightsaber duel on the other side of the bay distracts the troops guarding the ship, allowing the four of them, along with R2 and 3PO, to sneak across to board the Falcon. As Kenobi and Vader continue dueling, Kenobi informs Vader that if Vader strikes him down, he shall become even more powerful, beyond what Vader could possibly imagine. Kenobi, seeing that the four heroes and two droids are safely boarding the Falcon, takes one last look from his comrade's son to the man who betrayed him, and smilingly withdraws his saber, allowing Vader to slice through him. His body instantly disappears. Vader is stunned and confused by this, as he determines that no one is in Kenobi's now-empty cloak on the floor. Luke, appalled by the sight of his mentor being struck down by Vader, lets out a shout of horror, alerting all of the troops to their presence. Another firefight immediately erupts, and they barely make it aboard the ship with their lives, but Luke stays behind, attempting to shoot every Imperial soldier in the hangar, despite his friends urging him to join them on the ship so they can escape. Finally, he relents, hearing Obi-Wan's voice telling him to run, as Vader catches a glimpse of him through a rapidly closing set of blast doors. When the Falcon flies out of the docking bay, the Imperials are unable to activate the tractor beam, thanks to Kenobi.Having blasted their way out of the station's defense range, they are confronted by four Imperial TIE fighters. Luke and Han man two large gun turrets on the top and bottom of the Falcon and manage to destroy all four ships. Han starts to boast to Leia about his amazing abilities during her rescue. She insists that the Empire let them escape in order to track them to the Rebel base. Han is doubtful of that as she explains to Han that R2 is carrying the technical readouts to the Death Star. She has high hopes that when the data is analyzed, a weakness can be found in the station.Back aboard the station, Leia's fears are confirmed as Vader and Tarkin discuss their plan to track the Falcon to the hidden Rebel base. The Falcon makes it to the base, located on the fourth moon of the gas giant Yavin Prime. After R2's data is analyzed, it is determined that the Death Star does indeed have a weakness that can be exploited; a small exhaust port not protected by a particle shield, through which a well-placed proton torpedo could reach the main reactor and destroy the station. The port is situated in a narrow trench protected by General ARea Defense Integration Anti-spacecraft Network (GARDIAN) turbo-lasers. The Rebel commander, General Dodonna (Alex McCrindle), theorizes that since the GARDIAN array is designed to repel large scale assaults from capital ships, it could easily be outmaneuvered by smaller and faster snubfighters. A plan is devised, where a squadron of Y-Wing assault bombers (Gold Squadron, led by Captain Jon "Dutch" Vander (Angus MacInnes)), will skim the trench. A second squadron (Red Squadron, commanded by Captain Garven Dreis (Drewe Henley)) comprised of the faster, more maneuverable X-Wing snubfighters, will attempt to draw enemy fire away from the bombers. Luke will be flying one of the X-Wings, under the callsign Red Five. Fellow pilot Wedge Antilles (Denis Lawson) is skeptical about succeeding, but Luke is confident that the task can be accomplished, noting that he used to shoot at animal targets on Tatooine which were not much bigger than two meters.The Rebels set out to attack the Death Star just as the station enters the Yavin system. The Death Star will have to orbit to Yavin's far side in order to have a shot at the moon on which the base is located. The approximately 30 Rebel fighters have less than 30 minutes to fly to the station and destroy it.As Luke heads to the hanger, he is reunited with Biggs Darklighter (Garrick Hagon), who used to fly with Luke on Tatooine. Biggs congratulates Luke for finally making it off Tatooine, and tells that the coming battle will be just like old times.Having apparently collected the balance of his 17,000 credits payment for delivering the plans to the Rebellion (plus some unspecified reward for helping Leia escape from the Death Star), Han refuses to join the fight, stating that his reward will be useless if he is killed, and that he would rather take his money and go pay off his debts. Luke is disappointed, but boards his fighter and takes off, right after R2 is loaded into the rear of the fighter for technical assistance. Upon departure, he hears what sounds like Obi-Wan's voice speaking to him, saying "The Force will be with you." He quickly dismisses it.Both squadrons approach the Death Star briefly marveling at its size. Red Squadron initiates a strafing run on the station's surface to divert attention away from the bombers. Vader is informed that the GARDIAN turbo-lasers are having trouble targeting the small rebel ships, so he orders Black Squadron, an elite TIE fighter squadron, to engage the X-Wings individually. In short order, six TIE fighters join the battle, and Red Squadron scrambles to keep them away from the trenches. However, as Dutch and his wingmen commence their trench run, Vader takes notice, and recruits two Black Squadron pilots, Mauler and Backstabber, to escort him as he boards a TIE Advanced x1 fighter to engage the bombers. Vader easily outmaneuvers the Y-Wings, methodically dispatching them one by one. Dutch panics and aborts his run, before he himself is destroyed.With Gold Squadron effectively wiped out, Garven orders the surviving X-Wing pilots to start a second attack run down the trench. As they approach the exhaust port, Garven turns on his targeting computer as two other ships cover his tail from enemy fire. The escorting ships are destroyed, but they buy enough time for Garven to take a shot at the exhaust port. His shot misses. Moments later he loses an engine to Vader's gunnery and his fighter spirals into the surface of the station.Now nominally in charge of Red Squadron, Luke decides that it is now his responsibility to try to destroy the port. R2 is preoccupied trying to keep the ship running, despite all of the damage they are sustaining. With Biggs and Wedge flying his wing, they start down the trench. Moments later, they are pursued by Vader and his wingmen, who partially disable Wedge's ship. Luke tells Wedge to head home, seeing that he can't be of any help in a crippled ship. Vader allows Wedge to withdraw, ordering his men to continue to pursue the two ships in the trench. Vader fires again, hitting Biggs' ship and destroying it. Luke is grieved by the loss of his friend, but presses on.As Luke gets closer to his target, he hears the voice of Obi-Wan, repeatedly telling him to "use the Force" and rely on his instincts more than the technology in his ship. Luke switches off his targeting computer and continues flying down the trench. When asked by Mission Control why he switched off the computer, Luke responds that nothing is wrong.Meanwhile, the Death Star has completed its run around Yavin and is now cleared to fire on the Rebel moon. The countdown for the firing sequence begins. Bast tells Tarkin that he has analyzed the attack, and concludes there is a real threat to the station. Tarkin scoffs at evacuation and insists the Empire will prevail. He remains on the station while some of the Imperial officers and troops evacuate as a precaution.As Luke draws on the power of the Force to help him hit his target, Vader senses the strength of the Force in his prey. He takes a shot, which misses the ship but hits R2-D2. Just as he locks on to Luke's ship to finish him off, Backstabber's ship explodes unexpectedly. Out of nowhere appears the Millennium Falcon, which has just destroyed the Imperial fighter - diving vertically down towards Vader and the remaining wingman. This sudden turn of events distracts Mauler just long enough for him to lose control of his ship and crash into Vader's. This sends Mauler's ship ricochetting into the trench wall, destroying it, and sends Vader's ship spinning out of control, up and away from the Death Star.Han informs Luke that he is all clear to fire. Luke, having drawn upon the power of the Force, releases his proton torpedoes, which enter the exhaust port perfectly. Luke, the Falcon and a few other fighters race away from the Death Star, just as the Death Star prepares to fire on the moon. Only seconds before the station fires, it explodes into a huge fireball, sending millions of fragments into space. Tarkin, Motti, Tagge, and most of the senior Imperial staff are killed.Vader, having been thrown into space during his collision with the wingman, is now apparently the only one to have escaped the station's destruction. He eventually manages to regain control of his wildly gyrating fighter, and when he finally stabilizes, he flies off to meet the Imperial Fleet as the Rebels head home to their base. Upon reaching the base, Luke is thrilled to see that Han returned to help him out. Leia is thrilled to see both of her friends alive. And everyone is ecstatic that the Death Star has been destroyed. Their celebration is briefly interrupted as R2 is pulled from Luke's ship. He is heavily damaged from Vader's gunfire, and does not respond to C-3PO. The golden robot is terribly concerned, but Luke and two mechanics assure him that R2 is repairable and will be fine.Later, an awards ceremony is held in a huge hall. Hundreds of Rebel soldiers, officers, and pilots are present. A door at the rear of the hall opens to reveal Luke, Han, and Chewbacca. They walk down the aisle to where Leia awaits, along with several Rebel leaders and dignitaries.Also present are a freshly polished C-3PO and a freshly overhauled and looking better-than-new R2-D2. Upon reaching the front of the great hall, Luke and Han are awarded medals for bravery by a smiling Princess Leia. The hall erupts into thunderous applause.


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In a forested area overlooking a sprawling suburban neighborhood, an alien spacecraft has landed. The creatures aboard have come to observe and collect specimens. One of them wanders some distance away, when strange lights and sounds cause him to hide. The group of men are led by one who has a jingling set of keys attached to a belt loop. Scared, the creature takes of running, with the men in pursuit. The creature attempts to get back to his spaceship, but it leaves without him. Eventually, it makes its way down an embankment into the suburban housing development below.In one house, a young boy named Elliot is sent out to pick up a pizza being delivered for his brother Michael and his friends. Elliot is about to return inside when a strange noise in the backyard catches his ears. Elliot traces the noise to a gardening shed in the backyard. Elliot throws a baseball into the shed, and is scared when something in the shed throws it back out. Elliot rushes inside to tell everyone, and they all come out to investigate, but find nothing in the shed, except for some strange prints, which Michael assumes must belong to some type of coyote from the nearby woods.Later that evening, Elliot hears some noise outside in the backyard, and goes outside. He encounters a strange creature that scares the both of them. The creature quickly leaves the backyard and through a nearby gate that leads into the woods.The next day, Elliot goes out on his bike to the forest, taking a bag of Reese Pieces with him, hoping to find the creature he saw. He soon sees the man with the keys on his belt loop, and quickly leaves the forested area.That evening, Elliot gets into an argument with his family, when it seems that noone will believe him. Elliot claims that his Dad would believe him. As their Mother has just been through a messy divorce, this causes her feelings to be hurt, with Michael angrily chastising his brother for being cruel.Later that evening, Elliot stays outside, where this time, the creature comes right up to him, and returns some of the Reeses Pieces that were in the forest. Elliot then lures the creature into the house and up to his room. When he finally sees the creature in full, it is a strange brown-colored being that is like nothing he's ever seen before.Elliot fakes having a fever the next day to stay home from school. During the day, he acclimates himself to the creature, and tells him his name, as well as shows him different things around the house. Later that evening, Elliot shows the creature to Michael and their younger sister Gertie, who both promise not to tell anyone about him.They soon surmise that this thing must in some way be an alien, and get him to try and explain where he's from. Instead, the creature displays its powers, which cause several spheres to levitate and rotate like the planets in the solar system. Gertie also gives the alien a potted plant with dying flowers,which the alien revives.Elliot has the creature hide in his closet the next day, as everyone heads off to school. While everyone is away, the alien gets out and into the fridge, raiding the food and drinking several beers, before watching TV. Unknown to Elliot, the alien has formed a mental bond with him, and these feelings carry on over to his Science Class, where Elliot finds himself setting loose a number of frogs for a dissection project, as well as kissing a girl in class.After Elliot returns home that evening, he finds that Gertie has helped teach the alien to talk, and Elliot then decides to name the alien E.T. E.T. then attempts to explain that he intends to build a machine to communicate with his home planet, so they can come to get him.Later that evening, Elliot and Michael go through the garage looking for items to use. Michael notes that E.T. doesn't look so good, to which Elliot explains that "they are fine." Unknown to the two of them, a van monitoring outside has picked up their conversation.On Halloween, Elliot and Michael dress E.T. up in a sheet, pretending to their Mother that it is Gertie dressed up as a ghost. Gertie has already left with Elliot's bicycle, and gone to a specific point above the suburban area. Once the three meet her there, Gertie trades places with E.T., as both Elliot and E.T. head off to assemble and use the communications machine he has assembled.Elliot wakes up the next day in the woods, with no sign of E.T. He returns home where his Mother has been afraid something had happened to him. Elliot pleads with Michael to find E.T. Michael first goes to the forest, but eventually finds E.T. barely breathing near a storm drain.Getting him home, Michael and the others show E.T. to their mother. E.T. has taken on a pasty look, and is shallowly breathing. Elliot explains that both he and E.T. are sick and perhaps dying. Their Mother demands they leave E.T. and get out of the house immediately, but they are soon set upon by persons in space suits, and then government men who quickly seal off the house and set up a medical unit to examine and help Elliot and E.T.It is here that the man with the keys on his belt loop (who we will call "Keys") returns to the picture. Keys explains to Elliot that they have found the machine in the forest, and wants to know how to save E.T.. Elliot explains that E.T. needs to go home, but as they talk, E.T. soon detaches himself from Elliot, and finally succumbs to the illness. Michael realizes this when the plants E.T. had revived begin to wilt and die.The medical team attempts to revive E.T., but he eventually dies. Before they take E.T. away, Keys allows Elliot some time alone with E.T.. Elliot then explains that E.T. must be dead, because he can't feel anything anymore. Elliot then tells E.T. that he loves him, and turns away. As he does so, he sees the flowers that were dying before are returning to life. Elliot goes back to the container where E.T. is, and finds him alive, and explains that his planet's people will be returning to get him. Elliot manages to hide the fact that E.T. is alive, and then hatches a plan with Michael to get him to the forest.Michael has his friends take Elliot's bike and theirs to a playground at the top of a nearby hill. Meanwhile, Michael and Elliot steal the van with E.T.'s container, and make their way to the playground. Meeting Michael's friends there, they then take E.T. and head for the forest. The government agents then give chase before E.T. causes the bicycles to fly, sending the boys to the forest.As they land, and night settles, E.T.'s ship lands. Elliot's mother and Gertie show up shortly afterward, and Gertie and Michael say their goodbyes, before it's Elliot's turn. E.T. asks Elliot to come with him, but Elliot says he has to stay. E.T. gives his new friend a hug, and then lights his finger and points it at Elliot's head, telling Elliot that he'll "be right here."Gertie gives E.T. the plant she initially gave him, and he goes into the enormous ship, which soon lifts off leaving a rainbow behind, as everyone stares off into the sky.

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To Richard Strauss' tone poem "Thus Spake Zarathustra," the title sequence shows the sun rising behind the Earth, which is behind the moon.Title: The Dawn of ManIn a sere African landscape, a group of ape-like hominids and some tapirs compete for the meagre green plants. A leopard attacks an ape. While one group of apes is drinking at a waterhole, another group approaches; the two groups scream at each other and one party is driven off. At night the apes huddle in fear among the rocks. In the morning a tall, thin, rectangular black monolith stands among the rocks. The apes are excited but touch the object and calm down. (Soundtrack: Gyrgy Ligeti's "Requiem.")An ape (Daniel Richter) lifts a femur bone from a skeletal pile and realizes it makes a fine weapon. (Soundtrack: "Thus Spake Zarathustra" again.) The ape realizes that it can destroy other bones with the club. Three turning points in evolution happen simultaneously: proto-humans learn to kill with weapons, to hunt using weapons and eat meat, and to walk upright. Club-carrying apes approach the group that drove them away from their waterhole. The club-carriers bludgeon the other group's alpha male to death and chase off the rest. The victorious alpha male throws his club and it spins into the air.TMA-1, or the Monolith on the Moon (there's no title card introducing this section of the film)The spinning bone segues instantly to spaceships above Earth. A Pan-Am space shuttle approaches a large spinning space station, its revolutions mirroring those of the ape's spinning bone. As a single passenger dozes in his seat, a flight attendant with Velcro shoes recovers his floating pen. The shuttle pilots carefully match rotation and steer the shuttle into the station's central docking bay. (Soundtrack: Johann Strauss' Blue Danube waltz.)Dr. Heywood Floyd (William Sylvester) meets an old friend in the Arrivals lounge. They go through a voiceprint security check in which Floyd identifies his destination: the moon. The men chat; Dr. Floyd has a connecting flight in one hour. Floyd calls home from a video payphone booth and talks to his young daughter (Vivian Kubrick), whose birthday is the next day. He's sorry he'll miss her party but asks her what sort of present she wants; she asks for a bush-baby. The cost of the call is $1.70.In the Hilton lounge, Floyd stops to chat with some Russian scientists on their way back to Earth. When Floyd mentions he is going to Clavius, the Russians say no one has had contact with Clavius for 10 days and there are rumors of an epidemic. Floyd says he cannot discuss the matter and goes on his way.A smaller spaceship approaches the moon. A flight attendant serves food trays that consist of many compartments of liquid nourishment labeled with pictures -- carrots, peas, and so on. Floyd sips his meal, talks briefly with one of the flight officers, then contemplates the long list of instructions for the zero-G toilet. He watches the moon approach. The craft lands in a domed landing pad then descends underground to the main complex, once again to Johann Strauss' stately Viennese waltz.Floyd is introduced to a group of people in a conference room. He congratulates them on their discovery. He tries to explain the need for secrecy and the epidemic cover story. Floyd has come to get more facts and write a report for "the Council."A shuttle skims over the lunar landscape. Inside, Floyd and two scientists enjoy sandwiches and review the findings. A magnetic object was found and excavated. They're not sure what it is, only that it was deliberately buried four million years ago.At the dig site, a tall, thin, black rectangular monolith -- identical to the one the apes encountered -- is examined by six people in spacesuits. (Soundtrack: Gyrgy Ligeti's "Requiem" again.) As they pose for a photo the object emits a loud, high-pitched noise and the astronauts grab their heads in pain.Title: Jupiter Mission 18 Months LaterA long narrow spacecraft moves through space, its parabolic antennae pointing backwards. In the crew compartment, Dr. Frank Poole (Gary Lockwood) jogs around the artificial gravity wheel. Along the narrow corridor formed by the edge of the wheel, he runs past work stations, communications equipment, and five large, coffin-like life support chambers with glass covers. Two are unoccupied and three hold white, sarcophagus-shaped pods containing hibernating members of the crew.Frank is joined by Commander Dave Bowman (Keir Dullea). The two men have a meal and watch a BBC news video from earlier that day. The news report is about them and their ship, the Discovery, 80 million miles from Earth. The report mentions the three astronauts who are in hibernation to save air and food; they will be needed at the destination for a survey. The sixth member of the crew is the HAL9000 computer, which can talk and mimic the human brain. The newscaster interviews Dave and Frank together and then speaks to Hal (Douglas Rain), who states he is foolproof and incapable of error.Frank catches some UV rays on a tanning bed and watches a video birthday greeting from his parents. Hal also wishes Frank a happy birthday. Frank and Hal play chess -- Hal wins. Dave sketches and shows his artwork to Hal. The computer expresses some concern about the mission and secrecy. Hal then announces there is a problem with the AE-35 unit and it will fail with 100% certainty within 72 hours. Dave and Frank discuss the problem with Mission Control; they need to "go EVA" (outside the ship -- extra-vehicular activity) to replace the unit. Dave goes out in a spherical EVA pod to the parabolic dish antennae in the center of the long ship. He leaves the pod and swaps out the black box from a service panel.Later the two astronauts scan the removed AE-35 unit but can't find any defects. Hal suggests putting it back in service to let it fail. Mission Control believes Hal has made an error because their HAL9000 unit, a twin to the one aboard Discovery, finds no flaw in the AE-35. Hal says that similar problems in the past have always proved not to be his fault ("It can only be attributable to human error") and denies any chance of computer error. Dave and Frank go to a pod to have a private chat under the ruse of looking at a communications problem.Dave turns off all the pod's communications switches and the two men share their worries about Hal. If the AE-35 unit doesn't fail as predicted, the astronauts decide to disable Hal's higher functions without disturbing the automatic ship control functions, which Dave says will be tricky to do. Dave also wonders how Hal will react, because no 9000 unit has ever been disconnected before. Hal can see the men through the pod's window and reads their lips.This time Poole goes out in the EVA pod. As Frank approaches the dish assembly the pod sneaks up behind him. Suddenly Frank is spinning off into space fumbling for his air hose, which is disconnected, and the pod is drifting in the other direction. As Frank tumbles away, his voluntary movements slow and stop. Dave goes to the pod bay as Hal says he doesn't know what happened. Dave uses a pod to recover Frank's body. While he's away, a computer malfunction alert goes off and the life signs of the three hibernating astronauts flat-line. A display reads "Life functions terminated." Hal refuses to open the pod bay doors for Dave, explaining that he knows Dave is planning to disconnect him because he was able to read Frank and Dave's lips when they discussed it. He says the mission is too important to allow humans to jeopardize it. Dave says he'll return to the ship through the airlock; Hal replies that Dave will find that difficult without his helmet -- which, indeed, Dave forgot in his hurry to go after Frank. Hal ends the conversation.Dave releases Frank's body and maneuvers the pod to the emergency airlock hatch. He uses the pod's arms to open the door, then lines up the pod's hatch with the opening. Dave holds his breath and jumps over to the ship, where he's tossed around by escaping air before he's able to close the hatch. Now in a helmet, Dave goes to the computer room and climbs into an access compartment. Hal pleads for himself as Dave pulls crystals from the memory center. Hal's voice gets lower and slower as he sings "Daisy Bell" (Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do, I'm half crazy all for the love of you), and fades out as he is completely shut down. (Hal's performance is a nod to a speech synthesis project at Bell Laboratories in which an IBM 704 was programmed to sing the same song.) Suddenly a video screen comes on and plays a recording of Dr. Floyd explaining the secret purpose of the mission: "This is a prerecorded briefing made prior to your departure and which for security reasons of the highest importance has been known on board during the mission only by your HAL9000 computer. Now that you are in Jupiter's space and the entire crew is revived it can be told to you. Eighteen months ago, the first evidence of intelligent life off the Earth was discovered. It was buried 40 feet below the lunar surface near the crater Tycho. Except for a single very powerful radio emission aimed at Jupiter, the four-million-year-old black monolith has remained completely inert. Its origin and purpose are still a total mystery."Title: Jupiter and Beyond the InfiniteClose to Jupiter, another black monolith floats among the many moons. We hear Gyrgy Ligeti's "Requiem" once again. Bowman leaves the Discovery in another EVA pod. As the monolith and moons align, a psychedelic light show begins and the pod enters a wormhole to the music of Ligeti's "Atmosphres." Dave sees a series of oddly-colored landscapes as if he was flying over them. The pod ends up somewhere in time and space in a bedroom with a luminous white floor and furniture in the style of Louis XVI. Dave gets out, now a trembling grey-haired man. Next door in a similarly styled bathroom, Dave looks at himself in a mirror. Back in the bedroom someone is sitting at a table eating. It's Dave again, now much older and dressed in a dark velour robe. Old Dave has a drink of wine; the glass falls to the floor and breaks. Another man lies sleeping on the bed. It is a still older Dave, who stirs and raises an arm. The black monolith appears in the center of the room. Dave is transformed into a fetus in a sac. Floating in space, the large open-eyed fetus -- the Star Child -- gazes at the nearby Earth. Soundtrack: "Thus Spake Zarathustra."

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Promising FBI Academy student Clarice Starling is pulled from her training at the FBI Training Facility at Quantico, Virginia by Jack Crawford of the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit, who tasks her with presenting a VICAP questionnaire to the notorious Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant forensic psychiatrist and incarcerated cannibalistic serial murderer. After learning the assignment relates to the pursuit of vicious serial killer Buffalo Bill, Starling travels to the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane and is led by Dr. Frederick Chilton to Hannibal Lecter, a sophisticated, cultured man restrained behind thick glass panels and windowless stone walls. Although initially pleasant and courteous, Lecter grows impatient with Starling's attempts at "dissecting" him and viciously rebuffs her. As Starling departs, another patient flings fresh semen onto her face, enraging Lecter who calls Starling back and offers a riddle containing information about a former patient. The solved riddle leads to a rent-a-storage lot where the severed head of Benjamin Raspail is found. Starling returns to Lecter, who links Raspail to Buffalo Bill and who offers to help profile Buffalo Bill if he is transferred to a facility far from the venomous, careerist Dr. Chilton.Hours and miles away, Buffalo Bill abducts Catherine Martin, the daughter of United States Senator Ruth Martin. Starling is pulled from Quantico and accompanies Crawford to West Virginia, where the body of Bill's recently-discovered victim resides, and where Starling helps perform the autopsy and extracts the chrysalis of a Death's-head Hawkmoth from the victim's throat. At Quantico, as news of Catherine Martin's abduction sweeps the country, Crawford authorizes Starling to offer Hannibal Lecter a fake deal promising a prison transfer if he provides information that helps profile Buffalo Bill and rescue Catherine Martin. Instead, Lecter begins a game of quid pro quo with Starling, offering comprehensive clues and insights about Buffalo Bill in exchange for events from Starling's traumatic childhood. Unaware to both Starling and Lecter, Dr. Frederick Chilton tapes the conversation and after revealing Starling's deal as a sham, offers to transfer Lecter in exchange for a deal of his own making. Lecter agrees and following a flight to Tennessee reveals Buffalo Bill's real name, physical description and past address to Senator Martin and her entourage of FBI agents and Justice Department officials.As the manhunt begins, Starling travels to Lecter's special cell in a local Tennessee courthouse, where she confronts him about the false information he gave the Senator. Lecter refuses Starling's pleas and demands she finish her story surrounding her worst childhood memory. After recounting her arrival at a relative's farm, the horror of discovering their lamb slaughterhouse and her fruitless attempts at rescuing the lambs, Lecter rebuffs her, leaving her with her case file before she is escorted out of the building by security guards. Later that evening, Lecter escapes from his cell. The local police storm the floor, discovering one guard barely alive and the other disemboweled and strung up on the walls. Paramedics transport the survivor to an ambulance and speed off while a SWAT team searches the building for Lecter. As the team discover a body in the elevator shaft, the survivor in the ambulance peels off his own face, revealing Lecter in disguise, who kills the paramedics and escapes to the airport.After notified of Lecter's escape, Starling pores over her case file, analyzing Lecter's annotations before realizing that the first victim, Frederica Bimmel, knew Bill in real life before he killed her. Starling travels to Bimmel's hometown and discovers that Bimmel was a tailor and has dresses with templates identical to the patches of skin removed from Buffalo Bill's victims. Realizing that Buffalo Bill is a tailor fashioning a "woman suit" of real skin, she telephones Crawford, who is already on the way to make an arrest, having cross-referenced Lecter's notes with Johns Hopkins Hospital and finding a man named Jame Gumb. Crawford instructs Starling to continue interviewing Bimmel's friends while he leads a SWAT team to Gumb's business address in Calumet City, Illinois. Starling's interviews lead to the house of "Jack Gordon", who Starling soon realizes is actually Gumb, and draws her weapon just as Gumb disappears into his basement. Starling pursues him, discovering a screaming Catherine Martin in the dry well just before the lights in the basement go out, leaving her in complete darkness. Gumb stalks Starling in the dark with night vision goggles and prepares to shoot her when Starling, hearing the machinations of his revolver, swivels around shoots Gumb dead.Days later at the FBI Academy graduation party, Starling receives a phone call from Hannibal Lecter, now in the Bahamas. As Lecter assures Starling he has no plans to pursue her, he excuses himself from the phone call, remarking that he's "having an old friend for dinner", before hanging up and following Chilton through the streets of the village.


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Set in 1937 Los Angeles, a private investigator named Jake "J.J." Gittes (Nicholson) is hired to spy on Hollis Mulwray, the chief engineer for the city's water department. The woman hiring Gittes claims to be Evelyn Mulwray, Hollis' wife. Mr. Mulwray spends most of his time investigating dry riverbeds and water runoff outlets. Mr. Mulwray also has a heated argument with an elderly man on the street. Gittes finally catches Mulwray during an outing with a young blonde and photographs the pair, which becomes a scandal in the press. After the story is published, Gittes learns that the woman who hired him was not the real Evelyn Mulwray. Evelyn later visits Jake's office and threatens to sue him for defamation. (Her image of Gittes is not helped when he tells a dirty joke that she overhears.)Clues suggest a scandal in the city government: despite a serious drought and an expensive proposal to build a new dam, the Water and Power department is dumping fresh water into the ocean at night. The dam project is opposed by Mulwray himself, who cites a potential disaster because of weak geological formations in the rock where the dam is to be constructed -- Mulwray had previously supported the building of another dam that had failed due to similar geological conditions. While he addresses a public hearing on the project, that Gittes himself attends, he is ridiculed by several farmers in attendance, who need the reservoir and water the dam will create.Jake goes to Mulwray's mansion to speak to him but is only able to talk to Evelyn. While he waits for her, Mulwray's Japanese gardener works in one of the small decorative pools. He casually says "bad for the glass" in broken English, a comment that Jake dismisses. Jake notices a shiny object in the pool and tries to retrieve it, stopping when Evelyn appears. She tells him that Hollis usually takes afternoon walks at a reservoir and that she should look for him there.Gittes looks for Hollis at the reservoir but finds the police there instead, hauling his body out of the water & investigating Mulwray's death from drowning. The lead investigator is Lt. Lou Escobar, a man Jake worked with while he was a cop himself. When the police speak to Mrs. Mulwray about the death, they assume she hired Gittes, which Gittes corroborates. She thanks him and hires him to investigate what happened to her husband. Later, at the county coroner's department, Gittes talks to the coroner himself and finds out that Mulwray lungs were filled with salt water, despite his being found in a freshwater reservoir. Gittes is also told that a local drunk was found dead in a dry riverbed that Mulwray was inspecting, having also drowned.Later that night, while sneaking into the reservoir's secured area, Gittes is confronted by water department security; a large man named Claude Mulvihill and a short thug (a cameo by Polanski), who slashes Jake's nose for being a "very nosy fella." Gittes, forced to wear a large & ridiculous bandage on his face, receives a call from Ida Sessions, the woman who impersonated Mrs. Mulwray, who admits she was hired to trick Gittes. She refuses to come to Gittes' office to speak about the incident but suggests that Gittes look at that day's obituary column. At the water department, Gittes notices photographs of the elderly man Mulwray quarreled with a few days before his death, identifying him as Noah Cross (Huston). Cross, who is Evelyn Mulwray's father, used to own the water department as Mulwray's business partner. Cross ended his association with the department when the partners sold it to the city, a long-standing desire of Hollis'.Cross invites Jake to lunch at his home and hires Jake to find the blond girl Hollis had been seeing, saying that she might know what happened to him. Gittes goes to the Hall of Records and looks in a large plat book, finding that new names of people who have purchased large tracts of land. When the attendant in the room refuses to let Jake borrow the book, Jake surreptitiously tears the column out of the book and pockets it. Acting on a further hint from Sessions, Gittes begins to unravel an intricate scandal involving LA's fresh water supply. Gittes first travels to an orange farm to talk with the owner about how his land is being irrigated. As he drives around he is shot at by the farmer and a few of his farmhands and crashes his car into a tree. Jake is dragged from his car, beaten and searched. The farmer explains that the Department of Water has been harassing him by sending agents to run him off his land and poison the water in his wells. While he tries to show the farmer documentation of his investigation, the farmhands claim that Mulwray is responsible for harassment of late and attack Jake. When Jake tries to fight back, he's knocked unconscious. He wakes up to find that the farmer and his wife have called Evelyn, who has come to the farm.While they drive back to LA, Jake explains the scandal to her: her father and his partners have been forcing farmers in the rural areas surrounding the city off of their land so they can buy it cheap, after which a newly-built (and controversial) dam and water system would start redirecting much of L.A.'s water supply to that land, dramatically increasing its real estate potential & value.Since Cross wants no record of such transactions, he has partnered with a retirement home community, using the identities of the eldest residents within (one of whom is mentioned in the obituary column): they would legally, but unknowingly, own the land. Jake, having matched one of the obituary names to one of the names in the list he stole from the plat book, has Evelyn drive him to the retirement home and pose as a married couple trying to find a place for Jake's father to live. The host tells them they can tour the facility. They come across an activities board with the names of the people from the plat book. Jake talks to a group of women working on a quilt. One of the pieces of fabric they've sewn into the quilt bears the emblem of the Albacore Club, the yacht club owned by Noah Cross. Jake is confronted by the host who has figured out Jake's ruse. The man takes him out to the lobby where Mulvihill is waiting. Jake tells Evelyn to bring the car around and then severely beats Mulvihill and barely escapes when the short thug who slashed his nose shows up.Back at Evelyn's house, Gittes and Evelyn share a romantic interlude. As they lie on the bed afterward, Evelyn asks Jake about his past as a cop. He tells her he worked in Chinatown and was responsible for a woman "being hurt", possibly killed because of his actions. The phone rings and Evelyn has a cryptic conversation with someone, then informs Jake that she has to leave for a little while. She gravely asks him to trust her.Gittes takes Hollis' car and follows Evelyn to a middle-class house and sees Mulwray's girlfriend crying. Evelyn claims the young woman is her sister, who was crying because she had just learned about Hollis' death in the newspaper. Later that night, Jake receives a call at home from a detective named Loach, Escobar's partner, telling him to meet him at a specific address. When he gets there he finds that Ida Sessions is murdered and Escobar and Loach are waiting for him. When Jake asks how they knew to call him Escobar shows Jake his phone number written near the phone. Escobar also points out that he knows the coroner's report proves that salt water was found in Mulwray's lungs even though the body was found in a freshwater reservoir, a fact that Jake had discovered earlier but withheld. He demands that Jake turn over any incriminating photos that may reveal Mulwray's murderer's identity. Escobar's chief suspect is Evelyn herself.Under pressure from Escobar threatening to revoke his PI's license, Jake returns to Evelyn's mansion looking for her. Evelyn's Japanese gardener is working in the backyard and drops a minor comment about "salt water being bad for the grass". Jake has the man fish out the shiny object he'd noticed in the pool before: it's a pair of eyeglasses.Gittes confronts Evelyn at the small house where she'd been keeping the young girl. Evelyn reveals that the blond girl, Katherine, is both her sister and her daughter, born from an incestuous relationship she had with her father years before. Gittes asks Evelyn if her father raped her and she shakes her head no. It remains unclear whether the act was consensual or not. It is apparent also that Evelyn resents her father for taking advantage of her in a relationship considered unnatural. Gittes then chooses to help Evelyn escape. Evelyn also states that the eyeglasses Jake found in her back yard pond could not have been her husband's because they are bifocals. Gittes arranges for the two women to flee to Mexico on a fishing boat owned by another of Jake's clients and instructs Evelyn to meet him at her butler's address in Chinatown. Evelyn leaves, and Cross arrives with Mulvihill under the pretext that Gittes has found the girl; however, Gittes confronts Cross with the accusation of murder and the glasses. Cross had Mulwray drowned in the saltwater pond at his own house and lost his own glasses in the pond during the act. Jake asks Cross about the water scandal; Cross tells him that he plans to create a community in the desert with an abundant fresh water supply. The real estate revenues from the sales of the land will generate many millions of dollars for him. Cross considers the plan a way of buying the future, essentially insuring that his family will reap the benefits from such a deal for many years. When Jake pointedly asks Cross about the relationship with his daughter, Cross confidently says "Most people never have to face the fact that, at the right time and the right place, they're capable of anything". Cross then orders Mulvihill to seize the glasses, the only physical evidence Jake has and forces Gittes to take him to the girl. When Gittes arrives at Evelyn's hiding place in Chinatown, the police are already there and arrest Gittes on conspiracy and withholding evidence. Jake vainly tries to explain Cross' plan to Escobar, who won't listen.Evelyn appears with her daughter, trying to drive away in her car. When Cross approaches Katherine, demanding custody of her, Evelyn pushes him back, shoots him in the arm with a small pistol and starts her car. As Evelyn is driving away, the police open fire and Evelyn is shot and killed. Cross clutches Katherine, taking her out of the car, as a devastated Gittes is comforted by his associates, who urge him to walk away: "Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown."The plot is based in part on real events that formed the California Water Wars, in which William Mulholland acted on behalf of Los Angeles interests to secure water rights in the Owens Valley.


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[this synopsis is primarily from the wikipedia article The_Bridge_on_the_River_Kwai]Two prisoners of war are burying a corpse in the graveyard of a Japanese World War II prison camp in southern Burma. One, American Navy Commander Shears (William Holden), routinely bribes guards to ensure he is put on the sick list, which allows him to avoid hard labour.A large contingent of British prisoners arrives, marching in defiantly whistling the Colonel Bogey March under the leadership of Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness). Because they were ordered by their superiors to surrender, Nicholson states that they should be obedient and cooperative prisoners. The Japanese camp commander, Colonel Saito (Sessue Hayakawa), addresses them, informing them of his rules. He insists that all prisoners, regardless of rank, will work on the construction of a bridge over the Kwai River as part of a railroad that will link all Burma.The next morning, when Saito orders everyone, including officers, to work, Nicholson commands his officers to stand fast. He points out that the Geneva Conventions state that captured officers are exempt from manual labour. Saito is infuriated and backhands Nicholson in the face, but the latter refuses to back down, even after Saito has a machine gun set up threatening to shoot all the officers. Saito is dissuaded from shooting by Major Clipton (James Donald), a British medical officer prisoner, citing an inquiry and scandal should Saito carry through with the murder of officers. Instead, the Japanese commander leaves Nicholson and his officers standing in the intense heat. As the day wears on, one of them collapses, but Nicholson and the rest are still standing defiantly at attention when the prisoners return from the day's work. After Colonel Nicholson is beaten in Saito's quarters, the British officers are sent into a punishment cage and Nicholson into his own box for solitary confinement.When Clipton requests to be allowed to check the officers, Saito agrees on the condition that Clipton persuade Nicholson to change his mind. Nicholson, however, refuses to budge, saying "if we give in now there'll be no end to it." In the meantime, construction of the railroad bridge falls far behind schedule, due in part to many "accidents" purposely arranged by the British prisoners.Saito has a deadline; if he should fail to meet it, it would bring him great shame and oblige him to commit seppuku (ritual suicide). Saito reluctantly releases Nicholson, telling him that he has proclaimed an "amnesty" to commemorate the anniversary of Japan's great victory in the Russo-Japanese War, using it as an excuse to exempt the officers from work. Upon their release, Nicholson and his officers proudly walk through a jubilant reception. Saito for his part breaks down in tears in private.Having recovered from his ordeal physically, but not mentally broken, Nicholson sets off on an inspection of the bridge and is shocked to find disorganization, shirking and outright sabotage on the construction site. He decides to build a better bridge than the Japanese soldiers. He orders Captain Reeves (Peter Williams) and Major Hughes (John Boxer) to come up with designs for a proper bridge, despite its military value to the Japanese. He wants to demonstrate to his captors what he considers superior British ingenuity and to also keep his men busy, which he feels would be better for morale than sitting around doing nothing in prison.Meanwhile, three men, one of them the American Shears, attempt to escape. Two are killed; Shears is shot, falls into the river and is swept downstream. After many days in the jungle, he stumbles into a Siamese village, whose residents help him recover and get back to safety. He's given food, water and an outrigger boat to make his way down the river. Shears runs out of water during the trip and is forced to drink the water from the river, which makes him ill. However, he makes it to the mouth of the river and is picked up by British forces and shipped to a British hospital in Colombo, Sri Lanka (at the time, Ceylon). While recuperating, he dallies with a lovely nurse (Ann Sears).Major Warden (Jack Hawkins), a member of the British Special Forces, asks to speak with him. He informs Shears that he is leading a small group of commandos on a mission to destroy the Kwai bridge. He asks Shears to volunteer, since he knows the area. Shears refuses, finally admitting that he is not Commander Shears at all, but a Navy enlisted man. Shears recounts that he and a Navy Commander survived the sinking of their ship, but the Commander was subsequently killed by a Japanese patrol. "Shears" switched dog tags with the dead officer, hoping to get preferential treatment in captivity. It didn't work, but then he had no choice but to continue the impersonation. Warden tells him that the military already knew about it. To avoid bad publicity, the U.S. Navy loans him to the British. Warden offers him a deal: in exchange for his services, he will be given the "simulated rank" of major on the mission and avoid being charged with impersonating an officer, an offense punishable by death. Thus, Shears reluctantly "volunteers" with the understanding that should he survive, he'll get to keep his officer status. They are to be joined by Lieutenant Joyce (Geoffrey Horne), a young eager officer with no combat experience who insists that he won't fold under pressure should he have to kill someone on the mission, and a fourth officer.Back in the camp, Nicholson explains to the Japanese through engineering principles that they've selected a poor site for the bridge. Finally convinced, the original bridge is abandoned and construction of a whole new bridge is commenced 400 yards downriver. Clipton watches in bewilderment as Nicholson maniacally drives his men to complete the project by the deadline. Ironically, he even volunteers his junior officers to assist with the physical labor, something he had refused to consider earlier in the standoff with Saito - provided that the Japanese officers are willing to pitch in as well.Meanwhile, the commandos parachute in. The fourth officer dies due to a bad landing. The rest make their way to the river, assisted by native Burmese women porters and their village chief, Yai (M.R.B. Chakrabandhu). The commandos come upon a Japanese patrol whom they try to kill without firing shots, but Joyce freezes when confronted by one in the jungle. Warden jumps in front of him and kills the Japanese soldier, but gets shot in the foot as a consequence. This slows him down, but Shears refuses to leave him behind and the trio make their way to the bridge with the Burmese helpers.As the prison camp celebrates the completion of the bridge on time with a party for all, Shears and Joyce wire explosives to it under cover of darkness. The next day, a Japanese train full of soldiers and important officials is scheduled to be the first to use the bridge; Warden wants to blow it up just as the train passes over, accomplishing two missions at once.As dawn approaches, the trio notice with horror that the river has receded and the wires and explosives that were hidden the night before are now exposed. Nicholson proudly walks up and down his bridge making a final inspection, and notices the wires. The train can be heard approaching. Nicholson and Saito frantically hurry down to the riverbank, pulling up and following the wire towards Joyce who is waiting by the detonator. When they get too close, Joyce breaks cover and stabs Saito to death. Nicholson yells for help and then tries to stop Joyce (who cannot bring himself to kill Nicholson) from getting to the detonator. A firefight erupts as Warden fires upon the approaching Japanese soldiers; Yai is killed in the gunfight. When Joyce is hit, Shears swims across the river to finish the job, but he too is shot just before he reaches Nicholson.Recognizing Shears, Nicholson suddenly comes to his senses and exclaims, "What have I done?" Warden desperately turns the mortar fire in their direction, killing Shears in the blast and mortally wounding Nicholson. The colonel stumbles over to the detonator plunger and falls on it with his dying breath, just in time to blow up the bridge and send the train hurtling into the river.Warden, feeling guilty for killing Shears and Nicholson in the face of shocked stares from the Burmese women, pleads, "I had to do it! They might have been taken alive! It was the only thing to do!" Meanwhile, Major Clipton, the British medical officer who has witnessed all the carnage unfold from his vantage point on the hill, shakes his head incredulously, "Madness! ... Madness!".


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Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) is a popular silent film star with humble roots as a singer, dancer and stunt man. Don barely tolerates his vapid, shallow leading lady, Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen), who has convinced herself that the fake romance their studio concocted and publicized is real.One day, to escape from overenthusiastic fans, Don jumps into a passing car driven by Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds). She drops him off, but not before claiming to be a stage actress and sneering at his undignified accomplishments as a cinema actor. Later, at a party, the head of Don's studio, R.F. Simpson (Millard Mitchell), shows a short demonstration of a talking picture, but his guests are unimpressed. Don runs into Kathy again at the party. To his amusement and her embarrassment, he discovers that Kathy is only a chorus girl, part of the entertainment. Furious, she throws a pie at him, only to hit Lina right in the face. Later, Don makes up with Kathy and they begin falling in love.After the first talking picture, The Jazz Singer, proves to be a smash hit, R.F. decides he has no choice but to convert the new Lockwood and Lamont film, The Dueling Cavalier, into a talkie. The production is beset with difficulties (most, if not all, taken from real life), by far the worst being Lina's comically grating voice. A test screening is a disaster. In one scene, for instance, Don repeats "I love you" to Lina over and over, to the audience's derisive laughter (a reference to a scene by John Gilbert in his first talkie[2]).Don's best friend, Cosmo Brown (Donald O'Connor), comes up with the idea to overdub Lina's voice with Kathy's and they persuade R.F. to turn The Dueling Cavalier into a musical called The Dancing Cavalier. When Lina finds out that Kathy is dubbing her voice, she is furious and does everything possible to sabotage the romance between Don and Kathy. She is even more irate when she discovers that Kathy will receive screen credit and a big publicity campaign, so she blackmails R.F. into withholding credit, and, later, demands that Kathy (a contract player) continue to do so in the future.The premiere of The Dueling Cavalier is a tremendous success. When the audience clamors for Lina to sing live, Don, Cosmo and R.F. improvise and get Lina to lip-synch while Kathy sings into a second microphone while hidden behind the curtain. Unbeknownst to Lina, as she starts "singing", Don, Cosmo and R.F. gleefully open the curtain behind her, revealing the deception Lina flees in embarrassment. When Kathy tries to run away as well, Don has her stopped and introduces the audience to "the real star of the film".Dan and Kathy start singing a love song. Final cue of they both kissing in front of a huge billboard advertising the film "Singin' in the Rain" with Don Lockwood and Kathy Selden.


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This movie is about a divine intervention by a guardian angel, to help a man in distress. It opens with a a fanciful depiction of angels in heaven discussing a problem that has come up. They are receiving prayers from mortals, like "Please, God, something's the matter with Daddy". George Bailey (James Stewart) is about to kill himself, and they need to send an angel down to Earth to stop him. They select Clarence (Henry Travers), a somewhat down-on-his-luck angel who hasn't earned his wings yet, but who they decide is right for the job. The senior angels promise that Clarence will get his wings if he succeeds. The bulk of the movie is a replaying, by the senior angels and for Clarence's benefit, of George's life, so that Clarence will understand George.George Bailey was a young man, living in a small town, but with big dreams. From an early age, he wanted to get away from Bedford Falls, travel the world, and accomplish big things--planning cities and building huge airfields, skyscrapers, and bridges. The first incident that Clarence sees is that, at age 12, George saved his younger brother Harry's (Todd Karns) life in an accident while playing on an ice-covered pond. George lost the hearing in his left ear due to being in the icy water. Shortly after that, while working part-time in Mr. Gower's (H.B. Warner) drug store, he prevents a mistake in a prescription from fatally poisoning someone. The two little girls in George's life at that point are Mary Hatch (Donna Reed) and Violet Bick (Gloria Grahame), who seem to be competing for his notice.George's father (Samuel S. Hinds), with a small staff including Uncle Billy (Thomas Mitchell), run a small Building and Loan company that finances mortgages for the people of Bedford Falls. They face a difficult battle with the evil, avaricious, and wealthy Henry Potter (Lionel Barrymore). Potter is on the board of directors of the Building and Loan, holds much of its assets, along with almost everything else in town, charges people exorbitant rent on his own apartments, and would like to put Bailey's company out of business.George wants to begin his adventures after going to college. While he has enormous respect for his father and what he is doing to help people, he definitely does not want to follow in his father's footsteps at the Building and Loan. But one thing after another thwarts his plans.George went to work at the Building and Loan for a few years after graduating from high school, with the expectation that Harry would take this over when he graduated, and George would go on a European tour and then go to college. But his father has a fatal stroke, and George has to take over the B&L; for a few months, giving up the European tour. Then Potter attempts to liquidate the B&L;, the only thing that can stop it is for George himself to take it over. So he gives up college, and gives his college money to Harry. The plan at that point was that, after Harry graduates, he will take over the B&L;, and George will go to college. But Harry returns from college having married Ruth Dakin, and Ruth's father has offered him a job in upstate New York. So George has no choice but to stay with the B&L.;George marries Mary Hatch after a difficult introduction--he mistakenly thinks Mary is in love with his lifelong rival Sam Wainwright (Frank Albertson). They are about to go on their honeymoon with $2000 they have saved up. But a banking crisis occurs. Potter has taken over the bank that guarantees the B&L;'s loans, and has called in the loans. The customers are in a panic and are tempted to go over to Potter's bank. The only way George can save the situation is to provide for the customers' needs out of his honeymoon money. Their friends Ernie (Frank Faylen) the cabbie and Bert (Ward Bond) the policeman arrange for them to have a cut-rate honeymoon at their house. They serenade the newlyweds from outside in the rain.The B&L; continues to provide affordable housing for the people of Bedford Falls, creating a whole subdivision "Bailey Park". This includes the home of Mr. Martini (William Edmunds), the local tavernkeeper, and his family. Sam Wainwright and his wife come by to offer that George and Mary take a vacation with them in Florida, but they can't get away even for that.Potter is disturbed that George's B&L; is taking customers away from his own apartment business, and attempts to bribe George into working for him instead, offering a huge salary and extensive travel. Tempting as that is, George is repelled by everything Potter stands for, and declines.So George stays with his wife and four children in Bedford Falls, never getting to leave. World War II comes and goes, and Harry serves (George is exempt because of his ear) and heroically saves an entire transport ship by shooting down two attacking airplanes. He is awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor at a ceremony in Washington.On the morning before Christmas, the day that Bedford Falls will have a huge celebration for Harry, a bank examiner arrives to conduct a routine audit. The same day, Uncle Billy goes to the bank for a routine deposit of $8,000 in cash. Potter happens by, and Billy proudly points out the newspaper with the news about Harry. He accidentally folds the newspaper with the cash envelope in it, and Potter takes it back. Billy then realizes that he has lost the money. Potter, now in another room, sees this, and leaves quietly.Billy arrives at the B&L;, where George, generous as always, is giving Violet some of his own money for her to travel to New York City and start a new life. When Billy tells George about the loss, there is an uproar. George and Billy search everywhere that the money could possibly have been left. George shouts at Billy that this means bankruptcy, scandal and prison, and that he, George, isn't the one who will go to prison.George goes home in an incredibly foul mood, where his family are preparing for a Christmas party that evening. George is extremely bitter and nasty, and verbally abuses everyone, saying at one point "Why do we have to have all these kids?" The whole family are alarmed at his behavior. He learns that their youngest daughter "Zuzu" (Karolyn Grimes) is in bed with a cold. She apparently caught it walking home from school, having not buttoned her coat because she didn't want to harm a rose that she had been given. George goes up to see her. While handling the rose, some petals fall off. George puts them in his watch pocket.Zuzu's teacher, Mrs. Welch, phones to ask about Zuzu. George gives her a brutal tongue-lashing over her carelessness. When Mr. Welch gets on the line, George abuses and threatens him. Then George starts kicking and throwing things. The children are in tears. George storms out of the house. Mary phones Uncle Billy to find out what's wrong. The children ask whether they should pray for their father, and Mary says yes.While word spreads of the calamity, George goes to see Mr. Potter to beg for a loan of 8000 dollars. Mr. Potter is completely unsympathetic and sarcastic. He suggests that George has been cooking the books, playing the market with company money, or perhaps paying off a woman, pointing out that he is known to have been giving money to Violet Bick. Potter asks about collateral. All George has is a fifteen thousand dollar life insurance policy, but with only five hundred dollars equity. Mr. Potter says "You're worth more dead than alive."George goes to Mr. Martini's tavern and starts drinking, and then praying for divine guidance. His friends notice and try to help. Mr. Martini mentions his name out loud, and Mr. Welch, sitting nearby, hears it. He punches George, causing a bloody lip. George leaves, though his friends urge him to stay and rest. George drives his car toward a bridge. Because of the snowy weather, he accidentally drives it into a tree. The homeowner comes out and chews him out for harming the tree. George just keeps walking, out onto the bridge, to kill himself.Just as George is about to jump into the frigid river and drown, Clarence comes down to Earth; his moment has come. He knows George well enough to know that if he, Clarence, jumps into the river, George will rescue him. He does so, and George jumps in and rescues him as predicted. They go to the toll-taker's shack to dry their clothes. Clarence explains all--that he is an angel, "Clarence Odbody, Angel second class", sent to save George from committing suicide. To George's astonishment, Clarence knows the whole story of his life. George is disbelieving and cynical about the whole thing, mentioning that it is not surprising that he got only a second-class angel, one without wings. He resists Clarence's entreaties, believing that he must have consumed tainted liquor. He finally says "I wish I'd never been born." Clarence formulates his plan, and, after a little prayerful communication with the senior angels, says "You've got your wish. You've never been born."Things change immediately. In the alternate universe it isn't snowing. George notices that he can hear through his left ear, and his lip isn't bleeding. Clarence points out that many things will be different now.They walk back toward town, past the tree that George had hit with his car. The car is gone, and there is no gash in the tree. The homeowner stops by, and George asks about the car and the damage to the tree. The homeowner knows nothing about this. He says "You had me worried. One of the oldest trees in Pottersville."They continue into town. Martini's tavern has become a sleazy dive, and Mr. Martini is nowhere to be found. It is now owned by Nick, who had worked there in real life. George and Clarence sit down at the bar. Clarence's speech and demeanor immediately displease Nick, who is an unpleasant fellow. George knows Nick, but Nick does not know George. When a cash register rings, Clarence points out that, whenever that happens, it means an angel has earned his wings. An elderly Mr. Gower comes in, and Nick tells him to leave. George speaks to Mr. Gower, but Mr. Gower doesn't recognize him. Nick says that Mr. Gower spent 20 years in prison for poisoning some child, and that if this stranger knows Mr. Gower, he must be a convict also. Nick has George and Clarence thrown out of the tavern, and then derisively makes the cash register ring, saying that he is giving out angel wings.In front of the tavern, George is seriously disturbed by what is going on. Clarence explains once again that George doesn't exist. George checks his pockets for his wallet, other identification, or his life insurance policy. Clarence points out that they do not exist. Finally, George checks his watch pocket. Clarence says "They're not there either." "What?" "Zuzu's petals. You've been given a great gift, George. The chance to see what the world would be like without you."Continuing to be in denial of what is going on, George continues to walk downtown without Clarence. Bedford Falls has become Pottersville, and it is a dreary, brutish, and perverse place, full of bars and sleazy nightclubs. The movie theater, and the B&L;, are long gone. Police are everywhere, dealing with disorders. George sees the police arrest Violet and take her away from a brothel. He hails Ernie's cab and asks to be taken home. Ernie has no idea who he is or where he lives. He gives Ernie the address, and Ernie tells him that that is an abandoned house, but he will take him there anyway. Ernie also tells George that his wife left him three years ago, and that he now lives alone in a place called Potter's Field. He visually signals for Bert the policeman to follow them. As George searches the house calling out for his family, Clarence appears. Bert attempts to arrest them, but Clarence vanishes, allowing George to escape.George then goes to his mother's house, but she does not recognize him. He mentions Uncle Billy, and she says that he has been in a mental hospital for many years since the B&L; went out of business.Still in denial of what is happening, George then goes with Clarence to Martini's house in Bailey Park. There is no such place--it is a wasteland with a cemetery. Clarence points out the grave of Harry Bailey. Clarence says "Your brother Harry Bailey broke through the ice and was drowned at the age of nine.""That's a lie! Harry Bailey went to war. He got the Congressional Medal of Honor. He saved the lives of every man on that transport." says George."Every man on that transport died. Harry wasn't there to save them, because you weren't there to save Harry. You see, George, you really had a wonderful life. Don't you see what a mistake it would be to throw it away?"George then asks to see Mary. Clarence says that she never married, and works at the library. George goes there. She doesn't recognize him. He tries to embrace her; she screams and runs into a nightclub. He runs after her. The police intervene. George slugs Bert and runs away. Bert shoots at him but misses, then pursues in his car.Finally aware of what is happening, George runs to the bridge where he had been about to jump, and calls out "Help me Clarence, please! Please! I want to live again!"The alternate universe ends. It's snowing once again. Bert arrives in his police car, and calls out to George that he's been looking for him, since seeing his car plowed into the tree. He also points out that George's lip is bleeding. George is delighted to hear this, and to know that Bert knows him. He checks his watch pocket; the rose petals are there.George is ecstatic. He runs into town, which is once again Bedford Falls, and has all its familiar institutions. He goes home, knowing that he will likely be arrested for bank fraud. The officials are there, ready to arrest him. But his children are there also, and all have a joyful reunion. Mary comes home, along with many people led by Uncle Billy. When word got around that George was in financial trouble, the townspeople that he had been so generous to had contributed whatever they could provide. Dozens of people arrive, with a whole laundry basket full of money, jewelry, and other valuables. A telegram arrives from Sam Wainwright in Europe, saying that he had been contacted by Mr. Gower, and would advance up to $25,000 to cover the debt on the B&L.; Harry arrives from New York, and toasts "To my big bother George, the richest man in town."In the last scene, a bell on the Christmas tree rings. Zuzu says "Look, daddy. Teacher says, every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings." George says "That's right. That's right." And, glancing heavenward, "Attaboy, Clarence."



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Joe and Jerry, a saxophonist and bassist, respectively, are two working-class musicians, working in a Chicago speakeasy in February, 1929. Though they have steady work, they still owe money to many of their friends. However, Joe, the optimist, isn't worried since the gig they have seems to be stable. However, things change in a few minutes when a police officer, Mulligan, working on a hot tip from a mob informant, Toothpick Charlie, raids the place for illegal liquor sales. The speakeasy itself belongs to Chicago's most notorious mob boss, Spats Colombo. Joe and Jerry barely escape the raid. While they try to figure out a plan to earn money, Joe suggests they hock their overcoats and bet the money on a longshot at the horse racing track. Joe's plan fails miserably and the guys are more broke than ever during a cold Chicago winter.Joe and Jerry go to the offices of their talent agents, whom have no work for them. They go to the last one, Sig Poliakoff's, where Joe talks to the receptionist, Nellie, whom he has been dating. She tells him that Poliakoff has openings for a sax player and bass player in a band that will be traveling to Florida. In Sig's office, Sig is on the phone frantically trying to find replacement musicians for Sweet Sue, the band's leader, and her assistant, Beinstock. Sue's band is all-female and she has a strict "NO MEN" policy; one of her players got pregnant and the other ran off to get engaged. Jerry and Joe, not knowing Sue is looking for women, burst into Sig's office and ask for the gig. Poliakoff informs them that they're the wrong gender, but he does have a gig in Terra Haute, Indiana, for one night. Joe and Jerry accept and con Nellie into loaning them her car to drive to the gig.Joe and Jerry go to the garage where Nellie's car awaits. A group of shady looking men are playing cards in the corner, one of them is Toothpick Charlie. While the mechanic fills the car with gas, a large limo rolls into the garage and several gang members, armed with shotguns and Thompson machine guns get out. Joe and Jerry hide behind Nellie's car and everyone else is lined up against the wall. Spats Colombo steps from the limo. He has come to Charlie's garage seeking revenge for the speakeasy being busted. He gives the command and his men slaughter everyone against the wall (a reference to the infamous St. Valentine's Day Massacre perpetrated by Al Capone). The gas nozzle in Nellie's car suddenly pops out when the tank is full and clatters on the ground, drawing the attention of Spats' men, who see Joe and Jerry. Spats orders them to be killed too, while at the same time, Charlie, still alive, tries to reach a nearby phone. Spats grabs a Thompson and kills Charlie, temporarily forgetting Joe and Jerry, who escape. Spats shoots at them but only succeeds in hitting Jerry's bass. Joe and Jerry, now on the run, call Poliakoff's office, planning to fool their agent into thinking they're the women musicians needed for Sweet Sue's band.Joe and Jerry, dressed as women, arrive at the train station. They use false names; Joe becomes Josephine and Jerry becomes Daphne (he'd originally agreed to be Geraldine, but tells Joe he never liked the name). They meet Sue and Beinstock and fool them effectively enough to be hired. They also spot the band's singer and ukulele player, the attractive and blond Sugar Kowalczyk. Both men are instantly attracted to her, especially Joe.During a band practice on the train Sugar drops a flask of bourbon; alcohol is strictly forbidden by Sue. Beinstock reminds Sugar that he warned her not to hide liquor, however, Jerry tells them it's his flask and covers for Sugar. Later that night, Sugar sneaks into Jerry's berth to thank Daphne for covering for her. Jerry suggests that they both share a drink of whiskey, which Jerry steals from Joe's suitcase in the berth below his. The other women in the band quickly discover Jerry and Sugar and assume they're having a party. Joe and Sugar go to the ladies' room to prepare some ice and during their conversation, Sugar tells Joe that she's had bad luck with romance and men and that she has a soft-spot for saxophone players. Joe is floored but keeps his composure and they share a drink together. In his berth, Jerry finds that the other girls are becoming a bit too physical and, afraid they'll find out his true identity, pulls the emergency cord, stopping the train. All the girls spill out of his berth and the party grinds to halt, Sweet Sue flustered by the whole ordeal.The train arrives in Florida and the band is taken to their hotel. Joe leaves Jerry to carry all their luggage and as Jerry climbs the steps to the entrance, he loses a shoe. A rich man, Osgood Fielding III places it back on her feet and proceeds with improper advances toward Jerry's alter ego. Jerry fights the man off after he gropes him in the elevator. In their room, Jerry tells Joe they should leave the band and go further into hiding. Joe tells him they should stay in disguise since Colombo's gang would never look for them in an all-woman band. Joe is also attracted to Sugar, though he doesn't sight that as a reason for staying, and has his own plans to woo her. Sugar shows up and invites the two to the beach; Jerry joins her but Joe declines. After they leave, Joe takes out a suitcase he'd stolen from Beinstock (along with the man's glasses) and dresses up in a fashionable sailor's outfit. Joe goes down to the beach and sits in a chair, reading the Wall Street Journal. He attracts the attention of Sugar and presents himself as an air to the Shell Oil Corporation. Sugar begins to flirt with him, however, he remains aloof, telling her he's waiting for a signal from his yacht offshore. Jerry happens by and instantly recognizes Joe. He convinces Sugar to go back to his and Joe's hotel room to expose him as an impostor. Joe beats them back there and they find him in the tub, posing as Josephine. Sugar tells Josephine that she's probably met a millionaire and she leaves. When she does, Jerry launches into a tirade about faking an identity on the beach and that Joe is trying to take advantage of Sugar. Joe responds by rising out of the tub, still in his Shell Oil Jr. outfit, and plops his wet wig down on Jerry's head.That night, while Joe & Jerry play with the band at dinner, Jerry receives a giant bouquet of flowers from Osgood. In their room, following the performance, Jerry receives a call from Osgood, inviting Daphne to the millionaire's yacht for dinner. Joe takes charge of the invitation and tells Jerry to persuade Osgood to take him to a dinner and dancing club instead of the yacht. Joe will go to the yacht as Shell Oil Jr. with Sugar. When the gig ends, Joe rushes back to his room and assumes the disguise, while Jerry and Osgood go to the restaurant. Joe arrives at the dock just before Sugar and takes her to the yacht on Osgood's boat. While the two have drinks and eat, Joe again acts aloof towards Sugar, trying to persuade her to kiss him. At first he acts as though he has a psychological block that prevents him from enjoying their romantic evening, but Sugar eventually turns him on. On the shore, Osgood and Jerry dance the tango all night.Sugar and Joe return to the mainland, apparently in love. He bids farewell to Sugar and climbs up to his room where Jerry is lying on one of the beds. Jerry tells Joe he's engaged, when Joe asks "who's the lucky girl?" Jerry says he is himself because Osgood proposed to Daphne. The two have a brief debate where Jerry reveals his plan to marry Osgood and tell him the truth right after the ceremony. He plans to extort a large settlement out of Osgood and live on the alimony checks he believes he'll receive. Joe convinces Jerry that he's committing fraud and will be caught. Jerry shows Joe the pricey diamond bracelet Osgood gave to him as an engagement gift, saying he'll return it. Joe suggests they keep it, perhaps thinking they can hock it for cash.In the hotel lobby, Spats Colombo and his goons arrive for a convention of "Lovers of Italian Opera", which is actually a meeting of organized crime gangsters. The meeting is being led by Little Bonaparte, the most powerful gangster there. Bonaparte already has a rivalry with Spats, which has been exacerbated by Spats' murder of Toothpick Charlie, who was a good friend of Bonaparte. Jerry and Joe, in the lobby, spot Spats and his crew and immediately get into the elevator to return to their room. Just as the doors are about to close, Spats and his men enter the elevator; Jerry and Joe's disguises work on them and they make it to their room.They pack hurriedly and Joe wants to take care of one last detail: Sugar. He calls her an once again uses his Shell Oil Jr. voice, telling her that he has to leave suddenly. His parents have told him to marry a woman who is the daughter of another millionaire with a large empire. As a final gesture, Joe leaves a bouquet of flowers outside Sugar's room with Osgood's diamond bracelet (the gift to Jerry) hidden inside. Sugar is devastated but accepts the gift.Jerry and Joe climb out the window to avoid running into the gangsters again. However, their path takes them right past Spats' balcony and they're spotted. Spats grabs the bass Jerry left behind and sees the bullet holes he'd shot in it while the two escaped in Chicago. Spats and his men chase them through the hotel but lose them. At one point, Jerry and Joe disguise themselves as a bellhop and a man in a wheelchair and duck into a banquet room, the same room all the gangsters will be eating dinner in. While they hide under the huge table, a pair of shoes with spats on them slides under the table. The two sit still and wait.Little Bonaparte begins the meeting with a lengthy criticism of Spats himself, admonishing him for the : they will celebrate Spats' birthday. Spats points out that his birthday isn't for a few months but Bonaparte insists they still have a large cake for Spats. After the cake is brought in, the entire room sings to Spats and a gangster pops up out of the cake and shoots Spats and his crew with a Thompson. Jerry and Joe burst out from under the table and run out of the room. Just as Little Bonaparte orders his men to catch them, Chicago cop Mulligan walks in and demands to know what happened. Bonaparte avoids the question and Mulligan promises to start a federal investigation.Jerry and Joe retreat to their room, fixing their disguises once again. They overhear a gangster saying that they've got all the standard escape routes covered. Joe realizes that they can escape on Osgood's yacht and tells Jerry to call the millionaire and accept his marriage proposal. Before they leave, Joe wanders into the dining and dancing hall of the hotel and sees Sugar singing "I'm Through With Love", Moved, Joe approaches her and kisses her. Sugar realizes who Josephine really is and leaves the band, following Joe and Jerry to Osgood's speedboat. They all board it and head for the yacht. Joe tries to tells Sugar that he's a cad who took advantage of her and that he's a sax player who will only treat her badly. Sugar doesn't care and kisses him anyway. Jerry begins to tell Osgood that he's equally as treacherous, that he smokes and can't have children, however Osgood doesn't care. Jerry, frustrated, finally pulls off his wig and tells Osgood he's actually a man. Osgood replies, "Well, nobody's perfect."


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A teenaged Hispanic boy has just been tried for the murder of his father, and the case is now in the hands of the jury. A guilty verdict will send the boy to the electric chair.The case looks, on the surface, cut and dried. But Juror number 8 (Henry Fonda), despite believing that the defendant is probably guilty, feels that the facts merit a cursory review before the jury hands in a guilty verdict. His insistence on a brief examination of the case seems to rub many on the jury the wrong way, as they continue to see the matter as open and shut.Fascinatingly, as they examine the testimony and facts of the case, the experiences, personalities, limitations, and biases of the jurors weave in and out of the deliberation process, at times to its benefit and at times to its detriment.To the benefit of the deliberation process, 1) the very elderly juror (Joseph Sweeney) is the only one who can see a possible motive explaining why an elderly witness may have misled the court in his testimony; 2) the one fellow (Jack Klugman) who grew up in a rough neighborhood, where he witnessed numerous knife fights, is the only one who sees a problem in assuming that the defendant made the stab wound found; and 3) the juror who had done contract work by the elevated subway (Edward Binns) was the only one in a position to question what one of the witnesses might or might not have heard.To the detriment of the deliberation process, 1) one juror (Ed Begley) is so consumed by his personal prejudices that he sees value in ridding the streets of the Hispanic defendant whether or not he is guilty, and 2) another, Juror number 3 (Lee J. Cobb), is impervious to reason because he has been physically harmed by his teenage son, and, consequently, views every teenage boy, including the defendant, as capable of patricide.The number of obstacles on the path to honest assessment of the facts is a constant threat to the deliberation process. If the jury fails to unanimously agree on a verdict of either "guilty" or "not guilty," it will become a hung jury (a jury that cannot reach a decision, and must retire from the case without declaring a verdict). Watching how this matter is resolved is a riveting study in the nature, and ultimate beauty, of the trial by jury process.One by one the jurors change their minds and decide the boy is not guilty. Juror number 3, the man at odds with his teenaged son, is the last one to change his mind. The jurors, at last, are able to vote unanimously for acquittal. As the jurors leave the court building, Juror number 8 and Juror number 9, the elderly man, introduce themselves to each other as Davis and McArdle, respectively. McArdle says "so long" as he takes leave of Davis, knowing that they will never meet again, that their lives had crossed only for a single purpose.


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At the Burpelson U.S. Air Force Base somewhere in the continental USA, the eccentric Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) orders the 34 nuclear-armed B-52's of the 843rd Bomb Wing past their failsafe points where they normally hold awaiting possible orders to proceed and into Soviet airspace. He also tells the personnel on the base that the US and the USSR have entered into a "shooting war".In the "War Room" at The Pentagon, Air Force General Buck Turgidson (George C. Scott) briefs President Merkin Muffley (Peter Sellers) about the attack that General Ripper ordered. Although a nuclear attack should require Presidential authority to be initiated, Ripper used "Plan R", an emergency war plan enabling a senior officer to launch a retaliation strike against the Soviets if everyone in the normal chain of command, including the President, has been killed during a sneak attack. Plan R was intended to discourage the Soviets from launching a decapitation strike against the President in Washington to disrupt U.S. command and control and stop an American nuclear counterattack. Turgidson tries to convince Muffley to take advantage of the situation to eliminate the Soviets as a threat by launching a full-scale attack. Turgidson believes that the United States is in a superior strategic position, and a first strike against the Soviet Union would destroy 90% of their missiles before they could retaliate, resulting in a victory for the U.S. with "acceptable" American casualties of "no more than 10 to 20 million killed, tops... depending on the breaks". He is rebuked when Muffley instead admits the Soviet Ambassador (Peter Bull) to the War Room, contacts Soviet Premier Dmitri Kissoff on the hotline, and insists on giving the Soviets all the information necessary to shoot down the American planes before they can carry out their strikes.Group Captain Lionel Mandrake (also played by Peter Sellers), an RAF exchange officer serving as General Ripper's executive officer, realizes that there has been no attack on the U.S. when he turns on a radio and hears pop music instead of Civil Defense alerts. When Mandrake reveals this to Ripper, and Ripper refuses to recall the wing, Mandrake announces that he will issue the recall on his own authority, but only Ripper knows the three-letter code necessary for recalling the bombers and locks the two of them in his office. Mandrake tries to convince Ripper to give up the three letter code. The psychotic Ripper refuses and rambles on that the Communists have a plan to "sap and impurify" the "precious bodily fluids" of the American people with fluoridated water, a theory that occurred to him during sexual intercourse, and which he believed to be the cause of his post-coital fatigue.Over the phone, an unseen and drunken Kissoff reveals to the Soviet Ambassador that their country has installed an active "Doomsday Device" which will automatically destroy all human and animal life on Earth if a nuclear attack were to hit the Soviet Union. The Doomsday Device is operated by a network of computers and has been conceived as the ultimate deterrent: as a safeguard, it cannot be deactivated, or it will set itself off, because its hardware and programs have been configured in such a way that an attempt at its deactivation would be recognized as sabotage. The doomsday weapon is described as based on "cobalt-thorium-G" [this was inspired by the real idea of a cobalt bomb, conceived by nuclear pioneer Leo Szilard, founder of Council for a Livable World]. According to the Soviet ambassador, life on Earth's surface will be extinct in ten months and was made as a low cost alternative to the bomb-race.The President now calls upon Dr. Strangelove (a.k.a. Merkwrdigeliebe), a former Nazi and strategy expert (Sellers in his third role). The wheelchair-bound Strangelove is a type of "mad scientist", whose eccentricities include a severe case of alien hand syndrome, so that his right hand, clad in an ominous black leather glove, occasionally attempts to strangle Strangelove or make the Nazi salute (no one in the room acts if this is unsusual). Strangelove also slips in addressing the President, as either "Mein President" or even "Mein Fhrer".Strangelove explains the principles behind the Doomsday Device, which he says is "simple to understand... credible and convincing". He also points out that a Doomsday Device kept secret has no value as a deterrent; the Soviet Ambassador admits that his government had installed it a few days before they were going to announce it publicly to the world, because Kissoff "loves surprises".U.S. Army paratroopers sent by the President arrive at Burpelson to arrest General Ripper. Because Ripper has warned his men that the enemy might attack disguised as American soldiers, the base's security forces, and Ripper himself with a .50 caliber M1919 Browning machine gun kept in his golf bag, open fire on them. After a fierce firefight the Army forces win the battle and gain access to the base, and Ripper, fearing torture to extract the recall code commits suicide. Colonel "Bat" Guano (Keenan Wynn) shoots his way into Ripper's office, but suspects that Mandrake, whose uniform he does not recognize, is leading a mutiny of "deviated preverts" and proceeds to arrest him. Mandrake convinces Guano that he has to call the President to tell him the recall code, which he has deduced from Ripper's desk blotter doodles to be based on the initials for the phrases peace on earth and purity of essence. Since office phone connections had been knocked out by the fighting at the base, Mandrake is forced to use a pay phone to try to contact the President. Not having the correct change to place a long-distance call to the Pentagon, Mandrake persuades Guano to shoot a Coca-Cola vending machine to get the change out of it, and eventually is able to forward the likely code combinations to Strategic Air Command.The correct recall code, "OPE", is issued to the planes, and those that have not been shot down return to base except for one. Its radio and fuel tanks were damaged by a Soviet anti-aircraft missile, with the result that the plane is neither able to receive the recall code nor to reach its primary or secondary target where, at the urging of the U.S. President, the Soviets have concentrated all available defenses. On the crew's own initiative, and losing fuel, the plane proceeds to fly at low level under radar to a closer target of opportunity.As they start their bomb run, the damaged B-52's bomb bay doors will not open, and aircraft commander Major T. J. "King" Kong (Slim Pickens) goes down to the bomb bay to open them himself. He succeeds just as the plane reaches its target, and one of the nuclear bombs falls, with Kong still sitting on it. He straddles the bomb and rides it to the ground like a rodeo cowboy, whooping and hollering and waving his cowboy hat. The bomb explodes, triggering the Doomsday Machine.Back in the War Room, Dr. Strangelove recommends to the President that a select group of about 200,000 or more people be relocated into a deep mine shaft, where the nuclear fallout cannot reach them, so that the U.S. can be repopulated afterwards. Because of space limitations, Strangelove suggests a gender ratio of "ten females to each male", with the women selected for their sexual characteristics, and the men selected on the basis of their physical strength, intellectual capabilities, and importance in business and government. General Turgidson rants that the Soviets will likely create an even better bunker than the U.S., and argues that America "must not allow a mine shaft gap". Meanwhile, the Soviet Ambassador retreats to a corner of the War Room and starts taking pictures with a spy camera disguised as a pocket watch.A visibly excited Dr. Strangelove bolts out of his wheelchair, shouting "Mein Fhrer, I can walk!". Abruptly, the film ends with a barrage of nuclear explosions, accompanied by Vera Lynn's famous World War II song "We'll Meet Again".


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The story begins in 1823 as the elderly Salieri attempts suicide by slitting his throat while loudly begging forgiveness for having killed Mozart in 1791. Placed in a lunatic asylum for the act, Salieri is visited by a young priest who seeks to take his confession. Salieri is sullen and uninterested but eventually warms to the priest and launches into a long "confession" about his relationship with Mozart.Salieri's tale goes on through the night and into the next day. He reminisces about his youth, particularly about his devotion to God and his love for music and how he pledges to God to remain celibate as a sacrifice if he can somehow devote his life to music. He describes how his father's plans for him were to go into commerce, but suggests that the sudden death of his father, who choked to death during a meal, was "a miracle" that allowed him to pursue a career in music. In his narrative, he is suddenly an adult joining the 18th century cultural elite in Vienna, the "city of musicians." Salieri begins his career as a devout, God-fearing man who believes his success and talent as a composer are Gods rewards for his piety. He is content as the court composer for Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II.Mozart arrives in Vienna with his patron, Count Hieronymus von Colloredo, the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg. Salieri secretly observes Mozart at the Archbishop's palace, but they are not properly introduced. Salieri sees that offstage, Mozart is irreverent and lewd. He also first recognizes the immense talent displayed in the adult works of Mozart. In 1781, when Mozart meets the Emperor, Salieri presents Mozart with a "March of Welcome," which he toiled to create. After hearing the march only once, Mozart plays it from memory, critiques it, and effortlessly improvises a variation, transforming Salieri's "trifle" into the "Non pi andrai" march from his 1786 opera The Marriage of Figaro.Salieri reels at the notion of God speaking through the childish, petulant Mozart: nevertheless, he regards his music as miraculous. Gradually, Salieris faith is shaken. He believes that God, through Mozart's genius, is cruelly laughing at Salieri's own musical mediocrity. Salieri's struggles with God are intercut with scenes showing Mozart's own trials and tribulations with life in Vienna: pride at the initial reception of his music; anger and disbelief over his subsequent treatment by the Italians of the Emperor's court; happiness with his wife Constanze and his son Karl; and grief at the death of his father Leopold. Mozart becomes more desperate as the family's expenses increase and his commissions decrease. When Salieri learns of Mozart's financial straits, he sees his chance to avenge himself, using "God's Beloved" (the literal meaning of "Amadeus") as the instrument.Salieri hatches a complex plot to gain ultimate victory over Mozart and God. He disguises himself in a mask and costume similar to one he saw Leopold wear at a party, and commissions Mozart to write a requiem mass, giving him a down payment and the promise of an enormous sum upon completion. Mozart begins to write the piece, the Requiem Mass in D minor, unaware of the true identity of his mysterious patron and oblivious of his murderous intentions. Glossing over any details of how he might commit the murder, Salieri dwells on the anticipation of the admiration of his peers and the court, when they applaud the magnificent Requiem, and he claims to be the music's composer. Only Salieri and God would know the truththat Mozart wrote his own requiem mass, and that God could only watch while Salieri finally receives the fame and renown he deserves.Mozart's financial situation worsens and the composing demands of the Requiem and The Magic Flute drive him to the point of exhaustion as he alternates work between the two pieces. Constanze leaves him and takes their son with her. His health worsens and he collapses during the premiere performance of The Magic Flute. Salieri takes the stricken Mozart home and convinces him to work on the Requiem. Mozart dictates while Salieri transcribes throughout the night. When Constanze returns in the morning, she tells Salieri to leave. Constanze locks the manuscript away despite Salieri's objections, but as she goes to wake her husband, Mozart is dead. The Requiem is left unfinished, and Salieri is left powerless as Mozart's body is hauled out of Vienna for burial in a pauper's mass grave.The film ends as Salieri finishes recounting his story to the visibly shaken young priest. Salieri concludes that God killed Mozart rather than allow Salieri to share in even an ounce of his glory, and that he is consigned to be the "patron saint of mediocrity." Salieri absolves the priest of his own mediocrity and blesses his fellow patients as he is taken away in his wheelchair. The last sound heard before the credits roll is Mozart's high-pitched laughter.


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U.S. Army Captain and special operations veteran Benjamin L. Willard (Martin Sheen), returned to Saigon since his involvement in the Vietnam War, drinks heavily and hallucinates alone in his room. One day military intelligence officers Lt. General Corman (G. D. Spradlin) and Colonel Lucas (Harrison Ford) approach him with a top-secret assignment to follow the Nung River into the remote jungle, find rogue Special Forces Colonel Walter E. Kurtz (Marlon Brando) and kill him. Kurtz apparently went insane and now commands his own Montagnard troops inside neutral Cambodia.Willard joins a Navy PBR commanded by "Chief" (Albert Hall) and crewmen Lance (Sam Bottoms), "Chef" (Frederic Forrest) and "Mr. Clean" (Laurence Fishburne). They rendezvous with reckless Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore (Robert Duvall), a commander of an attack helicopter squadron, who initially scoffs at them. Kilgore befriends Lance, both being keen surfers, and agrees to escort them through the Viet Cong-filled coastal mouth of the Nung River due to the surfing conditions there. Amid napalm air strikes on the locals and Ride of the Valkyries playing over the helicopter loudspeakers, the beach is taken and Kilgore orders others to surf it amid enemy fire. While Kilgore nostalgically regales about a previous strike, Willard gathers his men to the PBR, transported via helicopter, and begins the journey upriver.Willard sifts through files on Kurtz, learning that he was a model officer and possible future General. The crew later encounters a tiger and visit a supply depot USO show featuring Playboy Playmates which goes awry. Afterwards, the crew inspect a civilian sampan for weapons but Mr. Clean panics and machine-guns everyone on board. Willard coldly shoots dead the only woman alive to prevent any further delay of his mission. Tension arises between Chief and Willard as Willard believes himself to be in command of the PBR, while Chief prioritizes other objectives over Willard's secret mission. Reaching the chaos of a US outpost at a bridge under attack, Willard learns that the missing commanding officer, Captain Colby (Scott Glenn), was sent on an earlier mission to kill Kurtz.Meanwhile, Lance and Chef are continually under the influence of drugs. Lance in particular smears his face with camouflage paint and becomes withdrawn. The next day the boat is fired upon by an unseen enemy in the trees, killing Mr. Clean and making Chief even more hostile toward Willard. Ambushed again, by Montagnard warriors, they return fire despite Willard's objections. Chief is impaled with a spear and tries to pull Willard onto the spearhead before dying. Afterwards, Willard confides in the two surviving crew members about the mission and they reluctantly agree to continue upriver, where they find the banks littered with mutilated bodies. Arriving at Kurtz's outpost at last, Willard takes Lance with him to the village, leaving Chef behind with orders to call an airstrike on the village if they do not return.In the camp, the two soldiers are met by an American freelance photographer (Dennis Hopper), who manically praises Kurtz's genius. As they proceed, Willard and Lance see corpses and severed heads scattered about the temple that serves as Kurtz's living quarters and encounter Colby, who is nearly catatonic. Willard is bound and brought before Kurtz in the darkened temple, where Kurtz derides him as an errand boy. Meanwhile, Chef prepares to call in the airstrike but is kidnapped. Later imprisoned, Willard screams helplessly as Kurtz drops Chef's severed head into his lap. After some time, Willard is released and given the freedom of the compound. Kurtz lectures him on his theories of war, humanity and civilization while praising the ruthlessness and dedication of the Viet Cong. Kurtz discusses his son and asks that Willard tell his son everything about him in the event of his death.That night, as the villagers ceremonially slaughter a water buffalo, Willard enters Kurtz's chamber as Kurtz is making a tape recording, and attacks him with a machete. Lying mortally wounded on the ground, Kurtz whispers his final words "The horror ... the horror ..." before dying. Willard discovers substantial typed work of Kurtz's writings and takes it with him before exiting. Willard descends the stairs from Kurtz's chamber and drops his weapon. The villagers do likewise and allow Willard to take Lance by the hand and lead him to the boat. The two of them ride away as Kurtz's final words echo eerily.


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The story begins with the assassination of Mohandas K. "Mahatma" Gandhi in India in 1948. The following funeral procession is a long one and his body is conveyed on a jeep covered in flowers.The story flashes back to Gandhi's early days as an attorney in the late 1800s in South Africa. He is throw off a train for sitting in the first-class compartment despite possessing a ticket to be there. He later stages a non-violent protest in the center of town where, with several police officers and officials present, he burns work permits that all non-Afrikaners are required to carry and present to police when demanded. Gandhi's reasoning is that the permits are an unfair and oppressive symbol of Afrikaner rule over minorities. As he burns them, he his struck by a police officer on the hand. Though quite plainly in pain, Gandhi continues to burn the permits, his will overcoming the blows from the officer. He is finally knocked down, unable to continue his protest and is arrested.When he's freed from jail, he meets a young American reporter, Walker, with whom he converses about the oppression of the masses by a handful of bureaucrats. While they walk, Gandhi is confronted by an angry youth (Daniel Day-Lewis in a bit part) and his friends. They demand that he pay them to walk down their street. Gandhi refuses in the face of obvious bigotry. When the young man's mother calls him inside, Gandhi and Walker continue down the street.Gandhi travels to his home country of India. When he arrives there he is met by members of the press who know of his exploits in South Africa. They ask if he'll take up any political causes, especially those in opposition to the British rule of India. Gandhi politely rebuffs the requests, saying he's only going to his home city of Porbandar. His wife accompanies him. Gandhi's real plan is to organize non-violent protest against Britain, knowing that millions of Indians will follow him. Very soon Gandhi realizes that the British rule of India is harsh an oppressive, having grown more so since he left to pursue his law degree and is growing worse each day.One of Gandhi's first public protests is against the British textile industry. He urges his followers to weave their own cloth for clothing and other needs and burn the British cloth they've been forced to buy and wear for decades. However, many Indians, both Muslim and Hindu, stage more aggressive protests. The crowds become angry mobs when they are attacked by the police. Gandhi appears inwardly angry that his message has been misunderstood.In Amritsar, a city in Northern India, a group of Indian citizens gather in the Jallianwala Bagh garden to protest an unfair town curfew. Though the protest was peaceful, a British general, Reginald Dyer, orders his troops into the garden. They take up firing positions in the courtyard. When one of his lieutenants suggests that the protest is peaceful, Dyer says that the people have "had their warning" and commands his troops to open fire. Many are killed.An inquest is held by the Hunter Commission, comprised of British and Indian officials. Dyer himself testifies and is at first quite proud and defiant, claiming he wished to "inflict a lesson that would be felt through all of India". When asked if he'd ordered his troops to fire at the thickest part of the crowd, he says yes. He also states he would have used the machine gun on the tank that accompanied his troops (it was unable to fit through the narrow passage to the garden). When an Indian attorney asks Dyer if he attempted to help the wounded in any way, he becomes flustered and says he would have. A British official asks him how a wounded child that had been shot would be able to approach him for help. Dyer is silent.

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In the opening scene, a flashback, two hobbits, Smagol (Andy Serkis) and his friend Dagol (Thomas Robins), are fishing near the Gladden Fields in the North of Middle Earth. Dagol is dragged into the river by a powerful catch and discovers the One Ring glinting in the river bed. He collects it and climbs out of the water. Smagol sees him fondling it and as they both succumb to the Ring's power they begin to quarrel. Smagol demands the Ring, saying that it's his birthday and it should be his present. The squabble turns into a fight; Smagol strangles his friend with his bare hands and pries the Ring from Dagol's clenched fist. As a result, Smagol is ostracized from his community and driven away. Suffering terribly from loneliness and shame, Smagol takes solace in his love for the Ring, which slowly tortures his mind. He takes solitary refuge in caves beneath the mountains, where under the influence of the Ring he lives to a very great age. But he dwindles into a hunched, furtive, slinking creature known by the unpleasant noise he makes in his throat -- Gollum.In the present, on the outskirts of Mordor, Frodo (Elijah Wood) and Sam (Sean Astin) are resting in an alcove. Sam awakes and sees that his master has not slept. The days are growing darker the closer they get to Minas Morgul and Mordor. Gollum arrives and urges them to move on.Away in the west, Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), Legolas (Orlando Bloom), Gimli (John Rhys-Davies), Gandalf (Ian McKellen), Thoden (Bernard Hill), and omer (Karl Urban) ride through the forest of Fangorn to Isengard, where they meet Merry (Dominic Monaghan) and Pippin (Billy Boyd) feasting among the wreckage. They go to see Treebeard at the tower of Orthanc in the center of Isengard, where Saruman (Christopher Lee) has been trapped. Gandalf opposes Gimli's call to kill Saruman, saying that the wizard has no power anymore and will pose no further threat. Saruman shows himself to them. Grima (Brad Dourif), who is still with him, stabs him with a knife. Legolas shoots Grima with an arrow, but Saruman falls down to his death. As they are talking, Pippin sees the palantr amongst the flotsam and is entranced by it, but Gandalf quickly asks it from him and hides in under his cloak.The group rides to Edoras, where King Thoden has prepared a feast to 'hail the victorious dead' of the Battle of the Hornburg. There owyn (Miranda Otto) shows affection for Aragorn which Thoden notices; he tells her that he is happy for her, Aragorn being an honorable man and the architect of the victory at Helm's Deep. Gandalf expresses to Aragorn his concerns over the quest. Aragorn tells him to trust in what his heart tells him, that Frodo is still alive.Gollum awakes in the night as Frodo and Sam are sleeping and goes off to one side to murmur to himself. His evil half senses some doubt in Smagol and insists that if he can murder once (referring to Dagol) he can do it again. Gollum then begins leading Smagol through their plan, to deliver the hobbits into the clutches of Shelob in Cirith Ungol, after which the Ring can be reclaimed. Sam hears this and beats Gollum for his treachery. Frodo intervenes, saying that as their guide Gollum is necessary for their quest. Sam glowers as Gollum flashes him an evil smile while Frodo's back is turned.That same night back in Edoras, Pippin's curiosity gets the better of him; relieving a sleeping Gandalf of the palantr, he looks into it. Pippin sees a vision of a white tree in a stone courtyard set ablaze, but in doing so he is caught by Sauron and submitted to mental torture and questioning. Aragorn tries to rescue him and thus briefly exposes himself to Sauron. Pippin recovers from his ordeal and it is discovered that he did not tell Sauron anything of the Ring's whereabouts. From Pippin's vision of the White Tree, Gandalf deduces that Sauron is now moving to attack the great Gondorian city of Minas Tirith and he rides off to send warning, taking Pippin with him, lest his urge to look into the palantr (left now in Aragorn's keeping) return again.Leaving Rivendell on her way to the Undying Lands, Arwen (Liv Tyler) has a vision of Eldarion (Sadwyn Brophy), the son she will have with Aragorn. She realises that her father lied to her when he said she and Aragorn had no future together. She returns to Rivendell and convinces Elrond (Hugo Weaving) that having forsaken the life of the Eldar, she cannot leave Aragorn now. She tells her father that as foretold, the time to reforge Narsil has come. Narsil, the sword of Elendil, is the birthright of the true heir of Isildur, the man who used the sword to cut the One Ring from Sauron's hand.Gandalf and Pippin arrive at Minas Tirith, City of Kings, that was built out of the rock of Mindolluin. There Pippin recognises the White Tree as they go to find the Steward Denethor (John Noble). They approach him as he mourns over Boromir (Sean Bean), his son. Pippin swears loyalty to him in recompense for Boromir's sacrifice. Denethor seems to be caught up in his grief and has not taken measures to fortify the city against the threat of Sauron.Meanwhile, Frodo, Sam, and Gollum arrive at Minas Morgul. Wary of the enemy, they locate the Winding Stair (leading to the pass of Cirith Ungol) that lies hidden in the cliffs surrounding the accursed city. Just at that moment, the doors of the city open and the Witch-king of Angmar, leader of the Nazgl, dispatches his immense Orc army from his lair, heralding the start of the war. The outpouring of the army is witnessed by Gandalf and Pippin as a flash of lightning shoots up at the opening of the doors. At the urging of Gandalf, Pippin lights the first of the beacon signals to Edoras, alerting Thoden, Aragorn and the rest of the Rohirrim to muster at Dunharrow and thence to Minas Tirith. As they leave Edoras, Aragorn notices that owyn saddles up with them and that she is girt with a sword, but she insists that she rides only to see them off and that the men have found their captain in Aragorn.The Morgul army crosses Anduin at Osgiliath in makeshift boats and engages the Gondorian contingent (lead by Boromir's brother Faramir (David Wenham)) in battle. The orcs prove too strong and drive the Gondorians out of Osgiliath; Faramir and his few surviving men retreat to Minas Tirith, pursued by the Nazgl. Gandalf, riding out to meet the retreating men, wards them off, saving Faramir. Upon his arrival, Faramir (who met Frodo, Sam, and Gollum in Ithilien just before they headed for the mountain pass into Mordor) tells Gandalf of the dangerous route Gollum is taking Frodo and Sam on, convincing Gandalf of Gollum's treachery. The hobbits, lead by Gollum, are struggling to climb the extremely steep stairs. Gollum reaches out and empathises with Frodo, saying that he understands his pain. Gollum also poisons Frodo against Sam, saying that Sam will try and take the Ring from Frodo.In the captured Osgiliath, the Witch-king orders his captain to "send forth all legions" and annihilate the population of Minas Tirith, saying that he himself will "break" the wizard Gandalf. Denethor, ill-pleased by Faramir's failed defence of Osgiliath, manipulates him into taking a doomed ride to reclaim the city. Gollum continues to play the hobbits against each other, this time by blaming Sam for eating their food provisions. Frodo, in his deluded state, is suspicious of Sam and orders him back home when Sam, trying to be helpful, offers to carry the Ring, thereby fulfilling Gollum's cunning prediction. Faramir rides head-long into the arrows of the encamped orcs as Pippin sings for Denethor who unconcernedly eats his noon meal. Faramir's attack fails and Faramir is dragged back by his horse in a death-like coma.At the weapon-take at Dunharrow, a hooded figure slowly rides on a white horse along the winding road to the encampment in the hills. The figure reveals himself to Aragorn as Elrond. He presents Aragorn with his birthright -- the newly reforged sword Narsil, now named Anduril, Flame of the West. He urges Aragorn to use this sword to recall the Dead Men of Dunharrow and use their allegiance to the heir of Isildur (i.e. Aragorn) to stop the attack of the Corsairs' ships, which are already sailing from the south. Aragorn accepts this counsel and rides off that very night into the Dimholt, along with Legolas and Gimli. As he is preparing to go, a tearful owyn comes to Aragorn and begs him not to go, declaring her love for him, but Aragorn, knowing now that Arwen has refused the promise of Valinor, likewise refuses owyn's love. The next morning, Thoden rides off to war with six thousand riders, unaware that owyn and Merry, who were both told to remain behind by the King, are part of his army.The Morgul forces, composed mostly of Orcs, begin the siege of Minas Tirith by catapulting the heads of captured prisoners over the walls. Denethor sees his son Faramir and believes him to be dead; he also beholds the might of the forces marshaled against him and at this he loses hope and his mind, ordering the Gondorians to abandon their positions. Gandalf, however, steps in and incapacitates Denethor, assuming control of the defense. A skirmish between Gondorian trebuchets and Mordor's catapults ensues until the Witch-king and the other Ringwraiths on their Fell Beasts attack, destroying the trebuchets and sewing terror among the defenders.Away in Cirith Ungol, Gollum betrays Frodo to the giant spider-creature Shelob, but Sam returns to fight her off. Sam believes Frodo is dead, but when Orcs from the Tower of Cirith Ungol come and investigate, Sam overhears that Frodo has only been paralysed by Shelob's stinger.In Minas Tirith, Denethor, stricken mad with grief at having spent both his sons, prepares a funeral pyre for himself and the unconscious Faramir. Denethor is unaware that Faramir is not dead and the pyre will burn him alive. Gandalf and Pippin arrive in the Hallows and manage to save Faramir, but Denethor is thrown onto the pyre and as he burns to death, he turns and sees his son stirring awake from his injuries and exhaustion. Down in the city, the battle goes ill with the Gondorians, as the huge battering ram Grond shatters the gates of the city and trolls pour in. As the defenders retreat to the upper levels of the city, the orcs crawl through the streets of the lower levels, looting, burning and massacring the men of Gondor. But suddenly in the midst of the chaos a lone horn penetrates the air and all turn to the west and see the army of Rohan arrive at last, to the rising of the sun. The Rohirrim charge into the Orcs with great effect. However their joy is cut short by the arrival of the forces of Harad and the immense elephants, the Mmakil. The Witch-king descends on Thoden, killing Snowmane his horse and fatally wounding the King. Seemingly in the nick of time, the Corsairs' ships arrive to help the stranded Orcs, but it is Aragorn who jumps off the lead ship, followed by an army of the dead. They completely destroy the Orcs and Mmakil, while owyn and Merry kill the Witch-king. Thoden dies of his wounds and Aragorn holds the Dead Army's oath fulfilled, releasing them from their curse so that they may rest in peace.Sam rescues Frodo from Cirith Ungol, which is mostly empty following a fight between the two factions of the Tower's Orc garrison over Frodo's valuable mithril shirt. They begin the long trek across Mordor to Mount Doom. Gandalf realizes that ten thousand Orcs stand between Cirith Ungol and Mount Doom, which will prevent Frodo from reaching his destination. Aragorn proposes they lead the remaining soldiers to the Black Gate to draw the Orcs away from Frodo's path, as well as distract the Eye of Sauron. Sam carries Frodo up to Mount Doom, but Gollum arrives and attacks them, just as the Battle of the Morannon begins. At the Crack of Doom, Frodo, instead of dropping the Ring into the fire, succumbs to its power and puts it on, disappearing from sight. The act alerts Sauron, who sends the Ringwraiths racing towards Mount Doom. Gollum renders Sam unconscious then attacks Frodo, seizing his ring finger and biting it off. As Gollum rejoices at finally having reclaimed his Precious, Frodo, still under the sway of the Ring's attraction, charges at Gollum. After a brief struggle, they both fall over the edge of the precipice. Gollum falls into the fire with the Ring, while Frodo barely hangs on with his strength failing. Sam rescues Frodo as the Ring finally sinks into the lava and is destroyed. Sauron's Eye screams as his essence fades before the tower of Barad-dr collapses and then explodes, forever banishing his power. The Orcs, Ringwraiths and the remaining forces of Sauron are consumed in the ensuing shockwave as the earth collapses under their feet; the Black Gate and Mordor are both shaken apart. Frodo and Sam become stranded when the entire top of Mount Doom is blown off in a large eruption. They voice their regrets at not being able to see the Shire again amidst the torrents of lava and the destruction of Barad-dur. With the destruction of the Nazgul, Gandalf is able to call upon the Eagles to carry the hobbits to safety. They awake in Minas Tirith, reuniting with the other members of the fellowship, all of them but Boromir having survived the War of the Ring.In Minas Tirith, Aragorn is crowned King of the West, heralding the new age of peace, and marries Arwen. Here is when everybody kneels down in homage to the little hobbits. The hobbits return to the Shire, where Sam marries Rosie Cotton (Sarah McLeod). Frodo, having finished writing his entry in the Red Book of Westmarch, is still suffering from the effects of the wounds he received from the Ringwraiths at Weathertop and from Shelob. Realizing that he will never have peace in Middle Earth, he decides to go with Gandalf, Bilbo, Elrond, and Galadriel to the Grey Havens and sail to Valinor, the Undying Lands. Before embarking at the havens, Frodo passes the Red Book to Sam to record the years of his life to come. Then the last ship to leave Middle Earth sets off, pulling slowly away from the shore and passing along the Straight Road into the Uttermost West. Pippin and Merry take their leave and Sam is left staring into the golden sunset. In the last scene, Sam walks back up the lane to Bag End, where he is greeted by his wife Rosie, and his children. Surrounded by his family and with the rest of his life ahead of him, Sam sighs and says "Well, I'm back." He goes inside and shuts the door as the screen fades to black.


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Shouting "Roma Invicta!" as his forces attack, General Maximus Decimus Meridius leads the Roman Army to victory against Germanic barbarians in the year 180 A.D., ending a prolonged war and earning the esteem of elderly Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Although the dying Aurelius has a son, Commodus, he decides to appoint temporary leadership to the morally-upstanding Maximus, with a desire to eventually return power to the Roman Senate. Aurelius informs Maximus and offers him time to consider before informing Commodus, who, in a bout of jealousy, murders his father.Declaring himself the emperor, Commodus asks Maximus for his loyalty, which Maximus, realizing Commodus' involvement in the Emperor's death, refuses. Commodus orders Maximus' execution and dispatches Praetorian Guards to murder Maximus' wife and son. Maximus narrowly escapes his execution and races home only to discover his family's charred and crucified bodies in the smoldering ruins of his villa. After burying his wife and son, a grieving Maximus succumbs to exhaustion and collapses on their graves.Slave traders find Maximus and take him to Zucchabar, a rugged province in North Africa, where he is purchased by Proximo, the head of a local gladiator school. Distraught and nihilistic over the death of his family and betrayal by his empire, Maximus initially refuses to fight, but as he defends himself in the arena his formidable combat skills lead to a rise in popularity with the audience. As he trains and fights further, Maximus befriends Hagen, a Germanic barbarian, and Juba, a Numidian hunter, the latter becoming a close friend and confidant to the grieving Maximus, the two speaking frequently of the afterlife and Maximus' eventual reunification with his family.In Rome, Commodus reopens the gladiatorial games to commemorate his father's death, and Proximo's company of gladiators are hired to participate. In a recreation of the Battle of Zama (incorrectly named the Battle of Carthage) at the Colosseum, Maximus leads Proximo's gladiators to decisive victory against a more powerful force, much to the amazement of the crowd. Commodus descends into the arena to meet the victors and is stunned to discover Maximus as the leader of Proximo's gladiators. The Emperor, unable to kill Maximus because of the crowd's roaring approval for him, sulks out of the arena.As the games continue, Commodus pits Maximus against Tigris of Gaul, Rome's only undefeated gladiator, in an arena surrounded by chained tigers with handlers instructed to target Maximus. Following an intense battle, Maximus narrowly defeats Tigris and awaits Commodus' decision to kill or spare Tigris. As Commodus votes for death, Maximus spares Tigris, deliberately insulting the Emperor and garnering the audience's approval. His bitter enemy now known as "Maximus the Merciful," Commodus becomes more frustrated at his inability to kill Maximus or stop his ascending popularity while Commodus' own popularity shrinks.Following the fight, Maximus meets his former servant Cicero, who reveals that Maximus's army remains loyal to him. They are camped at the port Ostia. Maximus forms a plot with Lucilla, Commodus' sister, and Senator Gracchus to reunite Maximus with his army and overthrow Commodus. Commodus however, suspecting his sister's betrayal, threatens her young son and forces her to reveal the plot. Praetorian guards immediately storm Proximo's gladiator barracks, battling the gladiators while Maximus escapes. Hagen and Proximo are killed in the siege while Juba and the survivors are imprisoned. Maximus escapes to the city walls only to witness Cicero's death and be ambushed by a legion of Praetorian guards.Concluding that legends born in the Colosseum must die there, Commodus personally challenges Maximus to a duel in front of a roaring audience. Acknowledging that Maximus' skill exceeds his own, Commodus deliberately stabs Maximus with a stiletto, puncturing his lung, and has the wound concealed beneath the gladiator's armor. In the arena, the two exchange blows before Maximus rips the sword from Commodus's hands. Commodus requests a sword from his guards, but they betray him and refuse to lend him their weapons. Maximus drops his own sword, but Commodus pulls a hidden stiletto and renews his attack. Maximus then beats Commodus into submission and kills him with his own stilletto.As Commodus collapses in the now-silent Colosseum, a dying Maximus begins seeing his wife and son in the afterlife. He reaches for them, but is pulled back to reality by the Praetorian prefect Quintus, who asks for instructions. Maximus orders the release of Proximo's gladiators and Senator Gracchus, whom he reinstates and instructs to return Rome to a Senate-based government. Maximus collapses, and Lucilla rushes to his aid. After being reassured that her son is safe and Commodus is dead, Maximus dies and wanders into the afterlife to his family in the distance. Senator Gracchus and Proximo's gladiators carry his body out of the Colosseum. That night, a newly freed Juba buries Maximus' two small statues of his wife and son in the Colosseum, and says that he too will eventually join them, but not yet.



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In 1941 Hawaii, Private Robert E. Lee Prewitt (Montgomery Clift) is transferred from the Bugle Corps at Fort Shafter (giving up his corporal stripes) to a rifle outfit, Company "G," at Schofield Barracks on the island of Oahu. When Captain Dana "Dynamite" Holmes (Philip Ober) learns of his reputation as a talented boxer, he recommends that Prewitt join the regimental boxing club that he heads, and promises that Prewitt will be promoted to corporal or even sergeant, if he helps win the boxing trophy on December 15. For reasons unknown to the regiment Prewitt adamantly refuses. Holmes retaliates by making army life as miserable as possible for Prewitt hoping he will agree to box. Unable to break Prewitt, Holmes orders First Sergeant Milton Warden (Burt Lancaster) to prepare court martial papers. Warden, however, knowing of Holmes' unfair treatment and realizing Prewitt is a thirty-year soldier (career soldier), suggests that he try to entice Prewitt to change his mind by doubling up on company punishment. The other non-commissioned officers assist in the conspiracy with brutal hazing rituals. Prewitt is supported only by his friend, Private Angelo Maggio (Frank Sinatra).
Meanwhile, behind his commander's back, Warden begins an affair with Holmes' neglected wife Karen (Deborah Kerr). Sergeant Maylon Stark (George Reeves) has told Warden of Karen's many affairs with other soldiers at Fort Bliss, including his own. As their relationship develops, Warden asks Karen about her numerous affairs to test her sincerity with him. Karen relates that Holmes had been unfaithful to her most of their marriage. She lost a baby when Holmes came back from one affair drunk, and unable to assist her to the hospital. She then affirms her genuine love for Warden.Prewitt and Maggio spend their liberty time at the New Congress Club, a gentleman's club in downtown Honululu where Prewitt meets, and falls for, Lorene (Donna Reed), a local dancer and call girl. Prewitt confides to Lorene the reason he refuses to box for the company is that he blinded a close friend while sparring. Maggio encounters Sergeant 'Fatso' Judson (Ernest Borgnine), a crass and racist sergeant at the club. When Maggio complains that Judson's piano playing is interfering with his dancing, the two nearly come to blows. Maggio is told that Judson is the Sergeant of the Guard at the stockade.Later, at a tavern called "Choy's," located near the base, Judson sees Maggio holding a photograph of his family. Judson makes an inappropriate comment to Prewitt about Maggio's sister causing Maggio to smash a bar stool on Judson's head. Judson pulls a switchblade on Maggio, but Warden, sitting in a corner, intervenes to save Maggio by telling Judson that killing Maggio would "create two weeks of paperwork" for him. When the brutal Judson advances on Warden with the knife, Warden breaks a beer bottle in two and uses the jagged edge as a weapon. Judson retreats, throws down his knife and goes to the bar for a drink. However, he warns Maggio that sooner or later Maggio would end up in the stockade and he would be there waiting for him.A few days later, Karen tells Warden that if he became an officer, she could divorce Holmes and they could return to the States and marry. Warden is not keen on the idea because of his dislike of officers, but agrees to consider the matter.Prewitt manages a weekend pass, courtesy of Warden, and goes to meet Lorene who is too busy at the club to talk. However, she meets him later at a bar for a drink. He tells Lorene he loves the Army, and shows Lorene his prized possession, a bugle mouthpiece. He tells her, "I played taps last Armistice Day at Arlington National Cemetery. The President was there." Maggio then walks in drunk and in uniform, explaining that he was assigned to for guard duty that night, but deserted his post. Lorene encourages Prewitt to take Maggio back to the base. While Prewitt is calling for a taxi, Military Police arrive and arrest Maggio, and he is sentenced to six months in the stockade for desertation.Matters come to a head for Prewitt when Sergeant Galovitch picks a fight with Prewitt while on yard detail, and the two come to blows. At first, Galovitch repeatedly pummels Prewitt, who initially refuses to fight back, and then resorts to using only body blows. But as Galovitch and others watching continue taunting him, he begins boxing, hitting Galovitch in the face and nearly managing to knock him out before Holmes finally steps in and stops the fight. When Galovitch falsely accuses Prewitt of insubordination, Holmes is about to punish Prewitt again until the man in charge of the detail says that it was Galovitch, not Prewitt, who was spoiling for the fight. Instead of punishing Galovitch, Holmes abruptly lets him off the hook and disperses the crowd. The entire incident is witnessed by the base commander, who orders an investigation by the Inspector General. When Holmes' true intentions are revealed, the general orders a court-martial. When Holmes begs for an alternative, the commanding officer's aide suggests that Holmes resign his commission "for the good of the service" and leave the Army, which the general accepts with dispatch. Holmes' replacement, Captain Ross, orders that Sergeant Galovitch be demoted to private and put in charge of the latrine.A few weeks later, Maggio manages to escape from the stockade and find Prewitt. He tells of the abuse he endured by Judson, then dies in Prewitt's arms. The next morning, Prewitt plays taps as tears stream down his cheeks. Seeking revenge, Prewitt tracks down Judson in town and invites him into a back alley to talk, then attacks him. The two fight with switchblades, Prewitt using the very same switchblade Judson had pulled on Maggio earlier. Prewitt kills Judson, but not before sustaining a serious stomach wound. Prewitt goes into hiding at Lorene's apartment. Despite Prewitt's AWOL status, his platoon sergeant carries him "present" for three days at Warden's direction. Lorene, whose real name is Alma, tends to Prewitt's wounds.On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor. Enemy planes also attack nearby Wheeler Air Base as well as the barricks. Warden leads several of his men in battle by climbing to the roofs of the barrcks and returns fire against straffing Japanese fighter planes, shooting down at least one of them.That evening, Prewitt, still weak from his unhealed wound, finds out about the attack over the radio, and attempts to return to camp under cover of darkness, despite protests from Lorene to wait. During the walk back to the barricks, Prewitt is spotted by several jittery sentries. He attemps to run instead of identifying himself and gets shot dead while running across a golf course. Warden arrives on the scene a few minutes later and identifies the body, laments Prewitt's stubbornness and states the irony that because of the attack, the December 15, 1941 boxing tournament is cancelled.Holmes' resignation results in Karen having to return to the States with him. When she finds out that Warden failed to apply for officer status, she realizes they will never be together.At the end, Lorene/Alma and Karen meet for the first and only time on a ship leaving for the mainland. Karen then tosses two leis into the water. She tells Alma, "If the leis go to shore, a person will return to Hawaii. If the leis float out to sea, a person will never return." Alma says she will never return, telling Karen that her fianc was an Army Air Corps pilot killed in a B-17 during the attack, "he was awarded the Silver Star, they sent it to his mother. She wrote me. She wanted me to have it. They are very fine people, Southern people. He was named after a general. Robert E. Lee Prewitt." Karen recognizes Prewitt's name from conversations with Warden. (It is clearly apparent that the U.S. Army has covered up the true nature of Prewitt's death by claiming he died a hero rather then going AWOL and getting accidently killed). Lorene/Alma holds Prewitt's treasured bugle mouth piece.



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An American flag back-lighted by the afternoon sun gently flaps in the breeze. The camera pulls back to reveal the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial. An elderly man (Harrison Young) approaches the cemetery and walks among the rows of gravestones, which are mostly marble crosses, with an occasional Star of David marking the grave of a Jewish soldier. He is accompanied by his wife, his daughter and her husband, and three teenage granddaughters. He searches the crosses and stops at a specific one, where he falls to his knees, crying. His family walks up behind him and tries to comforts him. The camera slowly zooms in on his face, into his eyes.June 6, 1944, Omaha Beach, Dog Green Sector:On the choppy waters of the English Channel, American Ranger soldiers are headed to Omaha Beach in landing vehicles. The captain of one unit, John H. Miller (Tom Hanks), tells his men to, upon landing, "clear the murder holes" and check their rifles for sand and water when they exit the boats. Miller's right hand shakes nervously.The moment the landing ramp at the front of the boat opens, a number of men are immediately struck down by machine gun fire from concrete German bunkers built into the cliffs overlooking the beach. To avoid the machine gun fire, other men jump over the gunwales of the landing boats and into the surf. Some drown under the weight of their heavy gear. Upon gaining the beach, many take refuge behind the wooden landing craft obstacles and the thin flanks of the steel tank obstacles blocking approaches to the beach.As Miller crawls up the sand, a mortar shell hits nearby and the blast temporarily stuns him, knocking his helmet off. Miller's is stunned and his hearing is reduced to a dull, muddled noise. He watches as men around him are hit by bullets or the blast of mortar rounds, or are simply too scared to move. One private looks Miller in the eye and asks him what to do. Miller's hearing slowly returns and he orders his sergeant, Mike Horvath (Tom Sizemore) to move his men up the beach and out of the line of enemy fire. As Miller staggers up the beach, he drags a wounded man. The man is hit by a mortar blast and is killed; Miller suddenly discovers that he's been dragging less than half the man's dismembered remains. The German barrage kills most of the US Army troops and leaves twice as many wounded; many of the wounded are eviscerated or missing limbs and slowly bleed to death on the beach, despite the efforts of medics to treat them.Whomever is left in Miller's platoon assembles at a sandbar that provides very little cover from the German bombardment. Miller orders his men to use bangalore explosives to clear out the barbed wire and mines behind the sandbar for their advance. The men make it to the nearest concrete bunker where a German machine gun nest on a nearby cliff keeps them from moving further. After sending a few of his men into the fire zone where they're cut down immediately, Miller has his sniper, Pvt. Daniel Jackson (Barry Pepper), run into the fire zone and take out the men in the machine gun nest. Jackson's efforts are successful and Miller moves his men behind the bunker where a soldier with a flamethrower sets the bunker ablaze.On the beach, one soldier yells to the others to let the German soldiers burn as they jump out of the bunker. Miller's men engage other German soldiers in the trenches behind the bunker, quickly creating an exit route from Omaha for the rest of the battalion. Miller also watches as a few men mercilessly execute a few surrendering German and Czech soldiers. Pvt. Adrian Caparzo (Vin Diesel) finds a Hitler Youth knife which he gives to his friend, Pvt. Stanley Mellish (Adam Goldberg) (a Jew); Mellish begins to sob. Horvath collects a handful of dirt in a small metal can marked "France" and puts it into his haversack alongside cans marked "Italy" and "Africa". Horvath comments to Miller that the beach commands "quite a view"; it is covered with the bodies of thousands of dead and wounded American soldiers. On the backpack of one of them is the name "S. Ryan".At the War Department in the United States, rows of secretaries are typing death notices to be sent to the families of the men killed in various battles around the world. One of the women typing discovers three letters for three men from the same family. The three men are all brothers from the Ryan family of Iowa and their mother will receive all three letters at the same time. The fourth and youngest son of Mrs. Ryan, James Francis, is part of the 101st Airborne Division, dropped into Normandy ahead of the beach invasion and his whereabouts are unknown. The letters are brought to the attention of General George Marshall (Harve Presnell) who, after reading a poignant letter sent by Abraham Lincoln to a family under similar circumstances during the Civil War, orders his officers to find James and have him brought home immediately.Back in Normandy, three days after D-Day, Miller meets with his commanding officer and reports on a mission that cost the lives of many of his men. Lieutenant Colonel Anderson (Dennis Farina) gives him new orders; Miller is tasked with taking a squad into Normandy to find Pvt. James Francis Ryan and bring him back. Miller gathers what men he can and finds Corporal Timothy E. Upham (Jeremy Davies) in the camp press box to accompany the squad as a translator - Upham speaks fluent French and German, to replace his previous interpreter. The squad sets out in the French countryside. Upham tries to talk to Mellish and Caparzo but finds them unfriendly and even insulting. The squad's medic, Irwin Wade (Giovanni Ribisi), asks Upham about a book he plans to write about the bonds of friendship among soldiers. Richard Reiben (Edward Burns), a hotheaded private from Brooklyn, questions the mission, wanting to know if the effort to find Ryan is worth the lives of men who should be fighting more important battles to liberate France and Europe. Miller himself is also skeptical about the mission but understands that his current orders are more important.The squad arrives in a small French village where Army units are currently at a standstill with the German forces they're fighting. Miller asks the nearest sergeant if Ryan is among his unit, but he's not. In an attempt to get information from the Army unit on the other side of town, they send a runner across the battlefield. The runner is cut down almost immediately. They cross the town via some side roads and come across a French family trying to escape their bombed home, but caught in cross fire. The father insists the squad take his young daughter to safety; Miller refuses but Caparzo steps out from cover to take her, against orders. He is shot in the chest by a sniper and falls, still alive, caught in the open. The squad takes cover, unable to pull Caparzo to safety. Jackson quickly identifies the town's bell tower as the sniper's likely shooting position. He finds a nearby pile of rubble that he uses to counter-fire on the sniper. As the sniper looks for another target among the squad, he sees Jackson a moment too late, and is shot through his own scope. Caparzo dies, bleeding to death. Miller looks down on his body and harshly tells his men that this is why they follow orders. They're not here to take in any children. Wade retrieves a blood-stained letter from the body that Caparzo had been writing to his father.In another part of the village, the squad and the other soldiers sit down inside a bombed building to rest. A sergeant sends one of his men to find their CO. When the sergeant sits down, he knocks over a weakened brick wall that reveals a squad of German soldiers inside the building. A standoff ensues, with both sides pointing their weapons at each other, and both demanding the other put down their guns. The impasse is unexpectedly ended when the Germans are cut down by machine-gun fire from the unit's Captain (Ted Danson) and the soldier sent to find him.Miller asks the captain if he has a Pvt. Ryan in his unit. The captain confirms that he does, and Ryan (Nathan Fillion) is brought to Miller who tells him his brothers are dead. The man breaks down and asks how they died and Miller tells him they were killed in combat. Ryan is incredulous, telling Miller that his brothers are still in grade school. Miller confirms the man's full name, and learns that he is James "Frederick" Ryan from Minnesota; Miller, exasperated, tells Ryan he's sure his brothers are just fine. From another private being treated for a leg wound, also from the 101st, the squad learns that the 101st's rallying point is nearby and that Ryan may have gone there.The squad spends a few hours resting in a church. Wade rewrites the blood-stained letter Caparzo wanted to send to his father. Horvath and Miller talk about how many men Miller has lost under his command. Miller accepts that men die in combat for the greater good. Cpl. Upham talks to the captain about a betting pool the men have going where they try to guess Miller's occupation before the war began. Upham and Miller come to a silent agreement that when the pool is big enough, Miller will tell him the answer.The squad arrives at a rally point near a wrecked troop glider. The rally point is filled with dozens of wounded GIs. Sitting among the men is the pilot of the glider who tells them he doesn't know where to find Pvt. James Ryan. The pilot's glider went down after being towed because steel plates had been welded to its underside to protect a general in his jeep, making the glider too heavy to fly. The glider crashed, killing the general. The squad reflects on the efforts to protect only a single man. The pilot gives Miller a bag full of dog tags taken from dead soldiers. Miller has his men go through them looking for Ryan. They do so rather callously while men from Army Airborne units march by. Wade walks over and starts picking up the tags, muttering that his comrades are acting rather coldly in front of the passing soldiers. Miller concludes that Ryan isn't among them and in a minor fit of desperation, beings to question the passing soldiers, asking if any of them know Ryan. He gets lucky with one man who is from Ryan's unit and has lost his hearing from a grenade blast, so he yells his answers. The man tells him that Ryan was assigned to a mixed unit that's guarding a bridge across the Merderet River in the nearby village of Ramelle. Miller determines that the bridge is of vital importance to the Army and the Germans because it will allow either to drive their tank units across the water.The squad sets out again. They spot two dead GIs in a field and confirm that none of them are Ryan. Miller and Horvath spot a machine gun nest near a partially destroyed radar dish. Though it would be easier, as Reiben suggests, to keep their distance from the machine gun and slip quietly around it, Miller resolves to take out the German's position so that the next Allied unit will not be surprised and killed. The squad is against his plan, but he won't relent, and gives them their assignments. Upham is instructed to stay behind with their gear. The squad attacks the machine gun emplacement, while Upham watches through one of Jackson's sniper's scopes. When the skirmish is over, the men yell frantically for Upham to bring their gear. When Upham reaches them, he sees that Wade has been shot several times in the chest and is bleeding. The men frantically try to save his life but Wade dies, saying he wants to go home. One of the Germans (Joerg Stadler) is captured alive and in retribution, the squad rushes around him, beating him. Miller is undecided how to dispose of the German POW, and orders that he dig graves for Wade and the two GIs they saw in the field. When Upham protests that prisoners aren't to be treated like slaves, Miller coldly orders Upham to help the German. As the German digs the graves, Miller sits off to one side where he cries, his right hand shaking again. He slowly recovers his composure and returns to the squad.Miller's squad wants to kill the remaining German, excepting Upham. The German begs for his life, saying he loves America, saying "Fuck Hitler!!". The men are unmoved and prepare their weapons to kill him when Miller intervenes. He blindfolds the German and, to the astonishment of the squad, lets the man walk off, directing Upham to tell him to surrender to the next Allied unit. Reiben in particular is offended by Miller's compassion and threatens to desert, saying that their mission has gotten two of their comrades killed. Horvath orders Reiben to fall into formation and threatens to shoot him. The entire squad begins to argue heatedly and Miller suddenly asks Upham what's the total of the pool on him. Miller reveals that he's an English composition teacher in a small Pennsylvania town. The men stop arguing, surprised by Miller. Miller says the war has changed him and he's not sure if his wife will recognize him and if he'll be able to resume his former life when he returns home. He reasons that if finding and bringing Ryan back ensures that he'll be able to get home sooner, then it's his job to complete the mission. The squad finishes burying Wade and the other GIs.The exhausted squad approaches Ramelle. While crossing a field, they spot a German half-track. Miller orders everyone to take cover while the vehicle passes. The half-track is suddenly hit by bazooka fire. Miller's squad is momentarily confused, uncertain who is firing, but moves in and kills Germans as they escape the destroyed vehicle. A small group of American soldiers emerge from their positions in the field and identify themselves as paratroopers from various Airborne units. One of them identifies himself as Pvt James Ryan (Matt Damon) .In the ruins of the village of Ramelle, Miller's squad learns that Ryan and his comrades are guarding one of two remaining bridges across the Merderet River. Their commanding officer had been killed a few days before. Miller tells Ryan that his three brothers are dead and that he's been given a ticket home. Ryan is devastated by the news of his family but refuses to leave, saying that it's his duty to stay with his unit and defend the bridge until relief arrives. Ryan says his mother would understand his desire to remain at the bridge with the "only brothers [he] has left." Miller can't change Ryan's mind. Miller and Horvath reflect on Ryan's refusal and they decide to stay and help the unit defend the bridge.Miller inventories their few remaining weapons and supplies. Miller outlines a plan to bottle up German tanks on the main street of Ramelle, where the rubble creates a narrow choke point that will channel the German troops into a bottleneck and allow the soldiers to flank the Germans. Their plan includes Reiben riding out on a German half-track motorcycle to lure the German unit into the bottleneck. Miller suggests they improvise "sticky bombs," socks stuffed with Composition B explosives and coated with grease. They'll use the sticky bombs to blast the treads off a tank. They retrieve some spare Comp B from the demolition charges on the bridge. Upham is given the job of running ammunition to the two Browning machine gun positions manned by Mellish and 101st paratrooper Parker (Demetri Goritsas). Jackson and Parker take position in the church tower.The men wait for the Germans to arrive, listening to "Tous es Partout" by Edith Piaf, while Upham interprets. Ryan tells Miller that he can remember his brothers but he can't see their faces. Miller suggests he "think of a context", something they've all done together. Miller tells Ryan when he wants to remember his wife, he thinks of her trimming rosebushes. Ryan tells the story of how he and his brothers nearly burned down the barn on their farm when they snuck up on their oldest brother, Danny, while he was trying to have sex with a local girl in the hayloft. James laughs and stops when he realizes that the incident was the last time they were all together, over two years ago, before any of them had gone to basic training. When Ryan asks Miller to tell him about his wife and the rosebushes, Miller politely refuses, saying that memory is for him alone.The squad feels the ground beginning to rumble, indicating that the German column has arrived. Jackson signals from the church tower that there are two Panzer tanks (which turn out to be Marder III self-propelled guns) and two Tiger I heavy tanks. There are also at least 50 German troops. Miller orders everyone to their positions and Reiben rides out to act as the rabbit to lure the Germans into town. One of the Tiger tanks proceeds down the main street, and one of the soldiers attempts to plant a sticky bomb on the tank. He waits too long and the bomb blows up, killing him. The German troops following the tank are cut down by the soldiers and by mines planted along the sides. Two men plant the Comp B bombs on the wheels of the Tiger, blasting it's tread apart, eventually bringing it to a halt. Ryan and Miller's squads open fire and shift positions several times during the battle. Though they take the Germans by surprise, several of the men are killed. Jackson is discovered in his perch and is hit by tank fire. Mellish and Corporal Henderson (Maximilian Martini) man a .30 caliber machine gun to cut off any flanking action by the Germans. Henderson is killed and then Mellish is attacked by a German soldier (Mac Steinmeier) who overpowers him in hand-to-hand combat, slowly driving a bayonet into Mellish's chest. Immediately outside the room on the stairs, Cpl. Upham sits, frozen with terror, unable to move to rescue Mellish.The German soldier kills Mellish and marches out, indifferent to the terrified Upham. Several more American men are killed when the Germans open fire with an 20 millimeter anti-aircraft flak cannon. Reiben is able to flank the cannon and takes out its operators. Sgt. Horvath is wounded during this time when he and another soldier corner each other. They each chuck helmets at each other, then shoot each other with their pistols. The German soldier here is killed and Horvath is injured. He grabs Upham and retreats when Miller orders everyone to cross the bridge to their "Alamo" position, where they'll make their last stand. The surviving 60-ton Tiger tank follows and appears to be unstoppable despite Horvath shooting several bazooka rockets at it in a futile attempt to disable it. Horvath is shot in the chest as he pulls back and dies a few minutes later. Miller prepares to destroy the bridge when a shell from the Tiger hits the building behind him, blowing the detonator out of his hands. He staggers across the bridge to retrieve it and is shot in the chest by the same German soldier (Joerg Stadler) he'd set free at the radar station.Miller falls, unable to continue. He draws his .45 pistol and begins to shoot vainly at the Tiger tank, which has begun to cross the bridge. After a few shots, the tank impossibly explodes. A small squadron of P-51 Mustang fighters suddenly zoom into view, having bombed the tank and several enemy targets. Reiben and Ryan rush to Miller's side and call for a medic. Upham, still on the other side of the bridge, is undetected by the enemy squad. He reveals himself and takes the entire squad prisoner. One of them is the man they captured earlier and who also shot Miller -- Upham had seen the German shoot Miller. The man recognizes Upham and calls him by name. After a moment's hesitation, Upham fires his weapon for the first time, killing the man. He orders the rest of the prisoners to disperse.As Miller lays dying, Ryan tells him that the planes are P-51 Mustangs, "tank busters." Miller calls them "Angels on our shoulders." He beckons Ryan closer and with his dying breath, tells him "Earn this... earn it." In a voiceover, General George Marshall's voice reads a letter to Ryan's mother, informing her that her son is returning home. He quotes a passage from Lincoln's letter about the cost of war.Ryan stands looking at Miller's body. The camera focuses on Ryan's young face as it morphs into Ryan in the present. He is standing at Captain Miller's grave. He tells Miller that he hopes he's lived up to Miller's wish and been worthy of all that Miller and his men did for him. He asks his wife to tell him that he's led a good life and that he's a good man. The elder Ryan (Harrison Young) salutes Miller's grave. An American flag back-lighted by the afternoon sun gently flaps in the breeze.



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William Munny (Clint Eastwood) is a widower with two young children. He was once a very vicious gunfighter, but after marrying, gave up gunfighting, drinking, and most other vices. His wife died of smallpox in 1878, but he continues to try to eke out a living with his children on their hog farm, and to try to be the kind of man he believes his late wife would want him to be. It is now 1880.The town of Big Whiskey, Wyoming is ruled rather arbitrarily by a sheriff named Little Bill Daggett (Gene Hackman). Two cowboys, Davey (Rob Campbell) and Mike (David Mucci) are spending their leave at a brothel owned by Skinny Dubois (Anthony James). One of the women, Delilah, makes an offhanded comment that Mike perceives as an insult, so he attacks her with a knife, scarring her face. Skinny and the de facto madam, Strawberry Alice (Frances Fisher) hold them until Little Bill can arrive. The women want Davey and Mike to hang, but Little Bill decides that since they did not murder Delilah, they should be horse-whipped instead. However, Skinny is more concerned with potential loss of business due to Delilah's disfigurement. So Little Bill decrees that instead of being horsewhipped, the men will have to give Skinny some horses. This outrages the women even more, and afterward they meet privately and pool all their resources to offer a reward to anyone who will kill the two attackers.We meet Munny on his farm trying to deal with some sick hogs. It quickly becomes clear that he is not a very good hog farmer, as he repeatedly falls in the mud when trying to grab a hog. In the midst of this he has a visitor, a young man calling himself the Scofield Kid (Jaimz Woolvett), who knows Munny by reputation and would like his help in killing Davey and Mike in return for half the reward money. Munny makes it clear that he is not interested because, since marrying his late wife, he doesn't do the things he used to do anymore. But after the Kid leaves, Munny goes back to his bumbling attempts at tending hogs, and begins to have second thoughts. He sets a can on a tree stump and begins firing at it with his pistol, without hitting it. Finally he goes in the house and gets his rifle, and blows the can away on the first shot.Back in Big Whiskey, Davey and Mike show up with the horses for Skinny. The women throw stones and horse manure at them. Mike has never shown any remorse at any point, but Davey seems genuinely sorry about what happened to Delilah. He pointedly tells Skinny that one of the horses is not for him, and then offers it to Delilah. The women only throw more manure.Realizing that he will need help in the tracking down the wayward cowboys, Munny decides to contact his former partner, Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman). He says goodbye to his kids, telling them if they need anything to see Ned's common law wife, Sally Two Trees. After several bumbling and unsuccessful attempts to mount his horse, he finally mounts successfully and rides to Ned's. Sally, apparently recognizing that whatever Munny has in mind cannot end well, just glares at him without speaking the entire time he is there. If looks could kill, not only Munny and Ned but the entire movie audience would be dead by the end of the scene. But as it is, the two men ride off in pursuit of the Kid. Eventually they catch him, and soon discern that he is severely nearsighted and can't see a target more than 50 feet away.The first to arrive in Big Whiskey in pursuit of the reward is a gray-haired Englishman known as English Bob (Richard Harris). We first meet him traveling on a train with his biographer, named Beauchamp (Saul Rubinek). President Garfield has just been shot (which, of course, occurred in 1881, meaning that some months have passed since the original attack on Delilah), and Bob is lecturing his fellow-passengers on the benefits of monarchy over democracy (despite the Russian Tsar also being assassinated earlier that same year). He and Beauchamp arrive in Big Whiskey, where Little Bill catches him concealing a gun. He brutally beats and kicks Bob until he is nearly unconscious, then throws both him and Beauchamp in jail. At the jail, Little Bill debunks many of the stories Bob has told Beauchamp about his exploits. Soon Beauchamp is out of his cell and working as Little Bill's biographer rather than Bob's. Little Bill finally puts Bob on a train out of town. Munny and his companions see the train carrying English Bob go by as they approach town.A torrential downpour begins, and by the time the Munny party reaches town, Munny is sick with fever. Arriving at the saloon, Ned and the Kid go upstairs to engage the services of the prostitutes, but Munny doesn't do that sort of thing anymore and remains downstairs. Little Bill sizes Munny up as an out-of-towner after the reward money, and beats and kicks him in a similar way to what he did to English Bob, has him thrown out into the street, and sends his deputies upstairs after Ned and the Kid. Ned and the Kid escape through a window, manage to get Munny onto his horse, and ride out of town, where Ned nurses Munny back to health with the help of some of the prostitutes.By the time Munny has regained his health, the rain has stopped but there is snow on the ground. In the next scene the snow is gone, meaning some time has been elapsing as Munny's partners have scouted out their targets. In that next scene, we see Davey with a group of cowboys chasing a calf. A shot rings out, hitting Davey's horse, which falls over, breaking the man's leg and pinning him to the ground. Ned fired the shot, but now he can't bring himself to finish the man off, and the Kid can't see that far, so Munny fires several shots and finally hits him. As Davey lies dying, he complains of being thirsty. Munny calls out to the other cowboys to give the man a drink, and promises not to shoot. They do, and Munny is true to his word.Ned has had enough of killing and leaves his companions to return home, but is captured by Little Bill's men, and we see him being interrogated by Little Bill. Men are also assigned to protect Mike. Munny and the Kid wait outside the house where Mike and his guards are holed up. When Mike comes out to use the outhouse, the Kid waits until he is finished and then shoots him. But the Kid can't deal with the fact that he has killed a man (he has boasted repeatedly of having killed five men, but now admits that this was his first), and resolves to never kill again, telling Munny, "I'm not like you." Munny has him drink some whiskey, but it doesn't help.One of the prostitutes brings the reward money and informs them that Ned has been killed, after revealing Munny's identity. Munny sends the Kid home with the reward money, telling him to leave his and Ned's shares with his children and take the rest and use it to buy some good spectacles. He then rides toward town, drinking whiskey from a bottle as he goes. Outside the saloon, he sees Ned's body upright in an open casket, with a sign saying that this is what happens to assassins in this town.Munny enters the saloon, where most of the townsmen have gathered. He asks who owns the establishment, and when Skinny identifies himself, Munny tells the men near him to move away, and then shoots him. Little Bill calls him a coward for shooting an unarmed man, but Munny replies, "He should have armed himself, if he's going to decorate his saloon with my friend." He then tells those near Little Bill to move away. His shotgun misfires, but he throws it at Little Bill, draws his pistol and shoots him, and shoots several other men attempting to draw guns on him; some of them get shots off before Munny kills them, but none hit him.He then tells everyone who doesn't want to be killed to leave, and all who are able to leave do so. He goes to the bar and helps himself to more whiskey. Beauchamp was not able to leave because of a body lying on top of him. Munny has him give him a rifle lying nearby, which he loads. Beauchamp tries to engage him in conversation about gunfighting, but Munny's response frightens him into leaving as well. Little Bill turns out to still be alive, but Munny hears him cock his pistol, and steps on his hand before he can get a shot off.As Munny aims his rife at Little Bill, the latter complains that he doesn't deserve this. Munny replies, "'Deserves' has nothing to do with it." Little Bill then says, "I'll see you in hell, William Munny." Munny simply replies, "Yeah," and shoots him. As he walks to the saloon door, one of the men he shot previously moans in pain, and he shoots him again.At the door, he announces that he is coming out, that he will kill anyone he sees, and if anyone shoots at him, he will kill not only the shooter but his wife and all his friends and burn his house down. He walks to his horse, and no one shoots. He mounts his horse and as he rides past Ned's body, he announces that if they don't bury Ned right, or if they harm the prostitutes in any way, he'll come back and kill every man in the town.As the closing credits roll, we learn that Munny subsequently moved with his children to San Francisco, where he "prospered in dry goods."



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In the spring of 1936 an exploration party penetrates thick jungle on the South American continent. When the group's leader stops to examine map fragments, another of the group pulls a gun. The leader, hearing the click as the turncoat chambers a round, pulls out a bullwhip and disarms the man, sending him fleeing back through the jungle. The man who expertly wields the bullwhip is Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones, Jr. (Harrison Ford), an archaeologist with a reputation for heavy-handed field work that takes him around the globe in search of ancient treasures.Indy and his remaining companion, Sapito (Alfred Molina), enter a dank and oppressively vast cave, where a competitor of his, Forrestal, disappeared. Inside the cave are several traps rigged by the ancient people who hid a small, valuable statue there -- and one of the traps is found to have snared Forrestal. Jones finds the antechamber where the statue sits atop a pedestal and is protected by an elaborate system of pressure-sensitive stones that release deadly darts from the surrounding walls. Jones avoids the booby-trapped stones and makes it to the idol. He very deftly replaces the idol with a bag of sand, judging the weight of the treasure by sight. However, the weight is not precise, the pedestal sinks and the chamber begins to disintegrate. Jones runs, narrowly avoiding the darts. When he arrives at a bottomless pit he & Sapito had crossed earlier using Jones' bullwhip, Sapito crosses safely but refuses to give Jones his whip unless he gives him the idol. Sapito drops the whip and runs off. Jones manages to jump across and pull himself up and escape under the stone door that closes. He finds Sapito dead, killed by the same trap that killed Forrestal. Jones retrieves the idol and must once again flee while a large boulder rushes toward him.Seemingly safe, Indy is cornered by the Hovitos, the local tribe, who are led by Dr. Rene Belloq (Paul Freeman), an arrogant French archaeologist who is a longtime rival and enemy of Indy's. Indy flees and is rescued by Jock (Fred Sorenson), flying a seaplane, though Indy isn't pleased to find Jock's pet snake Reggie inside.Back stateside, Indy teaches an archeology class and is still upset over the loss of the statue, which he surmises Belloq is taking to Marrakesh; he has found pieces he feels will pay for a trip to Marrakesh to find Belloq, but Indy's friend Marcus Brody (Denholm Elliott) dashes that hope by informing him that two Army Intelligence officers want to talk to him about Abner Ravenwood, his former teacher, who was his friend until Indy broke up with his daughter, Marion (Karen Allen).The Army officers are concerned because they've intercepted a German cable concerning a mammoth archaeological dig in the Egyptian desert. When they read the cable, Indy and Marcus realize the Nazis have discovered Tanis, an ancient city buried in a gigantic sandstorm in 980 B.C. and the possible burial site of the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark was built by ancient Hebrews to hold the stone tablets on which Moses inscribed the Ten Commandments. It holds immense mystical power -- enough to allow the Nazis to level mountains and lay waste to entire regions.Indy flies to Nepal (followed by a Nazi agent, Toht (Ronald Lacey)) to confront Marion Ravenwood, who runs a restaurant and bar (and who can outdrink anyone) because he needs the headpiece to the Staff of Ra, whose crystals will allow him to determine the exact location of the Ark. Marion, still bitter over their breakup, nonetheless accepts when Indy offers her $3,000 and the promise of more when they return stateside. She is cryptic about the headpiece, and after Indy leaves she ponders it as she wears it around her neck.Toht and several Sherpa heavies enter the bar and hold Marion hostage, with Toht ready to torture her for the headpiece. Indy returns and a firefight erupts during which the fireplace is dislodged and the building begins burning down. Toht finds the headpiece but when he grabs it he's badly burned -- leaving an image of one side of the headpiece branded on his hand. He escapes while Indy and Marion do likewise and fly to Egypt to see Indy's pal, Sallah (John Rhys-Davies), who is working on the Nazi site and who reveals that the Nazis are aided by a French archaeologist (Belloq).Later, while shopping at a Cairo bazaar, Indy and Marion are attacked by sword-wielding Arabs working for Nazi agents. Indy fights them off but in the confusion Marion is trapped in a large basket and taken by two of the terrorists. The effort to track her down is held up by a man brandishing a sword in intimidating fashion. The swordsman is shot down in short order by a thoroughly unimpressed Indy.Soon Indy spots a basket carried to a truck filled with explosives and is fired on by a submachine-gun-wielding assailant. His Nazi commander orders the Arabs to take off, but Indy shoots them and the truck crashes, exploding and destroying the basket.Disconsolate over losing Marion, Indy drowns his sorrows in drink but is met by more Nazi agents who escort him to a table at which is seated Belloq, who gleefully talks about finding the Ark. Indy, no longer caring whether he lives or dies, reaches for his sidearm as Arabs inside pull rifles -- only to see Sallah's large brood of children rush in and the "Arabs" to turn out to be US Marines, much to the embarassment of Belloq.Sallah takes Indy to see a shaman who is reading the Ra headpiece after both men have learned that Belloq and his Wehrmacht aide, Colonel Dietrich (Wolf Kahler), have obtained a copy of the headpiece. (Neither man is aware that it is a duplicate traced from Toht's burned hand.) The shaman reveals two critical facts: first, that the headpiece gives the precise height of the Staff of Ra, and second, that the staff the Nazis used was too long -- so their excavation is over a mile away from the Ark's actual burial site, which is known as the Well of Souls.Infiltrating the mammoth site, Indy is lowered into an underground maproom containing a precisely detailed miniature of the city. Using the Ra headpiece, he identifies the precise location of the Well of Souls. Sneaking further around the gigantic camp, Indy is shocked to find Marion, alive but bound and gagged. Indy starts to free her, but when she reveals that the Nazis keep asking about him and what he knows, he realizes he can't cut her loose without revealing his presence to the Nazis.Late that afternoon Indy and Sallah sneak a digging party of their own to the actual location of the Well of Souls. Late into the night they dig open the chamber, and to Indy's horror it is filled with dangerous snakes. Indy clears an area of snakes with burning torches, then lowers himself into the chamber and burns many of the snakes alive with flaming gasoline. Sallah follows and the two eventually find the gigantic chest that is the Ark.By now it is dawn, and only now does Belloq notice the commotion a mile away. The Nazis surround the site and Indy is left trapped inside, but Dietrich leaves him with something else -- Marion, who is thrown into the chamber and the area closed off.Indy notices a wall where snakes are entering. He climbs a mammoth statue and with all his might breaks it from its foundation and it crashes through the wall. The two find an opening to the surface, and discover the airfield at the excavation camp, where there is a bizarre Nazi transport plane. The two sneak up to the plane, but Indy is attacked by a mechanic and a prolonged fight ensues that is joined by a burly Nazi who pummels Indy before being punched backward and shredded to bits by the plane's propellers. Marion seizes one of the plane's machine guns and opens fire on Nazi soldiers, in the process setting a fuel dump aflame. The fire destroys the area and the plane explodes, but Indy and Marion escape.Dietrich orders his men to transport the Ark by truck to Cairo. When Sallah finds Indy and Marion, he is overjoyed they're alive and tells them of Dietrich's plan. Indy takes a horse and pursues the convoy, seizing the truck containing the Ark and surviving a brutal chase and fight with Nazi soldiers to drive the Ark to safety.He and Marion board a ship taking the Ark back to the US, but a Nazi submarine captures the ship. The Ark is taken aboard the sub and Marion taken prisoner for Belloq. Indy, however, escapes Nazi pursuit and rides the submarine as it sails on the ocean surface to an island where Belloq and the Nazis trek to the top of a mountain.Indy has grabbed a rocket launcher and intercepts Belloq, vowing to blow up the Ark unless Marion is freed. But Belloq calls Indy's bluff, knowing Indy wants to know what the Ark contains as much as anyone. Indy finds he can't carry out his threat, and is seized.At an elaborate ceremony atop the mountain Indy and Marion, tied to a pole, can only watch as the Ark is opened, but it contains nothing but sand, the remains of the stone tablets. No sooner is it opened, however, than its spirits suddenly appear. Indy and Marion, remembering an ancient code that requires people to close their eyes and not look at the now-freed spirits, withstand the mayhem that ensues as the energy of the Ark surges forth and its spirits attack the now-terrified Nazis, killing the entire contingent and destroying Belloq in gruesome fashion. The energy mass surges high into the sky before returning to the Ark and resealing it, leaving Indy and Marion drained but freed.Weeks later Indy and Marcus feud with the Army officers over the whereabouts of the Ark, Indy angry that the Army has no idea what it has in the Ark -- though it appears they in fact do understand what they have, as the Ark is sealed in a large crate and stored anonymously in a gigantic government warehouse, never to be seen again.


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Philadelphia Pennsylvania, home to the number one underdog fighter, Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stalone). The date is November 25, 1975, Rocky is fighting Spider Rico in a prize fight at a local church arena. The fight goes smooth through the first couple of rounds. Before beginning the next round, Rocky and Spider get up from their corners after receiving advice from their corner-men and the fight continues. After a couple of punches, Spider grabs a hold of Rocky and headbutts him in the face. The crowd goes restless on Spider. Rocky, after recovering from the hit, goes after Spider and finishes him off. The bell rings signalling the end of the fight and Rocky is pronounced the winner. Rocky and Spider both leave the ring and head back to the locker room. One woman loser in the arena audience shouts at Rocky "you're a bum!" as he leaves the ring. In the locker room, Rocky and Spider get their prize money for the fight in which Spider Rico gets $17.80 after taxes and gym expenses, Rocky's winning prize is $40.50 after taxes and expenses. Rocky approaches and finds Spider lying on a bed where he tells Rocky that he was "lucky".Rocky walks home in the cold seedy night through the trash-strewn streets of Frankford Avenue in the crime-ridden Kensington neighborhood after the fight and arrives home to a small one-room apartment on a side street to feed his pet turtles, Cuff and Link. He grabs a can of the turtle food and recites himself a line regarding the item into the mirror. He then looks at a picture of himself from his youth and then grabs some ice from the freezer and puts it on the cut that Spider gave him and lies down on his bed.The next morning, Rocky visits the local pet shop where Adrian (Talia Shire) works and talks about the turtle food that he bought. Adrian, being shy and quiet, doesn't respond to Rocky even after he tells her a joke about the food. Her boss commands her to clean out the cat cages and she walks away not paying attention to Rocky.Rocky is walking down at the docks with a stick in his hand whistling, and out to collect money for his boss, Tony Gazzo, a local loan shark. He finds a man riding a forklift and when the man sees Rocky, he drives away. Rocky chases him on foot and breaks his stick off the forklift. The man runs from the forklift and Rocky catches up to him demanding Gazzo's money totaling $200. He tells Rocky that he doesn't have enough money but offers him his coat and around $130. Rocky takes the money, but refuses to hit the deadbeat guy and instead gives him a warning.A little later, Gazzo (Joe Spinell) and his driver/bodyguard Buddy, pick up Rocky on a bridge near the docks and Rocky tells him about the man and gives Gazzo what money the deadbeat had on him. Gazzo gives Rocky $20 for his collection assignment and tells him about more collection jobs in the coming days for Gazzo's other clients. The thug, Buddy, lets out a comment about Rocky's face as he and Gazzo get out of the car to talk in private. On the street, an angry and upset Gazzo asks Rocky why he didn't break the man's thumbs like he asked and Rocky tries to defend himself but Gazzo doesn't believe him. Gazzo sternly reprimands Rocky to do what he tells him to do from now on because it is bad for Gazzo's reputation in the neighborhood. Gazzo leaves Rocky by the side of the road and gets back in his car. Buddy further insults Rocky by calling him a "meat-bag" before driving away and Rocky angrily shouts: "I shoulda broke YOUR thumbs!."Later that day, Rocky goes to Mickey's Gym only to find out that his locker has been rented out to new-comer Dipper Brown, and that his stuff is now hanging on skid-row. Mike the janitor tells Rocky about it and tells him where Mickey is. Rocky sees Mick (Burgess Meredith), an elderly former lightweight boxer, now a trainer, working with Dipper. Rocky goes to ask about the locker and Mick admits that Dipper is an up-and-comer and Rocky is nothing. Echoing what the woman heckler told Rocky the previous night, Mickey calls Rocky a "bum". Angry and dejected, Rocky leaves the gym.Rocky goes back to see Adrian at the pet store which is about to close for the night. Rocky asks her if she wants to go to see a basketball game, but she refuses the invitation. He then asks to walk her home and she again turns him down. He warns her about the people walking the streets at night and suggests that she takes a taxi home.Rocky then goes to the Lucky 7 Tavern for a beer or two where he sees his best friend and Adrian's older brother, Paulie (Burt Young), cursing up a storm in the restroom after the mirror has been broken. Rocky tells him about Adrian and he shouts at Rocky that she's a loser and can't take care of herself. They leave the restroom and go to get a beer. Paulie asks Rocky if he would like to take Adrian out on a date since she seldom leaves his house, and Rocky agrees. Paulie takes his beer and leaves. Rocky remains sitting at the bar drinking his own beer and watches TV and sees that the heavyweight boxing champion of the world, Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) is on TV. Rocky and the bartender talk about him until Rocky leaves.On his way home, Rocky notices a group of teenage kids standing on the corner drinking and smoking cigarettes and sees that one of them is Marie, an underage teen girl he knows. He pulls her out of the group and walks her home. On the way, he tells her about respect and the kind of people that she should be hanging out with. After reaching her house, She calls Rocky a "creep-o" and he heads back home.The next day in New York City, Apollo Creed and his trainer Tony are meeting with Jergens, the fight promoter, and they are discussing the possible fighters for him to match in the biggest fighting event set to take place on New Year's Day. When it looks like there are no possible fighters. Apollo lets out his ideas about fighting a small time underdog fighter, giving him a shot at the title. Everyone agrees with the idea and the plan begins is set in motion.Meanwhile, Rocky is dropped off at his house by Gazzo and Buddy after his latest collection job, and they talk about Adrian. Rocky wonders how they knew about him and Adrian. Gazzo replies: "I hear things". Buddy further insults Rocky by calling Adrian a retard and how retards like the zoo and Rocky attempts to lunge at him, but Gazzo separates them. He gives Rocky $50 for his date with Adrian. Before leaving, Buddy tells Rocky to take Adrian to the zoo and speeds off.At Apollo's office, he and Tony are looking through a book of local club fighters of Philadelphia and they come across Rocky who seems to be the perfect fighter. Apollo takes a liking to his nickname, "The Italian Stallion."That same evening, on the night of Thanksgiving, Rocky and Paulie are walking home and Paulie keeps imploring Rocky to get him a job with Gazzo as a collector, because he hates his current job at a meat packing factory. They reach Paulie's house where Adrian is making Thanksgiving dinner. She comes out of the kitchen to greet Paulie but doesn't realize Rocky is with him. Rocky says 'hello' and she walks back into the kitchen. Paulie goes to talk to her and she runs into her bedroom embarrassed. Paulie gets her out and tells to go out with Rocky for the night, but Adrian claims that it's Thanksgiving and she's cooking a turkey. Paulie goes to the kitchen and grabs the turkey out of the oven and throws it out the back door. Adriana begins to cry and Paulie yells at her to go out. Rocky tells him to forget the date but Paulie instructs him to go talk to her. Rocky walks over to her door and talks to her through the door but doesn't get any feedback. He asks her if she wants to go out with him and have a good time and she opens the door all dressed up ready to go.On Paulie's advice, Rocky and Adrian head for the local ice rink. They look around and see that it's empty and the maintenance man tells them that the rink is closed for the night. Rocky bribes him $10 and they have the rink for themselves for 10 minutes. Adrian's skating as Rocky is running along side her telling her about the fights he's been in and how it's special to him.After their date, Rocky and Adrian go back to his apartment where she is hesitant about going inside. Rocky implores her that its okay and she follows behind him. Inside his apartment, Adrian feels uncomfortable admitting that she's never been in a man's apartment before. Rocky admits he doesn't feel comfortable neither and he's kind of nervous too. She wants to leave but Rocky stops her, trying to cheer her up giving her compliments. He tells her that she wants to kiss her and he does and the two end up kissing in his corner by the door.The next day, Rocky heads for Mickey's Gym and Mick tells him that Jergens' office called asking for sparring partners. Rocky says the same thing to himself and a frustrated Mick yells at him. Rocky asks why after all this time Mick's been giving him the cold shoulder, but Mick refuses to reply. Rocky demands to know and Mick yells at him across the gym that Rocky had the talent and the heart to be a great fighter but instead became a "leg-breaker" for the local loan shark and bookie Tony Gazzo. Rocky defends his occupation and that it's a living, but Mick retorts that it's a waste of life and he again calls Rocky "a bum".Rocky goes to see Jergens and tells him that he is willing to help out with the sparring training with Creed and tells him that he'd give it his all. Jergens then offers Rocky a proposition into fighting with Creed on the night of the event but Rocky declines. Jergens tells Rocky that it was him that Creed chose to fight and that its a once in a lifetime shot to win the heavyweight boxing title. Rocky takes a minute to consider it.Back at Paulie's house, Rocky, Adrian, and Paulie watch a TV interview with Apollo and Rocky about the upcoming fight and they see that Apollo's been taunting Rocky through the whole session. Paulie tells Rocky that he should break his legs and that he should be able to win the fight. Rocky says that the taunts don't bother him. Adrian tells Paulie has a good chance of winning after Paulie's request to becoming a trainer for Rocky was declined by him. Paulie gets up and storms out of the room cursing loudly. Rocky gets ready to leave and Adrian follows him outside. Before leaving, Rocky admits to Adrian that the stuff said on TV actually hurt him inside.The following evening, Rocky meets with Gazzo outside Pat's Steakhouse grill where they get some steak sandwiches to eat and to talk about Rocky being chosen to fight Apollo. Gazzo gives Rocky $500 for training expenses and wishes him the best.A few hours later, Mick goes to see Rocky at his apartment and he begins telling him about his old days as a featherweight fighter during the 1930s and all the injuries he endured. He tells Rocky that he wants to become a manager for him. Rocky tells him that he asked for help years ago but Mick never wanted to help him. Mick, upset, gets ready to leave as Rocky is sitting in his bathroom. After Mick leaves, Rocky starts shouting to Mick about his asking to help him. Mick is half-way up the street and Rocky runs up to him and apologizes to him and they now become partners.Early the next morning, Rocky gets up at 4:00 a.m. and prepares for a morning run. He drinks a half-dozen raw eggs. Rocky starts his run and at the end, attempts to run up the stairs of the Philadelphia Art Museum but can't reach it all the way because he's out of shape and out of breath.Later, Rocky goes to see Paulie at the meat factory where they talk about Adrian. Paulie, talking "dirty" about Adrian, sets Rocky to the point where he admits the truth about why he can't talk to Gazzo about giving Paulie a job working for him because Paulie talks to much. Rocky, ready to leave because of the cold and the smell of the meat factory, a frustrated Paulie begins hitting a huge side of beef hanging from the ceiling, taunting Rock in the process. Rocky steps over and beings throwing punches into the meat, breaking the ribs. Paulie jokes at Rocky saying if he did that to Apollo Creed he'd be put in jail for murder. Rocky takes the meat that Paulie's prepared him for the week and leaves.At Paulie's apartment, Adrian cares to Rocky's cut up hands from hitting the meat. She begins to get intimate with him but he keeps backing her off, telling her that there's no "foolin' around" during training. Adrian near upset gets up and goes to the kitchen, Rocky gets up and follows her and apologizes and they embrace.Rocky begins training with Mick and Mike the janitor at the gym. Two girls walk in and ask for Rocky's autograph, Mick shoos them away and tells Rock that "women weaken legs" and to lay off "the pet shop dame": Adrian. Rocky tells him that he really likes her, and Mick shouts back at Rocky telling him to let her train him for women are a distraction to his training. Rocky takes a second and agrees with Mick and will not fool around anymore.A few days later, Rocky is jogging back to his apartment building where Adrian is waiting on the steps with a surprise for him. She has purchased and given Rocky Butkus, the big Bulldog Mastiff from the pet shop that Rocky liked so much. Rocky begins jogging around with Butkus days later. One day, Rocky and Butkus run to Paulie's workplace to find a TV news van in the back. Rocky finds Paulie and he tells Rocky that he needs publicity but Rocky, now mad, wanted privacy. Rocky and Paulie go inside and meet with the news reporter and they ask Rocky for a demonstration on how he trains with the meat. He begins to jab at the meat as the news camera looks onto him. Tony, Apollo's trainer, is watching the interview and sees that Rocky means business.On Christmas Eve, Paulie is walking home, clearly drunk. Rocky and Adrian are already there watching a Christmas movie on TV. They start talking about Paulie about what he did with the publicity stint back at the slaughterhouse. A drunken Paulie, overhearing the conversation, enters the room and threatens the both of them to leave his house. When they refuse to leave, Paulie grabs a baseball bat and threatens Rocky that he'll break both his arms. He begins swinging at a lamp and then breaks the end table next to Rocky and Adrian. Paulie begins ranting that he never done anything wrong to Rocky and he even let him go out with his sister. Paulie then admits the truth about why he hates Adrian so much and then begins smashing more things with the bat. Paulie shouts at Adrian that she owes him, but Adrian yells back saying that it is she who takes care of Paulie. Another insulting remark by Paulie about Adrian sends her running to her room crying. Rocky angrily grabs Paulie ready to punch him, but Rocky quickly realizes that Paulie is too drunk and weak. Rocky drops Paulie to the floor and walks into Adrian's room to comfort her. She asks Rocky if he'd like a roommate and that she is moving out of Paulie's house.A couple of days later, Rocky is at the gym training again with Mick and Mike. After the session, Mick introduces Rocky to their cut-man Al Silvani. Rocky gets out of the ring as Mick and Al talk, and he begins hitting a heavy bag. Paulie walks in and offers Rocky an advertising job for him. Rocky tells him if he can make money off his name, do it.The famous montage of the movie starts with Rocky running around Philadelphia, then in the gym, hitting a speed-bag, doing push-ups and sit-ups. Then in the meat factory as Rocky hits the meat once more. Rocky then runs up the stairs of the Art Museum and this time, he is able to make it all the way to the top.The next night, Rocky and Adrian are in bed at his apartment but Rocky can't sleep, he gets out of bed, puts his coat on and walks to the Spectrum arena. Rocky stands in the center of the ring and looks around to see that the place is well decorated and ready for the fight. Rocky goes back home as Adrian slowly awakes as Rocky lays down on the bed upset. He tells her that he won't be able to beat Apollo and how no one has ever gone the distance with him before.New Years Day, 1976. On the night of the fight, Rocky and Apollo are both getting prepared. When Rocky gets the cue that it's time. He leaves Adrian down at the locker room as she wishes him good luck. Rocky starts making his way towards the ring as some of the crowd cheers for him. Among the court-side crowd is Paulie with a call-girl, as well as Gazzo with another woman at his side. When he reaches the ring. Rocky, Mick and Mike watch as Apollo comes out in an Uncle Sam outfit in dedication to the new year. He reaches the ring and both of them receive instructions and rules for the fight. They turn to their corners and wait for the bell. The fight begins and Apollo begins throwing punches at Rocky but most of them miss. Apollo apparently isn't taking the fight seriously as he begins to throw a haymaker at Rocky but he dodges it and swings at Apollo knocking him down. The crowd goes wild and Apollo gets back up and the fight continues with the two of them throwing punches at each other and dodging most of them.As the rounds progress, both Rocky and Apollo are getting cut-up and bruised. Rocky's right eye is damaged and can't open it. Apollo is getting tired and hurt badly. At Round 14, Apollo finally knocks Rocky down and Mick instructs him to stay down until the count is up. Adrian comes out of the locker room and watches the ring and believes in Rocky and hopes he'll get up. Rocky gets back up and Apollo, dancing around the ring, sees with distress that Rocky is standing and wants more. Apollo, now exhausted, throws a punch a Rocky, but Rocky ducks and jabs him twice in his right chest breaking his ribs. The bell rings signalling the end of the round and the fighters are brought back to their corners. Rocky claims he can't see anything and tells Mick to cut him in order to open his eye.The bell for the 15th and final round rings, and Rocky and Apollo take their time until Apollo tags Rocky in the face. Rocky moves in as Apollo is now protecting the right side of his ribs. More punches to the faces occur on both of them until Rocky gets the last 10 seconds of the round and beats Apollo senseless and pinning him to the ropes. By this time, the whole crowd is cheering Rocky on by chanting his name over and over. The bell rings signalling the end of the fight. Apollo tell Rocky that there won't be a rematch and Rocky responds that he doesn't want one. The ring is stormed by reporters and both the fighters managers. A reporter asks Rocky questions about the fight as Rocky shouts for Adrian. While Adrian makes her way to the ring, Jergens announces that the fight came out to be a draw and it was a split decision on who won. Apollo is allowed to retain his status at the heavyweight champion and technically wins by default. A blinded Rocky doesn't seem to hear, or be bothered by, the result of the fight as he continues to shout for Adrian.Adrian makes it to ringside to see Paulie being restrained from entering the ring. Adrian sneaks in and runs to Rocky, the two embrace and declare their love for each other.



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Elia Kazan,who directed the Broadway play on which the black and white film is based, invited Marlon Brando, the male lead, and Kim Hunter and Karl Malden, his supporting cast, to repeat their Broadway triumphs in the film remake.Brando plays Stanley, a poor boy who grew up tainted by ethnic slurs, made financially stable by the fortunes of the second world war. He does well as a blue collar travelling salesman, moves to New Orleans and marries Stella (Hunter), daughter of an Aristocratic MIssissippi family anxious to escape the war;s invitable destruction of her family's land, wealth, property and social status. Stanley has never met his sister-in-law Blanche, the female lead of the play ,Vivien Leigh in the movie remake. Blanche arranges a visit to see her sister in New Orleans and shows up on Stanley's doorstop obviously annoyed that there is neither a guest bedroom for herself nor a master bedroom for her sister and brother-in-law, in their cramped, dingy apartment in a bustling quarter of the city. The tensions of wartime emergency cohabitation of family members somehow forced to move in with each other in tight, cramped quarters because of the fortunes of war are noted when it is obvious that Blanche and Stanley immediately get on each others' nerves, especially when Blanche, who passes herself off as the only Aristocrat in her new neighborhood, is the only one in her new neighborhood who actually resorts to tough bar language and ethnic slurs in passing conversation. This becomes no ordinary domestic quarrel when their tensions escalate beyond a war of words to hurtful, spiteful deeds and then to climatic physical violence. Hollywood icons Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh are given close, tight photography in their lengthy scenes of escalating conflict, played with such deep insight and such technical brilliance that the audience is given pause, from moment to moment. to decide whether one really has a point and the other should really be apprehended by the authorities. Stanley first wants to know why Blanche seems to be planning to stay for life and what happened to his wife's claim on the family fortune, land, property and social status. Blanche wants Stanley to give up his weekly card game and his weekly bowling tournament with his friends including Mitch (Malden), to stay at home always sweating in his dirtied work clothes because he will have no place to wash and change with a lady in his house, sitting silent like a statue, until he decides it is time to just turn his paycheck over to Stella and move out so Blanche can rule the roost.
When Blanche attracts the attention of lonely Mitch who sees the remnants of her Aristocratic upbringing, Stanley investigates, through a friend travelling in Mississippi, why his emotionally disturbed, alcoholic, child molesting sister-in-law was fired from her job and kicked out of her boarding house. A telling interlude has Stanley striking Stella for interfering with his treatment of Blanche. She escapes to the upstairs apartment of her landlady (Peg Hillias), but is so dependent upon Stanley that she returns to him when he goes into the yard and calls for her to come back. Things do not go well for Blanche when Stella goes to the hospital to give birth to her child just after a teenage boy accuses her of making improper advances when he came to her door to collect money for Stanley's periodical subscription and Mitch dumps her. There is surrealistic moment, to be individually sorted out by each viewer, when Blanche insists she is going to cut up Stanley's face with the jagged edges of a broken liquor bottle and then insists he is going to rape her. The play and the movie cuts from the blackout to a scene some time later when Stella is putting her baby to sleep in the front yard, Stanley is having his card game over, and authorities arrive from the local mental institution to put Blanche away for life.The landlady calls Stella to the bathroom, where Blanche is soaking up her cares in another hot water tub and wants the ladies to dress her in her faded, fake finery so a nonexistent gentleman friend can escort her on a nonexistent world cruise. Stella, Mitch and the landlady seem in agreement that Blanche is an innocent flower ravaged by wartime whom Stanley destroyed with his crude bullying.


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Tracy Samantha Lord Haven (Katharine Hepburn) is a wealthy Main Line Philadelphia socialite who had divorced C. K. Dexter Haven (Cary Grant), a member of her social set, because he did not measure up to her exacting standards. (He was an alcoholic, and her lack of faith in him exacerbated his condition.) She is about to marry nouveau riche "man of the people" George Kittredge (John Howard).Spy magazine publisher Sidney Kidd (Henry Daniell) is eager to cover the wedding, and he enlists Dexter, one of his former employees, to introduce reporter Macaulay "Mike" Connor (James Stewart) and photographer Liz Imbrie (Ruth Hussey) as friends of the family so they can report on the wedding. Tracy is not fooled but reluctantly agrees to let them stay--after Dexter explains that Kidd has an innuendo-laden article about Tracy's father, Seth (John Halliday), who, Tracy believes, is having an affair with a dancer. Though Seth is separated from Tracy's mother Margaret (Mary Nash) and Tracy harbors great resentment against him, she wants to protect her family's reputation.Dexter is welcomed back with open arms by Margaret and Dinah (Virginia Weidler), Tracy's teenage sister--much to Tracy's annoyance. In addition, Tracy gradually discovers that Mike has admirable qualities. Thus, as the wedding nears, Tracy finds herself torn between her fianc, her ex-husband, and the reporter.The night before the wedding, Tracy gets drunk for only the second time in her life and takes an innocent swim with Mike. When George sees Mike carrying an intoxicated Tracy into the house afterward, he thinks the worst. The next day, he tells her that he was shocked and feels entitled to an explanation before going ahead with the wedding. Tracy takes exception to his lack of faith in her and breaks off the engagement. Then she realizes that all the guests have arrived and are waiting for the ceremony to begin. Mike volunteers to marry her (much to Liz's distress), but Tracy graciously declines. At this point, Dexter makes his bid for her hand, which she accepts.(From Wikipedia)


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The movie is based on a novel by Harper Lee, who interestingly enough was the assistant to Truman Capote when he did the research for the book "In Cold Blood."The story is told through the eyes of six-year-old Jean Louise "Scout" Finch (Mary Badham), a feisty young girl who lives in a small Alabama town with her older brother, Jem (Philip Alford) and their widower father, Atticus Finch (Gregory Peck).There has been an arrest of a black man, Tom Robinson (Brock Peters), accused of raping a white woman named Mayella Ewell (Collin Wilcox). The town is up in arms and there's talk of lynching a "nigger who's obviously guilty".At the preliminary hearing, someone needs to be appointed to defend Tom, and Atticus is selected. The town gets ready for a quick and speedy trial. As the trial gets nearer, some of the men in town decide to take matters into their own hands by removing Tom from jail and hanging him.Sheriff Tate (Frank Overton) comes to Atticus and tells him of the impending action. Atticus takes a chair, a lamp and a book down to the jail to sit up all night to guard Tom. But the drunken mob comes anyway and they tell Atticus to get out of the way and let them get on with it.Scott, Jem and their neighbour's nephew Dill (John Mosna) are hiding in the shadows during this interaction between Atticus and the mob. Scout comes out and says "Hey" to Mr. Cunningham, a member of the mob. Scout says, "I said hey, Mr. Cunningham" again, and it's her presence that defuses the situation.At various times throughout the movie the children discuss the "crazy" man who lives down the block. They think "Boo" Radley (Robert Duvall) comes out at night and gets little kids and animals. But Boo is to play an interesting part in the story later.Another interesting scene is when the Finch housekeeper, Cal (Estelle Evans) sees a dog coming down the street and it's acting very strangly. She tells someone to go fetch Mr. Finch and the Sheriff. They come and the Sheriff has a rifle. It seems the dog is rabid and someone needs to shoot it before it gets too close. The Sheriff hands the gun to Atticus and says he would prefer if Atticus took the shot. The children don't understand because they have no idea about this side of their father. The Sheriff says their dad is the best shot in the county. Sure enough, Atticus takes down the dog in one shot.Another interesting side story in the picture involves strange happenings with a tree on the block. Jem and Scout begin to find unusual items left in a knot hole in the tree, like a medal, pocket watch, penknife and small soap carvings of Jem and Scout; they see Mr Radley fill the hole with cement one day.The trial begins and it doesn't look good. One of the first witnesses is Bob Ewell, the victim's father. Bob testifies how he came home and saw Tom going out the side door and found Mayella all beat up.Then Mayella gets on the stand and testifies that she saw Tom coming by and tells him to come up to the house to break up a chifforobe and she'll give him a nickel. She says that when she went inside to get the nickel, Tom came up behind her and grabbed her; when she screamed, he hit her about the right side of her head and face. Round about that time her daddy comes up to the house and Tom runs out the side door. Atticus asks her again about how Tom held her and hit her and is she sure. She says over and over that she is sure.Atticus asks Tom to catch something in his left hand. Tom says that he can't use his left arm ever since it was crushed in an accident when he was 12 years old. Atticus points out that if Tom had been the one to strike Mayella, the bruises would be on the left side of her face, not the right.Now Atticus calls Tom to the stand. Atticus asks Tom to tell his version. Tom says he was walking by the house and Miss Mayella asked him to come in the yard and break up the chifforobe. Tom says she was always asking him in to do little chores. After he did the chore, he says that Mayella asked him to come inside to fix a door. Tom freezes at this point, but Atticus gets him to go on. Tom begins to sweat, he describes how Mayella grabbed him, put her arms around him and kissed him. Bob Ewell turned up, saw what was happening, and hollered at Mayella as Tom took off.Despite the obvious evidence presented by Atticus, the all-white jury in 1930's Alabama convicts Tom. Before an appeal can be arranged, Tom is transported for safekeeping; he tries to escape and is shot and killed as he runs away.Later in the year, Scout and Jem are going to a Halloween party. Scout is wearing a ham-shaped costume, out of which she can't see very well. The children decide to take a short cut through the woods, but Jem feels they are being followed. Partway through the woods, the two children are attacked by someone; there's a scuffle and Jem is knocked over. Scout cannot run away fast enough, then a second person arrives on the scene and carries Jem away.Scout eventually runs home, and is met by Atticus. Jem is safe in bed with a bruised eye and badly broken arm. Boo Radley is standing in the shadows behind the bedroom door.
Scout says, "Hey Boo".Bob Ewell is found dead at the scene in the woods; it was he who attacked the children and was himself stabbed by Boo protecting the children. The Sheriff decides to assume that Bob Ewell fell on his own knife. Atticus thanks Boo.As Atticus explained early in the film, mocking birds do no harm to anyone, simply singing all day; the film's title refers to the unnecessary harming of innocent creatures.


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Jerry Mulligan (Gene Kelly) is an exuberant American expatriate in Paris trying to make a reputation as a painter. His friend Adam (Oscar Levant) is a struggling concert pianist who is a long time associate of a French singer, Henri Baurel (Georges Gutary). A lonely society woman, Milo Roberts (Nina Foch) takes Jerry under her wing and supports him, but is interested in Jerry more than his art. Jerry remains oblivious to her feelings, and falls in love with Lise (Leslie Caron), a French girl he meets at a restaurant. Lise loves him as well, but she is already in a relationship with Henri, whom she feels indebted to for having saved her family during World War II.At a raucous masked ball, with everyone in black-and-white costumes, Milo learns that Jerry is not interested in her, Jerry learns that Lise is in love with him, but is marrying Henri the next day, and Henri overhears their conversation. When Henri drives Lise away, Jerry daydreams about being with her all over Paris, his reverie broken by a car horn, the sound of Henri bringing Lise back to him.


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At the end of World War II, Fred Derry (Dana Andrews), Al Stevenson (Fredric March) and Homer Parrish (Harold Russell) return home to Boone City. Fred was a decorated captain in the Army Air Forces in Europe, Al a sergeant in the Army who saw action in the Pacific, and Homer a sailor who served on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific. Homer's ship was sunk, killing many of his fellow sailors; his arms were burned off below the elbow and he now uses metal hook prostheses. The three men share first a plane trip then a cab ride and become friends.Although he rose to the rank of captain, Fred was an unskilled soda jerk before the war, while the older Al was a bank executive. Homer was a star athlete engaged to be married to the girl next door, Wilma (Cathy O'Donnell). Aware of how uncomfortable his hooks make people, Homer begins to pull away from Wilma and his family. He feels comfortable only when he is with Al and Fred or hanging out with his Uncle Butch (Hoagy Carmichael), who owns a comfortable tavern. Fred is married to Marie (Virginia Mayo) but can't find her when he returns home, as she has begun to work nights at one of Boone City's night clubs.Al struggles to readjust to family life. His wife, Milly (Myrna Loy) and daughter, Peggy (Theresa Wright), do their best to make him comfortable, but he develops a drinking problem. On his first night home, he insists they go out drinking. At Butch's, they run into Fred and Homer, who has come there to get away from Wilma. Al and Fred get extremely drunk. When Fred passes out in front of Marie's apartment building, Peggy and Milly take him home with them. The next morning, Peggy drives Fred to Marie's building. On the way, they struggle with the fact they are attracted to one another.Al is promoted at the bank. He is now in charge of approving loans to servicemen under the GI Bill. He believes in taking risks on the servicemen even if they don't have any collaterol for loans. Although the director of the bank gently upbraids him in private, he applauds Al's slightly drunken public speech that providing the servicemen loans is tantamount to investing in the country's future. Al knows the bank will continue to question his loan approvals.Fred and Marie initially do well upon his return, when he still has money he earned in the Air Force. But when it runs out, he is forced to return to his job as a soda jerk. This angers Marie, who wants to be married to a dashing, successful, rich military man. Peggy visits Fred at the drug store, and they have lunch together. Afterwards, they kiss. That night, Peggy phones Marie and asks her and Fred out on a double date with a man she is uninterested in. Peggy despises the way Marie speaks of Fred and resolves to break up their marriage. When she tells this to Al and Milly, they tell her that all marriages struggle and that she should leave Fred and Marie alone. The next day, Al orders Fred to never see Peggy again. Fred calls Peggy to break things off, devestating her.Homer continues to isolate himself. Late one night, Wilma comes over and tells him that her parents want her to break off their engagement, though she doesn't want to. He takes her to his room to show her how difficult life will be with him: removing his prostheses, he shows her that he is unable to button his pajamas or even open a door. Tenderly, Wilma buttons his pajamas and tells him that she loves him and will never leave him. Homer finally accepts that people will accept him.Fred is fired from his job when he punches out a man who had told Homer that he and anyone else who died in the war were suckers who fought on the wrong side. Marie takes up with a successful serviceman and announces her intention of divorcing Fred. Disillusioned, Fred decides to leave town for good, leaving behind the medals and citations he won during the war. While waiting for an Army transport plane out of town, he reminisces inside a decommissioned bomber like the one he flew over Europe. When the foreman of the company dismantling the planes tells him the metal will be used to build new houses, Fred talks him into a job.Fred is best man at Homer's wedding to Wilma. He sees Fred for the first time since being ordered to leave Peggy alone. After the ceremony, Fred and Peggy embrace. He tells her that life with him will be hard as he doesn't have much money. She smiles and kisses him.

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Henry Higgins (Rex Harrison), an arrogant, irascible professor of phonetics, boasts to a new acquaintance, Colonel Pickering (Wilfrid Hyde-White), that he can teach any woman to speak so "properly" that he could pass her off as a duchess. The person whom he is shown thus teaching is one Eliza Doolittle (Audrey Hepburn), a young woman with a horrendous Cockney accent who is selling flowers on the street. After overhearing this, Eliza finds her way to the professor's house and offers to pay for speech lessons, so that she can work in a flower shop. Pickering is intrigued and wagers that Higgins cannot back up his claim; Higgins takes Eliza on free of charge as a challenge to his skills.Eliza's father, Alfred P. Doolittle (Stanley Holloway), a dustman, arrives three days later, ostensibly to protect his daughter's virtue, but in reality simply to extract some money from Higgins, and is bought off with 5. Higgins is impressed by the man's genuineness, natural gift for language and especially his brazen lack of morals (Doolittle explains, "Can't afford 'em!").Eliza goes through many forms of speech training, such as speaking with marbles in her mouth and trying to recite the sentence "In Hertford, Hereford, Hampshire, hurricanes hardly ever happen" without dropping the 'h', and to say "The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain" rather than "The rine in spine sties minely in the pline". At first, she makes no progress (due to Higgins's harsh approach to teaching), but just as she, Higgins, and Pickering are exhausted and about to give up, Higgins softens his attitude and gives an eloquent speech about the beauty and history behind the English language. Eliza tries one more time and finally "gets it"; she instantly begins to speak with an impeccable upper class accent.Higgins takes her on her first public appearance to Ascot Racecourse, where she makes a good impression with her stilted, but genteel manners, only to shock everyone by a sudden and vulgar lapse into Cockney; "C'mon Dover, move your bloomin' arse!". Higgins, who dislikes the pretentiousness of the upper class, partly conceals a grin behind his hand, as if to say "I wish I had said that!"The bet is won when Eliza successfully poses as a mysterious lady of patently noble rank at an embassy ball, despite the unexpected presence of a Hungarian phonetics expert trained by Higgins. Higgins's callous treatment of Eliza afterwards, especially his indifference to her future prospects, leads her to walk out on him, leaving him mystified by her ingratitude. When she is gone however, he comes to the horrified realization that he has "grown accustomed to her face." Putting aside his resentment about the intrusion on his life and toward women in general, Higgins finds Eliza the next day and attempts to talk her into coming back to him. During a testy exchange, Higgins's ego gets the better of him, and his former student rejects him.Higgins makes his way home, stubbornly predicting that Eliza will be ruined without him and come crawling back. However, his bravado collapses and he is reduced to playing old phonograph recordings of her voice lessons. To Higgins' great delight, Eliza chooses that moment to return to him.


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Judah Ben-Hur (Charlton Heston) is a wealthy merchant living in Judea at the time of Christ. Under the influence of the oppressive Roman Empire, the land seethes with talk of revolt, and Caesar has sent more soldiers to quell the potential uprising. The new Tribune Messala (Stephen Boyd) once lived in Judea as a boy, and longs to rekindle his old friendship with Judah, but when they meet it is obvious that Messala has been changed by the years he has been away, fighting the enemies of the Empire. He is harsh and calculating, driven by ambition, and eager to prove himself to Caesar. Asking Judah for help in rounding up the local dissenters, they argue, and when Judah refuses to betray his own people Messala declares that they must be either friends or enemies, and leaves in anger.A few days later the Romans parade through the city in a show of force, and as they pass the house of Hur, Judah's sister leans out over the balcony for a better look. She dislodges a few roof tiles which fall onto the new Governor as he rides by, and Messala seizes an opportunity. Arresting Judah, his sister and mother, he throws them all into prison. Judah learns that he is to be condemned without trial or hearing, and flies into a desparate rage. Breaking free from his jailers, Judah smashes his way into Messala's chamber, demanding to know why he has done this evil deed. Messala calmly explains that by condemning an old friend without hesitation, he will show the rest of Judea that he is to be feared. "I asked for your help Judah," says Messala, "and now you've given it to me." He dismisses Judah to the death of a slave in the galleys, and leaves the mother and sister to rot in prison.Chained to a group of criminals, Judah is marched through the desert. Barely alive, they pass though a village called Nazareth, where a compassionate young man gives him water. Gazing into his eyes, Judah is filled with wonder, and recieves the life-giving gift of a simple drink. When an angry Roman guard barks the young man rises and the guard stares into his face, percieving something there that, perhaps for the first time in his life, forces the Roman to back down. Judah is marched away with the other condemned men, but continues to gaze back at the man who saved his life.Years pass. Judah rows his life away in the galleys. When the new centurion Quintas Arrius (Jack Hawkins) comes aboard, he puts all the slaves to a test of endurance, looking for any with enough spirit to defy him. Judah, filled with hate for the Romans, catches his eye. Soon the fleet engages the enemy in battle and in the mayhem, Arrius is cast overboard only to be saved by the slave Judah Ben-Hur. Finding his fleet victorius, he returns in triumph to Rome with Judah at his side and after a time adopts him as a son. A rich and influential man once again, Judah's thoughts return to Judea and the vengeance he has sworn on Messala.Along the road to Judea, Judah meets a Arab Sheik and an old wise man named Balthasar, one of those who followed the star of Bethlehem at the time of Christ's birth. Balthasar now seeks Christ grown into a man, and befriends Judah, sensing the goodness of his soul, but also the hatred for an old enemy. Finding that Judah is skilled in chariot racing, Sheik Ilderim coaches Judah to ride his team of white horses in the upcoming race against Messala and his notorious blacks. Judah accepts and prepares to meet Messala in the arena. When he learns of Judah's return, Messala is astonished, but quickly begins to plot again. In the arena, many fortunes can change.Entering the arena, the contestants line up and await the signal from the governor, Pontius Pilate. He drops a white cloth, and the race is on. In this spectacular contest many other teams crash, and Judah and Messala collide time and again, striving for the lead. When Messala, consumed by his desire to defeat Judah, crashes his chariot into another, he is thrown out and dragged behind his own stampeding horses, then trampled by others as they race around the track. Judah rides to a glorius victory, and the shattered body of Messala is carried away.As his life ebbs, Messala confronts Judah one last time, and tells him that his mother and sister are not dead as was thought, but alive, condemed to the living death of lepers. Cackling at his final victory over Judah, Messala gasps his last. "The game goes on Judah!" he hisses as he dies. A stunned Judah goes forth, his victory hollow, the vengeance he'd sought meaningless.Seeking release from his hatred, Judah walks through the city, encountering Balthasar again, who has now found the living Christ he was seeking. Begging him to come and hear the words of Jesus, he tries to help Judah and ease his pain, but to no avail. Judah cannot live with the thought of his beloved mother and sister suffering in the valley of the lepers, and seeks them out. Tenderly carrying them into the city, he finds it empty, as everyone has gone to the trial of Jesus. Hiding in the shadows, they all witness the suffering of Christ as he is led to his crucifixion. As Jesus passes, Judah recognises him as the young man who'd saved his life with a simple drink of water in the desert. Amazed, he pushes through the guards, and as Jesus falls, Judah carries a gourd of water to him and helps him to drink. Gazing in wonder once more into his eyes, Judah is touched by Christ.At the site of the Crucifixion, Judah and Balthasar weep at the cruelty, and watch as the sky turns dark. Judah's mother and sister take shelter in a nearby cave, and cry out in terror as the Earth trembles, and lightning slashes the sky. A flash of light reveals their leprosy had been healed, a miracle they do not understand, but for which they thank God. Judah returns to his home, finding his family healed and restored to him, and finding also that the sacrifice of Christ has taken the hatred out of his heart and saved his soul.


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	A high ranking Russian General has arrived at an industrial project office. It is night and this man is there on personal business: He is looking for his niece. Somehow, in the past decade, he has managed to find her, or at least someone who appears to be the daughter of his half brother
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The would-be niece is skeptical, and afraid. General Yevgraf Zhivago tells her the details of the life of his half brother as he knows it. This is the movie.Yuri Zhivago is a boy, only 8 years old, when his mother dies, somewhere in central Asia, not far from Mongolia. Yuri is adopted by very close friends of his mother, the Gromykos, an upper class family with a home in Moscow and a country estate near the Ural Mountains. The Gromykos have a daughter, Tonya, who is the same age as Yuri.Yuri, now a young man, becomes a doctor, preferring to see "life" in General Practice rather than be a researcher. He is also an accomplished and published poet. Late one winter evening, a lonely group of socialist demonstrators is slaughtered by a Czar Cavalry Unit. Yuri witnesses the entire event from his balcony and attempts to care for the wounded. He is forced back into his home by the soldiers. He is shaken by the event.The following winter, at a music recital, Yuri's mentor is summoned to treat a woman who has attempted suicide, possibly by drinking Iodine. Yuri accompanies his mentor and sees "life" first hand. It is at this woman's home where he first sees Lara, the daughter of the woman. He is smitten. Shortly thereafter, at a Christmas party, the engagement announcement of Yuri and Tonya is interrupted by Lara shooting Komarovsky, Lara's sometime lover and companion. Komarovsky is only slightly wounded and Lara is escorted out of the party by her fianc, Pasha.World War I erupts and Yuri is posted to a field unit far to southwest near Ukraine. Lara is a volunteer nurse in the same area. Her husband (Pasha), disappears during a battle, and is presumed dead. As the summer of 1917 ends, the October Russian Revolution occurs, changing the entire political landscape. World War I for the Russians had begun to wind down the previous summer, ending in the winter. Yuri and Lara, having worked together in an old country estate converted to a hospital, are the last to leave the now empty facility. They are clearly in love with each other, but have managed to keep their passions suppressed.Yuri returns to his Moscow home to find his step-mother deceased, and his home (his step father's home) occupied by 13 additional families. The Bolsheviks are now in full control of the large cities, and collectivization has begun. But Moscow is in trouble; with virtually no food supplies or heating fuel (wood), the impending Russian winter will be deadly. One night, Yuri decides to steal some fence boards that can be burned. He is observed by Yevgraf (now a policeman and party official) and is followed home. Yevgraf knows this man is his half brother and rather than arrest Yuri, the two connect for the first time. But the works of Yuri Zhivago, the published poet, has fallen out of favor with the authorities putting the lives of Yuri, his wife Tonya, his son Shasha, and his step-father Alexander, in danger. Yevgraf arranges all the necessary travel papers and the family of 4 departs Moscow eastbound in a crowed boxcar. Their destination is Yuriatin, the small town near the family's country estate at Varykino.Enroute, the train stops due to civil war activity in the area. Yuri wanders away from his train, only to stumble into the military train of a communist general. The general turns out to be the husband of Lara, Pasha. But Pasha has taken on a new name, People's Commander Strelnikov. He has become a renegade, and uses his army to fight the remaining White Russians however he can. Strelnikov and Zhivago discover they have seen each other before, at the party where Komarovsky was shot. Suspicions that Yuri is an assassin or spy are determined to be groundless and Strelnikov uncharacteristically releases Yuri. Yuri and family reach their distant estate.It is early spring. The main house has been sealed by the local communist authorities, but the gardener's cottage remains available. The family gets the vegetable garden back in shape, and settles in for what is expected to be a multi-year stay. The family thrives, and remains in the cottage, living almost invisibly. That summer, the czar and his family are executed. The family remains in the cottage through the winter.Finally, the next summer, Yuri takes the short trip into Yuriatin. Lara has lived in Yuriatin for about a year, having returned there in search of her husband, Pasha (Strelnikov). Yuri and Lara meet in the local library, and an affair between the two begins. But Yuri cannot live with the conflict of the affair. His pregnant wife loves him deeply, and so does Lara. Yuri rides into Yuriatin to break off the affair.On the way home, Yuri is kidnapped by a Red Partisan unit and is drafted to be their medical officer. A year and a half later, in the dead of winter, Yuri wanders away from the Red Guard Unit, deserting. Yuri makes his way back to Yuriatin, discovering that his family has left Varykino for Moscow. He goes to the only other place he knows, Lara's small apartment. Starving and nearly dead, Lara brings him back to health. Lara gives Yuri a letter from Tonya, addressed to him care of Lara. The letter is dated 6 months earlier. Tonya had known of Yuri's affair, and Tonya and Lara had met. Yuri's family has escaped back to Moscow, and is being deported from Russia. Shortly thereafter, Komarovsky unexpectedly appears at Lara's apartment. He brings news that Lara's husband Strelnikov is "gone", Yuri is considered a deserter, and their days are numbered. Komarovsky offers help by way of transportation to the far east of Russia, Vladavastok, from which they can go anywhere in the world. Lara and Yuri refuse the offer, but know Komarovsky is right, their days are numbered.Lara and Yuri move themselves to Varykino, and occupy a small portion of the main house. They stay there through most of the remaining winter. Again, Komarovsky finds them and tells them that Strelnikov has been arrested just 5 miles from Varykino. Lara and Yuri must now move quickly to survive. They accept Komarovsky's offer of protection and transportation to Manchuria, and leave Varykino immediately. But Yuri remains behind, ostensibly to bring his own sledge to the train station. Lara and Komarovsky wait for Yuri on the train at the Yuriatin train station, but Yuri does not arrive. The train leaves, and Lara announces to Komarovsky that she is pregnant with Yuri's child.Eight years pass. Yuri is found in Moscow by Yevgraf, in poor health, malnourished and jobless. Yevgraf arranges for Yuri to get his old job back at the hospital and sees him off at the street car stop on his first day. On the ride, Yuri thinks he sees Lara walking in the direction of the street car. He attempts to get off the car, succeeds and collapses in the street. He dies of a heart attack.At the memorial, huge numbers of people pay their respects, much to Yevgraf's amazement. One of those people is Lara, and Lara is searching for her daughter Tonya, lost somewhere near Mongolia during the far east civil war. Yevgraf and Lara search Moscow's orphanages, but Tonya is not found. Speaking of Lara, Yevgraf narrates: "One day she went away and didn't come back. She died or vanished somewhere in one of the labor camps; a nameless number on a list that was after-wards...mislaid. That was quite common in those days."The story his been told, and the scene returns to the project office. Although Tonya, now a young woman of about 18, wants to believe who were her parents, but only if the fact is true. Morning has come, and Yevgraf makes a final request, that Tonya think about establishing with Yevgraf a family relationship. Neither have any relatives, and Tonya promises to think about it.Tonya and Yevgraf part on what promises to be a beautiful day.


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Against a backdrop of the Stars and Stripes, General George S. Patton (George C. Scott) addresses his troops on the eve of battle. His uniform is impeccable, his medals uncountable, and his ramrod demeanor unassailable. As he speaks to the men about to embark on their first great adventure, his manner runs the gamut from stern, to jovial, amused, profane and reverent. To Patton, it is obvious that war is the greatest expression of the human condition.North Africa, 1942: In their first encounter with Rommel's Africa Corps, the Americans are badly beaten. In the post-battle assessment, Gen. Omar Bradley (Karl Malden) decides what's needed is the best tank commander they've got. Patton answers the call and arrives amid wailing sirens and a cloud of dust. He's also early and catches most of the soldiers off guard, a mistake they quickly learn not to make again. Believing the casual attitude displayed by the troops to be the primary source of their defeat, he quickly begins to set things to rights. Patton's belief in himself is unshakable, and there's only one way to get things done-his way. Quickly establishing discipline and routine, he commands his men with an iron fist. He also has great respect for the Germans he's up against, and has studied the tactics of Rommel in the field.In Berlin, the Germans are also assessing Patton. His reputation is considerable, and they study his idiosyncracies looking for a clue to the man's character. They note he is a romantic, reads the Bible daily, swears like a stableboy, and believes in reincarnation. Rommel, when asked what he intends to do about Patton, simply replies "I will attack and annihilate him.....before he does the same to me."Soon the Germans move against the American positions in Tunisia, and Patton watches in fascination from his command post in the hills nearby. Anticipating Rommel's plan, he routs the Germans, and gives the Americans their first victory, further inflating his ego. North Africa now has two prima donnas; Patton, and the equally egotistical British commander, Field Marshal Montgomery (Michael Bates). Naturally, they come to dislike each other intensely, and as the African campaign draws to a close, plans are made for the invasion of Italy. Patton wines and dines the appropriate officals, and pitches his own plan to invade through Sicily. Montgomery has other plans, and when Monty's are adopted over his own, Patton, outraged, vows to outdo the Field Marshal at all costs.Sicily is invaded, and Montgomery's troops fight their way up the East coast against heavy German resistance. Patton is assigned the support role of guarding Montomery's flank, but soon adopts another plan and begins to push across the island, taking the long way around. First taking Palermo, then pushing East to Messina, he races Montgomery to the finish line, pushing his men to the breaking point and creating dissension among his commanders. They do not wish to sacrifice more American casualties to Patton's ego.Soon, Montgomery and the British forces march into the liberated city of Messina amid the cheering populace. Flags wave and the pipers play as they march triumphantly into the town square; Monty has done it. He's driven the Germans out of Sicily and beaten Patton to the punch. Abruptly, the pipers falter, and fall silent. Monty quickly marches to the fore to investigate, and finds Patton, his tanks and troops neatly arrayed behind him, standing there silently with an insufferable smile on his lips. He'd arrived hours ago, and was waiting only to greet his old rival.As the Italian campaign continues, Patton becomes more controversial. During a routine inspection of wounded men in a field hospital, he encounters a shell-shocked soldier crying in a corner and becomes enraged with what he perceives as a display of cowardice. Slapping the soldier, he rages at him and orders him sent back to the front. This outburst gets Patton the first serious setback he's ever experienced. A rebuke from his commander and an order to apologize to all concerned quickly follow, a bitter pill indeed for the general. Forced to swallow his pride, he stands before the assembled troops and tersely gives his explanation, then turns on his heel and marches away.The war grinds on. Patton is called to England prior to D-Day, and believes he will be commanding the invasion, but finds that his big mouth and bigger ego have gotten him into too much trouble. He's become a liability to the fragile alliance Eisenhower is trying to hold together to fight the Germans, so Patton's orders are to shut up and stay out of trouble. Chafing at what may be his last chance to be in a great battle, he'll do anything to get back in the game. Arriving in France days after the invasion, he meets with General Bradley again, who puts Patton on probation and gives him a chance to redeem himself. Grateful for the opportunity, Patton quickly shows the rest of the world what he can do, chasing the Germans clear across France, and gaining more ground in less time than any other allied outfit.Christmas approaches, and the Germans mount a final major counter-attack at the Battle of the Bulge. Caught off guard, the American troops are trapped and surrounded, and only a miracle can save them. Patton vows to provide one. Marching his men north at breakneck speed, he amazingly arrives in time and relieves the trapped Americans, grabbing the limelight once more. Now it's on to Germany, and as the war winds down, Patton becomes despondent at the impending cessation of hostilities. All too soon, Patton's mouth gets him in trouble again as he first snubs the Russians, and then compares the defeated Nazis to other political parties in the U.S. Another uproar ensues, and Eisenhower is forced to relieve Patton once again.Having proved himself one of the greatest military commanders of WWII, he now faces a future and a world that no longer need him. Recalling history, he ruminates: "For over a thousand years, Roman conquerors returning from the wars enjoyed the honor of a triumph - a tumultuous parade. The conqueror rode in a triumphal chariot, the dazed prisoners walking in chains before him. Sometimes his children, robed in white, stood with him in the chariot, or rode the trace horses. A slave stood behind the conqueror, holding a golden crown, and whispering in his ear a warning: that all glory is fleeting."



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Late one night, on one of the many beaches of Amity Island off the coast of New England, local teenagers throw a bonfire party, tossing back the booze and playing music. Chrissie Watkins (Susan Backlinie), a beautiful blonde, catches the eye of Tom Cassidy (Jonathan Filley) and leads him away from the frivolities towards the water where she begins to strip down. She invites him for some moonlit skinny dipping and dives into the water as Tom struggles to undress on the shore. Inebriated, Tom collapses and passes out on the sand. Chrissie continues to swim out to deeper waters when she feels a sharp tug on her leg. Confused, she gasps in panic as she is tugged again before being pulled under water. She breaks the surface, screaming as something thrashes her around violently. She screams for help again before submerging one last time and then the water is still.Amity Island is a small, beachside community that prides itself in its humble traditions and popular oceanfront. Despite the population of locals on the island, the community depends on tourism as a major source of economic support and waits eagerly for each summer to arrive when herds of mainlanders come to savor Amity's shores.Martin Brody (Roy Scheider), the new Chief of Police, receives a call at home regarding Watkins' disappearance. Following the report made by Tom Cassidy that she was last seen off the coast, Brody goes to the beach with his deputy Jeff Hendricks (Jeffrey Kramer) to search for clues. They don't need to look very long; within a few moments Hendricks stumbles upon Chrissie's mangled corpse.At the police station, Brody waits for the coroner's (Robert Nevin) report at his desk while the secretary relays the crime reports of the day; nothing more serious than a few kids 'karate-chopping' picket fences. The coroner then calls with his report. Brody hangs up and contemplates for a moment before typing the cause of death on Chrissie's report: 'Shark attack'. Unwilling to waste any time, he goes to the local hardware store and gathers supplies for making signs to close the beaches. His intentions are quickly noticed by Mayor Vaughn (Murray Hamilton) who attempts to sway Brody's notion that a shark was directly involved in Chrissie's death. He explains that she could very well have swam out too far and gotten tired before being mangled by a boat's propellers. During a town meeting, Brody tries to reassert his belief that Chrissie's death was caused by a shark and that he wants to close the beaches for the safety of the public, much to the dismay of the island's business owners. Vaughn, however, garners the coroner's support who admits that Chrissie could have been killed by a boat propeller. Vaughn reiterates to Brody that he doesn't want to act too hastily. Closing the beaches would sentence Amity Island to a dreary summer without tourists and they cannot afford to lose that source of income, especially with the Fourth of July approaching.Over the course of the next couple of days, tourists flock to the island, brought over from the mainland by ferry. One particular day, Brody sits on the beach, scanning the water nervously as people frolic in the surf, splashing and calling to each other. A young man ( nm5026721) plays fetch with his Labrador retriever in the surf. An elderly man wearing a swim cap, Henry Wiseman (Alfred Wilde), approaches Brody and chides him about his apparent fear of water. "Thats some bad hat, Harry," Brody replies, annoyed. Young Alex Kintner (Jeffrey Voorhees) takes his inflatable, yellow raft and asks his mother (Lee Fierro) if he can take it out in the water. With her consent, he rushes into the surf. While Brody continues to keep watch, the beachgoers continue their fun, splashing loudly. The young man who had been playing with his dog calls to the unresponsive pooch, the fetching stick floating in the water. All at once Brody notices a large, grey object emerge out of the water and overturn the young boy on his yellow raft. Alex is tossed into the water and pulled under as his blood turns the sea red. The other swimmers begin screaming and leave the water as Brody ushers them back to shore. Mrs. Kintner approaches the water's edge, calling for her son. The only response is the lap of waves on the shore, pushing Alex's torn and bloody raft onto the beach.Shortly after, Mrs. Kintner issues a $3000 reward for the capture of the shark and a meeting is held between the town's business owners, attended by Mayor Vaughn and Brody. Brody assures the townspeople that they are assigning extra deputies and bringing in an expert from the Oceanographic Institute for advice on the matter but the main concern in town is if the beaches will be closed. Brody's 'yes' is responded with a string of criticism but Mayor Vaughn quickly interjects that the beaches will be closed for only 24 hours. The uproar of the townsfolk is suddenly cut short by the screeching sound of nails on a chalkboard behind them. Local fisherman Quint (Robert Shaw) remains seated as he calmly explains that a shark like this is not one to be trifled with and he has no interest in such meager compensation. He offers to capture and kill the shark himself for $10,000 which no one stands to offer. Quint quietly leaves, a wry smile on his face.Brody returns home and, the following day, tells his eldest son Michael (Chris Rebello) that he's not to go anywhere near the water. Ellen thinks him to be acting a bit too harshly, even when Michael tests his new sailboat in the shallow water in front of their home. When she sees a picture in a book that Brody's holding of a shark attacking a small boat and puncturing the hull, however, she shouts for Michael to listen to his father and get out of the water.That very evening, two men decide to take matters into their own hands and fashion a large hook baited with a pork roast. They toss it out from a dock and it attracts the attention of the shark. However, their attempt to be heroes nearly turns fatal when the dock they've secured the line to is detached and pulled out into the water by the beast, taking one man with it. He fortunately manages to swim back to his friend as the dock eerily turns and follows him back to shore, eventually drifting back on its own, harmless.Amateur shark hunters and fisherman from all over descend on Amity Island hoping to get a claim to the $3000 reward that has apparently been advertised expansively by Mrs. Kintner. They crowd the waters surrounding the island, creating some tension to local swimmers. Among the horde of newcomers is Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss), who has arrived from the Oceanographic Institute. He is escorted by Brody to examine and give his professional opinion on the remains of Chrissie Watkins. After viewing the body and recording his observations, a visibly shaken Hooper angrily informs Brody and the coroner that no boating accident killed Watkins. "It was a shark," he states defiantly.Meanwhile, some of the local fisherman have successfully caught a large shark and haul it back to town where the body is strung up for all to see. The townsfolk are ecstatic to see such a large find and are overjoyed and convinced that the killer has been caught. However, most are ignorant to the species until Hooper and Brody arrive. Hooper takes a look at the shark and informs everyone that it's a tiger shark and that the bite radius does not match up with the marks he found on Chrissie's corpse. Mayor Vaughn objects and claims that the beaches should be reopened but Hooper maintains that he won't be completely satisfied until he can cut open the shark for more conclusive evidence. Vaughn, however, is not eager to do so in public at the risk of seeing the 'little Kintner boy spill out over the dock'. At that moment, Mrs. Kintner arrives on the scene, clad in a black, mourning dress. She addresses Chief Brody and slaps him across the face, informing him that she found out about Chrissie's death and accuses him of keeping the beaches open and letting people swim when he knew there was a shark out there. When she leaves, Vaughn consoles Brody and tells him that Mrs. Kintner is wrong. "No she's not," replies Brody.Unsatisfied with how his findings took to the water, Hooper visits Brody for dinner that night, sharing his theories with Ellen Brody (Lorraine Gary) who is none too pleased about the presence of a large shark in the area but stands by her husband's intuition. Hooper discusses the possibility of a rogue shark in the area while Brody chugs his wine. Hooper explains that a rogue shark will often claim territory to an area where the feeding is good and will remain there until the food source is gone. Brody agrees to take Hooper down to the docks to cut open the tiger shark and find out, once and for all, if this is indeed the shark that's been terrorizing the island. Hooper cuts out the stomach and, in a mess of bile and seawater, recovers a few fish, a tin can, and a license plate from Louisiana that confirms his suspicions that the shark swam up to Amity from the warmer waters of the Gulf of Mexico. There is, however, no sign of any human remains and Hooper tells Brody that he's 'still got one hell of a fish out there' and measures out a space with his hands to show how big it's mouth might be.That night, Brody and Hooper continue their investigation and Hooper decides that some reconnaissance out on the water is needed, much to Brody's dismay. With sonar equipment installed on his boat, Hooper drives the boat out to deeper waters until the sonar detects a large object just ahead of them. Aiming their lights out, they find a half submerged fishing boat that Brody recognizes as Ben Gardner's (Craig Kingsbury), a local fisherman. Hooper bravely opts to take a closer look underwater and dons scuba gear despite Brody's protests. Hooper dives under and examines the hull of the ship, soon discovering a gaping hole in the side where a rather large tooth is embedded. As he peers closer into the hole, the ghostly torso of Ben Gardner appears, his one remaining eye gazing out in horror. Terrified, Hooper panics and drops the tooth as he scrambles back onto his own boat.The next morning, he and Brody attempt to reason with Mayor Vaughn, who seems more concerned with an act of vandalism on one of Amity's billboards. The graffiti sprayed on the image of a woman swimming altered her face to one of horror and included a large, black fin following her in the water. Hooper tries to convince Vaughn that, based on his findings, the proportions on the drawing are actually correct and that, with the evidence of Gardner's boat and his remains towed back to the island and the tooth he found, the existence of a large, killer shark, namely a Great White, cannot be ignored any longer. Vaughn is adamant, however, saying that without the evidence of the tooth, there's no proof that the shark isthat the beaches will remain open for the Fourth of July and tells Hooper that losing the tooth is very convenient for him and he most likely wants nothing but the publicity to get him in the National Geographic.Hooper can only laugh at the insult as Vaughn walks away.On July 4th, the beaches are flooded with mainlanders and tourists. Brody and Hooper have their hands full keeping order and making sure that enough security is patrolling the beaches, including boats full of patrolmen with rifles and shark spotters. However, the increased precautionary measures create tension among the beachgoers, making them hesitant to enter the water. Vaughn notices this and convinces one of his local friends to take his wife and grandchildren out. They do so nervously but this encourages more people to enter the water and releases the tension. Brody patrols the beach while Ellen takes care of their youngest son, Sean (Jay Mello). Michael and a friend begin to take his new sailboat out but Brody tells them to take it to the estuary where it's safer. Suddenly, a shark fin appears in the water and everyone begins to scream in panic, stampeding back to the shore and knocking a few hapless swimmers over. Vaughn watches in disbelief as Brody oversees the situation. The patrol boats quickly scramble towards the fin but discover that it is false; a prank pulled by a couple of boys in snorkel gear.As the chaos winds down, a girl painting on the edge of the estuary sees a dark fin with the shadow of its body beneath it. She cries out 'shark' but the general reaction is desensitized by the fin hoax. Brody responds to the call and quickens his pace when Ellen reminds him that Michael is in the estuary. Michael and his friend sit in their sailboat and are approached by a friendly man (Ted Grossman) in a rowboat before both crafts are suddenly capsized. Michael surfaces and watches in horror as the man attempts to return to his rowboat, only to be eaten alive by the massive shark. His severed leg sinks to the bottom of the estuary and the shark swims back into open water. Michael and his friend are brought safely ashore, though Michael is unconscious from shock. He is later brought to the hospital and Brody confronts Vaughn in the lobby and demands that immediate action be taken now that there's no doubt in anyone's mind that they have a killer shark around the island. Vaughn, shaken and distressed, realizes his mistakes and tells Brody that his family was on the beach too. He allows Brody to do what's necessary.With Vaughn's signature approval, Brody hires Quint to hunt the shark, promising the fee he'd demanded earlier. At Quint's boathouse, Brody and Hooper discuss with him the terms of the voyage. From the start, Quint looks down upon Hooper for his academic prowess and believes that it will not serve him any good out on the raw sea. However, Brody insists that both he and Hooper will accompany Quint despite his belief that they have no nautical experience -- Hooper mentions that he's crewed three TransPac sailboats, justifying his experience at sea. When Hooper ties a 'sheep shank' knot with ease, Quint relents. Come morning, they meet at the docks and prepare Quint's ship, Orca, for the voyage. Hooper brings his own hi-tech equipment including harpoons, tracking devices, scuba gear and tanks, and a shark-proof steel cage, though Quint is less than impressed with the safety guarantee on the cage.Once at sea, they attempt to attract the shark by chumming the water with fish guts and blood. Hours pass and Quint sets up a baited line with piano wire and fashions it to a rod secured against a fishing chair. He waits as Brody practices his knot work and Hooper plays cards. Quint's line begins to pull and he eases into his chair, quietly fastening straps to his shoulders and adjusting the rod. Just when Brody successfully knots his rope, the line jerks forward, taken by something far under. Hooper projects that the taker might be a sports fish, like a marlin, but Quint assures them that it's 'their' fish. The line is pulled under the boat and Quint marvels at the fish's clever move until the line completely snaps. Quint and Hooper argue over what might have taken the line and Quint suggests that Hooper doesn't have the education to admit his error; that no regular fish could have severed piano wire. Hooper makes a series of dirty faces and climbs up to the bridge.Later on, and still with no sign of the shark, Brody is assigned to chum duty, a job that he has come to detest. As he smokes a cigarette, he scoops out the chum and blindly throws it into the water while casting Quint a contemptuous look. Suddenly, the massive shark surfaces, its mouth agape, but only for an instant. Brody quickens to a stand, having seen enough of the shark to be fearful. He backs slowly into the cabin and tells Quint that he's 'going to need a bigger boat'. At that moment, Hooper sees the shark begin to circle the boat and Quint rushes out to see it. He wages a 25 footer, three tons and orders Hooper and Brody to action. Quint grabs his harpoon gun and instructs Hooper to tie the other end of the rope attached to it to one of the large, yellow bins on the boat. Quint shoots a total of three harpoons, each trailing a yellow bin, into the shark but it doesn't show the slightest bit of fatigue and easily disappears below the surface as Hooper manages to attach a tracking device to it.Quint is at first disdainful towards Hooper after the shark escapes but, that night, the men bond after sharing drinks and comparing scars they've received by some of the deep's more dangerous creatures. Hooper and Quint realize they have more in common than they thought and begin to bond. Brody points to one scar on Quint and he reveals that he'd had a tattoo removed, a tattoo that represented the US Navy cruiser
'Indianapolis'. He tells the story of how he was on the ship the day two Japanese torpedoes blasted a hole in the side large enough to sink the ship in minutes. Quint and some 1,100 men went in the water but, by the time rescue arrived, only 300 survived, some dying of thirst or exposure but most getting attacked and eaten by sharks. Quint's hatred for sharks is evident, describing them as lifeless with doll's eyes and how terrible it was to see and hear the men around him picked off. Worse yet for him is the survivor's guilt he feels. When help finally did arrive, Quint vowed never to wear a life jacket again. As Quint finishes his story, the men sing a sea shanty as the three yellow barrels break the surface of the water outside. As they finish their song, the boat is bumped repeatedly and violently by the shark causing minor leaks. Quint runs onto deck and fires shots at the fleeing shark, evident only by the barrels trailed in its wake and they quickly disappear beneath the waves.The next day the hunt for the shark continues. When they spot the three barrels floating in the water, Quint instructs Hooper to collect them with a hook and secure the rope to cleats at the stern of the boat. The shark begins to swim off again and Hooper's legs are nearly crushed when the rope is pulled taught. Quint drives the boat forward at full throttle but, despite the power, the shark manages to drag the boat backwards, threatening to capsize it, until the cleats rip out of the stern. Out of options, and with the barrels no longer attached to the shark, Quint allows Hooper to try a new method. Hooper opts to submerge himself in the shark cage, hoping that the shark will swim close enough that he can inject it with a harpoon filled with strychnine nitrate. Brody protests but Hooper angrily retorts, "You got any better suggestions?" as he puts on his scuba gear.In the cage, Hooper is ambushed by the shark which begins to rip the cage apart, making short work of the metal. Hooper loses his harpoon but is able to escape and swim down to the reef while the shark destroys the cage. Brody and Quint bring up the remains but, before they can do anything, the shark leaps out of the water, landing on the stern, crushing the transom. The boat upends and Brody and Quint hang on for dear life as the shark's jaws gnash and water fills the cabin. Quint loses his grip and slides right into the shark's mouth. The jaws come down on Quint's midsection several times and drags his lifeless body into the sea. As the Orca begins to sink, Brody retreats into the cabin and finds one of Hooper's spare scuba tanks just as the shark barrows through the side, breaking the window. Brody beats it on the nose with the tank before throwing the whole thing into its mouth. The shark backs away as Brody climbs out of the cabin and climbs onto the boat's mast with a rifle in his hand. As the shark circles again and charges Brody, now lying angled on the mast, he aims the rifle at the shark and fires off a few shots, missing. Finally, he takes close aim. "Smile, you son of a bitch," he says, and fires, hitting the tank and detonating it in a violent explosion. The force rips the shark apart and its body sinks to the sea floor as Brody laughs happily.Brody grabs hold of a piece of flotsam as Hooper surfaces, unharmed. Together they create a makeshift raft and begin paddling back to shore as seagulls descend on the remains of the shark."I used to be afraid of the water," Brody admits."I can't imagine why," Hooper replies.



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In the 13th Century England, after several years of political unrest in Scotland, the land is open to an invasion from the south. King Edward I of England (Patrick McGoohan) has decided to conquer Scotland. After invading Scotland and winning the war by 1280 A.D., Edward (known as 'Longshanks') grants areas of land in Scotland to his nobility which they are to rule, along with the traditional privileges. One of the privileges granted to English lords ruling Scotland was Primae Noctis, the right for the lord to take a newly married Scottish woman into his bed and spend the wedding night with the bride. Longshanks' plan is to breed out the population of Scotland.In the northern Scottish town of Lanark, a young boy named William Wallace, follows his father and brother to a meeting of Scottish nobles, arranged by Longshanks himself. When Wallace Senior and his older son arrive at the meeting place, they see that the Scots have all been hanged, along with their servants. William also sees the hanging corpses and panics when his father finds him.Wallace Senior attends another meeting where it's decided that they will go to war with the English. William wishes to accompany his father and brother, however, his father tells him to stay home and mind the farm. A few days later, Campbell Senior, William's best friend's (Hamish) father arrives at the farm. William's father is killed in battle, as was his brother. Following the funeral, William is given a thistle by a young girl. William's uncle, Argyle, arrives on horseback and tells William that he'll be leaving home with him. That night William and Argyle listen to bagpipers play a tribute for William's dead family. Argyle tells William that the pipes are outlawed. He also sees William's interest in his sword and tells William that he'll give him a traditional education and teach him how to fight later.Ten years later, the adult William Wallace (Mel Gibson) returns home to his father's farm. He reconnects with his old friend Hamish. At a community wedding, Wallace sees the local magistrate take the bride for himself according to "primae noctis." Wallace also falls in love with his childhood sweetheart Murron MacClannough (Catherine McCormack), the young girl who gave him the thistle at his father's funeral, and they marry in secret so that she does not have to spend a night in the bed of the English lord.The Scots continue to live under the iron fist of Longshanks' cruel laws. Wallace intends on living as a farmer and avoiding involvement in the ongoing "troubles" in Scotland. When an English soldier tries to rape Murron, Wallace fights off several soldiers and the two attempt to flee, but the village sheriff captures Murron and publicly executes her by slitting her throat, proclaiming "an assault on one of the King's soldiers is the same as an assault on the King himself." In retribution, Wallace returns to the village, seemingly ready to surrender. He attacks his captors and joins several villagers as they slaughter the English garrison. Wallace himself brutally executes the sheriff in the same manner that he executed Murron.Following their triumph, Wallace is compelled to fight against the English who have taken over his homeland and enslaved himself and his countrymen and women. In response to Wallace's exploits, the commoners of Scotland rise in revolt against England. As his legend spreads, hundreds of Scots from the surrounding clans volunteer to join Wallace's militia. Wallace leads his army through a series of successful battles against the English, including the Battle of Stirling Bridge (September 11, 1297) where Wallace's Scots are outnumbered by the English army.Afterwords, the victourious Scots invade northern England and sack of the city of York and kill its lord, the nephew of Longshanks himself. During his campaign, Wallace seeks the assistance of young Robert the Bruce (Angus MacFadyen), son of the leper noble Robert the Elder (Ian Bannen) and the chief contender for the Scottish crown. However, Robert is dominated by his scheming father (who suffers from leprosy and lives in seclusion, seen only by his son), who wishes to secure the throne of Scotland to his son by bowing down to the English, despite his son's growing admiration for Wallace and his cause.King Edward Longshanks, worried enough by the threat of the rebellion, poses to send the French princess Isabelle (Sophie Marceau) to try and negotiate peace with Wallace. Princess Isabelle is the wife of Prince Edward (Peter Hanly) the Prince of Wales and Longshanks' oldest son. The King sends her because his son is a weak-willed man and would not be imposing enough to negotiate, but she is a strong leader.Longshanks also knows that if Wallace kills her, the French king will declare war on Wallace in revenge. Wallace rejects the offer of a title, an estate and a chest of gold that Longshanks has told Isabelle to offer and continues with the fighting. However, during their conversation, Isabelle tells Wallace that she understands his suffering and that she has heard about the death of his wife. They share a moment of understanding and she becomes charmed by him.For Wallace to continue fighting, he needs the Scottish nobility on his side, contributing troops and food. But Wallace has problems convincing the nobility that they have a real chance to take back the country from the English. The nobles think that the Scots will lose and the English will treat them even worse than they are treated now. Also, the nobles are getting money from England and live quite well. Some of them are more concerned that this money continues to come and that their standard of living continues to be the best instead of looking after their people.Robert the Bruce is particularly torn over what he sees as his duty to the people to free them and what his father tells him to do to keep in good with the English and earn his crown.Two Scottish nobles, Lochlan and Mornay, planning to submit to Longshanks, betray Wallace at the bloody Battle of Falkirk the following year on July 22, 1298 as a new and larger English army, led by King Edward Longshanks himself, invades Scotland to crush the Scots rebellion once and for all. The Scots lose the battle due to Longshanks clever use of his long-bowmen and his massive reserves which outnumber the Scots. Wallace nearly loses his life when, in a last desperate act, he furiously breaks ranks and charges toward Longshanks to kill him personally. He is intercepted by one of the king's hooded lancers and knocked from his horse, but gains the upper hand when the lancer dismounts to examine the fallen Wallace. Wallace is set to kill the lancer, but upon taking the lancer's helmet off, discovered his opponent is Robert the Bruce. Bruce is able to get Wallace to safety just before the English can capture him, but laments his actions for some time to come because of what Wallace has stood for, which he betrayed.Over the next seven years, Wallace goes into hiding and wages a protracted guerrilla war against the English. In order to repay Mornay and Lochlan for their betrayals, Wallace brutally murders both men: Mornay by crushing his skull with a flail in his bed chamber and Lochlan by slitting his throat during a meeting of the nobles at Edinburgh and dumping his body on their banquet table.In 1305, as Wallace's guerrilla war continues, Princess Isabelle of France meets with Wallace as the English king's emissary. Having heard of him beforehand and after meeting him in person, she becomes enamored with him and secretly assists him in his fight. Eventually, she and Wallace make love, after which she becomes pregnant.Robert the Bruce contacts Wallace to set up a meeting, where the Bruce intends to declare his intent to join Wallace and commit troops to the war. Still believing there is some good in the nobility of his country, Wallace eventually agrees to meet with Robert the Bruce in Edinburgh. However, Robert's father has conspired with the other nobles to set a trap and Wallace is captured. He is beaten until he is unconscious and then handed over to the English. Learning of his father's treachery, the younger Bruce disowns his father.In London, Wallace is brought before the English magistrates and tried for high treason. He denies the charges, declaring that he had never accepted Edward as his King. The court responds by sentencing him to be "purified by pain." After the sentencing, a shaken Wallace prays for strength during the upcoming torture and rejects a painkiller brought to him by Isabelle. Afterward, the princess goes to her husband and father-in-law, begging them to show mercy. Prince Edward, speaking for the now terminally ill and mute King Edward Longshanks, tells his wife that the king will take pleasure in Wallace's death. Isabelle verbally lambastes her husband and father-in-law, then informs the weakened Longshanks of her pregnancy with Wallace's child and swears that Edward will not last very much longer as king. The mute Longshanks is shaken and unable to tell his son of her plans.Wallace is taken to a square at the Tower of London for his torture and execution by beheading. He refuses to submit to the king and beg for mercy despite being half hanged, racked, castrated, and disemboweled publicly. Awed by Wallace's courage, the Londoners watching the execution begin to yell for mercy, and the magistrate offers him one final chance for mercy. Using the last strength in his body, the defiant William instead shouts, "Freedom!" Just as he is about to be beheaded, Wallace sees an image of Murron in the crowd smiling at him, before the blow is struck.Epilogue. On June 24, 1314, nearly nine years after Wallace's death, Robert the Bruce, now a Scottish king and still guilt-ridden over his involvement Wallace's betrayal, leads a strong Scottish army and faces a ceremonial line of English troops at the fields of Bannockburn where the English under their new king, Edward II (who had ascended the English throne upon the death of his father Edward Longshanks in 1307), are to accept him as the rightful ruler of Scotland. Just as he is about to cross the field to accept the English endorsement, the Bruce turns back to his troops. Invoking Wallace's memory, he urges his charges to fight with him as they did with Wallace. Robert then turns toward the English troop line and leads a charge toward the English, who were not expecting to fight.The film ends with Mel Gibson's voice intoning that the Scottish won their freedom in this battle.



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The film tells the story of three men who pursue, often at the expense of others, information about the location of a buried treasure of coins. The first character introduced in the movie is Tuco Benedicto Pacifico Juan Maria Ramirez (the Ugly) - called Tuco - (Eli Wallach), who has a bounty on his head for numerous crimes. Tuco has a partnership with Blondie (The Good, played by Clint Eastwood) in which the latter turns him in for the reward money which the two then split after Blondie saves Tuco from hanging at the last moment. Meanwhile, a third character called Angel Eyes (Lee Van Cleef, playing the Bad) has learned of a hidden trunk of gold owned by a Confederate soldier named Bill Carson. He sets off to find the gold.Soon, Blondie grows tired of his relationship with Tuco, and leaves Tuco in the desert with no water. Tuco survives and is intent on exacting revenge on his former partner. He finds Blondie, and turns the tables by planning to abandon him in the desert. However, before Tuco can complete his torture in the New Mexico desert, a runaway stagecoach full of dead and dying Confederate soldiers appears. Bill Carson, the man with knowledge of the whereabouts of the gold, dying from thirst, persuades Tuco to get him a drink by disclosing the name of the graveyard where the loot is located. As Tuco goes for the water, Carson dies, but not before revealing the name on the grave to Blondie.Dressed in the uniforms of the dead soldiers, Tuco takes Blondie, near death, to a local Catholic mission run by his brother, a priest. While Blondie recovers, Tuco and his brother (Luigi Pistilli) confront each other about the mistakes each has made in life. After leaving the mission, the two, still impersonating Confederate soldiers are captured and taken to a Union prison camp. Angel Eyes has followed the trail of Bill Carson to the prison camp and is posing as a Union Sergeant.Angel Eyes and his colleague Wallace beat and torture Tuco until he reveals the location of the cemetery. When Angel Eyes learns that only Blondie knows the name, he changes tactics. He proposes a partnership, and accompanied by five or six other killers, they leave to find the coins. Tuco escapes while being transported from the camp by train, in the process killing Wallace. At the nearest town, Tuco encounters a bounty hunter (Al Mulock) he had wounded at the beginning of the film, who seeks his revenge. As Tuco shoots the bounty hunter, Blondie, who is in the same town with Angel Eyes, recognizes the sound of Tuco's gun, seeks him out, and he and Tuco resume their old partnership. Together they kill Angel Eyes' gunmen along the main street, but Angel Eyes himself escapes.Tuco and Blondie stumble on a battle between the Union and the Confederates, fighting for a bridge of questionable strategic value. Since the cemetery is on the other side of the bridge, they decide to destroy it and force the soldiers go somewhere else to fight. While they are setting up the dynamite, Tuco reveals that the cemetery is called Sad Hill and Blondie reveals that the coins are buried in a grave marked by the name of Arch Stanton (Adam S. Gottbetter).On the other side of the river Tuco deserts Blondie by horseback and finally enters the nearby graveyard.Tuco frantically searches around the graveyard for the grave of Arch Stanton. Eventually Tuco finds it, but before he can begin digging he's held at gunpoint by Blondie, who in turn is held at gunpoint by Angel Eyes, who has finally caught up to both of them. However, Blondie reveals that Arch Stanton's grave contains only a decomposing corpse.Blondie then leads the three of them into an empty patch of land in the middle of the cemetery. He writes the name of the real grave under a stone which he places in the center.At the conclusion of a three-way shootout, Blondie shoots Angel Eyes and Tuco finds his gun empty, having been unloaded the previous night by Blondie. Blondie then reveals that the real location of the coins is a grave marked "Unknown" right next to Arch Stanton. Tuco digs up the loot from the grave only to find himself once again staring down the barrel of Blondie's gun, who now holds a noose in his hand. After placing Tuco into the noose, fastening it to a nearby tree and making Tuco stand on the unstable wooden cross of one of the graves, Blondie takes half the coins and rides away while Tuco cries for help. In a dramatic twist, Blondie turns around to shoot the rope above Tuco's head, as he used to do in their times of partnership, freeing him one last time before riding off as Tuco screams in rage.


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Wyoming, c. 1900s. Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman) and the Sundance Kid (Robert Redford), the leaders of the famous Hole in the Wall Gang, are planning another bank robbery. As they return to their hideout in Hole-in-the-Wall, they find out that the gang has selected a new leader, Harvey Logan. He challenges Butch to a knife fight, which Butch wins, using a ruse. Logan had the idea to rob the Union Pacific Flyer train instead of banks. He wanted to rob it twice, the idea being that the return would be considered safe and therefore more money might be involved. Butch takes this idea as his own.The first robbery goes very well and the Marshal of the next town can't manage to raise a posse. Butch and Sundance listen to his attempts, enjoying themselves. Sundance's lover, Etta Place (Katherine Ross), is introduced. But obviously both men vie for her attention as she also goes bike-riding with Butch, a dialogue-free part of the film, accompanied by "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head."The second robbery goes wrong. Not only does Butch use too much dynamite to blow the safe, but also a second train arrives, which is carrying a posse of six heavily armed men on horseback that has been specially outfitted to hunt Butch and Sundance down. The gang flees, but the entire posse follows Butch and Sundance. They try hiding in a brothel in a nearby town that night, but are betrayed. When they find out the posse is continuing to follow their trail, they try riding double on a single horse in the hope that the posse will split up, but that fails. They then arrive in a nearby town and try to arrange an amnesty with the help of a friendly sheriff (Jeff Corey) of Carbon County. But the sheriff tells them they have no chance of getting one, and that they will be hunted down until they are killed by the posse.Still on the run the next day, they muse about the identities of their pursuers. They fixate on Lord Baltimore, a famous Indian tracker, and Joe Lefors, a tough, renowned lawman, identifiable by his white skimmer hat (which the lead posse member is wearing). After climbing some mountains, they suddenly find themselves trapped on the edge of a canyon. With their unseen persuers on their tail, they decide to jump into the river far below, even though Sundance can't swim and would prefer to fight.Later that day, they arrive at Etta's house and learn from the local newspapers all about the posse and the identities of their persuers and that they have been paid to stay together until they kill Butch and the Kid. They decide it's time to leave the country. Destination: Bolivia.After a montage of showing Butch, Sundance, and Etta of their travels to New York, they arrive in a small Bolivian village at the end of the world. Sundance already resents the choice. Their first attempted bank robbery stops before it gets off the ground, as they are unable to speak or understand Spanish. Etta teaches them the words they need. Their next robbery is clumsily executed, as Butch still needs his cribsheet. After each robbery, they seem to get better, until they are sought by the authorities all over Bolivia.However, their confidence drops as one evening when Butch, Sundance, and Etta are having dinner at a fancy restaurant in a nearby town when they see a man wearing a white straw hat standing on the other side of the street talking to a few men. Fearing that Lefors is once again after them, Butch suggests going straight, so as to not attract Lefors' attention.They get their first honest job as payroll guards in a mine, directed by an American, named Garris (Strother Martin). However, on their first working day, they are attacked by highwaymen. Garris is killed, and Butch and Sundance are forced to kill the Bolivian robbers. Ironically, Butch had never killed a man in his entire criminal career, but while they are attempting to go straight, he is forced to kill the bandidos. Since they seem unable to escape violence regardless of their occupation, they decide to return to robbery. That evening, Etta decides to leave them as she senses that their days are numbered and she doesn't want to watch them die.A few days later, Butch and Sundance attack a payroll mule train in the jungle, taking the money and the mule. When they arrive in the nearest town, San Vicente, a stable boy recognizes the brand on the mule's backside and alerts the local police. While Butch and Sundance are eating at a local eatery, the police arrive and a climatic gun battle begins.The two of them manage to find shelter in an empty house, but they're soon low on ammunition. Butch makes a run to the mule to fetch the rest of the ammunition while Sundance covers him, shooting several Bolivian policemen. But even the "fastest gun in the West" cannot match the twenty or more Bolivian policemen at once. Butch manages to retrieve the ammunition and runs back to the house, but they are both wounded. While tending to their wounds in the house, about 100 soldiers of the Bolivian cavalry arrive and surround the place, eager to get at the notorious 'Bandidos Yanquis'.The wounded pair discuss where they will be going next, realizing that their time is up (Butch suggests Australia, where at least they speak English). They dash out of the house in a futile attempt to get to their horses. The image freezes and slowly turns to a sepia tone tintype while a voice is heard ordering: "Fuego!" (Fire), followed by the sound of hundreds of rifles being fired in three consecutive volleys....

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Fred Dobbs (Humphrey Bogart) and Bob Curtin (Tim Holt) are down on their luck in Mexico and are both victims of a swindle in which workers are hired but not paid by a notoriously corrupt local businessman (Barton MacLane). Intrigued in the local pub by the stories of Howard (Walter Huston), an old burnt-out gold prospector keen on finding business partners to go prospecting, they cannot join him because they don't have enough money. When Dobbs makes a small score in a local lottery, that changes, and they hook up with Howard and set off for the hills.They find land on which much gold can be mined, and they split the gold equally, with each hiding and tending to his individual share. One day, Curtin sees a gila monster (a venomous lizard) and resolves to kill it, but it hides under a rock. Curtin will have to lift the rock to shoot it, but when Dobbs, whose gold, coincidentally, is hidden under this same rock, sees Curtin lifting it, even after seeing the gila monster, he fears that his goods will soon be stolen by one of the others. When another man named Cody (Bruce Bennett) finds them and insists on becoming their partners in prospecting, they resolve to shoot him. Before they do so, however, a group of bandits led by Gold Hat (Alfonso Bedoya) finds them and the bandits try to barter for some of their weapons, but these weapons are indispensable to the men and they refuse to do business. This results in exchange of gunfire, and Cody, who helps to defend the men, is killed. The bandits are ultimately scared away, and gold prospecting continues until they have mined enough gold to be prosperous for the remainder of their lives.All that remains is to take their gold back to the city where they can sell it, but this will require an arduous trip through the desert. Early in the trip, Howard, a man known to be skilled in the ways of medicine, is forced by some primitive local people to return with them to treat an ill child, and has little choice but to trust Dobbs and Curtin to hold his share of the goods until he returns to them. Curtin has every intention of doing this, but Dobbs remains suspicious of Curtin, believing that Curtin will kill him the very moment he goes to sleep. Troubled by this, he tries to murder Curtin, and soon holds all the goods, but he must now make a long trip through the desert alone.Unfortunately for Dobbs, he encounters Gold Hat on his trip, and Gold Hat, who recognizes him, murders him and takes his goods. Gold Hat returns to the city to sell the goods, but once it is determined that he has stolen the goods he holds, he is executed by firing squad. When it turns out that Curtin has survived, and when Howard returns, it soon becomes clear that their fortune is missing, and they share an unexpected laugh, appreciating that, despite their bad luck, they were far more prosperous than Dobbs and Gold Hat.Life, Curtin and Howard understood, would go on, and their unbroken spirit made them symbols of resolve in the face of adversity.


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C. C. Baxter (Jack Lemmon) is a lonely office drone for an insurance company in New York City. Four different company managers take turns commandeering Baxter's apartment, which is located on West 67th Street on the Upper West Side, for their various extramarital liaisons. Unhappy with the situation, but unwilling to challenge them directly, he juggles their conflicting demands while hoping to catch the eye of fetching elevator operator Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine). Meanwhile the neighbors in the apartment building assume Baxter is a "good time Charlie" who brings home a different drunken woman every night. Baxter accepts their criticism rather than reveal the truth.The four managers write glowing reports about Baxter a little too glowing, so personnel director Mr. Sheldrake (Fred MacMurray) suspects something illicit behind the praise. Sheldrake lets Baxter's promotion go unchallenged on condition that he be allowed to use the apartment as well, starting that night. Sheldrake gives Baxter two tickets to The Music Man to ensure his absence. Delighted about his promotion, Baxter asks Kubelik to meet him at the theatre. She agrees and it is revealed to the audience that she is Sheldrake's girlfriend, intending to break off their affair that night but is instead charmed by Sheldrake to the apartment. Baxter is disappointed at being stood up, but is willing to forgive Kubelik.At an office party on Christmas Eve, Baxter discovers the relationship between Sheldrake and Kubelik, though he conceals this realization, while Kubelik learns from Sheldrake's secretary that she is merely the latest female employee to be his mistress, the secretary herself having filled that role several years earlier. At the apartment, Kubelik confronts Sheldrake with this information and while he maintains that he genuinely loves her, he leaves to return to his family. Meanwhile, a depressed Baxter picks up a woman in a local bar and, upon returning the apartment, is astounded to find Kubelik in his bed, fully clothed and overdosed on Baxter's sleeping pills.Baxter sends his bar pickup home and enlists the help of his neighbour, a physician, in reviving Kubelik without notifying the authorities. The doctor makes various assumptions about Kubelik and Baxter, which Baxter concedes without revealing Sheldrake's involvement. Baxter later telephones Sheldrake and informs him of the situation, and while Sheldrake professes gratitude for Baxter's quiet handling of the matter, he avoids any further involvement. Kubelik recuperates in Baxter's apartment under his care for two days, during which he tries to entertain and distract her from any possible suicidal afterthoughts, talking her into playing numerous hands of gin rummy, though she is largely uninterested.Baxter and Kubelik's absence from work is noted and commented on, with Baxter's former "customers" assuming that Baxter and Kubelik were having an affair. Kubelik's taxi-driver brother-in-law comes looking for her and two of the customers cheerfully direct him to Baxter's apartment, partly out of spite since he has been denying them access since his arrangement with Sheldrake. The brother-in-law also assumes the worst of Baxter and punches him several times.Sheldrake, angered at his secretary for sharing the truth with Kubelik, fires her. She retaliates by telling his wife about his infidelities, leading to the breakup of the marriage. Sheldrake moves into a room at his athletic club and continues to string Kubelik along while he enjoys his newfound bachelorhood. Baxter finally takes a stand when Sheldrake demands the apartment for another liaison with Kubelik on New Year's Eve, which results in Baxter quitting the firm. When Kubelik hears of this from Sheldrake, she realizes that Baxter is the man who truly loves her and abandons him, running to the apartment. Baxter, in the midst of packing to move out, is bewildered by her appearance and her insistence on resuming their earlier game of gin rummy. When he declares his love for her, her reply is the now-famous final line of the movie: "Shut up and deal."


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Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen) is a young American who has abandoned a privileged life at a university to enlist in the infantry, volunteering for combat duty in Vietnam. The year is September 1967. Upon arrival in Da Nang, South Vietnam, he sees dead soldiers in body bags being loaded into his plane, but more distressing to him is the shellshocked state of a departing soldier with the "thousand-yard stare." Taylor and several other replacements have been assigned to Bravo Company, 25th Infantry division, "somewhere near the Cambodian border." Worn down by the exhausting work and living conditions, his enthusiasm for the war wanes quickly and he develops an admiration for the more experienced soldiers, despite their reluctance to extend their friendship.One day, another new arrival, platoon commander Lieutenant Wolfe (Mark Moses) discusses the plans for a patrol later that night with the platoon sergeants: the compassionate Sergeant Elias (Willem Dafoe), harsh but hard core Staff Sergeant Barnes (Tom Berenger), cowardly, sycophantic "lifer" Sergeant Red O'Neil (John C. McGinley), and drug addict Sergeant Warren (Tony Todd). Barnes and Elias argue over whether to send the new men out on a patrol that is likely to be ambushed. O'Neil insists that the new troops go out instead of several men under him who are nearly finished with their tours of duty. Barnes agrees, only on the condition that O'Neil goes out as well.That night, North Vietnamese soldiers set upon Taylor's sleeping unit. Gardner (Bob Orwig), a fellow new recruit, is killed, and another soldier, Tex (David Neidorf), is maimed. Despite having passed the watch duty to Junior (Reggie Johnson), a more experienced but consistently irresponsible soldier who fell asleep, Taylor is blamed for the casualties (O'Neil is also to blame, having thrown the grenade that maimed Tex). Immediately after the fighting, Taylor discovers a light wound to his neck, and he is sent to the field hospital for treatment.A few days later, Taylor returns to his unit from the hospital and, through a soldier named King (Keith David), gains acceptance from the "heads", a tight-knit group led by Elias that socializes, dances, and takes drugs in a private bunker. Next door, Barnes leads the more traditional members of the unit whom drink beer and play cards and don't smoke marijuana. Taylor becomes a more seasoned soldier as the patrols continue and soon no longer stands out amongst the others.During one patrol on New Years Day, January 1, 1968, two members of the platoon, Sandy (J. Adam Glover) and Sal (Richard Edson) find an abandoned bunker and are killed when they stumble upon a booby trap attached to a box of documents. Shortly after, a soldier named Manny Washington (Corkey Ford) goes missing. His mutilated body is found tied to a post close by. The platoon is infuriated by the senseless death of their comrade and are ordered to report to a nearby village of South Vietnamese citizens.The platoon reaches the village, where a food and weapons cache is discovered. The other soldiers explore the village. In one house, Taylor discovers a mute and mentally disabled boy and his mother hiding in a hole beneath the floor. Taylor harasses and taunts the retarded boy by shooting his rilfe at his feet, but stops himself short of killing the boy. However, Bunny (Kevin Dillon) then takes over and beats the boy to death with his gun, even though Sgt. O'Neil orders them to leave the hut. While questioning the village chief, Barnes loses his patience and senselessly kills the man's wife despite his denials that they are aiding the Viet Cong. Barnes is about to murder the man's young daughter to force him to tell them to where the enemy is, when Sergeant Elias arrives at the scene and starts a fistfight with Barnes. Lieutenant Wolfe, passive during the shooting of the wife, eventually ends the fight, and relays orders from his own superior officer to burn the village. As the men leave, a group of four soldiers, including Bunny and Junior, drag a young Vietnamese girl into the bushes with the intention of raping her. Taylor comes upon them and stops the group from raping the girl. His comrades ridicule him for stopping them.Upon returning to base, Elias reports Barnes' actions to Captain Harris (Dale Dye), who cannot afford to remove Barnes due to a lack of personnel. However, Harris threatens to court martial Barnes if there is evidence that he murdered an unarmed civilian. O'Neil and Bunny, nervous about the possibility of an investigation, speak to Barnes and Bunny suggests "fragging" Elias. A narrating Taylor speaks of this as "a civil war in the platoon. Half with Elias, half with Barnes." Taylor talks with Elias one night and Elias tells him that the United States is due for a loss in war because they'd been mostly successful in past wars. He also confesses that he's disillusioned with America's mission in Southeast Asia, that he used to believe it was winnable even a few years ago, but knows now that it's not.On their next patrol the platoon is ambushed and pinned down in a firefight by unseen enemy soldiers. Flash (Basile Achara) is killed and Sergeant Warren (Tony Todd) and Lerner (Johnny Depp) are badly injured in the resulting skirmish. Lieutenant Wolfe calls in wrong coordinates for artillery support, resulting in the deaths of Fu Sheng (Steve Barredo), Morehouse (Kevin Eshelman), and Tubbs (Andrew B. Clark) and the severe wounding of Ace (Terry McIlvain). Big Harold (Forest Whitaker) has his leg blown off by a trip-wired booby trap while trying to escape the artillery barrage. Elias, with Taylor, Rhah (Francesco Quinn), and Crawford (Chris Pedersen), go to intercept flanking enemy troops. Though Lt. Wolfe is commanding officer, Barnes takes command. He orders the rest of the platoon to retreat to be airlifted from the area, and goes back into the jungle to find Elias' group. After sending Taylor, Rhah, and Crawford (who has been shot in the lung) back, Barnes finds Elias. Barnes fires three rounds into Elias' chest and leaves him for dead. Barnes runs into Taylor and tells him that Elias is dead and that he'd seen his body nearby. Barnes orders Taylor back to the landing zone. After they take off, the men see a severely wounded Elias emerge from the jungle, running from a large group of NVA soldiers. He dies after being shot several more times by the NVA while the American helicopters futilely attempt to provide him cover overhead.At the base, Taylor tries to talk his dwindling group of six "heads" into killing Barnes in retaliation, claiming that when he'd met Barnes in the forest after shooting Elias, that the look on Barnes' face told him the truth. While King agrees, Doc Gomez (Paul Sanchez) believes they should wait for "military justice" to decide Barnes' fate. Rhah reminds Taylor how much he admired Barnes when he first arrived, and that Barnes isn't meant to die, noting that on several previous occasions Barnes has sustained wounds that ought to have proved mortal: "the only thing that can kill Barnes, is Barnes." Barnes then appears, very drunk with a bottle of bourbon, having overheard Taylor calling for his murder. He enters the room, daring them to kill him. No one takes up the offer but as Barnes leaves, Taylor attacks him. Barnes quickly gets the upper hand, pins Taylor down and holds a knife to his face. Rhah urges him not to do it, telling Barnes he'll be court-martialed and imprisoned, and he leaves, slashing Taylor under the eye.A few days later, the platoon is sent back to the ambush area in order to build and maintain heavy defensive positions against a potential attack. Rhah is promoted to Sergeant, commanding the remains of Elias' squad. The platoon is so severely weakened, though, that there are numerous gaps in their defense. When this is pointed out to him, Lt. Wolfe only replies that he doesn't "give a fuck" any more. The troops try to prepare for the incoming battle, during which they know the majority of them will die. Just hours before nightfall, King is allowed to go home as his tour of duty has come to an end. O'Neil tries to use Elias' R&R; days for himself in order to escape the impending battle (in which he believes he will die). When he asks Barnes for permission, Barnes refuses, saying, "Everybody gotta die some time, Red." Junior tries to escape the battle by spraying mosquito repellent onto his feet and passing it off as trench foot, a ploy that Barnes recognizes right away. Bunny states that he feels no remorse for the murders he has committed, saying that he enjoys Vietnam, and goes on to proclaim himself to be "Audie Murphy", a famous and highly decorated World War II hero.Francis (Corey Glover), one of the last few remaining "heads", is assigned to the same foxhole as Taylor. That night a large attack occurs and the American defensive perimeter is broken and the camp overrun by hundreds of attacking North Vietnamese troops. Taylor and Francis take on and cut down several attacking enemy troops until they both pause when they hear signal whistles from the unseen NVA sergeants ordering their men to cease fire. Hearing a Vietnamese voice over a bullhorn and understanding that the NVA are ordering RPGs up to the line to blow up the foxhole they are in, Taylor grabs Francis and both of them crawl out of the foxhole seconds before it's hit by an RPG. Taylor and Francis then attack and kill several enemy soldiers that overrun their destroyed foxhole until Taylor loses it during the fight and charges off into the carnage, shooting one enemy soldier after another.Meanwhile, the NVA attack against the base continues relentlessly. The command bunker is destroyed by a NVA suicide bomber (Oliver Stone makes a cameo as the doomed battalion commander inside the bunker). During the massed North Vietnamese Army attack, many members of the platoon are killed, including Lt. Wolfe, Parker (Peter Hicks), Doc, Bunny, and Junior when their foxholes are overrun. O'Neil survives only by hiding himself under a dead body. The desperate company commander, Captain Harris, orders the Air Force pilots to "expend all remaining" inside his perimeter. During the chaos, Barnes and Taylor come face-to-face. As Barnes is about to kill Taylor with a shovel, the two are knocked unconscious by the last-ditch American napalm attack.A wounded Taylor regains consciousness the next morning with a serious wound to his lower abdomen. He soon finds Barnes, who is also wounded after being shot in both legs during the battle. Taylor takes an AK-47 rifle from a dead enemy soldier and aims it at Barnes, who lays helpless on the ground. Nonetheless, Barnes feels at first not threatened, and he dismissively orders Taylor to call a medic. When Taylor does not comply, but instead continues to aim his weapon, Barnes (deranged to the last) dares him to pull the trigger by saying: "Do it!" Taylor shoots Barnes three times in the chest, killing him. Taylor then drops his rifle, collapses, and awaits medical attention.Interestingly, although not in the script, Taylor is seen on the verge of pulling the pin of a grenade that he found, only to drop it as reinforcements come to Taylor. (Charlie Sheen thought that Taylor would be committing suicide after killing Barnes. Oliver Stone thought that the mistake was good so he decided to keep it in the film.)Francis emerges from his foxhole and stabs himself with a bayonet in order to be evacuated as a casualty. O'Neil is found by other Americans, and Harris (much to O'Neil's distress) gives him command of the platoon. As he is loaded onto the helicopter, Taylor is reminded by Francis that because they have been wounded twice, they can go home. Back at the bombed-out command post, hundreds of NVA bodies are being dumped into mass graves. After bidding farewell to Rhah, Francis, Tony Hoyt (Ivan Kane) and Ebenhoch (Mark Ebenhoch) (his last surviving friends in the platoon; the other survivors are Rodriguez (Chris Castillejo), Huffmeister (Robert Galotti), and O'Neil), Taylor boards his helicopter. The helicopter flies away and Taylor weeps as he stares down at the destruction, while he (from a future perspective) narrates that he will forever be in Vietnam, with Barnes and Elias battling for what Rhah called "possession of his soul", and that he believes he and other veterans must rebuild themselves, and find goodness and purpose in their lives.


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During a US Civil War battle, Union Army Officer Lieutenant John J. Dunbar (Kevin Costner) learns that his injured leg is to be amputated. Seeing the plight of fellow soldiers with amputated legs, Dunbar refuses amputation and attempts suicide by riding a horse across the line of fire, between the opposing Union and Confederate positions. His action has the unexpected effect of rallying his comrades, who storm the distracted Confederates and win the battle. After the ensuing battle, an experienced general's surgeon saves Dunbar's leg. The commanding officer recognizes Dunbar as a hero and gives him Cisco, the horse who carried him in battle, and offers Dunbar his choice of posting.Dunbar, anxious to see the Western frontier before it ends, requests transfer west. After meeting with Major Fambrough (Maury Chaykin), who has slipped into delusions of grandeur (apparently believing he is a king and Dunbar a medieval knight), he is paired with a drayage teamster named Timmons (Robert Pastorelli), who conveys Dunbar to his post. After the departure of Timmons and Dunbar, Fambrough commits suicide with his own pistol.After a scenic journey, Dunbar and Timmons arrive with fresh supplies at the desolate Fort Sedgwick, finding it deserted except for a lone wolf that Dunbar later befriends and dubs Two Socks, because of the coloring of its front legs. Dunbar, while waiting for reinforcements to arrive, sets about bringing order the deserted post, left in complete disarray by its previous occupants. Meanwhile, Timmons, while returning to their point of departure, is ambushed by Pawnee Indians and scalped. Timmons' death and the suicide of the major who sent them there prevents Union officers from knowing of Dunbar's assignment to the post, effectively isolating Dunbar. Dunbar remains unaware of the full situation and its implications. He notes in his journal how strange it is that no more soldiers join him at the post.Dunbar initially encounters Sioux neighbors when the tribe's medicine man, Kicking Bird (Graham Greene), happens upon the fort while Dunbar bathes out of sight, and, assuming it abandoned, attempts to capture Cisco. After Dunbar scares off Kicking Bird, he is confronted by an aggressive warrior named Wind in His Hair (Rodney A. Grant), who declares that he is not scared of the white man. Eventually, Dunbar establishes a rapport with Kicking Bird, but the language barrier frustrates them. On his way to visit the tribe's camp, Dunbar interrupts the suicide attempt of Stands With A Fist (Mary McDonnell), a white woman captured by the tribe as a child and recently widowed, who recovers and acts as a translator. Dunbar finds himself drawn to the lifestyle and customs of the tribe, and becomes a hero among the Sioux and accepted as an honorary member of the tribe after he helps them locate a migrating herd of buffalo, which they depend upon as a source of food, material, and clothing.Dunbar further helps defend the settlement against a Pawnee raiding party, providing the Sioux warriors with surplus rifles and ammunition from the fort. He eventually is accepted as a full member of the tribe. After members of the tribe witness him playing with Two Socks, he is named ugmnitu Taka Ob'wahi ("Dances with Wolves"; ugmnitu Taka means large coyote, the Lakota word for wolf). Dunbar falls in love with Stands With A Fist, a relationship forbidden by the recent death of her husband in battle but consummated in secret. The two eventually win the approval of Kicking Bird, who takes on the role of her father, and marry. Dunbar subsequently spends more time living with the tribe than manning his post at Fort Sedgwick. Wind In His Hair, his last rival, acknowledges him as a friend.Dunbar's idyll ends when he tells Kicking Bird that white men will continue to invade their land in "numbers like the stars." They tell Chief Ten Bears (Floyd 'Red Crow' Westerman), who decides it is time to move the village to its winter camp. As the packing finishes, Dunbar realizes that his journal, left behind at the deserted fort, is a blueprint for finding the tribe, revealing that he knows far too much about their ways. Wearing Indian clothing, he returns to Fort Sedgwick to retrieve the journal but finds it is has suddenly been occupied by newly arrived Army troops. They see Dunbar and initially assuming he is an Indian, kill his horse Cisco and capture Dunbar.When they recognize Dunbar as a white man, they treat him as a deserter, and beat him during an interrogation. Dunbar tells Lt. Elgin (Charles Rocket) (whom Dunbar met earlier in Maj. Fambrough's office) that he has a journal containing his orders for his posting to Fort Sedgwick. Spivey (Tony Pierce), one of the first soldiers to arrive at the fort, denies the existence of the journal, which he had found and has in his pocket. After further beating, Dunbar declares in the Lakota language that his name is Dances With Wolves. Army officers and a few troops set off to deliver Dunbar to Fort Hayes for execution. When they happen upon Two Socks, they shoot at the wolf, who refuses to leave Dunbar. Despite his attempts to intervene, Two Socks is fatally wounded, and the convoy moves off.Soon after, Wind In His Hair and other warriors from the tribe attack the column of men, rescuing Dunbar. Smiles A Lot (Nathan Lee Chasing His Horse) retrieves Dunbar's journal floating in a stream. After returning to the winter camp, Dunbar realizes that as a deserter and fugitive, he will continue to draw the unwelcome attention of the Army and endanger the welfare of the tribe if he stays with the Sioux. Under the protests of his Sioux friends, Dunbar decides that he must leave the tribe, saying he must speak to those who would listen. His wife decides to accompany him.As Dances With Wolves and Stands With A Fist leave the camp, Wind In His Hair cries out that Dances with Wolves will always be his friend, a remembrance of their first confrontation. Shortly afterward, a column of cavalry and Pawnee army scouts arrive to find their former camp site empty.

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"The Pianist" begins in Warsaw, Poland in September, 1939, at the outbreak of the Second World War, first introducing Wladyslaw (Wladek) Szpilman, who works as a pianist for the local radio. The Polish Army has been defeated in three weeks by the German Army and Szpilman's radio station is bombed while he plays live on the air. While evacuating the building he finds a friend of his who introduces him to his sister, Dorota. Szpilman is immediately attracted to her.Wladyslaw returns home to find his parents and his brother and two sisters, packing to leave Poland. The family discusses the possibility of fleeing Poland successfully and they decide to stay. That night, they listen to the BBC and hear that Britain and France have declared war on Germany. The family celebrates, believing the war will end once the Allies are able to engage Germany.Wladek meets with Dorota, who accompanies him around Warsaw to learn of the injustice Jewish people have to face under the new Nazi regime. Conditions for Jews on Warsaw have quickly deteriorated. Businesses that were once friendly to them now won't allow their patronage. Wladek's father is harshly forbidden to walk on the sidewalk in the city by two German officers; when he begins to protest, one of the men hits him in the face. The family soon has to move to the Jewish ghetto established by Nazi rule. The Holocaust is starting, and the family, though well-to-do before the war, is reduced to subsistence level, although they are still better off than many of their fellow Jews in the overcrowded, starving, pestilential ghetto.Wladyslaw takes a job playing piano at a restaurant in the ghetto, turning down an offer to work for the Jewish Police, and the family survives, but living conditions in the ghetto continue to deteriorate and scores of Jews die every day from disease, starvation, and random acts of violence by German soldiers. By 1942, the aged father must apply for working papers through a friend of Wladek's, so that he can take a job in a German clothier. However, the day comes when the family is selected to be shipped to their deaths at the Treblinka concentration camp. As the family sits under the blazing sun in a holding pen with hundreds of other Jews waiting for the trains, the father uses the family's last 20 zlotys to buy a piece of candy from a boy (who apparently isn't aware of his own impending doom). Each family member eats a tiny morsel of candy, their last meal together.As they are going to the trains, Wladyslaw is saved by Itzak Heller, a Jewish man working as a police guard. Wladyslaw watches the rest of his family board the train, never to be seen again. He hides for a few days, and blends in with the ten percent or so of the Jews that the Nazis kept alive in the ghetto to use for slave labor, tearing down the brick walls separating the ghetto and rebuilding apartment houses for new, non-Jewish residents. He is put to work, under grueling, abusive conditions, building a wall. He thinks he sees Dorota, but she passes quickly. He learns that some of the Jews are planning an uprising, and helps them by smuggling guns into the ghetto. At one point, he is almost caught by a German officer, who suspects that Wladek is hiding something in a sack of beans. After this close call, he decides he must escape and take his chances in the larger city, so with the help of friend, Majorek (who was the friend that got his father working papers), he escapes and finds Dorota, who is now married and pregnant, and her brother dead.They hide Wladyslaw for one night, and the next day take him to a vacant apartment near the ghetto wall, where he can live indefinitely on smuggled food; he must be silent however, since several non-Jews also live in the building and believe the apartment is empty. There, Wladek watches the Jewish Ghetto Uprising of April/May1943, for which he helped smuggle the weapons, and watches weeks later as the uprising is finally crushed and its participants killed. Later, the man who had been taking care of him and smuggling food to him wants to move him, but he decides to stay put, feeling safer where he is. His friend gives him an address to go to in case of an emergency, and leaves, gravely warning Wladek not to be caught alive by the Nazis. Wladyslaw remains in the apartment a few more months until he has an accident , breaking some dishes. The noise has blown his cover, and he has to scurry out of the building, being chased by an angry German woman.Wladek goes to the emergency address he was given, where he meets another man who is with the Polish resistance, who have been hiding Jews. This man hides Wladek in another vacant apartment, where there is a piano, but his new caretaker, Szalas, is very slack about smuggling in food, and Wladyslaw once more faces starvation, and at one point almost dies of jaundice. Dorota and her husband visit him, finding him gravely ill. They report that Szalas had been collecting money from generous and unwitting donors and had pocketed it all, leaving Wladek to die in isolation.Wladek recovers in time to see the larger 1944 Warsaw Uprising, in which the Poles tried to retake control of their city. Soon, Nazis start attacking the building and he has to flee. The Poles had expected the advancing Soviet Red Army to help them, but the Russians did not come, instead allowing the Germans to put down the revolt, and drive the entire remaining population of Warsaw out of the city. Wladyslaw hides in the abandoned hospital that had been across the street from his second hideout. The Germans had by then decided to burn Warsaw to ashes, so Wladyslaw flees the hospital and jumps back over the wall into the ghetto, now an abandoned, desolate wasteland of bricks and rubble.He stays there, rummaging through burned-out buildings to find something to eat, and continues to hide, until one night a Nazi officer, Captain Wilm Hosenfeld, finds him. To prove to Hosenfeld that he is a pianist, he plays a somber and brief rendition of Chopin's "Ballade in G Minor", the first time he has played since he worked in the Jewish ghetto years before.Hosenfeld, moved by Szpilman's playing, helps him survive, allowing him to continue hiding in the attic even after the house is established as the Captain's headquarters. Hosenfeld eventually abandons the house with his staff when the Russian army draws closer to Warsaw. Hosenfeld gives Wladek a final parcel of food and his overcoat. He asks Wladek his surname, which sounds exactly like "spielmann", the German word for pianist. Hosenfeld promises to listen for Wladek on the radio. Hosenfeld also tells him that he only needs to survive for a few more days; the Russian army will liberate Warsaw soon. Shortly afterward, Wladyslaw sees Polish partisans, and, overcome with joy, goes outside to meet his countrymen. Seeing his coat given to him by Hosenfeld, they think he is a German and try to kill him, before he can convince them he is Polish.Newly freed Poles walk past an improvised Russian prisoner of war camp, and Hosenfeld is among the prisoners. The Poles hurl insults at the Germans through the fence, but when Hosenfeld hears that one of the Poles is a musician, he goes to the fence and tells him that he helped Wladyslaw, and asks him to ask Wladyslaw to return the favor, before a Russian soldier throws him back down on the ground. The Polish musician does indeed bring Wladyslaw back to the site to petition the Russians, but they have departed without a trace by the time he gets there. Wladyslaw is unable to help Hosenfeld, but he returns to playing piano for the radio station.Closing title cards tell us that Hosenfeld died in a Soviet gulag in 1952. Wladyslaw lived to be an old man, dying in Poland at the age of 88. The cards are intercut with footage of Wladek triumphantly playing Chopin's Grand Polonaise Brilliante in concert.


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The film opens with three men driving in their car late at night on a highway. In the car are Henry Hill (Ray Liotta), Jimmy Conway (Robert DeNiro) and Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci). Jimmy and Tommy are asleep when Henry hears a loud thumping noise. Trying to figure out the source of the sound, Henry suddenly realizes they need to stop and check the trunk. When they open it, we see a beaten man wrapped in several bloody tablecloths. An enraged Tommy stabs the man several times with a kitchen knife and Jimmy shoots him four times with a revolver. Henry slams the trunk lid shut and we hear a voiceover (Henry) say "As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster."We now go back several decades, to see the events that will lead up to this scene.In the 1950s, young Henry Hill idolizes the Lucchese crime family gangsters in his blue-collar, predominantly Italian neighborhood in East New York, Brooklyn, and in 1955 quits school and goes to work for them. The local mob capo, Paulie Cicero (Paul Sorvino) (based on the actual Lucchese mobster Paul Vario) and Cicero's close associate Jimmy Conway (De Niro) (based on Jimmy Burke) help cultivate Henry's criminal career.Henry is teamed up with the young Tommy and the two sell cartons of cigarettes, given to them by Jimmy, to employees of a local factory, a crossing guard and some cops. While selling them, two detectives show up and confiscate the load, arresting Henry. Tommy slinks away to tell Tuddy, Paul's brother. Henry goes to court and is given a slap on the wrist. Jimmy gives him a substantial reward for his silence and the rest of the gang greets Henry with joyful acceptance.As adults, Henry and Tommy (Joe Pesci in his Academy Award-winning performance) conspire with Conway to steal some of the billions of dollars of cargo passing through John F. Kennedy International Airport. They help out in a key heist, stealing over half a million dollars from the Air France cargo terminal. The robbery helps Henry gain more of Cicero's trust, to whom Henry gives a sizable cut of the haul. However, because Henry is half-Irish, he knows he can never become a "made man", a full member of the crime family. Nor can Jimmy Conway, who is also Irish.Henry's friends become increasingly daring and dangerous. Conway loves hijacking trucks, and Tommy has an explosive temper and a psychotic need to prove himself through violence. At one point, he humiliates an innocent and unarmed young waiter "Spider" (Michael Imperioli), asking Spider to dance  la The Oklahoma Kid, then shooting him in the foot. A few nights later, when Spider stands up to an extremely intoxicated Tommy, Tommy (egged on by Jimmy) suddenly draws his gun and shoots Spider in the chest, killing him instantly. Jimmy is angry with Tommy for shooting Spider but Tommy is completely indifferent, callously asking where he can find a shovel to bury the dead man.Henry also meets and falls in love with Karen (Lorraine Bracco), a no-nonsense young Jewish woman; they go to the Copacabana club two to three times a week (and the site of a famous continuous steadicam shot). Karen feels uneasy with her boyfriend's career, but is also "turned on" by it. Henry and Karen eventually marry (which involves convincing Karen's parents that Henry is half-Jewish).In June 1970, Tommy (aided by Jimmy Conway) brutally murders Billy Batts (Frank Vincent), a made man in the competing Gambino crime family, over a simple insult Batts uses on Tommy. The murder is a major offense that could get them all killed by the Gambinos if discovered. After stopping at Tommy's mother's place for dinner (and also to pick up a shovel), Henry, Conway and DeVito bury Batts's corpse in an abandoned field, bringing us back to the car trunk scene from the start of the movie. When they discover six months later that the land has been sold, they are forced to exhume, move, and rebury the badly decomposed body.Henry's marriage deteriorates when Karen finds he has a mistress, Janice Rossi (Gina Mastrogiacomo). Karen confronts a sleeping Henry with a gun as he wakes up. As soon as she lowers the gun, Henry subdues her and screams that he has enough on his mind having to worry about being "whacked on the street" without waking up with a gun in the face.After beating and dangling a debt-ridden Florida gambler over a lion cage at the Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa, Henry and Jimmy are caught and sent to prison for four years because the guy's sister is a typist for the FBI. There, Henry deals drugs to the other prisoners to keep afloat and to support his family, and, when he returns to them, he has a lucrative drug connection in Pittsburgh. Cicero warns Henry against dealing drugs, since mob bosses can get hefty prison sentences if their men are running drugs behind their back.Henry ignores Cicero and involves Tommy and Jimmy (as well as Karen and his new mistress, Sandy (Debi Mazar) in an elaborate smuggling operation. About the same time, December 1978, Jimmy Conway and friends plan and successfully carry out a record $6,000,000 offscreen heist from the Lufthansa cargo terminal at JFK Airport. Soon after the heist, Jimmy grows increasingly paranoid when some of his associates foolishly flaunt their gains in plain sight, possibly drawing police attention, and begins having them whacked. Worse, after promising to welcome Tommy into the Lucchese family as a "made man," the elder members of the family coldly shoot him in the head in retaliation for Billy Batts's death and his reckless behavior.In an extended, virtuoso sequence titled "Sunday, May 11th, 1980," all of the different paths of Henry's complicated Mafia career collide: he must coordinate a major cocaine shipment; cook a meal for his family; placate his mistress, who processes the cocaine he sells; cope with his clueless babysitter/drug courier, Lois; avoid federal authorities who, unknown to him, have had him under surveillance for several months; and satisfy his sleazy customers, all the while a nervous wreck from lack of sleep and snorting too much of his own product.Lois demands that Henry take her home so she can get her lucky hat, which she won't fly without. Henry and Lois are arrested by the police as he backs out of his driveway. The authorities had been conducting a secret investigation for at least a month and had finally caught Henry in the act. Karen bails her husband out of jail, after destroying all of the cocaine that was hidden in the house and getting her mother to put their house up as collateral for bail money. Henry and his family are left penniless and Henry and Karen break down when Karen admits she destroyed the $60,000 in coke Henry had been planning to ship when he was busted.After Henry's drug arrest, Cicero and the rest of the mob abandon him. Convinced that he and his family are marked for death, Henry decides to become an informant for the FBI. He and his family enter the federal Witness Protection Program, disappearing into anonymity to save their lives, but not before he testifies against Paulie and Jimmy in court. He is now an "average nobody" and tells us "I get to live the rest of my life like a schnook." The movie's quick final shot is of Tommy firing a pistol directly into the camera, a tribute to the final shot of The Great Train Robbery.The film closes with a few title cards (over Sid Vicious's version of "My Way") showing what became of Hill, Paul Cicero (Vario) and Jimmy Conway (Burke). Henry's marriage to Karen ended in separation with her getting custody of their children, and Cicero and Conway will spend practically the rest of their lives in prison. Cicero died in 1988. Conway's title card explains that he was eligible for parole in 2004, though he died in prison of lung cancer in 1996.


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Father Lancaster Merrin (Max Von Sydow) is an elderly Catholic priest on an archeological dig in Iraq. Merrin has a sense of foreboding and encounters a number of strange omens, including the unearthing of a series of confusing items, a near miss with a runaway horse drawn carriage, and a clock that stops ticking in mid-stroke. Finally, Merrin discovers a statue of a bizarre demonic figure; although the film does not mention it, it is a representation of a demonic figure known as Pazuzu.Back in the United States, in Washington D.C.'s upscale Georgetown neighborhood, a successful actress named Chris McNeil (Ellen Burstyn) begins experiencing strange phenomena. Chris lives with her twelve-year-old daughter Regan (Linda Blair), her personal assistant Sharon (Kitty Wynn), and two housekeepers. Regan's father is estranged for reasons unknown. There are mysterious, unexplained sounds in the attic of the house, which Chris attributes to rats. Regan slowly begins to exhibit strange behavior, undergoing behavioral changes much like depression and anxiety. She turns up in Chris's bed one night, complaining that her own bed was "shaking".Chris is working on a new movie in Georgetown with a director known as Burke Dennings (Jack MacGowran). While filming a scene one day, she notices a young Catholic priest watching her; his name is Damien Karras (Jason Miller). Father Karras has a background in psychology and counsels parishoners at a nearby church; Chris also notices him while walking home from the shoot one day.Karras is a thoughtful, conflicted man. He discusses his vocation with a superior and asks to be transferred because he feels he is losing his faith. He also has an elderly mother who lives alone in a slum in New York; he visits her and is reminded of how lonely her life is, and he feels guilty that she has to live in such poor surroundings.The strange occurrences in the McNeil house begin to increase. Regan reveals that she has been playing with a Ouija board and claims that she has the ability to communicate with a spiritual entity all by herself. A nearby Catholic church is desecrated, a statue of the Virgin Mary painted crudely and adorned with conical clay additions made to resemble breasts and a penis. Regan also works with clay and paint, making small animal sculptures.Meanwhile, Father Karras's mother falls ill and, due to a lack of funds, she is placed in a very shabby hospital and resigned to a ward full of mental patients. Father Karras is distraught when he visits her and she seems to blame him for her situation. Later, she passes away under these conditions, adding to his sorrow.Chris has an elaborate party at her home with a number of affluent guests. One of her guests is another Jesuit named Father Dyer (Rev. William O'Malley), and Chris asks him about Karras, having noticed him and referring to him as "intense". She finds that Karras and Dyer are good friends. During the party, Regan appears happy and social, but she reappears after being sent to bed, dressed in her nightgown and urinates on the carpet in front of the guests while making an ominous statement to a prominent astronaut ("You're gonna die up there"). After the guests leave, Chris bathes Regan and puts her to bed, but is startled by a loud sound from Regan's bedroom. She rushes back down the hall and discovers Regan's bed shaking violently, rising up off the floor with Regan on it. Chris jumps on the bed and it still levitates.Chris subjects Regan to a series of medical tests to discover what the problem is. The doctors are unable to discover anything, despite putting Regan through some grueling, painful procedures. The best they can come up with is that Regan may have a lesion on her brain, but ultimately they are frustrated when nothing appears on her brain scan. At Chris's house, Regan suffers what appears to be a seizure, and two doctors visit to assist. They find her rising and falling up and down on the bed in a way that seems impossible for a human being. When they try to sedate her, she hurls them across the room with abnormal strength, speaking to them in what seems to be a male voice: "Keep away! The sow is mine!" Eventually they sedate her.Out of options, they advise Chris to search for a psychiatrist, but they also reluctantly discuss another possibility: they mention the phenomenon of demonic possession and the rite of exorcism. While they seem to hold professional contempt for it, they do admit that it has been known to solve problems such as what Regan is going through. Chris is skeptical, having no real religious affiliation of her own.The situation worsens when Chris is out one evening; she returns to find the house deserted except for Regan, who is alone in her bedroom and appears to be in deep sleep. The bedroom is freezing cold, the window standing wide open, and she is uncovered. Sharon returns and Chris is furious with her for leaving Regan unattended, but Sharon explains that she left Regan in the care of Burke, who was visiting the house, while she went to the pharmacy to get Regan's medication. Burke's absence is unexplained until the doorbell rings and an associate of Chris's breaks the news that Burke has just died on the steps outside Chris's house.Shortly after this, Chris is visited by a kindly detective named Kinderman (Lee J. Cobb), who seems suspicious of Burke's death. He questions Chris about the events of that evening, and Chris is nervous, hesitant to tell him about Regan's problem. While he is visiting, he notices a few small animal figures that Regan has crafted; they are similar in style to the desecration of the statue in the church. Kinderman leaves and immediately a violent disturbance comes from Regan's bedroom. Chris hears a deep male voice bellowing at Regan to "do it", and Regan screaming in protest. In the bedroom, Chris finds Regan plunging a crucifix violently into her vagina. When Chris tries to stop her, Regan assaults her with impossible strength, and furniture around the room starts to move on its own. As Chris watches in horror, her daughter's head turns completely around backwards, and she speaks to Chris in Burke's voice, saying to her "Do you know what she did? Your cunting daughter??" Chris then realizes that Regan is responsible for Burke's death.Desperate, Chris arranges to meet with Father Karras, and when she mentions the notion of exorcism, Karras is almost amused. He tells her that exorcism is nearly unheard of, and that he doesn't know anybody who has ever performed one. Chris is distraught and convinces him to meet with Regan anyway. Karras is shocked by the girl's appearance; she is tied to the headboard of her bed, her face misshapen and covered in lesions, her voice deep and gravelly. Regan announces that she's the devil, and toys with Karras in a number of ways, seeming to make a drawer next to the bed open all by itself, then speaking to Karras in a number of languages. She also conjures up the voice of a subway vagrant that Karras has encountered alone earlier. Karras remains unconvinced, and when Regan claims "Your mother's in here with us", Karras asks her what his mother's maiden name is. Unable to answer, Regan vomits spectacularly all over him.Chris cleans Karras's sweater and discusses Regan with him. Karras is still not convinced that Regan is possessed, especially because Regan says she's "the devil", and he recommends psychiatric care for her. Chris pleads with him to help her obtain an exorcism, swearing that the "thing" in the bed upstairs is not her daughter.While Karras thinks it over, he is approached by Kinderman, who questions him about the fact that the desecration of the church could be connected to Burke's death; what he was unable to tell Chris was that Burke's body was found with his head turned completely around backwards, and the police department considers it a homicide. Kinderman knows that Karras suspects something unusual about the McNeil house, but his confidentiality as a priest prevents him from discussing it with Kinderman.Karras visits Regan again and records their conversation, during which he sprinkles Regan with water. He tells her it is holy water and she begins to writhe in pain, seemingly going into a trance and speaking in a strange language. Later he tells Chris that it will be difficult to make a case with the Bishop for possession; the water he sprinkled on Regan was simply tap water, and was not blessed. The Bishop, and Karras himself, would consider Regan to be mentally ill and not possessed. Chris confides in Karras and tells him that Regan was the one who killed Burke Dennings. Later, Karras uses his tape recordings of Regan's seemingly incomprehensible babble to discover that she is really speaking backwards, in English. A phone call from Sharon interrupts him; she summons him to the house to see Regan, not wanting Chris to see that's happening: as they look at Regan's unconscious body, the words "help me" begin to materialize on her stomach, rising up in her skin like scar tissue.Karras reluctantly agrees to try and get an exorcism for Regan, although he seems to have more in common with the doctors who recommended it as a form of shock therapy. The church calls in Father Merrin to perform the exorcism, with Karras assisting. Merrin has performed exorcisms in the past, including a difficult one that "nearly killed him", according to the Bishop. When Merrin arrives at the McNeil house, Regan bellows his name from upstairs, as if she knows him, and she makes strange animal sounds. He warns Karras about conversing with the demon, and reminds him that the demon will mix lies with the truth to confuse and attack them.When they enter Regan's bedroom, she immediately begins with a string of obscenities. Merrin and Karras recite the ritual of exorcism and Regan manifests strange phenomena such as levitation, telekinesis, an abnormally long tongue, and strange vomiting. She constantly curses the priests and emits evil laughter and verbal abuse. Regan begins to talk to Karras in the voice of his mother, and he starts to break down. Merrin sends him away; when he returns, he finds Merrin dead on the floor, the victim of a heart attack. Regan cackles gleefully, infuriating Karras, who grabs her and shouts at the demon, "Come into me! Take me!" The transference works almost immediately; Karras begins to transform and Regan returns to her normal self. Before Karras can harm her, his "normal" personality breaks through for a split second and he commits suicide, hurling himself out Regan's window. Just as Burke did, he tumbles down the stairs outside Regan's window and lays dying in the street below. By chance, Father Dyer happens upon the scene and administers the last rites to his friend.In a brief epilogue, we see Chris and Regan as they prepare to leave the house in Georgetown. They are visited by Father Dyer. Chris speaks with him privately and tells him that Regan doesn't remember anything about the possession or the exorcism. Regan then appears and greets him cheerfully, transfixed by Father Dyer's white collar. Before they leave, she suddenly hugs Father Dyer and kisses him. As Chris pulls away in their car, she orders the driver to stop for a moment and gives Father Dyer the religious medallion that belonged to Father Karras; in their struggle, Regan had torn it from his body and it was in her bedroom all along.


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In the Western Pennsylvania foundry town of Clairton, during the late 1960s, Russian-American steel workers Michael (Robert De Niro), Steven (John Savage), Nick (Christopher Walken), Stanley (John Cazale), John (George Dzundza), and Axel (Chuck Aspegren) are preparing for two rites of passage: marriage and military service.They are like schoolmates, hanging out in a local bar and enjoying weekends of deer hunting. Michael and Nick are also both in love with Linda (Meryl Streep), who seems to juggle both of the men. But their placid life is soon to be changed after they are enlisted in the airborne infantry of Vietnam.Before they go, Steven marries the pregnant Angela and their wedding party is also the men's farewell party.Nick's girlfriend, Linda, makes breakfast for her father while wearing a bridesmaid's dress. Her father, an abusive and hallucinating alcoholic, is upstairs and alone, having an alcoholic attack and has trashed his room. Linda brings him his breakfast and he hits her, leaving a bruise on her face. She leaves for the wedding.At the wedding reception, the friends quickly become drunk, dancing and acting obnoxiously. Stan is dancing with his girlfriend when the band's singer cuts in. While he dances with her, Stan notices that he keeps putting his hand on her buttocks. John simply laughs and Stan grows angrier until he marches over and hits his girlfriend. Mike dances with Linda and offers to buy her a beer. The two go to the bar and have a drink together while Nick watches them somewhat suspiciously. The bride and groom leave the party in a decorated car and Mike and Nick chase after them, Mike stripping himself naked as he runs, winding up with Nick in a basketball court.The morning after, with the car still decorated from the wedding, the men drive into the mountains to go deer hunting. Mike takes hunting very seriously and gives Stan a cold shoulder when Stan can't find his hunting boots. He asks Mike for his extra pair and Mike refuses, having grown tired of Stan's casual attitude and forgetfulness on previous trips. Though they don't agree with Mike's hard attitude, Mike stands by his principles. The next morning, Mike and Nick go out into the woods (Rachmaninoff's dramatic piece "Praise the Name of the Lord" plays on the soundtrack.) Michael stalks and shoots a deer, bringing it down in a single shot.The troupe returns to Clairton and they go straight to John's bar. John plays a somber piece on the piano and the men sit mostly silent, contemplating their last night together as a group.The scene cuts to a mountainous region of Vietnam where a small village is being firebombed by the US Army. Michael is there, lying unconscious among the dead. A North Vietnamese Army (NVA) soldier walks into the village. He finds a small group of survivors, men, women and children, hiding in a hidden bunker. He casually arms a grenade, tosses it in and walks off as it explodes. Moments later he sees a woman, badly injured, carrying a baby. The soldier mercilessly shoots her. Mike springs up and kills the soldier with a flamethrower. As Mike walks around shooting any surviving NVA soldiers, another unit of helicopters arrive and among them are Nick and Steve. Mike doesn't seem to acknowledge them at first when incoming mortar shells from the NVA begin to hit the village. In the distance, more NVA are approaching.The three are captured and held prisoner in a riverside prisoner-of-war camp along with other US Army and ARVN prisoners. For entertainment, the guards force their prisoners to play Russian roulette and gamble on the outcome. All three are forced to play; Steven aims the gun above his head, grazing himself with the bullet and is punished by incarceration to an underwater cage. Believing that the experience has broken Steven, Mike considers abandoning him. Nick angrily rejects Mike's idea.Mike, convincing the guards to let him go head-to-head with Nick in the final round, devises a plan to escape that requires 3 bullets in the pistol and shares his plan with Nick. Mike tells him to go after the closest guy when Mike makes his move. Nick, sensing the increased likelihood of imminent demise finds the plan crazy and protests but, seeing it as their best chance of survival, however slim, Mike pleads with Nick to trust him. In a final game, Mike successfully convinces their captors use 3 bullets in the cylinder while Nick stalls after being chosen to go first. Mike then volunteers to go first and fires and clicks an empty chamber. With only 2 empty of 5 remaining chambers, an almost-broken Nick has his turn and it's an empty chamber. Mike, enraged by continuous taunting, raises his gun to his head and at the last minute pushes the rifles pointed at him aside while turning the gun on his captors. With 3 bullets in the 4 chambers left, Mike is able to shoot down 3 captors in rapid succession before grabbing a machine gun and killing the rest. Mike has to pull a raving mad Nick from his continued pummeling of his captor and both escape, taking Steven with them.The three escape the camp by floating downriver on a tree. An American helicopter rescues them, but only Nick is able to board it. The weakened Steven falls into the river. Mike jumps in after him, and helps him to he riverbank. Steven has broken his legs in the fall. Mike carries him to friendly lines.The psychologically devastated Nick recuperates in a military hospital in Saigon, where the psychologist concludes he is not fit to remain there due to his all but incomprehensible babbling. After he's released, he tries to call Linda in Clairton but hangs up before the call is connected. He aimlessly searches for Mike in the red light district.Nick encounters Julin Grinda (Pierre Segui), a champagne-drinking Frenchman outside a gambling den where men play Russian roulette for money. Grinda entices Nick to participate, then leads him in to the den. Unbeknown to Nick, Mike is in the crowd, as a gambler. Though Mike sees Nick, Nick leaves in a hurry and in a daze and they do not reunite.Back in the U.S., Mike eventually becomes romantically involved with Linda. Nick and Steven are still missing.Mike finds out that Steve is alive and has returned, and visits Angela, Steve's wife, to find out where he is. She is consumed by madness and not talking to anyone, so writes down a number for him. It is the number for Steven's hospital, which is a veteran's rehabilitation clinic.Michael reunites with Steven, who has lost both his legs and the use of an arm and is mentally unstable. Steven reveals that someone in Saigon has been mailing large amounts of cash to him, which Mike suspects is from Nick, who may still be alive. Mike takes Steven home over Steven's protests.Mike travels to Saigon just before its fall in 1975. With the help of the Grinda, he finds Nick in a crowded roulette club, but Nick appears to have no recollection of his friends or his home in Pennsylvania, appearing instead to be in a constant state of shock. In a game of Russian roulette in the gambler's bar, Mike and Nick are pitted against each other, in an attempt on Mike' part to have Nick remember his life before the war and his family and friends. Mike's attempts to persuade him to come home are unsuccessful, Nick defiantly raises the gun and shoots himself in the head.The film ends with Nick's funeral back in America and his friends' response to it. Everyone's there, and even Angela & Steven seem to be on the mend. At the wake they all sing "God bless America", and toast Nick."CAVATINA" by Stanley Myers is played (on guitar by John Williams) as the credits roll.


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In December 1970 in Marseilles, France, a plainclothes policeman is observing former longshoreman turned entrepreneur Alain Charnier (Fernando Rey) chatting with some unsavory types. Charnier is being tailed by the undercover cop because he is a kingpin in smuggling heroin overseas - a fact that costs the cop his life when he later returns home and is shot in the face by Pierre Nicoli (Marcel Bozzuffi), Charnier's henchman.Meanwhile, in Brooklyn, NY, a corner Santa is chatting with some children outside a seedy bar while a hotdog vendor completes a transaction. The Santa is Detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle (Gene Hackman) and the vendor is his partner, Detective Salvatore Russo (Roy Scheider), whom Doyle nicknames "Cloudy." The two narcotics cops are staking out the bar in hope of finding a pusher named Willie (Alan Weeks). When Popeye sees Willie in the bar passing some drugs to a companion, he starts singing to the children, his signal to Cloudy. Cloudy enters the bar and grabs Willie's buddy. Willie sees the commotion and suddenly flees outside, with Popeye and Cloudy in hot pursuit. They corner him in an alley and Willie slashes Cloudy's arm with a hidden knife and runs. The cops chase him on foot to a deserted lot where he falls and is beaten by both cops before Russo implores Doyle to stop. Once the two cops calm down they confusingly interrogate Willie, trying to get information on his drug connection.In France, Alain Charnier finishes a day overseeing dock work and drives home to his seaside villa and his young trophy wife (Ann Rebbot), who obviously has expensive tastes. The two exchange gifts for their upcoming trip to the US. Charnier later meets his gunman Nicoli at a rendezvous point for an acquaintance of Charnier, TV personality Henri Devereaux (Frdric de Pasquale). Devereaux is traveling to the US to make a film and has decided to aid Charnier's smuggling effort because he needs money. Nicoli believes involving Devereaux is a mistake, but is reassured by Charnier.In NYC, Popeye and Cloudy sign off for the night and Popeye takes his reluctant partner to a nightclub called The Chez. Popeye notices one table in particular, populated by known narcotics connections who are being entertained by a free-spending young man whom Popeye describes as a "greaser." Popeye smells a drug deal underway and persuades Cloudy to help him tail the greaser and his companion, a big-haired blonde. Throughout the night they tail the two, watching them drop off a suitcase in Little Italy and then switch cars early the next morning from an attractive coupe to a beat-up sedan. They then drive to a candy store/luncheonette, "Sal and Angie's", in a working-class area of Brooklyn. Peering inside as the couple prepares to open for the day, Popeye and Cloudy notice that the blonde is now a brunette, having worn a wig the night before.Realizing they are on to something, the two cops for the next week stake out the candy store. Combing records they find that the greaser is Salvatore "Sal" Boca (Tony Lo Bianco) and his wife is Angie (Arlene Farber). The candy store's income could not explain Sal's free-spending ways. The posh coupe is owned by Angie while the beat-up sedan is owned by Sal's brother Lou (Benny Marino), a garbageman in training at a facility on Ward's Island in the East River. All three Bocas have criminal records. The candy store is regularly visited by unsavory types from New Jersey, and Sal makes numerous trips to an expensive condo in Manhattan at which lives lawyer Joel Weinstock (Harold Gary), a known drugs financier who bankrolled a heroin shipment from Mexico.Popeye and Cloudy raid a junk-house bar. One Afro-haired patron (Al Fann) talks back at Popeye and is hauled into a men's room to be beaten up - actually cover so Popeye can debrief his informant, who reveals that a big shipment is due within a few weeks that will satisfy everyone in the city. In order to make the ruse look convincing, Popeye punches his colleague in the jaw, a bit too enthusiastically.Popeye's boss, Walt Simonson (Eddie Egan, the real-life inspiration for Popeye Doyle), is reluctant to let the two cops continue with their investigation of Boca, pointedly reminding Popeye of a previous case where his hunches backfired. But with Joel Weinstock, whom the police have long wanted to arrest, potentially involved, Simonson relents and goes to court for a wiretap on Boca's house and candy store. The federal Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (BNDD) now becomes involved and assigns Agents Bill Mulderig (Bill Hickman) and Bill Klein (Sonny Grosso, the real-life inspiration for Cloudy Russo), who've worked with Popeye before; Popeye and Mulderig are at constant loggerheads because Mulderig blames Popeye for the death of a policeman in a previous case and doesn't believe Popeye's hunches to begin with.Charnier, Nicoli, and Devereaux arrive in NYC and Devereaux brings with him Charnier's Lincoln, signed for in Charnier's stead. They speak fair English, but nonetheless have an interpreter, La Valle (Andre Ernotte), with them. La Valle escorts Charnier to a police auction of impounded cars and identifies Lou Boca as the scrap metal buyer for Charnier's business (suggesting how the Bocas may have linked up with Charnier).After several days of monitoring mundane conversations, the wiretap finally brings Popeye and Cloudy their first break - Charnier phones Sal to arrange a 12 o'clock meeting the next day. Popeye, Cloudy, and Mulderig tail Sal to midtown Manhattan, where they spot Sal meeting with Charnier and Nicoli. While Mulderig follows Sal, Popeye and Cloudy tail Charnier, dubbed "Frog One," and Nicoli as they walk through the city. The Frenchmen stop to eat at an expensive restaurant, which the cops observe while standing outside in freezing temperatures and eating bad pizza with worse coffee. Later, Popeye finds out that Frog One is staying at the Westbury Hotel, but Mulderig still doesn't believe Popeye is on to anything, leading to a brief argument.At Joel Weinstock's condo, a young dope chemist (Pat McDermott) tests a sample of Charnier's heroin and it measures to 89% pure. There are sixty kilos due to arrive and when all is said and done it will total out to $32 million with a half-million cash down payment. Weinstock, however, wants to wait before the switch is made, much to Sal's displeasure as Sal fears that Charnier will abort the deal if Weinstock drags it out too long.The next day Popeye arrives at the Westbury just in time to see Charnier breeze right by the distracted Mulderig and Klein and walk into the city without a tail. Popeye tails Charnier himself, almost loses him at a flower shop, but then picks him up again at the Grand Central subway station. They play a cat-and-mouse game on the platform, but the wily Charnier manages to hop back on a train at the last moment and waves goodbye as the furious Popeye futilely runs after the train.Charnier meets Sal in Washington DC - Sal followed there by Klein - where Charnier insists that the deal must be consummated by the end of the week, despite Sal's protests that his mob pals want to wait. On the flight back to New York, Charnier expresses his worries to Nicoli, who points out that Sal's concern about the police is warranted. The Frenchmen agree that Doyle is the main problem, and Nicoli volunteers to assassinate Doyle. Charnier reluctantly agrees, unaware that a fight has erupted between Popeye and Mulderig, and that Popeye has been taken off the case by a furious Simonson.The dejected Popeye returns to his Brooklyn apartment building, where he is fired upon by Nicoli from the roof. Popeye manages to enter the building and pursues Nicoli to the roof, and then back down when he sees Nicoli fleeing. Nicoli runs to a nearby elevated train station and boards the train while Popeye screams for a uniformed conductor on board to stop him. As the train proceeds, the conductor follows Nicoli as he moves forward through the train. Popeye commandeers a Pontiac Le Mans from a flabbergasted citizen. Nicoli kills the uniformed conductor and seizes the motorman, forcing him to keep the train going through all the regular stops. Popeye furiously pursues in the car, barely escaping as other cars sideswipe him, and he nearly strikes a woman pushing her child in a baby carriage. Nicoli then kills a passenger who tries to intervene, and the crowd on the train flees while the terrified motorman collapses with a heart attack, locking the train on a collision course with a stopped train. The two trains crash and passengers, including Nicoli, are thrown about. Despite injuries and losing his gun, Nicoli slips out undetected - by everyone except Popeye. Nicoli starts down the stairs but is cornered by Popeye, and when he tries to flee he is shot dead.Popeye and Cloudy, now back on the case, tail Sal as he takes the Lincoln from a parking garage to a side street. The police stake out the car all night; at 4:10 AM a gang of thieves tries to strip it, but they are arrested by a horde of policemen and the car is towed to a garage to be searched as evidence. The mechanic (Irving Abrahams), cannot find any narcotics in the car, but Popeye refuses to believe it. While Devereaux (who signed for the car) and La Valle argue with the garage desk sergeant, Cloudy notices a 120-pound discrepancy between the car's listed weight and actual weight. The mechanic reveals one area he didn't open up - the car's rocker panels underneath the doors. Popeye chews him out and then helps open up these panels, and the stash is found. The car is replaced (either repaired or the department aquires another, intact one), the stash replaced, and it is returned to Devereaux, while the police now wait for the dealers to make their final move.Devereaux meets again with Charnier and is reluctant to do any more favors, until Charnier reveals that Devereaux is now an accomplice - to Devereaux's surprise and horror. Devereaux walks away, but Charnier takes the car himself and drives it to Ward's Island, where Lou Boca directs him to an abandoned factory building. There the heroin stash is revealed and tested positively. The stash is hidden inside the building and cash payment is hidden in the rocker panels of the junker car Lou Boca bought. With the deal consummated, the Bocas briefly celebrate and Sal drives Charnier back to the city - and right into a police roadblock led by Popeye. Sal drives back to the factory with police in pursuit, and the mobsters hide inside the main building while Charnier hides in a secondary building. A gunfight ensues, in which Sal Boca is shot dead. Popeye hunts for Charnier inside the dilapidated warehouse. Cloudy joins him as Popeye appears to have cornered Charnier, but as the two cops approach the room Popeye hears a noise from another door. He opens fire before Cloudy can corner the now-dead man - who turns out to be Agent Mulderig. Determined to get Frog One at any cost, and not caring that he just killed a Federal agent, Popeye strides through the warehouse, believing the Frenchman is still in hiding. After he rounds a corner a single gunshot is heard.In an epilogue, it is revealed that Weinstock and the surviving Bocas either skated or received peripheral sentences while Henry Devereaux wound up in federal prison for four years; Chanier escaped and is believed to be living in France, and Doyle and Russo were suspended from narcotics duty.(Note: The French Connection drug bust that inspired the film took place in 1961. However, the film's script sets the action at the time of actual filming, i.e. the winter of 1970-71, in order to avoid the need for period accuracy in the many New York street scenes.)


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The film opens with Prince Albert, Duke of York (later King George VI), known to his wife and family as "Bertie" (Colin Firth), the second son of King George V, speaking at the close of the 1925 British Empire Exhibition at Wembley Stadium, with his wife Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter) by his side. His stammering speech visibly unsettles the thousands of listeners in the audience. The prince tries several unsuccessful treatments and gives up, until the Duchess persuades him to see Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush), an Australian speech therapist.In their first session, Logue requests that they address each other by their Christian names, a breach of royal etiquette: Logue tells the prince that he will be calling him Bertie from now on. At first, Bertie is reluctant to receive treatment, but Logue bets Bertie a shilling that he can read perfectly at that very moment, and gives him Hamlet's "To be, or not to be" soliloquy to read aloud, with music blaring so that he can't hear himself. Logue records Bertie's reading on a gramophone record, but convinced that he has stammered throughout, Bertie leaves in a huff, declaring his condition "hopeless." Logue gives him the recording as a keepsake.Later that year, after Bertie's father, King George V (Michael Gambon), makes his 1934 Christmas address, he explains to his son the importance of broadcasting for the modern monarchy in a perilous international situation. He declares that Bertie's older brother, David, Prince of Wales, will bring ruin to the family and the country when he ascends the throne, and demands that Bertie train himself to fill in, beginning by reading his father's speech into a microphone for practice. After an agonizing attempt to do so made worse by his father's coaching, Bertie plays Logue's recording and hears himself reciting Shakespeare fluently, amazing both himself and the Duchess.Bertie returns to Logue's treatment, where they work together on muscle relaxation and breath control, as Logue gently probes the psychological roots of the stammer, much to the embarrassment of the standoffish Bertie. Nevertheless, Bertie reveals some of the pressures of his childhood, among them his strict father; the repression of his natural left-handedness; a painful treatment with metal splints for his knock-knees; a nanny who favoured his elder brother, going so far as deliberately pinching Bertie at the daily presentations to their parents so that he would cry and his parents would not want to see him; unbelievably, not feeding him adequately ("It took my parents three years to notice," says Bertie); and the death in 1919 of his little brother, Prince John. As the treatment progresses, Lionel and Bertie become friends and confidants.On 20 January 1936, King George V dies, and David, Prince of Wales (Guy Pearce) ascends the throne as King Edward VIII. However, David wants to marry Wallis Simpson (Eve Best), an American divorce and socialite, which would provoke a constitutional crisis--the sovereign, as head of the Church of England, may not marry a divorced person.At a party in Balmoral Castle, Bertie points out that David cannot marry Wallis. David accuses his brother of a medieval-style plot to usurp his throne, citing Bertie's speech lessons as an attempt to groom himself. Bertie is tongue-tied at the accusation, whereupon David resurrects his childhood taunt of "B-B-B-Bertie."At his next treatment session, Bertie has not forgotten the incident. After he briefs Logue on the extent of David's folly with Wallis Simpson, Logue insists that Bertie could be king. Outraged, Bertie accuses Logue of treason and mocks Logue's failed acting career and humble origins, causing a rift in their friendship.When King Edward VIII does in fact abdicate to marry, Bertie becomes King George VI. Feeling overwhelmed by his accession, the new king realises that he needs Logue's help, and he and the queen visit the Logues' residence to apologise. Lionel's wife is stunned to meet the royals in their modest home. When the king insists that Logue be seated in the king's box during his May 1937 coronation in Westminster Abbey, Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Cosmo Lang (Derek Jacobi) questions Logue's qualifications. This prompts another confrontation between the king and Logue, who explains that he never claimed to be a doctor and had only begun practicing speech therapy by informal treatment of shell-shocked soldiers in the last war. When the king still isn't convinced of his own strengths, Logue sits in St. Edward's Chair dismissing the Stone of Scone as a trifle, whereupon the king remonstrates with Logue for his disrespect. The king then realises that he is as capable as those before him.In September 1939, shortly after the United Kingdom's declaration of war with Germany, George VI summons Logue to Buckingham Palace to prepare for his radio address to the country. As the king and Logue move through the palace to a tiny studio, Winston Churchill (Timothy Spall) reveals to the king that he, too, had once had a speech impediment but found a way to use it to his advantage. The king delivers his speech as if to Logue alone, who coaches him through every moment. Afterwards, the king steps onto the balcony of the palace with his family, where thousands cheer and applaud him.A final title card explains that during the many speeches King George VI gave during World War II (1939-1945), Logue was always present. Logue and the king remained friends, and "King George VI made Lionel Logue a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in 1944. This high honour from a grateful King made Lionel part of the only order of chivalry that specifically rewards acts of personal service to the Monarch."


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It Happened One Night begins with a rich heiress named Ellie Andrews sequestered by her father on his yacht, disapproving of her marriage to a famous aviator named King Westley. After an argument, she escapes the yacht and swims away. She buys a bus ticket to travel back to New York to her husband, where she meets an out of work reporter named Peter Warne. Eventually he finds out her true identity from a newspaper article about her escape. He offers to help her get to her destination in exchange for exclusive rights to her story, and secures her cooperation by threatening to turn her in to her father if she does not agree.
Andrews and Warne share hotel rooms on their trip, pretending to be husband and wife to keep from arousing suspicion. Because she is a married woman, they put up a blanket as a barrier, with Warne referring to it as the walls of Jericho. One of the other bus passengers recognizes Andrews from an article offering a $10,000 reward for her return. While the bus is stranded in mud, the passenger offers to split the money with Warne if he helps him turn in Andrews. Warne scares the passenger away by implying that hes a professional criminal looking for $1,000,000 in ransom money and then threatens to shoot him when he becomes frightened. Warne and Andrews then leave the bus to hitchhike in case the other passenger decides to turn them in to the police.
After they spend the night sleeping in hay, Andrews gets a driver to stop by flashing one of her legs, who turns out to be a robber who drives off with their possessions. After chasing after him, Warne inexplicably returns with a bloody temple and the mans car. In the meantime, the father reluctantly agrees to allow the marriage to the aviator if his daughter returns. While spending another night in a blanket-partitioned hotel room, Andrews throws herself at Warne and proposes that they both be together. Warne seemingly rejects her and after she falls asleep he drives back to New York in the middle of the night. He sells his story about his love and potential marriage to Andrews to his old boss for $1000, so as not to propose to her while broke. Meanwhile, the suspicious manager of the hotel kicks out Andrews when she finds out that Warne has left.
Thinking that Warne hates her, Andrews phones her father in order to turn herself in. Her father picks her up with a police escort while Warne is returning just in time to see them drive by. Angry with her, Warne contacts the father about reward money. He agrees to go to their home while a real marriage ceremony for Andrews and the aviator is to take place. He only comes to collect $39.60 for his expenses and not the full $10,000 and admits to the father that he loves his daughter. The father starts to like Warne and during the ceremony manages to convince his daughter that Warne really loves her and that she should leave the aviator. Andrews runs away during the ceremony, her father pays off the aviator to annul the wedding, and she eventually marries the reporter. The film ends in a hotel room with the "walls of Jericho" coming down.


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George Eastman (Montgomery Clift), is the poor nephew of rich industrialist Charles Eastman (Herbert Heyes), who takes a job in his uncle's factory. Despite George's family relationship to the owner, the rich Eastman family treats him as an outsider and gives him the humblest job available in the factory and no entree into their exclusive social circle. George, uncomplaining, hopes to impress his uncle, whom he addresses as "Mr. Eastman", with his hard work and earn his way up. While working in the factory, George starts dating fellow factory worker Alice "Al" Tripp (Shelley Winters), in defiance of the workplace rules. Alice is a poor and inexperienced girl who is dazzled by George and slow to believe that his Eastman name brings him no advantages.After a stepping out with Alice, George meets the attractive "society girl" Angela Vickers (Elizabeth Taylor) and they quickly fall in love. Being Angela's escort at local parties and dances thrusts George into the intoxicating and carefree lifestyle of high society of the idle rich that his wealthy Eastman kin had denied him.When Alice announces that she is pregnant and makes it clear that she expects George to marry her, he temporizes, spending more and more of his time with Angela and his new well-heeled rich friends. An attempt to procure an abortion for Alice fails, and she renews her insistence on marriage. George is invited to join Angela at the Vickers's holiday lake house and excuses himself to Alice, saying that the visit will advance his career and accrue to the benefit of the coming child.George and Angela spend time at secluded Loon Lake, and after hearing a story of a couple's supposed drowning there, with the man's body never being found, George hatches a plan to rid himself of Alice so that he can marry Angela.Meanwhile, Alice finds a picture in the newspaper of George, Angela, and their friends, and realizing that George lied to her about being forced to go to the lake, she meets George in the nearby town and threatens to expose everything to his society friends if he doesn't marry her. They quickly drive to City Hall to elope but they find it closed for Labor Day, and George suggests spending the day at the nearby lake; Al unsuspectingly agrees.When they get to the lake, George acts visibly nervous when he rents a boat from a man who seems to deduce that George gave him a false name; the man's suspicions are aroused more when George asks him whether any other boaters are on the lake (none are). While they are out on the lake, Alice confesses her dreams about their happy future together with their child. As George apparently takes pity on her and, judging from his attitude, decides not to carry out his murderous plan, Alice tries to stand up in the boat, causing it to capsize, and Alice drowns.George escapes, swims to shore, and eventually drives back up to the Vickers' lodge, where he tries to relax but is increasingly tense. He says nothing to anyone about having been on the lake or about what happened there.Meanwhile, Alice's body is discovered and her death is treated as a murder investigation almost from the first moment, while an abundant amount of circumstantial evidence and witness reports stack up against George. Just as Angela's father approves Angela's marriage to him, George is arrested and charged with Alice's murder.Though the viewers know that the planned murder in fact turned into an accidental drowning, George's furtive actions before and after Alice's death condemn him.During his trial, George takes the witness stand where he gives a heartful testimony about his relationship with Alice and about his thoughts about killing her to have a life with Angela, and gives the details about the boating accident. But his testimony is pulled apart in cross-exmination by the hot-tempered and agressive prosecutor (Raymond Burr) who tries to imply that George planned and commited first degree murder because of his nervous behavior and of his filing a false name with the boat owner, and of other inconsistances involving both Alice and Angela.George's denials are futile, and he is found guilty of murder by the jury and is immediatley sentenced to death in the electric chair. A few weeks later, on his last day on Death Row, George writes a goodbye letter to Angela explaining that although he didn't kill Alice, his feelings of abandonment and loss of his privledge life made him leave Alice to drown in an attempt to cut off his past lifestyle to be with Angela. George is taken out of his cell to the death chamber to be executed.


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Joe Buck (Jon Voight) leaves his job as a dishwasher in a small town in Texas, and gets on the bus heading for New York City. There he plans to use his considerable (from what the local girls have told him) manly talents to make a splash with (and a good living from) wealthy, high-society women. He is dogged by flashbacks to experiences from his childhood -- suggestions of violence, sexual abuse and abandonment -- yet somehow he has retained an upbeat spirit of hopefulness, joy, and enthusiasm for life. His kindness and generous spirit is heart-rending, and of course, his navet makes him an easy target in the big city. He does not learn from being ripped off initially, but his trusting spirit remains intact when he meets the sickly and streetwise Ratso (Dustin Hoffman). "My name is Enrique Salvatore Rizzo ... Call me Rico ... Im not Ratso ... In my own home, call me Rico." After initially conning Joe out of twenty dollars, they eventually become friends, companions, and soul mates. With Ratso taking over the management side of the hustling operation, they set about finding the wealthy women with whom Joe hopes to make his fortune, not just for himself, but for Ratso, too. As Ratso's health becomes more of an issue, Joe faces dark choices, leading him to actions he never anticipated.


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The governor of an unnamed western state, Hubert "Happy" Hopper (Guy Kibbee), has to pick a replacement for recently deceased U.S. Senator Sam Foley. His corrupt political boss, Jim Taylor (Edward Arnold), pressures Hopper to choose his handpicked stooge, while popular committees want a reformer. The governor's children want him to select Jefferson Smith (James Stewart), the head of the Boy Rangers. Unable to make up his mind between Taylor's stooge and the reformer, Hopper decides to flip a coin. When it lands on edge and next to a newspaper story on one of Smith's accomplishments he chooses Smith, calculating that his wholesome image will please the people while his navet will make him easy to manipulate.Smith is taken under the wing of the publicly esteemed, but secretly crooked, Senator Joseph Paine (Claude Rains), who was Smith's late father's oldest and best friend, and he develops an immediate attraction to the senator's daughter, Susan (Astrid Allwyn). The unforgiving Washington press quickly labels Smith a bumpkin, with no business being a senator. Paine, to keep Smith busy, suggests he propose a bill.Smith comes up with legislation that would authorize a federal government loan to buy some land in his home state for a national boys' camp, to be paid back by youngsters across America. Donations pour in immediately. However, the proposed campsite is already part of a dam-building graft scheme included in a Public Works bill framed by the Taylor political machine and supported by Senator Paine.Unwilling to crucify the worshipful Smith so that their graft plan will go through, Paine tells Taylor he wants out, but Taylor reminds him that Paine is in power primarily through Taylor's influence. Through Paine, the machine accuses Smith of trying to profit from his bill by producing fraudulent evidence that Smith owns the land in question. Smith is too shocked by Paine's betrayal to defend himself, and runs away.However, Smith's chief of staff, Clarissa Saunders (Jean Arthur), has come to believe in him, and talks him into launching a filibuster to postpone the Works bill and prove his innocence on the Senate floor just before the vote to expel him. While Smith talks non-stop, his constituents try to rally around him, but the entrenched opposition is too powerful, and all attempts are crushed. Due to influence of the Taylor "machine", on his orders, newspapers and radio stations in Smith's home state refuse to report what Smith has to say and even twist the facts against the Senator. An effort by the Boy Rangers to spread the news results in vicious attacks on the children by Taylor's minions.Although all hope seems lost, the senators begin to pay attention as Smith approaches utter exhaustion. Paine has one last card up his sleeve: he brings in bins of letters and telegrams from Smith's home state from people demanding his expulsion. Nearly broken by the news, Smith finds a small ray of hope in a friendly smile from the President of the Senate (Harry Carey). Smith vows to press on until people believe him, but immediately collapses in a faint. Overcome with guilt, Paine leaves the Senate chamber and attempts to kill himself with a gun. When he is stopped, he bursts back into the Senate chamber, loudly confesses to the whole scheme, and affirms Smith's innocence.


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Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise), a Los Angeles car dealer in his mid-twenties, is in the middle of importing four grey market Lamborghinis. The deal is being threatened by the EPA, and if Charlie cannot meet its requirements he will lose a significant amount of money. After some quick subterfuge with an employee, Charlie leaves for a weekend trip to Palm Springs with his girlfriend, Susanna (Valeria Golino).Charlie's trip is cancelled by news that his estranged father, Sanford Babbitt, has died. Charlie travels to his hometown in Cincinnati, Ohio, to settle the estate, where he learns an undisclosed trustee is inheriting $3 million on behalf of an unnamed beneficiary, while all he is to receive is a classic Buick Roadmaster convertible and several prize rose bushes. Eventually he learns the money is being directed to a mental institution, which is the home of his autistic older brother, Raymond (Dustin Hoffman), of whose existence Charlie was previously unaware. It is revealed that Charlie grew up as a rebellious child and that following the death of his mother, he ran away from home at age 16 to California where he lived ever since, never speaking to his father ever again. Prior to his flight to California, Charlie had taken the Roadmaster out on his 16th birthday without his father's permission. His father subsequently called the police, reported the car was stolen and Charlie and his friends were picked up by the police. Charlie's father allowed the police to hold his son in jail for two days (the friends he was driving with had been bailed out by their own parents within hours). This leads Charlie to ask the question that permeates the movie: "Why didn't somebody tell me I had a brother?"Although Raymond has autism, he also has superb memory recall, but little understanding of subject matter thus making him an "overgrown child". He is frightened by change and adheres to strict routines (for example, his continual repetition of the "Who's on First?" sketch). Except when he is in distress, he shows little emotional expression and avoids eye contact. Numbed by learning that he has a brother and determined to get what he believes is his fair share of the Babbitt estate, Charlie takes Raymond on what becomes a cross-country car trip (due to Raymond's fear of flying) back to Los Angeles to meet with his attorneys. Charlie intends to start a custody battle in order to get Raymond's doctor, Dr. Gerald R. Bruner (Jerry Molen), to settle out of court for half of Sanford Babbitt's estate so that the mental institution can maintain custody of Raymond.During the course of the long journey, Charlie learns about Raymond's autism, which he initially believes is curable resulting in his frequent frustration with his brother's antics. He also learns about how his brother came to be separated from his family, as a result of an accident when he was left alone with Raymond when Charlie was a baby, about 20 months old and Raymond was age 10. Raymond also sings "I Saw Her Standing There" by The Beatles like he did when Charlie was three or four years old. Charlie remembers the incident as early as he could remember and always thought that the person singing to him, (whom the young Charlie referred to as the 'Rain Man' due to Raymond's slow-speaking of his own name) was an imaginary character.Charlie proves to be sometimes shallow and exploitative, as when he uses Raymond's precision memory and takes him to Las Vegas to win money at blackjack by counting cards. Casino security begins to watch Charlie and Raymond, though they can't find any proof that either is using a cheater's system to win against the house. Security sends an attractive woman who finds Raymond alone in the casino's bar. She is able to get Raymond to allude to his and Charlie's counting of cards. Later, security asks to speak to Charlie privately and suggests that Charlie take his winnings, about $80,000 and leave. Charlie agrees.In the end, Charlie finds himself becoming protective of Raymond, and grows to truly love him.Upon arriving in Los Angeles, Charlie finally meets with his attorney Boros (Adam S. Gottbetter) to try to get his share of his inheritance, but then decides that he no longer cares about the money and really just wants to have custody of his brother. However, at a meeting with a court-appointed psychiatrist and Dr. Bruner, Raymond is unable to decide exactly what he wants (to live with Charlie in California or stay at the mental hospital in Ohio). Eventually, the psychiatrist presses Raymond to make the decision, upsetting him and leading Charlie to request that the doctor back off. Raymond is allowed to go back home to Cincinnati. Charlie, who has gained a new brother and mellowed considerably, promises Raymond as he boards an Amtrak train that he'll visit in two weeks.


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Annie Hall is a film about a comedian, Alvy Singer (Woody Allen), who falls in love with Annie Hall (Diane Keaton). Both of the characters are completely different but both strikingly entertaining and unusual. Alvy is an extreme pessimist that obsesses over the subject of death and has very sarcastic and cynical views about the world and the people around him. Annie is a ditsy and clumsy talented singer and photographer. When Alvy and Annie meet for the first time they are instantly attracted to each other and as a result their conversations are awkward but never the less adorable. The film takes you through the couple's love lives, before and after their relationship. Alvy often comes out of the scene he is in to talk directly to the audience about his views on whatever situation he is in.Alvy Singer is a neurotic comedian who desperately wants to analyze his relationship with his former girlfriend Annie Hall. The beginning is romantic. Then problems arise. He is not too enthusiastic about her idea of moving in with him, and leaving her apartment. He dislikes her habit of smoking weed before having sex and her lack of education. After she enrolls in adult education classes, she soon gets attracted to a professor. Alvy and Annie break up in a fight. He tries to calm down and starts a new relationship but with no success. After a while she calls him and they start again, convinced they will make it this time. Everything looks wonderful. But soon they both reveal to their shrinks that the relationship has gone sour again. After visiting California they break up, peacefully this time.Alvy is proud about their calm transition from relationship to friendship. He tries to date another woman but again with no success. He gets a panic attack and flies to California where Annie is in a happy relationship. She rejects him. He gets so upset that he ends up in jail. After coming back to New York he writes a play about their relationship, but with a happy ending. He meets her again later in New York with some other guy. They go for lunch as friends, remembering their good times. At the end he realizes that although relationships are absurd and irrational, we still need to go through them. We need to believe they are not what they are.


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[Out Of Africa]A well-heeled Danish lady goes to an English colony in Africa and buys 1000 acres. Her beau dies and to avoid loneliness she proposes marriage to his gentleman but rascally brother whom she got along well with as a friend. He agrees, in no small part because she has money. They agree to start a cattle farm and she goes back to Denmark to get funding from her family, but when she returns she is distraught to find her husband has decided on his own they would grow coffee instead, despite the fact it has never been grown at that altitude.The First World War breaks out and most of the men go south to protect some front we don't see much of, but the lady leads a long and dangerous supply run to them herself, learning much about survival, resourcefulness and leadership along the way, and gaining the grudging respect of the men, who didn't think a woman would be up to it.After the fighting, her husband continues to live more independently than she would like, and eventually he transmits syphilis to her, although he suffers no noticeable effects of it. He is apologetic that he gave it to her, but hes not apologetic for being unfaithful or fiercely independent. She returns to Denmark for treatment, is cured after 3 years and returns to the farm, never to have conjugal relations with him again. He moves out of her house after soliciting a sum of money from her one last time.The coffee crops start coming in but turning a profit proves difficult. She enlists the services of a local tribe to work her farm and eventually much of the tribe works for her, and they wind up living on her uncultivated acres. She builds a school and hires a teacher to educate the black children, somewhat to the disapproval of many of the English settlers who would rather see the natives remain uneducated and easily manipulated.She is taken by a freelance hunter but her affections to him are not returned and he dies. His partner (Robert Redford) gradually becomes enamored with her and she reciprocates. He is honest and loyal but very independent as he lives a live of adventure in the wilderness, as he regretfully notes the inroads of civilization. She wants him to be more domesticated but he travels a lot and comes and goes as he pleases.The farm is just barely getting by as she mortgages it further with a local backer. She has a bumper crop but her barn catches fire, causing her to go bankrupt. She had no insurance as it was considered pessimistic in those freewheeling pioneer times.Her lover dies in a crash in his private plane and she buries him on her land. Her farm and lover gone, her life in Africa is over and she leaves, never to return. She has loved and lost, but it was better than never having loved at all. We are told at the end that she went on to write some books under a pseudonym about her adventures.


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Though Will Hunting (Matt Damon) has genius-level intelligence (such as a talent for memorizing facts and an intuitive ability to prove sophisticated mathematical theorems), he works as a janitor at MIT and lives alone in a sparsely furnished apartment in an impoverished South Boston neighborhood. An abused foster child, he subconsciously blames himself for his unhappy upbringing and turns this self-loathing into a form of self-sabotage in both his professional and emotional lives. Hence, he is unable to maintain either a steady job or a steady romantic relationship.The first week of classes, Will solves a difficult graduate-level math problem that Professor Gerald Lambeau (Stellan Skarsgrd), a Fields Medalist and combinatorialist, left on a chalkboard as a challenge to his students, hoping someone might solve it by the semester's end. Everyone wonders who solved it, and Lambeau puts another problem on the board -- one that took him and his colleagues two years to prove. Will is discovered in the act of solving it, and Lambeau initially believes that Will is vandalizing the board and chases him away. When Will turns out to have solved it correctly, Lambeau tries to track Will down.Meanwhile, Will attacks a youth who had bullied him years before in kindergarten, and he now faces imprisonment after attacking a police officer who was responding to the fight. Realizing Will might have the potential to be a great mathematician, such as the genius variste Galois, Lambeau goes to Will's trial and intervenes on his behalf, offering him a choice: either Will can go to jail, or he can be released into Lambeau's personal supervision, where he must study mathematics and see a psychotherapist. Will chooses the latter even though he seems to believe that he does not need therapy.Five psychologists fail to connect with Will. Out of sheer desperation, Lambeau finally calls on Sean Maguire (Robin Williams), an estranged old friend and MIT classmate of his. Sean differs from his five predecessors in that he is from Will's neighborhood and pushes back at Will and is eventually able to get through to him and his hostile, sarcastic defense mechanisms. At one point, Will analyzes a watercolor painting that Sean had done himself and concludes that it reflects Sean's suppressed feelings and guilt over the premature death of his wife. Sean becomes offended and hostile and grabs Will by the throat, threatening to sink his chances for reform, at which point Will ends the appointment and walks out; Lambeau walks in believing that Will has ruined his chances with yet another therapist. However, Sean sees Will as a challenge and tells Lambeau to bring him back each week.In a later session, Will is particularly struck when Sean tells him how he gave up his ticket to see the Red Sox in the 1975 World Series (missing Carlton "Pudge" Fisk's famous home run in Game 6) in order to meet and spend time with a stranger in a bar, who would later become his wife. Will is encouraged to try to establish a relationship with Skylar (Minnie Driver), a young woman he met at a bar near Harvard.This doctor-patient relationship, however, is far from one-sided. Will challenges Sean in the same way that Sean is encouraging Will to take a good, hard, objective look at himself and his life. Sean's own pathology is that he is unable and unwilling to even consider another romantic relationship in the aftermath of his beloved wife's premature death from cancer several years before, possibly the primary reason why Sean agrees to take Will on as a client.Meanwhile, Lambeau pushes Will so hard to excel that Will eventually refuses to go to the job interviews that Lambeau has arranged for him for positions that might prove challenging, even to his immense talents. Lambeau and Sean also squabble about Will's future. Will's accidental witnessing of this furious quarrel somehow acts as a catalyst for his decision to enter a deeper level of trust and sharing with Sean. He has apparently realized from this event that the situation is a little more complex than Will vs. The World. He now sees that these mentors are every bit as human, fallible, and conflicted as he is.Skylar asks Will to move to California with her, where she will begin medical school at Stanford. Will panics at the thought. Skylar then expresses support about his past, which is received as patronization and triggers a tantrum in which Will storms out of the dorm while in a state of undress. He shrugs off the work he's doing for Lambeau as "a joke," even though Lambeau is incapable of solving some of the theorems and admittedly envies Will. Lambeau begs Will not to throw it all away, but Will walks out on him anyway.Sean points out that Will is so adept at anticipating future failure in his personal and romantic relationships, that he either allows them to fizzle out or deliberately bails in order to avoid the risk of future emotional pain. When Will then provides a whimsical reply to Sean's very serious query of what he wants to do with his life, Sean simply shows him the door. When Will further tells his best friend Chuckie (Ben Affleck) that he wants to be a laborer for the rest of his life, Chuckie becomes brutally honest with Will: He believes it's an "insult" for Will to waste his potential as a laborer, and that his recurring wish is to knock on Will's door in the morning when he picks him up for work and find that he just isn't there, that he has left without saying goodbye. Chuckie's honesty hits home with Will more than anyone else's, even Sean, a trained professional.Will goes to another therapy session, where he and Sean share that they were both victims of child abuse. At first, Will is defensive and resentful at Sean's repeated reassurances that "It's not your fault," but he eventually breaks down in tearful acknowledgment. Finally, after much self-reflection, Will decides to cease being a victim of his own inner demons and to take charge of his life. When his buddies present him with a rebuilt Chevy Nova for his 21st birthday, he decides to go to California and reunite with Skylar, setting aside his lucrative corporate and government job offers.Will leaves a brief note for Sean explaining what he's doing, using one of Sean's own quips, "I had to go see about a girl." Sean also leaves to travel the world, though not before reconciling with Lambeau. The movie ends as Chuckie poignantly discovers, in fulfillment of his own long-standing wish, that Will has left for a better life. Will is then shown starting his life-affirming drive to California for a new beginning with Skylar and a leap into an unpredictable future.


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Michael Dorsey is an actor living and working in New York City. Most of his work seems to be on the stage; he is adept at disguises, and has a tendency to tailor his own look at the audition based on what he thinks the director wants. However, he is also very stubborn and willful; for instance, he has one confrontation with a director over whether his character can get up and move center stage for a death scene. Michael storms off the stage and quits the play, even though apparently they are well into rehearsals.Michael lives with his best friend Jeff Slater, an eccentric playwright, and both men earn a living by waiting tables in a restaurant. As the film opens, Jeff and Michael's many friends and associates throw him a surprise birthday party, during which Michael's inability to connect with women becomes obvious. He has the tendency to lie, even about trivial things, to the point where the women see through him and avoid him. When Michael's potential love connection leaves the party with another man, Michael decides to console his neurotic friend Sandy Lester by walking her home. Sandy is nervous about an audition that she has the following day for a soap opera called "Southwest General", Michael coaches her and agrees to walk her to the audition the next day.When they get to the studio, the director refuses to even allow Sandy to read; he says she isn't intimidating enough. When Michael tries to talk to a secretary to get ahold of a friend of his in the cast, he finds out his friend has left the cast to do a Broadway play--a role that Michael's agent, George Fields, had promised for Michael himself. Michael becomes furious and goes straight to George's office and barges in. George humors him at first but then explains to Michael that his reputation as a troublemaker has made him impossible to employ. Even directors who have hired Michael for commercials have found themselves overbudget due to Michael's inability to take direction. Michael questions George about Jeff's play that he's writing; Michael has sent George a copy of it, and George dismisses it as a pointless play that nobody will see. Michael becomes resolved; he will raise the $8000 it will take to produce Jeff's play. George disagrees and tells Michael nobody will hire him.The next thing we see is Michael, walking down a busy New York street, in disguise as a woman. He goes to the audition for "Southwest General" and gives them the bogus name Dorothy Michaels, name dropping George as "her" agent. Dorothy meets the show's producer, Rita Marshall, who takes her in to meet Ron Carlisle, the show's director. Ron sees Dorothy and immediately dismisses her, just as he must have done to Sandy. He tells Dorothy she's not right for the part, but Dorothy presses the issue and asks why. When Ron tells her she's not intimidating enough, Dorothy questions his intentions and becomes visibly angry and loud, scolding Ron and even Rita about wanting to portray powerful women in a negative, unattractive light. Rita seems to take what Dorothy said to heart, and follows her when she storms out, asking her to come back in for a reading. Ron is put off by Dorothy's outburst, but Rita smooths it over by flattering him, telling him Dorothy was impressed with the way he communicated the part to her. Dorothy's audition is impressive, and although Ron says there is something about her that doesn't sit right with him, Rita decides to hire her for the role.Still dressed as Dorothy, Michael goes to the Russian Tea Room, where he knows George will be having lunch, and intercepts him, insinuating himself at George's table and discreetly revealing to George that he is Michael Dorsey in disguise. George is horrified, and even more shocked that Michael managed to land a job as Dorothy. Michael borrows $1000 from George and goes shopping for a new wardrobe.Michael has a discussion with Jeff about his strange new gig. He plans on simply doing the soap opera until he raises the money to do Jeff's play, which is intended as a vehicle for Michael and Sandy. Michael and Jeff both wonder how they'll tell Sandy that they have the money to do the play, without telling her that the producers hired a man in drag instead of her. Michael decides to lie to her, telling her a family member died. Michael and Sandy decide to celebrate by going out to dinner; while Sandy is in the shower, Michael spots a dress she owns and wants to try it on, but after he undresses, Sandy returns unexpectedly. At a loss to explain why he is in his underwear, Michael has sex with Sandy. Afterwards, they both wonder how it will change their friendship; Sandy is pessimistic and says Michael will never call her now, but Michael promises to have dinner with her the following day.At his first day on the job as Dorothy, Michael meets his fellow cast members, including a beautiful woman named Julie Nichols. She plays a nurse on the show, and she also happens to be Ron's girlfriend. Dorothy makes a good impression on everybody, but Michael is shocked when he discovers that Dorothy has a scene where she kisses a lecherous male cast member, played by an older man named John Van Horn. Since Michael does not relish the idea of kissing another man, "Dorothy" ends up changing the scene, hitting John over the head with a folder when he tries to kiss her. Although Ron is incensed, he lets it pass, and this begins the emergence of both Dorothy and the character she is playing as a strong, no-nonsense woman.Dorothy and Julie also begin a friendship. Although Julie sees Dorothy as simply another woman, Dorothy is really Michael, and he is extremely attracted to Julie. A series of mishaps occurs where Michael breaks plans with Sandy in order to spend time with Julie, culminating in an evening when he goes to Julie's apartment as Dorothy in order to discuss work and socialize with her. Dorothy meets Julie's infant daughter, Amy, and discovers that Julie has a fondness for drinking. She seems vaguely unhappy and in search of her own voice, something that keeps her under the spell of Ron. Dorothy sees Ron treating Julie with disrespect, not only cheating on her with other women but constantly talking down to her, clearly not taking her seriously as a person. When Julie mentions that Ron was supposed to show up for dinner one night and stood her up, Michael suddenly remembers Sandy and the dinner she had planned to make at her apartment for the both of them that night. After leaving Julie's, Michael goes home, changes out of his disguise, and goes over to Sandy's. She isn't nearly as furious with him as she should be, and even Michael points this out to her. Sandy accuses him of having an affair, having spotted Dorothy going into Michael's apartment. Michael tells her "Sandy, I'm not having an affair wtih the woman that went into my apartment. It's impossible."As Dorothy, Michael begins to learn about what it means to be a woman, particularly the roles that men may expect women to play. When Ron talks down to Dorothy, she stands up for herself and gives it back to him, which inspires Julie and the other women on the show. Additionally, Dorothy's spunky attitude is a hit with the viewers of "Southwest General", causing the show's ratings to climb and Dorothy to become a minor celebrity.George remains an unwilling accomplice in Michael's deception, perhaps mostly due to the fact that Michael already assocated him with Dorothy by telling everyone he's her agent. He takes Michael to a party one night and they see Julie there with Ron. Michael isn't in disguise, so neither one of them recognizes him as Dorothy. Michael makes an attempt to talk to Julie, but she ignores him, eventually throwing a drink in his face when he makes an off-color remark to her. This adds to Michael's panic about his relationship with Julie; as Dorothy, he is Julie's friend and confidante. As Michael, he doesn't stand a chance with her.As Dorothy's tenure with "Southwest General" is about to end, Julie invites her to come with her to upstate New York, where her widowed father still lives on the farm where Julie grew up. Against Jeff's advice, Michael goes with Julie, maintaining his Dorothy disguise all weekend. Dorothy meets Julie's father, Les, a conservative but kind man who enjoys the laid back life he leads on the farm. Julie tells Dorothy that Les hasn't dated any women since her mother passed away, and it becomes clear that he takes a strong liking to Dorothy. Dorothy manages to politely avoid Les's advances.When they return to New York, the precarious position that Michael is in begins to implode. Rita tells Dorothy that because of her popularity with the viewers, they will be picking up their option to keep her on the show for another season. Michael is very upset to get that news, since he wants to leave the show in order to do Jeff's play, but George tells him there is nothing he can do about it, the studio has the legal option to keep Dorothy on. As Michael is about to go to bed, he gets a frantic call from Julie asking Dorothy if she can come over and sit for Amy while Julie goes out with Ron; Julie has decided to break up with Ron, and she tells Dorothy that she herself is the inspiration for Julie's newfound assertiveness. After a few harrowing hours where Amy refuses to cooperate with Dorothy, Julie returns, despondent about the breakup, and in a moment of vulnerability, she tells Dorothy that she treasures their friendship more than anything, but feels like she wants something she just can't have. In response, Michael leans in and tries to kiss Julie, but Julie of course does not know Dorothy is really a man, and she assumes Dorothy is a lesbian who just made a pass at her. Confused and upset, she is clearly distraught that her new best friend has made a pass at her, when the phone rings. It is Les, and he asks if he can speak to Dorothy, inviting her to a downtown club for drinks and dancing. What Les really does is propose marriage to Dorothy, giving her an engagement ring. Dorothy tells him she needs time to think it over and leaves.Michael returns home by cab and finds John Van Horn waiting outside his apartment for Dorothy. When she refuses to invite him up, he starts singing loudly and attracts the attention of neighbors, so Dorothy invites him up anyway. After making several attempts to seduce Dorothy, John is horrified when Jeff returns home unexpectedly. Embarassed, he leaves. Jeff turns to Michael and says "You slut!" The final strand to unravel is Sandy, who shows up right after, banging on the front door to be let in. Michael hurriedly takes a shower, removing his makeup and Dorothy disguise, and Sandy demands to know why he hasn't been returning her phone calls. Michael attempts to lie to her again, giving her a box of chocolates that Les sent Dorothy, but her forgets there is a note attached. Sandy reads it and it says "Thank you for a wonderful night in front of the fire, Les." Cornered, Michael finally comes clean with Sandy, but all he manages to get out is "I'm in love with another woman" before Sandy plunges into hysteria. Even so, Sandy tells Michael that she could handle the fact that he was in love with another woman, but she does not like being lied to. Michael has already come to the realization that he has been behaving like Ron, rationalizing his lies and callous treatment of women, which may explain why Michael does not have any real relationship with a woman at all.Things come to a head when, the next day at the studio, one of the reels of the show is accidentally destroyed and the cast is forced to do a crucial scene live on the air. Before they go on, Dorothy visits Julie's dressing room. Julie tells Dorothy that she cannot see her anymore. Since Julie now thinks another woman is in love with her, she can't lead Dorothy on by pretending to be friends when she knows Dorothy wants more from her. When they go on the air, Ron and Rita watch nervously, hoping that the scene comes off alright. They are horrified when Dorothy starts veering wildly from the script, taking her character into a long speech about why she came to Southwest General. After concocting a crazy story about disfiguring diseases, exile in foreign countries, and other nonsensical things, Dorothy takes off her wig and reveals herself to be a man underneath, weaving her own real story into that of her character, as if her unmasking was always intended to be part of the Southwest General plot all along. Sandy and Les react in horror, watching the episode from their TV sets, while the cast themselves are shocked to discover that Dorothy is actually a man. Julie walks up to Michael and angrily hits him in the stomach.Some time after the fallout, Michael drives upstate and finds Les in the bar where he likes to hang out, presumably to return the ring and try to make amends. Les is hostile at first, but eventually softens enough to allow Michael to apologize. Michael explains why he took the role as Dorothy, and that he never meant to hurt anybody. Les and Michael eventually lighten up enough to joke about the situation, and Les admits that Michael was good company. Michael tells Les that he is in love with Julie, but Les says Julie never mentions him.The final scene occurs when Michael attempts to see Julie. He waits for her outside the TV studio, but Julie spots him and walks away. Michael chases after her and tries to make small talk with her. Julie tries to avoid him but finally allows him to talk to her. Michael tells Julie what he told Les, that he only did it for the money, and that he couldn't help falling in love with Julie. He also says that he was a better person as Dorothy than he ever was as himself. He asks her to give him a chance, since they were already good friends. Julie admits that she misses Dorothy, but Michael reminds her that he is Dorothy. "I just gotta learn to do it without the dress," he tells her. Julie softens and smiles, playfully asking him if she can borrow one of Dorothy's outfits. In the final shot, they walk down the street together talking and laughing, and after they get about a block away, Julie happily puts her arm around Michael.


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The movie opens with a car towing a new tan Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera through a sub-freezing blizzard to a small inn in Fargo, North Dakota. It is 8:30 p.m. on a cold night in January 1987. When the driver goes inside, we see that it is Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy), and he uses the false name 'Jerry Anderson' to check in. He then goes to the inn's bar/restaurant to have a meeting with two men.Jerry has obviously never met them before. The short, bug-eyed, dark-haired, annoyed, talkative one, Carl Showalter (Steve Buscemi), tells him that Shep Proudfoot, a mutual acquaintance of theirs who set up the meeting, had said Jerry would be there at 7:30 rather than 8:30. The other man, a tall, blond Swede named Gaear Grimsrud (Peter Stormare), sits silently and smokes. They discuss the tan Ciera as part of a payment to them from Jerry, plus $40,000. Apparently, Jerry has hired the men to kidnap his wife in order to get a ransom from his wife's father. Jerry is a fast talker and doesn't want to say much at why he needs the money, but he reveals that his father-in-law is rich and that he plans on asking for $80,000 and keeping the other half for himself. Carl and Gaear accept the deal.The next day, Jerry returns to his home in Minneapolis, Minnesota and his father-in-law, Wade Gustafson (Harve Presnell), is sitting on the couch watching TV, visiting that night for supper. They all eat dinner, and Jerry and his wife Jean's young teenage son, Scotty (Tony Denman), leaves early to go to McDonald's. Jerry and Wade start to argue about this and that Jerry seems to spoil Scotty and does not inflict much disipline. To get out of the conversation, Jerry changes the subject by bringing up a deal he had apparently suggested earlier to Wade, in which he's asking for a loan of $750,000 to build a 40-acre parking lot in Wayzata. Wade tells Jerry that his associate, Stan Grossman, usually looks at those kinds of deals before he does. Jerry nervously urges him to accept it, saying he and his family need the money soon. Wade, who appears to have a condescending attitude toward Jerry, tells him that Jean and Scotty will never have to worry about money... but does not mention Jerry's name.Another day later, Carl and Gaear are driving the Cutlass Ciera towards Minneapolis. Gaear tells Carl he wants to stop at "pancakes house", and Carl complains that they just had pancakes for breakfast. Gaear looks at him and tells him coldly they will stop at pancakes house. Carl agrees, somewhat reluctantly, they will stop in Brainerd, get pancakes, and "get laid."Back in Minneapolis, Jerry is the executive sales manager at the car lot Wade owns, a job which fits Jerry's talkative, weaselly manner. He's arguing with a couple about the "TruCoat" on the couple's new car, and now Jerry is clearly over-charging them for it when they had said they didn't want it. Jerry says he will talk to his manager about it, and leaves the room to have a conversation with another salesman about hockey tickets. He comes back and lies to the couple by stating that his manager has approved a discount on the TruCoat, and the husband agrees but profanely accuses Jerry of being a liar.The story goes back briefly to a motel room at the Blue Ox, a motel in Brainerd that evening. Gaear and Carl are having enthusiastic sex with two women on separate beds in the same room.The next morning at the Lundegaards', Jean (Kristin Rudrd) and Scotty are having an argument about his grades. The phone rings, and it's Wade calling for Jerry. Wade tells him that Stan Grossman has looked at the parking lot deal and he says it's "pretty sweet." Jerry tries to restrain his excitement, as he apparently had thought Wade wouldn't want to go through with it. They make a meeting for 2:30 pm that afternoon.Jerry is optimistic about the future meeting with Wade, and is now considering calling off the kidnap/ransom plot. He makes his way to the dealership's large service garage to seek out a burly Native American mechanic, named Shep Proudfoot (Steve Reevis). A man of few words, Shep is apparently the middleman who set up Jerry's earlier meeting with Carl and Gaear. Surprisingly, Shep does not know who Carl is. He tells Jerry he'll only vouch for Grimsrud, not Carl. Regardless, Jerry tells him that's fine, but was just wondering if there was an alternate phone number to reach Carl and Gaear. Shep casually tells Jerry that he can't help him anymore, for he has no other means to get in contact with Gaear or Carl. Jerry is visibly nervous.In the next scene, Carl and Gaear are driving and the skyline of the Twin Cities is visible. Carl chats mindlessly to Gaear and asks him if he's ever been to the Twin Cities, to which Gaear responds with a short "nope." Carl goes on about how that's the most Gaear has said all day. He asks Gaear how much he'd like it if he stopped talking.Meanwhile, Jerry is sitting in his office at the car dealership talking on the phone. On the other end is a man named Reilly from the banking loan company GMAC who tells Jerry that he can't read the serial numbers of a list of vehicles on a financing document Jerry sent by fax some time ago. Jerry is elusive, telling him there's no problem since the loans are in place already. The man tells him 'yes', and that Jerry got $320,000 last month from the loans for the new set of cars sold, but there's an audit on the loan and that if Jerry cannot supply the proof of the sales to prove that the vehicles exist, GMAC will have to recall all of that money. Jerry clearly tries to get the man off the phone as quickly as he can while still being vague about the particulars. Jerry tells him that he'll fax him another copy. The man tells him a fax copy is no good, because he can't read the serial numbers of the cars from the fax he already has. Jerry tells him he'll send him another one as soon as possible and then hangs up.(Note: It is highly implied at this point that Jerry is secretly embezzling money from the car dealership bank accounts either for personal use or to pay off more anonymous debts. So, in order to cover up his crime, he replaced the money he stole by sending fake sales documents to acquire a $320,000 insurance loan from GMAC for a new batch of cars that he sold... cars which apparently don't exist, thus in some part explains why Jerry needs $320,000 to pay back GMAC when they come to recall their loan.)At the Lundegaards' house, at about the same time Jerry is on the phone, Jean sits alone watching a morning TV show. She hears a noise and looks up at the sliding-glass door in the back just as Carl comes up the steps to the back deck, wearing a ski mask and holding a crowbar. He peers through the window as if looking for someone, steps back, and smashes the door with the bar. Jean screams and tries to run for the front door, but Gaear suddenly barges in through the front door, also wearing a ski mask. He grabs her wrist and she bites his hand. She runs up the stairs as Carl enters. Gaear lifts up his mask, looks at the bite, and tells Carl he needs ointment. Jean takes a phone into the second floor bathroom and locks herself in, trying desperately to call 911. The cord is under the door. Carl and Gaear unplug the phone before she can finish dialing. The door frame starts to break as Carl uses the crowbar to get through. Sobbing hysterically, she frantically tries to pry the screen off the second-story window to escape before the men get in. The door busts open, and the two men stand there looking at an empty bathroom, the window open. Carl runs to go outside to look for her, and Gaear raids the medicine cabinet for some salve. As he is about to put it on his hand, he looks up into the mirror and sees the shower curtain drawn on the tub. He pauses for a moment and realizes where Jean is. Jean, hiding in the tub, begins thrashing and screaming and takes off, blindly hurtling through the bathroom and down the hall. She runs screaming, trying to throw off the curtain, and she trips and falls down the flight of stairs and lands hard at the bottom. Gaear calmly follows her down the stairs and nudges her body to see if she is alive.At the 2:30 p.m. business meeting, Stan Grossman (Larry Brandenburg) and Wade tell Jerry that the deal is looking good. They ask him what kind of finder's fee he was looking for. Jerry seems confused and tells Stan and Wade that they would be lending all the money to him to proceed with building the parking lot. They explain that while Jerry will get a finder's fee of around 10% of the $750,000, Wade and Stan will oversee the rest of the development of the parking lot with the rest of the money. Jerry (realizing that $75,000 is nowhere near what he needs to pay back his massive debit to GMAC), tries to convince them to give him all of the $750,000 so Jerry can invest it himself... with neither Wade and Stan overseeing his work. Stan tells Jerry they thought his asking for $750,000 was merely an investment he brought to them, and states that they are not a bank. Jerry insists to Wade and Stan to give him all of the 750 grand and he will pay them back the principal and interest when the deal starts paying, but Wade and Stan insist on running the deal themselves. Jerry desperately guarantees them their money back if they let Jerry run the deal and let him have all the money, but Wade and Stan say they are not interested and that they would like to move on the deal independently. Jerry accepts this and takes the check Stan gives to him for his finder's fee. Jerry goes out to his car alone and vents his rage and frustration with the ice scraper on his frozen windshield.Jerry walks into his house later that day. He surveys his empty house, where there are obvious signs of a struggle during the kidnapping. He practices the fake desperate and sad phone call he will make to her father.Later that night, Carl and Gaear are driving with the sobbing Jean, now covered with a blanket in the back seat of the car. They pass a huge statue of Paul Bunyan and the welcome sign for Brainerd. Gaear, smoking and looking out the window as usual, is annoyed by Jean's whimpering and tells her to shut up or he'll throw her in the trunk."Geez, that's more than I've heard you say all week," Carl tells him. Gaear gives him a hard, cold stare and turns away. It is then that a Minnesota State Police cruiser behind them flips on its lights and pulls them over. Carl realizes they're being stopped because he failed to put temporary vehicle registration tags on the car, and he tells Gaear he'll take care of it. He tells Jean to keep quiet or they'll shoot her. Gaear stares at him expressionlessly. The trooper approaches Carl's window and asks for a driver's license and registration. Carl gives the trooper his driver's license, but does not have the car's vehicle registration or insurance. He then tries unsuccessfully to coolly bribe the trooper, who tells him to step out of the car. Nervously, Carl hesitates, and Jean makes a noise in the back seat. The trooper points his flashlight at Jean. Quickly, Gaear reaches across Carl, grabs the trooper's hair, slams his head onto the door, pulls a pistol from the glove box, and shoots him in the head, blowing his brains out. Carl sits stunned, the trooper's blood having splattered across his face, and Gaear tells him to ditch the body.As Carl lifts the dead trooper by the arms, a pair of headlights starts towards them down the highway. He freezes in the lights, holding the obviously dead man in his arms by the police car. The two people in the car stare as they pass. Gaear quickly climbs into the driver's seat and takes off after the other car. He is briefly puzzled when its tail lights vanish in the dark, but quickly spots the car turned over in the snow on the roadside. Gaear stops and jumps out of the car. The driver is limping and trying to run across the snowy field. Gaear fires once, striking the man in the back. He falls face-first and dies. Gaear then walks over to the upside down car and looks inside, where a young woman is lying awkwardly in her upside-down seat. He leans back, aims his pistol, and the screen cuts to black as he shoots her.A little later, the phone rings at the home of a sleeping couple, Brainerd police chief Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand) and her husband Norm (John Carroll Lynch). As she gets out of bed we see she is very pregnant. Norm makes her some breakfast before she goes out to the scene of the shooting.That morning, Marge arrives at the scene of the overturned car driven by the collateral shooting victims. Marge is observant and quick-working, and she determines from the size of the footprints that the shooter was a heavyset individual. She surmises the events we've already seen - the trooper pulled over a motorist for a traffic violation, said motorist shot him. The second car came driving past, and the shooter, realizing they'd seen him, chased them down and shot them.Marge then looks at the trooper's unit, parked several hundred yards up the road and sees a set of smaller prints by the trooper's body, lying in the snow by the roadside. Here, Marge deduces that a second, smaller man was involved. From the fact that the trooper's car's lights were turned off, Marge deduces that the accomplice was warming up in the cruiser while the heavy person was chasing down the two witnesses. As Marge and the other officer, Lou, drive away, Lou notes that the trooper's notebook was lying on the floor of his car, which the killers apparently overlooked, and they find their first clue: the officer had partially filled out a ticket at 2:18 AM for a tan Cutlass Ciera with a license plate number starting with DLR. Marge realizes that this is not the beginning of a license plate number, but an abbreviation of the word "dealer" which is an indication that the car was stopped because it had dealer plates that hadn't been changed yet.At a restaurant in Minneapolis, Jerry, Wade, and Stan Grossman sit and discuss Jean's kidnapping. Jerry tells them that the kidnappers called him and expressly told him not to call the cops. Wade is angry and insists on calling the police. As a surprise to Jerry, Stan sides with Jerry and says they should not call the police or negotiate with the kidnappers and that they should give them the ransom. Jerry tells Wade the men asked for one million dollars (obviously planning to give Carl and Gaear their $40,000 and to keep the rest for himself to pay off his debits). Jerry also says he needs the money ready by tomorrow. Stan offers to stay with Jerry and wait for a phone call from the kidnappers, but Jerry tells him the men said they'd deal only with him. Stan asks Jerry if Scotty will be okay. It seems to suddenly dawn on Jerry that this will affect his son, and he seems visibly upset or at least surprised that he had never thought about his scheme affecting Scotty before.At home, Jerry tells Scotty about the kidnapping, and the boy cries and asks if Jean will be okay. Jerry nods and doesn't offer much comfort. He tells the boy that if anyone calls for Jean, he should just say she is visiting relatives in Florida.That afternoon, Carl and Gaear pull up to a cabin by a lake, and Gaear opens the back door to guide Jean inside. She is hooded and tied at the wrists. Jean squeals and tries to run away; Gaear reaches to catch her, but Carl stops him and watches her running blindly in the snow, laughing hysterically. She falls, and Carl laughs hysterically. Gaear, staring expressionlessly, goes to get her.Downtown in Brainerd, Marge goes to the police station to eat lunch, and her husband Norm is waiting there for her with food from Arby's. As they eat, Lou pokes his head into Marge's office and tells her that the night before the shootings, two men checked into the Blue Ox Motel with a tan Ciera with dealer plates; apparently, "they had company."Marge goes to a bar to interview the two women who Carl hired to have sex with him and Gaear in the motel. The two ditzy women, whom work as strippers at the bar during the evening hours, are not very helpful in describing the two men. The first one describes Carl, the "little fella," as funny-looking, and the other describes Gaear, the "big fella", as an older man who didn't talk much but smoked a lot. The women tell Marge that the men told them that they were headed to the Twin Cities.In the cabin, Carl is banging the top of the staticky TV, cursing at it. Jean is tied to a chair, the hood covering her head and her cold breath steaming through the fabric. Gaear sits with the same emotionless expression, watching silently as Carl screams and bangs on the TV, trying to improve the reception.Late at night at the Gundersons' house, they turn off the TV to go to sleep. The phone rings for Marge, and it's Mike Yanagita (Steve Park) calling; apparently an old acquaintance of hers from high school, he tells her that he's in the Twin Cities and that he saw her on the news in the story about the triple homicide in Brainerd. Marge makes brief but polite conversation as the man chatters.The next morning, Jerry is half-heartedly selling a car as he gets a phone call from Carl in his office. Carl tells him that he will be arriving tomorrow to pick up the ransom, but demands more money so he and Gaear can leave the country because of the shootings. He demands the entire ransom of $80,000, unaware that Jerry told Wade the ransom is $1 million. As soon as Carl hangs up, Jerry gets another phone call from the man at GMAC, telling him he never received the serial numbers for the vehicles in the mail as Jerry told him the previous day. Jerry, again being elusive about the subject, maintains that the documents are still in the mail. The man at GMAC sternly tells Jerry that he will refer the matter of the accounting irregularities to the company's legal department if he doesn't get the license plate numbers of the vehicles by the close of business the very next day and proclaims: "my patience is at an end." After the man at GMAC hangs up, Jerry flies into a rage as he realizes that his control over the situation is fading fast.In Brainerd, Marge and Norm sit in a buffet restaurant eating lunch together. An officer comes in with some papers, and tells Marge he found phone numbers she had asked for that had been called from the Blue Ox Motel, both to Minneapolis, including one to a trucking company and another to the residence of Shep Proudfoot. Marge tells the officer and Norm that she'll take a drive down to Minneapolis.At night at the Lundegaards' house, Jerry, Wade, and Stan are sitting around the kitchen table. Wade is telling Jerry he wants to deliver the $1 million himself to the kidnapper, and Jerry is upset, saying that they wanted to deal only with him. Wade (clearly distrustful of Jerry) says that if he can't deliver it, he'll go to the authorities.The next day, Carl leaves Gaear behind at the lakeside cabin to look after Jean, while he drives alone to Minneapolis to pick up the ransom money. Carl first drives to the Minneapolis airport. He drives the tan Ciera up to the roof of the parking garage and steals a Minnesota license plate off another car so he can replace the dealer tags. At the exit booth of the garage, he tells the attendant that he has decided not to park there and that he doesn't want to pay. The friendly man explains that there's a flat four dollar fee. Carl doesn't want to pay, but the polite parking attendant insists that he pay. Carl gets upset and insults him: "I guess you think, you know, you're an authority figure, with that stupid fucking uniform. Huh, buddy?" he sneers. However, he gives him the money anyway and drives off.At the dealership garage, Jerry goes to talk to Shep only to find Marge questioning him. Marge is questioning Shep about the phone call made to him from the Blue Ox Motel by one of the suspects of the three murders in her town. Shep claims that he doesn't remember receiving any phone call. She reminds him that he has a criminal record and is on parole, though nothing in his record suggests him capable of homicide, so if he had been talking to criminals and became an accessory to the Brainerd murders, that would land him back in prison. She then asks him cheerfully if he might remember anything now.Marge then goes to visit with Jerry in his office. He is clearly antsy as he nervously doodles on a notepad. She tells him that she is investigating three murders in her upstate town of Brainerd and asks him if there has been a tan Cutlass Ciera stolen from the lot lately, but he dances anxiously around her question by changing the subject. He eventually tells her there haven't been any stolen vehicles, and she leaves. When he sees Marge leave, Jerry tries to call Shep in the garage, but another mechanic tells Jerry that Shep has just left; he just walked out after talking with Marge.That evening, Marge goes to eat dinner at the Radisson Hotel restaurant; she apparently has spoken to Mike Yanagita, the man who called her late at night, and he meets her there. He is chatty and a little odd, and he is obviously and awkwardly trying to hit on her. He tries to change seats so as to sit next to her in the booth, but she politely tells him to sit back across from her, saying, "Just so I can see ya, ya know. Don't have to turn my neck." He apologizes awkwardly and clumsily launches into a story about his wife, whom he and Marge both knew from school but has since died of leukemia. He starts to cry, telling Marge he always liked her a lot. She comforts him politely.In the celebrity room at another hotel, Carl sits at a table with another prostitute. He hits on her awkwardly as they watch Jose Feliciano on a small stage. In the hotel room later, they are having sex. Suddenly, she is flung off from on top of him by Shep, who has somehow tracked Carl down and is angry at Carl for nearly getting him in trouble with Marge. He kicks the escort in the rear as she runs screaming and naked down the hall. Shep beats Carl, first punching him and then throwing him across the room and hitting him viciously with his belt.Sometime later, Carl, cut up and bruised from the beating, calls Jerry at his house. He is humiliated and extremely agitated. He tells Jerry to bring the ransom money to the Radisson Hotel parking garage roof in 30 minutes or he'll kill him and his family. Wade, listening on the other line in the house, immediately leaves with the briefcase full of the million dollars. Jerry almost asks Wade if he could come along, but being afraid of his antagonistic father-in-law, he chooses to say nothing. As he drives, Wade reveals he has brought a gun in his jacket and practices what he will say to the kidnapper. Jerry leaves soon after him to see what will happen.On the roof of the parking garage, Carl sits waiting in his idling Ciera as Wade pulls up. Carl demands to know where Jerry is, and Wade demands to see Jean. Carl demands that Wade give him the briefcase with the money in it, but Wade refuses unless he sees his daughter Jean. Surprised and angry by Wade's demands, Carl shoots Wade in the stomach without hesitating and goes to snatch the briefcase from his hands. Wade shoots Carl in the face as he leans over. Carl reels back and grabs his wounded right jaw after being gazed by the bullet. He quickly lethally shoots Wade multiple times. Clutching his bleeding jaw while screaming in agonizing pain, Carl grabs the briefcase, gets into his car, and drives away. As he speeds through the garage, he passes Jerry. Both of them take a quick notice of each other, but Carl continues driving on. He drives up to the garage attendant and, holding his bloody jaw, tells the man to open the gate. At the same time, Jerry continues up to the roof and finds Wade lying there, shot dead. Jerry casually pops open his car trunk (to put his father-in-law in the trunk of his car).As Jerry leaves the garage with Wade in his trunk, he sees that Carl has killed the attendant with a bullet to the head and smashed through the exit gate, breaking it off. A distraught Jerry goes home, and Scotty tells him Stan Grossman called for him. Jerry tells Scotty everything went fine, and he goes to bed without calling Stan back.In Brainerd the next morning, Gerry Olson, one of Marge's deputies, stops by the house of a chatty older man, named Mr. Mohra, who is shoveling snow off his driveway. The man has apparently reported an incident at his bar, and he tells Olson that a few days ago "a little funny-looking man" (obviously Carl) asked him where he could "get some action in the area" (hookers). When he refused, Carl had threatened the man and stupidly bragged about killing someone. He also says that Carl mentioned that he was staying out near a lake. The bar had been near Moose Lake, he tells the officer, so he believes that that is the place Carl was talking about. Officer Olson politely thanks the neighbor for the tip and leaves.Meanwhile, Carl is stopped on the side of a snowy road, a bloody rag pressed against his wounded jaw. He looks inside the briefcase and is astounded at how much is inside; he had expected $80,000 and instead got the million that Jerry had been planning to keep mostly for himself. After thinking for a minute, Carl takes out the $80,000 that Gaear apparently would still be expecting and throws it in the backseat. He closes the case, fixes his rag, and takes it out into the snow beside a fence. He looks right and left, seeing only fence and snow, and he buries the money. Carl sticks an ice scraper into the snow on top as the only marker besides the bloodied snow he'd dug aside (presumably to come back later for the rest of it), and he drives away.In Minneapolis, Marge sits next to her packed luggage in her hotel room talking on the phone to a female friend. She tells the friend that she saw Mike and that he was upset from his wife's death. The woman tells Marge that Mike never married that woman, that he had been bothering her for some time and that she is still alive. She tells Marge that Mike has been having life-long psychiatric problems and he has been living in an insane asylum for a few years now and that he is now living with his parents. Marge then checks out of the hotel, buys a breakfast sandwich from a Hardees restaurant, and silently ponders her next move and she contends driving back to Brainerd having gotten nowhere with her investigation. But then a thought pops into her head as she remembers something.Marge then goes to visit Jerry at the car dealership, obviously having picked up something from his nervous and elusive behavior on her first visit the day before. He sits in his office writing out a new sales form for GMAC, making sure the serial numbers for the non-existent vehicles are again smudged and illegible. He is irritated by her visit. He tries to get her out, but polite and insistent as usual, Marge tells him that the tan Ciera she's investigating had dealer plates and that someone who works at the dealership got a phone call from the perpetrators, which is too much of a coincidence. She asks if he's done a lot count recently, and rather than answer, Jerry yells at her by saying that the car is not from that lot. In a serious tone, Marge tells Jerry not to get snippy with her. Jerry tells her he is cooperating, but it's obvious to us that he is now clearly insane at realizing the depth of the mess he has created and how miserably all his assorted schemes have failed. He jumps up, puts on his hat and coat, and tells her he'll go inventory the lot right now. Marge waits at the desk, peeking a look at his picture of Jean and at the GMAC loan form on his desk. From the window she sees him driving out of the lot. She hurriedly calls the Minneapolis police from Jerry's desk phone.At the cabin, Gaear sits in his long johns eating a TV dinner as he watches a soap opera on the fuzzy television. Carl comes in with his bloodied face and the $80,000 he took from the briefcase before he buried it. Gaear looks unfazed by Carl's extensive wound. Carl asks what happened to Jean, who is lying on the kitchen floor motionless, still tied to the chair; there is blood on the stove behind her. Gaear tells Carl she started screaming and wouldn't stop. Carl shows him the money, takes his $40,000, and tells him he's keeping the Ciera and that Gaear can have his old truck and they must part ways. Gaear tells him they'll split the car."How do you split a fuckin' car, ya dummy?! With a fuckin' chainsaw?" Carl spits at him, his words slurred from his jaw wound. Gaear tells him one will pay the other for half, so Carl must pay half for the value of the car from his share money so he can take the car for himself. Carl refuses and screams that he got shot in the face and makes an implied threat that he will keep the Ciera as extra compensation. Carl storms out of the front door to the car to drive away. Seconds later, Gaear comes running out behind him wielding an ax. As Carl turns around, Gaear raises the ax and the scene cuts to black as the blade lands in Carl's neck.A little later, Marge is driving along an isolated road talking on the CB radio to Lou. They are discussing Jean's kidnapping; that a Minneapolis police detective learned from Stan and Jean's son Scotty, and the fact that her father, Wade, is missing. She tells Lou she is driving around Moose Lake, following the tip from the loudmouth bar owner Mr. Mohra. Their conversation reveals that the news has gotten word out on the wire for the public to keep an eye out for Jerry and Wade. She suddenly spots the tan Ciera parked in front of the cabin. Lou tells her he will send her back-up.When she gets out, she hears the loud roar of the motor of a power tool in the distance. She makes her way around the house towards the noise behind the cabin, and sees Gaear pushing Carl's dismembered foot down into a woodchipper, having chopped up his dead body and disposing of it. There is a huge puddle of blood and the rest of Carl's body in the snow. Gaear works at getting the rest of Carl into the chipper, using a small log to push it down. Marge pulls her gun and yells at him to put his hands up, but he doesn't hear over the machine. She yells again, and he turns around to see her. She points to the police crest on her hat, aiming her gun at him. He turns quickly, hurls the log at her, and takes off across the frozen lake behind the cabin. The log glances her leg, and she fires after him twice as he flees. One shot hits him in the back of his thigh. He falls in the snow, and she arrests him.Marge drives away with Gaear handcuffed in the backseat. "So that was Mrs. Lundegaard in there?" she asks, looking at him in the rear view mirror. He looks expressionlessly out the window."I guess that was your accomplice in the woodchipper. And those three people in Brainerd." He does not react; she is talking mostly to herself. She tells him there is more to life than a little bit of money. "Don't you know that?" she asks. She pulls over to the side of the road as a fleet of cruisers and an ambulance drive toward them on their way to the cabin. "And here you are. And it's a beautiful day."Two days later, at a motel outside of Bismarck, North Dakota, two state policemen bang on a room door asking for a Mr. Anderson. The voice inside, Jerry's, tells them he'll be there in a sec. The owner unlocks the door, and Jerry is seen trying to escape out the bathroom window, wearing only a T-shirt and boxers. He screams and flails wildly and insanely as the police arrest him.That night at the Gundersons', Marge climbs into bed next to Norm. He tells her the mallard he painted for a stamp contest has been chosen to be on the three cent stamp, but another man he knows got the twenty-nine cent. Marge tells him she's proud of him and that people use the three cent stamp all the time. Norm rests his hand on her pregnant belly and says, "Two more months."She smiles and rests her hand on his, and repeats, "Two more months."


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In the early 1920s, Jordan "Bick" Benedict (Rock Hudson), the head of the rich Benedict ranching family in Texas, goes to Maryland to buy a stud horse, War Winds. There he meets and courts the 18-year-old socialite Leslie Lynnton (Elizabeth Taylor), who becomes his wife after a whirlwind romance.They return to Texas to start their life together on the family ranch, Reata, which is owned and run by Luz (Mercedes McCambridge), Bick's older and grumpy sister. Leslie doesn't get along with Luz for Luz scorns Leslie's wealthy background while Leslie thinks that Luz is rude. Jett Rink (James Dean) is a local ranch hand who works for Luz and hopes to find his fortune by leaving Texas; he also has a secret love for Leslie despite the fact that she is married to his boss.One day during a cattle roundup, Luz expresses her hostility for Leslie by cruelly digging in her spurs while riding Leslie's beloved horse, War Winds. Luz dies after War Winds bucks her off, and as part of her will, Jett is given a small plot of land within the 595,000-acre Benedict ranch. Bick tries to buy back the land, but Jett refuses. Jett keeps the fenced off waterhole as his home and names the property Little Reata.A few years later, Leslie eventually gives birth to twins, Jordan "Jordy" Benedict III (Dennis Hopper as a teenager and young adult) and Judy Benedict (Fran Bennett as a teen and young adult), and a younger daughter named Luz II (Carroll Baker as a teen and young adult).One day, Jett discovers oil in a footprint left by Leslie and develops an oil drilling well on his property. Bick is annoyed with Jett's prospecting and tries to deny him access to his land. Finally Jett hits his first gusher, he drives into the Benedict yard (covered in crude oil) proclaiming in front of the entire family that he will be richer than the Benedicts. After Jett makes a rude sexual remark to Leslie, Bick and Jett have a fist fight.Shortly after, in the 1930s, Jett starts an oil drilling company, named 'JetTexas' that makes him enormously wealthy. But Bick resists the lure of drilling for oil on his much larger part of the cattle ranch, preferring to remain a rancher to maintain the legacy of his family's original business.During the 1940s, tensions in the Benedict household revolve around how the parents want to bring up their grown-up children. Bick stubbornly insists that Jordy must succeed him and run the ranch, just like his father and grandfather before him, but Jordy wants to be a doctor. Leslie wants Judy to attend finishing school in Switzerland, but Judy loves the ranch and wants to stay in Texas for her education (and to her high school boyfriend).After World War II breaks out, Jett visits the Benedicts and tries to convince Bick to allow oil production on his land to help the war effort. Bick finally realizes there is no one to take over the ranch after him, and concedes. During this visit, Luz II, now a teen-aged girl, starts flirting with Jett. Once oil production starts, the wealthy Benedict family becomes even wealthier, depicted by the addition of a swimming pool next to the house. Jordy gets married to a young Mexican-American woman and they have a son. Judy gets married to her long-term high school boyfriend and they too have a son.The Benedict/Rink rivalry continues however, and it comes to a head when the Benedicts find out that Luz II and the much older Jett Rink have been dating. At a huge gala Jett organizes in his own honor, an irate Jordy tries to fight him, after realizing he and his Mexican American wife, Juana (Elsa Crdenas), were invited just so Jett's employees could turn Juana away. Jett has his goons hold Jordy and punches him out in front of the crowd. Fed up, Bick then takes Jett to a kitchen room, about to fight him, but realizes that Jett is now just a drunken shell of a man, who has only his money. He tells him, "You're not even worth hitting. ... You're all through," and leaves, but not before symbolically and quite noisily caving in Rink's wine cellar shelves domino style. The party ends when Jett, completely drunk, slumps down in front of everyone before his big speech. Luz II sees him afterwards, once everyone has left the ballroom, and discovers that he is a lonely, pathetic wreck who can only repeat how much he still loves Leslie.The Benedicts, all except Jordy, drive down an empty road to a diner. An altercation develops between the racist diner owner Sarge (Mickey Simpson) and Bick after he refuses to serve a non-English-speaking Mexican family that just walked in who have no dollars but pesos. Bick intervenes on behalf of the Mexican family. A fist fight ensues when Bick stands up for the immigrant family against the racist Sarge, leaving Bick the loser who collapes over a table of pies. Sarge throws all of them out of the diner saying that it is his American free right to refuse service to people he does not like, including paying customers.In the final scene back at the ranch, the brused Bick watches his two grandchildren playing in a crib with Leslie and reflects on his life and family. Leslie tells Bick that, after watching him lose the fight in the diner, she finally respects him and considers the Benedict family a success.



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After serving four years in prison for killing a man, hotheaded Tom Joad (Henry Fonda) heads back to the family farm in Oklahoma. On his way he meets Casy (John Carradine), a former preacher who has lost his faith. The pair find the farm deserted; Tom's share cropping family was evicted. Tom is reunited with his family at his uncle's farm, only to discover the family must also leave that farm the next day. The extended family of eight (plus Casy) packs up their belongings onto an old truck and head to California to look for work.Shortly after leaving, Grandpa (Charley Grapewin) dies of a stroke and the family buries him along the roadside. Money is tight; they have trouble affording 15 cents for a loaf of bread. They are warned that there is little work in California. Grandma (Zeffie Tilbury) dies just before the family reaches the California border.They arrive at an itinerate camp populated with hungry children. A man and sheriff come to the camp promising work but won't say how much they will be paid. A local man at the camp warns the others and the sheriff wants to arrest the man. The man runs away and the sheriff shoots at him, killing a bystander. Tom knocks out the sheriff and flees.The family leaves the camp and arrives at a farm that needs workers. Tom is wary. The farm is surrounding by a barbed-wire fence with plenty of armed guards. The family settles in a shack and picks peaches for five cents a box, earning barely enough to feed the family. After dinner, Tom takes a walk and encounters Casy in a camp just outside the farm. Casy is helping to lead a labor strike against the farm. Thugs from the farm kill Casy and Tom kills one of the attackers. Tom is hit in the face with a club, leaving a big gash.The family loads up the truck again, hiding Tom under a mattress. They head north, and stay at a U.S. government camp. Life is better. The camp has toilets, showers and is run by camp inhabitants. Warned ahead of time, the camp men stop thugs from starting a fight at the Saturday night dance that would provide an excuse for the local sheriff to take control of the camp.The sheriff arrives at the camp looking for Tom. Tom vows to his mother, Ma Joad (Jane Darwell), that he will fight injustice wherever he finds it, and heads off into the night. She worries that she will never see him again. The family hears of work and heads north and Ma is hopeful about their future.



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The movie begins with an old man named Paul Edgecomb (Dabbs Greer) in a retirement center. He takes two pieces of dry toast from an orderly, who mentions Paul's habit for taking walks outside the ground. The orderly is worried about Paul, but allows him to continue with his daily routine.Paul and several other residents are watching TV when an old movie with Fred Astaire dancing to the song "Heaven" is on. Paul sees it and walks away, followed by his friend Elaine (Eve Brent). Elaine realizes that the movie has awakened some powerful memories for Paul, and asks about it. Paul tells Elaine his story: that he was a prison guard during the Depression, in charge of Death Row, informally called "The Green Mile," because of its green tile floor. Paul's most powerful memory of this time took place in 1935....The story then flashes back to the 1930's at the State Prison, where a young Paul (now played by Tom Hanks) is suffering from a urinary infection. Some of the other guards- Brutus "Brutal" Howell (David Morse), Dean Stanton (Barry Pepper) and Harry Terwilliger (Jeffrey DeMunn) bring in a new inmate. His name is John Coffey (Michael Clarke Duncan) "like the drink, only not spelled the same." He is a gigantic muscular man, but when Paul talks to John they find that he has the mindset of a small child- very meek and apparently scared of the dark.When John is brought in, another guard named Percy Wetmore (Doug Hutchison) is sent off Death Row to attend to work elsewhere. Percy is not happy about this, and in frustration he lashes out at another inmate named Eduard Delecroix (Michael Jeter), breaking Del's fingers. Paul is given a copy of John Coffey's records and finds that he was sent to Death Row after being convicted for the murder (and implied rape) of two small girls. John Coffey does not mention his crime, only stating that he "tried to take it back, but it was too late."Later on, Paul is outside when he is met by Warden Hal Moores (James Cromwell). Hal gives Paul the execution papers for an inmate named Bitterbuck, and has a conversation with him about the young guard named Percy. It's revealed that Percy is the nephew of the governor's wife, and his powerful political connections are what got him hired- and keep him in the job, because Percy is apparently "stupid and mean" according to the other guards. Paul finds out that Percy has put in to be an administrator at a mental hospital, which would mean better pay and better hours. Paul theorizes that Percy wants to witness an execution up close before moving onto a new job. Warden Moores also mentions that his wife, Melinda, is not well she suffers from bad headaches and must have an X-Ray in order to find the source of the problem. That night, Paul meets with his wife Jan (Bonnie Hunt) and discusses the problem with Hal's wife.Next day, Brutus spots a mouse in the cell block. They watch it run into a small room in the corner, which turns out to be a padded room for dangerous inmates but is currently used for storage. The guards check everything in the room but do not find the mouse. A few hours later, Percy spots the mouse and goes into a fury trying to kill it. Paul berates Percy for scaring the inmates in his pursuit of the mouse. Percy doesn't care, thinking the inmates are contemptible. Paul feels differently, believing that under enough strain the inmates would "snap" and cause serious problems. Brutus grabs Percy, but Percy threatens to use his connections to get the others fired if they hurt him.We then see Paul and the others doing a rehearsal for the next execution, with the prison's elderly janitor, Toot-Toot (Harry Dean Stanton) helping them. Paul instructs Percy to watch and learn while the others prep the electric chair. That night, the execution of inmate Arlen Bitterbuck is carried out. Afterward, Paul confronts Percy about his new job opportunity. Percy reveals that he wants to "be out front" (meaning placed in charge of an inmate's execution) before he leaves.Next day, the inmate named Del has found the mouse again, named it "Mr. Jingles" and is trying to tame it. The mouse is able to fetch a spool of thread as a trick. The other guards allow Del to keep Mr. Jingles as a pet.Paul meets with Warden Hal again, getting word of a new inmate coming in, a man named William Wharton who killed three people in a holdup. Hal is almost in tears; the doctors have told him that his wife Melinda has a tumor the size of a lemon in her brain, virtually inoperable and eventually fatal. That night, Paul suffers from his urinary infection even more; he is almost in constant pain.Paul intends to see the doctor next day after the new inmate is brought in. Percy and Harry go to retrieve Wharton from a hospital, where he is in an apparent trance presumably from medication. As soon as Wharton gets inside, he springs to life, attacking the guards and kneeing Paul in the groin. Dean is nearly strangled before anyone can get Wharton under control. When the others go to report what has happened, John Coffey asks to speak with Paul. When Paul approaches John's cell, John grabs Paul and puts his hand over Paul groin. John holds on for several seconds, until the lights flare brightly. John then lets go, coughing and gasping until he releases a cloud of gnat-like spores from his mouth. Paul asks what happened, but John can only say that "I helped." Later when Paul visits the washroom, he feels no pain at all. John Coffey's act has healed his infection.The next morning, Paul goes into town to see John Coffey's public defender, Burt Hammersmith (Gary Sinise) who preceded over John's trial. Burt is absolutely convinced of Coffey's guilt. Back at the prison, Paul presents John with a loaf of cornbread baked by his wife, as a thanks for Coffey's "help". Coffey shares the cornbread with Del & Mr. Jingles, but does not give any to Wharton. This enrages Wharton, who takes his fury out on the guards, urinating on Harry. The guards use a fire hose to catch Wharton off guard, then wrap him up in a straitjacket and send him to the padded room. When Wharton spits on them later, he is sent to the room again.The rehearsal for Eduard Delecroix's execution takes place the next day. Paul has decided to put Percy in charge, in the hope that he will finally leave the prison right afterward. When Percy walks by the cells later, he is grabbed by Wharton. Percy wets himself in terror, and threatens the men to never mention this. Paul states that "what happens on the Mile, stays on the Mile." They will not say anything about what happened. Del, however, delights in Percy being humiliated.Later on, Mr. Jingles runs across the room between cells. Percy walks up and stomps on the mouse, coldly uncaring about what he has done leaving Del screaming in shock. John Coffey asks for the mouse, so Paul picks it up and hands it to John. The other guards watch in shock, awe, and possibly horror as light shines from John's hands. John coughs, releases another cloud of spores, and Mr. Jingles runs across the room- good as new.Percy, seeing that the mouse is uninjured, is furious- thinking the guards have set out to make a fool out of him. Paul confronts Percy and gives him an ultimatum- Percy will transfer out immediately after Delecroix's execution, or the others will go public about Percy's record of mistreatment of the prisoners and his behavior on the Mile. Percy agrees.Just before he "walks the Mile" to the electric chair, Del gives Mr. Jingles to Paul knowing that he will be taken care of. When Paul points out that he cannot have a mouse sitting on his shoulder during an execution, John Coffey volunteers to take care of Mr. Jingles.Percy sets everything up for Del's execution, with one small exception- he does not properly soak the sponge required for proper electric conduction, wanting to punish Del one more time. As a result, the execution is excruciating for Del and the entire horrified audience- he rolls in pain, screaming and even catches fire before finally dying.The guards confront Percy, but Paul tells them that Percy isn't worth fighting over and that he will still honor their agreement to leave.Paul and his wife go to visit Hal and Melinda the next day. Hal reveals that Melinda is rapidly falling apart, she is losing her memory and experiencing severe behavior changes including uncontrollable cursing. Paul invites the other guards (minus Percy) to dinner later and discusses John Coffey's acts of healing both him and Mr. Jingles. Paul states that he wants to sneak John Coffey out to try and heal Melinda. The others are very skeptical, pointing out that Coffey is a convicted murderer, and it would be disastrous if they are found or if he escapes. Paul puts forth his belief that Coffey is innocent; Paul "does not see God putting a gift like that in the hands of a man who would kill a child."The next day, they carry out the plan- Paul drugs Wharton so he will not see them leaving, then the others gag Percy and put him in the padded room as supposed "retribution" for Eduard Delecroix. They open up John Coffey's cell, and he is excited at the prospect of going for a ride outside and also seems to already know what they want him to do . John agrees to try and help Melinda. Wharton grabs Coffey as they head out, and John is apparently horrified by what he sees when touching Wharton.They arrive at Hal's home, and Hal threatens them with a shotgun. Paul talks him down while Coffey goes upstairs to meet Melinda. John gets very close to Melinda's face and something comes out of her mouth and into his, making the light in the room shine intensely. John breaks the connection with her, falling down coughing. Melinda sits up, looking much healthier and having no memory of anything that happened before her X-Ray. Hal collapses, weeping at his wife's restoration. John continues to cough, unable to release the "spores" like before. Melinda gives Coffey a pendant with the mark of St. Christopher-the healer- as a present.John returns to the prison, still very ill from the encounter. Percy is released, apparently keeping silent but the others still fear that he might talk. John grabs Percy, releasing the spores directly into Percy's mouth. Percy, in a daze, walks over to Wharton's cell and empties his revolver into Wharton's chest. The others seize Percy, who leans back and coughs up the remaining black spores. Upon examination, Percy appears to be catatonic. He is eventually sent to a mental hospital (ironically the same place where he was supposed to be an administrator) for presumably the rest of his life.Coffey repeats that Wharton and Percy were "bad men," and places his hand on Paul. Paul sees that Wharton was responsible for the murder John Coffey was convicted for. Now that he knows Coffey is innocent, Paul is unsure how to proceed. He talks to his wife that night and he suggests talking to John about it. He even asks Coffey if they should just "let him go." Coffey does not want to escape; he reveals that in addition to healing he can also feel the pain of all others around him and does not wish to continue with such pain in the world. Paul offers John a last request; Coffey states that he has always wanted to see a "flicker show" (a motion picture). They bring in a movie projector with the film "Top Hat," the same movie that the elderly Paul was watching at the beginning of the movie, which is what triggered Paul's memories particularly when Fred Astaire is dancing to "Heaven" and John watches in awe saying "they like angels!"That night, John Coffey is put to death as the guards watch on in tears. The elderly Paul's voice cuts in and states that he left The Green Mile soon after, unable to carry on after seeing John Coffey die. He and some of the others transferred to a youth corrections' facility.Elaine admits that Paul's tale is "quite a story," and does not apparently believe it. She also points out that Paul mentioned his son being grown up in 1935, which means he should be much older than he appears.Paul takes Elaine on a walk, and they come to a cabin in the woods. There is a mouse sleeping in a small box; Elaine is shocked to meet Mr. Jingles- Paul found the mouse again after Coffey's execution and has kept him ever since. Paul states that he is now 108 years old, and that he believes John Coffey "infected him [and Mr. Jingles] with life." Paul feels that this is his punishment for killing a genuine miracle of God- he must stay alive and watch everyone he cares about, including friends like Elaine, grow old and die before his own death.Later, Paul is seen at Elaine's funeral, quietly wondering just how much longer he has to go. "We each owe a death," he states, "There are no exceptions. But oh God, sometimes The Green Mile seems so long."

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In what appers to be the Sonoran Desert; in or near Mexico, a cartographer named David Laughlin (Bob Balaban) is introduced to a French-speaking man named Claude Lacombe (renowned French director Franois Truffaut). Though David has been hired as Mr Lacombe's interpreter, he explains that he is actually a cartographer (a mapmaker). The two men along with a crew soon find a strange sight: a circular ring of airplanes in brand-new condition, with fuel still in the tank. The planes are identified as belonging to 'Flight 19,' a group of Navel planes that were reported missing off the coast of Florida in the mid-40's. The men soon after find a local who reported the planes. David and Claude find the man has red sunburned marks on the side of his face. Through an interpreter, the sunburned man claims the sun came out that evening, and talked to him.in an air traffic control tower in the US, some of the control tower receive reports of unidentified aircraft flying through the air and coming dangerously close to hitting an airplane. When the tower requests the planes in the vicinity of the incident if they wish to report a 'UFO (unidentified flying object),' both planes decide not to.In Muncie, Indiana, a strange power outage blackens the area. This incident affects two different families of people.The first is Jillian Guiler (Melinda Dillon). When she wakes in the middle of the night and finds her son Barry (Cary Guffey) missing, she wanders off into the countryside to find him.The second person is Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss). Roy gets a call from the power company he works for, and goes out to answer a service call. However, stopping at a train's track, a number of metal objects in the vicinity (including Roy's truck) begin to act strangely. A strange craft appears overhead, and flashes bright lights at Roy before flying off. Once the craft has disappeared, Roy drives off, before almost hitting Barry on a hillside road.As Jillian appears, several strangely-lit craft fly by, along with a bright red light at the tail end. Entranced by the strange objects, Roy gets back in his truck and gives chase, along with several local police cars. The strange objects fly off over the edge of a cliff, and as Roy and the officers watch, ascend into some thundering storm clouds overhead, as the darkened city underneath them regains power.Roy returns to his family eager to tell of what he saw, but his wife Ronnie (Teri Garr) refuses to acknowledge her husband's flights of fancy. Even though Roy has red sunburns from being flashed by the craft he saw, she still doesn't 'believe.'Some time afterwards, Roy meets up with Jillian and Barry, and Jillian relates how there seems to be a melody and an image of a mountain she cannot get out of her mind. Roy soon finds himself obsessing over the same mountain image, carving it in mashed potatoes as well as sculpting it out of putty or shaving cream.Meanwhile, Bob and Claude have gone around the world and observed other strange phenomenon:-A group of people in India have been chanting a strange 5-note sequence that they claim came from above.-A missing ship named the Coat Appoxi has appeared in another desert region.-Information gleaned from the musical notation sequence and a message indicates that there appears to be plans for the extraterrestrial life to descend to Earth. The Military and NASA coordinate a plan to create a false scare in the landing region that a toxic spill will make the area dangerous.Back in Muncie, Jillian is shocked one evening when the same lights as before descend towards her home, and soon after abduct her son Barry. Still in a state of shock, Jillian takes her story to the news outlets.Shortly thereafter, a person from the US Government sits down for a town hall chat with several locals in attendance (including Roy and his family), denying that there are UFO's, or that the government is covering up any such things.Roy is slowly losing his mind over the strange images in his head, and finally drives his wife Ronnie to take their kids and leave. After they have left, Roy constructs an enormous miniature of a mountain in his family's living room, before seeing a news article on the television, showing Devil's Tower...the same structure he's been seeing in his mind!Roy heads off towards Devil's Tower, only to encounter every one leaving in the wake of a (fake) chemical spill warning. Roy also finds Jillian there, and the two attempt to get to Devil's Tower, but are captured by some Military men.Roy and Jillian are separated, with Roy brought before Bob and Claude. The two listen to Roy's story...a story that sounds similar to several other people who have been drawn to the mountainous structure nearby. The two make an impassioned plea to the Military Director at the base, but he refuses to believe their 'theory' that these people were 'invited,' and attempts to fly the civilians out of there.Jillian and Roy manage to escape, making it to the other side of the mountain before night settles in, finding an enormous landing strip having been constructed. The two secretly make their way down as several little lit ships appear, before a giant 'mother ship' hovers down.Using light and sound based on the 5-note motive, the aliens appear and release some humans who had been abducted previously (many having never aged). Barry is returned as well.When Claude sees Roy has appeared as well, he and Roy decide that he -Roy- will go with several people meant to be swapped for the returnees by the aliens.After Roy and several others board the ship, it takes off for distant space.- Done by KrystelClaire:Strange events are happening all over the world: a UFO is said to have appeared in the Mojave desert in New Mexico, a long-ago lost ship appears in the middle of the Ghobi desert, many Indian people start to chant a tune they have heard coming from "above", and some airplanes have sights of flying saucers. A team of people are investigating all these phenomena, specially Claude Lacombe (renown French director Franois Truffaut) and his interpreter Jean Claude (Philip Dodds)In the USA, Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) is trying to find his way at night. He's close to home, but is looking for the place he has to go to in a map. He is an electric company technician who has to solve a problem with an electrical blackout. While waiting at a railroad crossing, everything seems to go crazy around him -- his flashlight won't work, the radio in his truck goes haywire, and some mailboxes along the road open themselves. Suddenly, a bright light lands on the truck. Looking out of the window, he is flashed several times by what seems to be a UFO. Roy then attempts to drive after the three small flying saucers and a small red light.Mainwhile, Barry Guiler (Cary Guffey), a little boy of around 6, wakes up because all his toys start playing themselves and making noise in the middle of the night. He goes out of home on his own. He lives in a cheap home nearby a forest. Dressed in his pyjamas, he goes out. A toy police car wakes up his mother Jillian Guiler (Melinda Dillon) as well. From her window, she calls out for him, but Barry enters the wood anyway, laughing alone. Jillian runs after him. When she catches up with him, Barry is standing up in the middle of a curvy town road. He seems stunned, dazed. Jillian arrives just in time to save him from being run over by Roy.The UFOs disappear among cloudy and stormy weather. Many people have seen them, and they wait all through the night in the same curve of the same road for the UFOs to appear again, hoping for a friendly sign. Roy, Barry and Jillian are among those people.During daylight, they all try to go on with their lives. However, it seems that they can't cope. Barry repeats a lullaby over and over again. Jillian tries to draw a mountain she has never seen, and Roy seems to have gone crazy. He makes all kinds of strange attemps to create a sculpture of the same mountain than Jillian. First with shaving foam, secondly with mashed potatoes. The three children of the couple, Brad, Sylvia and Toby (Shawn Bishop, Adrienne Campbell and Justin Dreyfuss), become silent and frightened as well, after a terrible row with plenty of shouting on everybody's part. As a higher level of Roy's brand-new eccentric behaviour, he starts pulling out some small trees from his home garden in a frenzy, and also he steals his neighbour's duck pond metal rail in plain daylight. His wife Ronnie (Teri Garr) is getting more and more frightened because of her husband's hectic behaviour. She cannot take it anymore and leaves him. She takes her children with her, while neighbours stop doing their everyday chores to look in amazement at the final row of the couple.Now Roy can create his mountain sculpture without being disturbed. He makes it so huge that it occupies all the kitchen. While he is talking on the phone, he finally realises what he is so obsessed about. The famous anchorman Howard K. Smith (himself) is announcing on TV that Devil's Peak is being evacuated, because there is a deadly gas leaked in the atmosphere. They show some images of the place, so Roy decides to make the journey there immediately.At the same time, Barry has disappeared. He had been kidnapped by the supposed energy of a UFO. Jillian had tried to prevent it, closing all doors, windows, and even the chimney place, but it is useles. Barry feels attracted by the lights and he goes into them through the dog trap in the main door. Newspapers will laugh about Jillian's evidence before the police, claiming that she alleges that "some clouds kidnapped my son", and treat her like a demented person.The following day, Roy is driving in the opposite direction. He arrives at the nearest train station to the mountain, where hundreds of people are boarding a train in panic, climbing into the wagons through the windows and even getting on top of some coaches. The military police are watching all the operation. There, Roy finds Jillian, who wants to go to the same place than him. They get out of the station quietly helped by the chaos. Jillian is carrying two pigeons in a small cage, in the hope that, if there is any poisonous substances in the air, the birds will die before she does so. They drive together across fields and empty roads with many cows and horses dead along the way. They get close to their destination, but they are stopped by the miliatry police and the two French investigators dressed in white, astronaut-like outfits and gas masks. One of them forces Roy and Jillian to get into a white van, while taking the cage with the two birds, now completely dead. Jillian, Roy and another man jump off from the helicopter which was going to take them out of the area. They had taken off their masks, proving that there is no real danger in breathing the alledgedly deadly air. The three runaways make it to the mountain, being followed by armed soldiers and several helicopters. The third man gets gassed out and passes out so the two main characters are the only ones who make it to the other side of the mountain.There, Jillian and Roy find a kind of runway lane surrounded by scientifical devices and cameras by all sides except one. There are people all over the place, some of them armed with heavy weaponry, and the two Frenchmen are also there. Jillian and Roy look at the sudden weather changes hidden behind some mountain rocks. The UFO's appear, altogether with the smaller red light. They fly so close to them that they could have almost touched them.The UFO's and the official people maintain a kind of dialogue: they play the tune which Barry and the Indian people sang. They use a kind of huge keyboard and a screen with light and colours. Everything is successful. Roy goes down the mountain after having kissed Jillian but she prefers to stay hidden behind a rock. He thinks he is going to be captured by an army officer, but the man is running away, hiding himself on the portable toilet facility, a scene which will be repeated later on Spielberg's Jurassik Park film. The UFOs go away. The French people see Roy, but they let him be.The scientists are going to start to analyse all the materials they have recorded. All of a sudden, the hugest UFO of them all appear, and they all go back to their positions. Again, there is the tuned music conversation, accompained by coloured lights. The music moves faster and faster until it dies out. Everybody is watching, breathless.The UFO is opened. Through the below part of the device, several people (and a dog) who had previously disappeared, walk out of the UFO. They are all healthy and calm. One of the last ones is Barry. Jillian leaves her hiding place and goes running to him, hugging and kissing her son while crying tender tears. Barry does not look traumatized or hurt in any way.The UFO door opens again. First, a long-legged and long-armed creature appears. The next instant, some twenty grey-skinned aliens appear and get out of the UFO. They have got no hair, they are naked, and they are as tall as a child. One of the aliens repeats the hand movements which represent the music tune.Some volunteers, including Roy, decide to go into the UFO with the aliens. No aliens stay on Earth. The spacecraft and their occupants fly away from planet Earth into the million-starred celestial copola.--originally written by KrystelClaire


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The overarching plot takes place over five days leading up to a political rally for Replacement Party candidate Hal Phillip Walker, who is never seen throughout the entire movie. The story follows 24 characters roaming around Nashville, in search of some sort of goal through their own (often overlapping) story arcs.Day OneThe film opens with a campaign van for presidential candidate Hal Phillip Walker driving around Nashville as an external loudspeaker blares Walker's folksy political aphorisms and vaguely anti-establishment populism. This is juxtaposed with country superstar Haven Hamilton (Henry Gibson) recording an overblown patriotic song ("200 Years") intended to commemorate the upcoming Bicentennial, and growing irritated with the accompanying musicians in the studio. A young Englishwoman named Opal (Geraldine Chaplin), who claims to be working on a radio documentary for the BBC, appears in the studio but is told to leave by Haven. Down the hall from Haven's session is Linnea Reese (Lily Tomlin), a white gospel singer recording a song with a black choir.Later that day, the beloved country singer Barbara Jean (Ronee Blakley) is returning to Nashville, having recovered from a burn accident, and the elite of Nashville's music scene, including Haven Hamilton and his companion Lady Pearl (Barbara Baxley), have converged on Berry Field to greet her plane as it arrives. Also present are Pfc. Glenn Kelly (Scott Glenn) and the folk/rock trio "Bill, Mary, and Tom" whose catchy hit song "It Don't Worry Me" seems to be on everybody's lips. They are in town to record their second album. Bill (Allan F. Nicholls) and Mary (Cristina Raines) are married, but largely unhappy, partly due to the fact that Mary is in love with womanizing Tom (Keith Carradine).Meanwhile, Mr. Green (Keenan Wynn) arrives at the airport to pick up his niece, Martha (Shelley Duvall), who has renamed herself "L.A. Joan", a teenage groupie who has come to Nashville ostensibly to visit her aunt Esther Green who is sick in the hospital. However, Martha repeatedly puts off visiting her aunt in favor of chasing after musicians or pretty much any male she comes across, including the oddball motorcyclist known as "Tricycle Man," (Jeff Goldblum). Working at the airport restaurant are African-American cook Wade Cooley (Robert DoQui), and his pretty waitress friend, Sueleen Gay (Gwen Welles), an aspiring country singer who refuses to recognize that she can't carry a tune.After greeting the crowds on the tarmac, Barbara Jean faints due to the heat, and her handlers, headed by her domineering husband-manager Barnett (Allen Garfield), rush her to the hospital. Barbara Jean's appearance having been cut short, those in attendance depart the airport in a rush, and wind up stranded on the highway after a pile-up occurs. During the commotion, Winifred (Barbara Harris), an aspiring country singer who has chosen the stage name "Albuquerque," runs away from her husband, Star (Bert Remsen), after he refuses to take her to the Grand Ole Opry. Star gives a ride to Kenny Frasier (David Hayward), a nondescript, bespectacled young man who has just arrived in town carrying a violin case. Opal takes advantage of the traffic jam to interview first Linnea and then Tommy Brown (Timothy Brown), an African-American country singer who is performing at the Opry. Tommy and his entourage later go to Lady Pearl's nightclub, but Wade, who is drinking and trying to pick up white girls at the bar, insults Tommy for acting too "white" and starts a fight.Linnea's husband, Del Reese (Ned Beatty) is working with political organizer John Triplette (Michael Murphy) to plan a small fundraiser and a large outdoor concert gala for the Walker campaign. Sueleen appears at a local club's open mike night in a provocative outfit, and despite her lack of singing ability, club manager Trout (Merle Kilgore) recommends her to Triplette for the fundraiser based on her appearance. Winifred shows up at Trout's club trying to recruit musicians to record a demo with her, but Star sees her and chases her out. Del invites Triplette for a family dinner with Linnea and their two deaf children. Linnea and Del are having communications problems and she focuses on the children rather than on him. In the middle of dinner, Tom calls trying to make a date with Linnea, but she puts him off, so he takes Opal back to his room instead. Pfc. Kelly sneaks into Barbara Jean's hospital room and sits in the chair by her bed all night, watching her sleep.Day TwoTom calls Linnea again but, with Del listening on the other line, Linnea yells at Tom and tells him not to call her any more. Kenny rents a room from Mr. Green. Haven Hamilton throws a pre-show party at his house before the evening's Grand Ole Opry performance. At the party, Opal talks to Haven's son Bud (Dave Peel) who tells her, unconvincingly, that he is happy to act as his father's business manager and has no musical ambitions of his own. Under Opal's prodding, Bud starts to sing her a song he wrote, a tender love ballad, but Opal departs in a rush when she spots a movie star among the guests. Lady Pearl talks about her love for John and Bobby Kennedy, the only politicians she ever admired. Triplette tries to persuade Haven to perform at the Walker gala by telling him that if Walker is elected, Walker would back Haven for Governor of Tennessee. Haven says he'll give Triplette his decision after the Opry show that night.At Opryland USA, the Grand Ole Opry broadcast begins with Tommy Brown ("Bluebird") and Haven Hamilton ("For the Sake of the Children", "Keep a-Goin"). Haven then introduces Connie White (Karen Black) as a substitute for the hospitalized Barbara Jean. Connie sings "Memphis" and "I Don't Know If I Found It in You" while Barbara Jean and Barnett listen morosely on the radio in her hospital room. Winifred tries unsuccessfully to get backstage. Barbara Jean and Barnett have an argument because he is going to the after-show gathering to thank Connie for substituting at the last minute. Barbara Jean doesn't want him to go, and he suggests in an accusatory tone that she may be headed for another nervous breakdown. Barnett finally calms down Barbara Jean and goes to the after-party at a nightclub, but Connie doesn't seem happy to see him. Connie takes the stage ("Rolling Stone") but the disgruntled Barnett criticizes her performance. Lady Pearl regales Opal with stories about the Kennedy brothers, rendering Opal for once speechless. Haven tells Triplette that Barbara Jean and Connie never appear on the same stage, and that he (Haven) will appear anyplace Barbara Jean also appears. Bill gets upset when his wife Mary doesn't show up all evening, and he confesses to chauffeur Norman (David Arkin), that he suspects her of having an affair. Mary, in bed with Tom, keeps whispering "I Love You," but Tom doesn't respond.Day ThreeIt is Sunday morning and the characters are shown attending various local church services. A Roman Catholic service includes Lady Pearl, Wade and Sueleen; Haven Hamilton sings in the choir at a Protestant service; and Linnea is seen in the choir at a black Protestant church as a baptism is taking place, with Tommy Brown in the pews. At the hospital chapel, Barbara Jean sings a hymn from her wheelchair while Mr. Green and Pfc. Kelly, among others, watch. Mr. Green tells Kelly how he and his wife lost their son in WWII. Opal wanders alone through a huge auto scrap yard making free-form poetic speeches about the cars into her tape recorder. Haven, Tommy Brown and their families attend the stock car races, where Winifred attempts to sing on a small stage but cannot be heard over the cars. Bill and Mary argue in their hotel room and are interrupted by Triplette, who wants to recruit them for the Walker concert gala. Tom tries to get Norman to score him some pills.Day FourOpal walks alone through a large school bus parking lot trying to spin a commentary linking the buses to racism in the South, but has trouble hitting the right note. Barbara Jean is discharged from the hospital at the same time Mr. Green shows up to visit his sick wife. Barbara Jean asks after Mrs. Green and sends her regards. After Barbara Jean and her entourage have left, a nurse tells Mr. Green his wife died earlier that morning. Pfc. Kelly tells Mr. Green why he has been following Barbara Jean around; his mother saved Barbara Jean's life in the fire and loved her more than anything. She asked her son to go see Barbara Jean on his leave from Vietnam service. Back at Mr. Green's house, Kenny gets upset when Martha tries to look at his violin case.Barbara Jean performs a matinee at Opryland USA. Triplette and Del attend and try to convince Barnett to have Barbara Jean play the Walker concert gala at the Parthenon the next day, but he refuses. Kenny and Pfc. Kelly are both in the audience and watch raptly as Barbara Jean sings, although Opal annoyingly tries to interview Kelly about Vietnam during a song. Barbara Jean gets through the first couple of songs ("Tapedeck in his Tractor", "Dues") all right, but then begins to tell rambling stories about her childhood instead of starting the next song. After several false starts, Barnett escorts her from the stage and tells the disappointed audience that they can come to the Parthenon tomorrow and see Barbara Jean perform for free, thus committing her to the Walker concert.Tom calls Linnea and invites her to meet him that night at a club called the Exit Inn. Linnea arrives but sits by herself because Martha is trying to pick up Tom. Mary and Bill are also there, and Opal sits with them and mentions that she slept with Tom, causing Mary to look away in humiliation. Wade tries unsuccessfully to pick up Linnea, while Norman tries equally unsuccessfully to pick up Opal. Tom is introduced as a surprise guest artist. He casually mentions that he "used to be in a trio," but then invites Bill and Mary up to the stage, where the three perform an uncomfortable rendition of "Since You're Gone". Again alone on the stage, Tom introduces his new solo number, "I'm Easy," which he dedicates to someone special in the audience. Mary, Opal, and Martha all hope that they are the one, but Tom only has eyes for Linnea. She goes to his room where they make love. When Linnea says she has to go, Tom begs her to stay another hour, and is visibly miffed when she refuses. Without even waiting for her to get dressed and leave, Tom grabs the phone and calls a girlfriend in New York, inviting her to fly down and join him.Sueleen appears at the all-male Walker fundraiser, but is booed off the stage when she sings poorly and doesn't take off her clothes. Del and Triplette explain to her that the men expect her to strip and that if she does so, they will let her sing the next day at the Parthenon with Barbara Jean. Sueleen is humiliated, but strips anyway. Winifred shows up at the fundraiser hoping to get a chance to sing, but after she sees what is going on, she stays hidden behind a curtain. Del drives Sueleen home and drunkenly comes on to her, but she is rescued by Wade. After he hears what happened, Wade tells Sueleen the truth, that she can't sing, and asks her to go back to Detroit with him the next day. Sueleen refuses because she is determined to sing at the Parthenon with Barbara Jean.Day FiveThe performers, audience and Walker and his entourage arrive for the Parthenon concert; Walker will wait in his limousine until his speech after the musical performances. In the performing lineup are Haven, Barbara Jean, Linnea and her choir, Bill, Mary and Tom, and Sueleen. Winifred has shown up again hoping for a chance to sing. Barnett gets upset because Barbara Jean will have to perform in front of a large Walker advertisement, but has to go along with it because his wife's career will be harmed if he pulls her out of another show. Mr. Green and Kenny attend Esther Green's burial service and Mr. Green leaves angrily, vowing to find Martha (who is not at the service) and make her show some respect to her aunt. Mr. Green and Kenny go to the Parthenon to look for Martha.The Walker gala starts and Haven and Barbara Jean perform a song together ("One, I Love You"), then Barbara Jean sings a very personal solo song about her childhood ("My Idaho Home"). As the song ends, gunshots are heard. Kenny has pulled a gun from his violin case and fired at the performers, grazing Haven and seriously wounding Barbara Jean. Pfc. Kelly disarms Kenny as chaos breaks out. Barbara Jean is carried bleeding and unconscious from the stage. Haven tries to calm the crowd by exhorting them to sing, asserting that "This isn't Dallas, this is Nashville" in reference to the JFK assassination. As he is led from the stage for treatment of his wounds, Haven hands the microphone off to Winifred, who tentatively begins to sing "It Don't Worry Me." As she is joined by Linnea's gospel choir, Winifred's confidence grows until all eyes are upon her. The film ends with the audience clapping and dancing as Winifred belts out the chorus, "You may say that I'm not free, but it don't worry me." She has finally gotten her big break.

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The film explores the life of 21-year-old Ben Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) shortly after earning his bachelor's degree from an unnamed college in the Northeast. The school is widely believed to be Williams College, Webb's alma mater (in the opening sequence of the movie, Dustin Hoffman, playing Benjamin Braddock, is wearing a Williams College tie). Benjamin is seen arriving at LAX International Airport over the opening credits.The movie really begins at a party that same evening celebrating his graduation at his parents' house in Pasadena, a suburb of Los Angeles. Benjamin is visibly uncomfortable at the party attended by his parents' friends. He remains aloof while his parents deliver accolades and neighborhood friends ask him about his future plans. Benjamin escapes from each person who comes to congratulate him, exposing his seeming embarrassment at all the honors he had won at college. Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft), the neglected wife of his father's law partner, asks Benjamin to drive her home, which he reluctantly does. We never learn Mrs. Robinson's first name (or, indeed, the first names of any of Benjamin's and Elaine's parents) during the course of the film (in the novel, we are told that the initial of Mrs. Robinson's first name is G).Arriving at her home, she pleads for Benjamin to come inside, saying that she doesn't like to enter a dark house alone. Once inside, she forces a drink on him, and later exposes herself to him offering to have an affair with him. This scene, known as the "Mrs. Robinson, you are trying to seduce me" scene, as said by Benjamin, is said to be one of the most iconic scenes in the film. She, for no clear reason, does attempt to seduce him, removing her clothing. Mr. Robinson arrives home a few minute later, but does not see or suspect anything. Initially flustered and shocked by her advances, Benjamin flees into the night.A few days later Benjamin contacts Mrs. Robinson and clumsily organizes a tryst at a hotel beginning their affair. A now confident and relaxed Benjamin spends the summer drifting around in the pool by day and seeing Mrs. Robinson at the hotel by night. Benjamin is clearly uncomfortable with sexuality, but he is drawn into the affair with the older, but still attractive, Mrs. Robinson. Their affair appears to last most of the summer. All of their scenes pass in a musically-backed montage, showing the endless pass of time. One scene is edited so that it appears Benjamin is walking directly from his parents' dining room into the hotel room he shares with Mrs. Robinson. This seems to accent the separation of he and his parents, though they still live under the same roof. Benjamin discovers that they have nothing to talk about but, she refuses to talk and only wants sex. After pestering her one evening, Mrs. Robinson tells Benjamin that she was forced to give up college and marry someone she didn't love when she became pregnant with her daughter Elaine.Meanwhile, Benjamin is hounded by his father to select a graduate school to attend. Benjamin, clearly not interested in pursuing his studies, shrugs off his father's wishes and spends his time lounging about and sleeping with Mrs. Robinson. His affair may serve as an escape from his lack of direction or ambition, and his fear and anxiety of his impending future. Mr. Robinson, unaware of his wife's budding affair, encourages Benjamin to call on his daughter, Elaine (Katharine Ross). Benjamin's parents also repeatedly encourage him to date her. During one liaison, Mrs. Robinson forces a promise from Ben to never date Elaine. Whether out of fear of Mrs. Robinson, or sensing that getting involved with the daughter of his lover could be disastrous, he tries to avoid it. However, because of the three parents' persistent intervention, he is essentially forced to date her.Therefore, he tries to ensure his date with her will be a disaster so she would not want to pursue a relationship with him. He drives recklessly, practically ignoring Elaine, and then takes her to a strip club where she is openly humiliated and silently begins to cry. After making her cry he relents and explains he was mean only because his parents forced him to ask her out. He awkwardly kisses her to try and cheer her up and they go and get a burger at a drive-in. Benjamin discovers that Elaine is someone he is comfortable with and that he can talk to her about his worries.From here, Benjamin's life falls apart. The jealous Mrs. Robinson threatens to reveal their affair to destroy any chance Benjamin has with Elaine, so Benjamin rashly decides he has to tell Elaine first. Upset over hearing about Benjamin's tryst with her mother, Elaine returns to Berkeley refusing to speak with Benjamin.Benjamin decides he is going to marry Elaine in order to have a future with her and goes to Berkeley where he rents a room in a local flop house, and begins to stalk her. He contrives a meeting on a bus while she is on her way to a date with her classmate Carl. The next day, an angry Elaine bursts into Benjamin's room and demands to know what he is doing in Berkeley after he "raped" her mother by taking advantage of her while she was drunk that evening of his graduation party. Shocked by what Elaine said, Benjamin tells her it was her mother who seduced him that night, but Elaine refuses to believe him and doesn't want to hear the fact that her mother is a crafty vixen. Benjamin says he will leave Berkeley and go somewhere else for her sake. Elaine tells Benjamin not to leave until he has a definite plan at what he wants to do with his life.The next day, Elaine comes into Ben's apartment in the middle of the night and asks him to kiss her. Over the next few days, the two hang out in Berkeley while Benjamin keeps pressing her to get blood tests so that they can get married. Elaine is unsure about this and tells him she had told Carl she might marry him.Mr. Robinson, who has found out everything about Benjamin and his wife's affair, goes to Ben's apartment in Berkeley where he threatens Benjamin with violence and forces Elaine to drop out of school and takes her away to marry Carl. Benjamin tells Mr. Robinson that his wife is the bad person and she manipulated him into having an affair with her. But Mr. Robinson also is skeptic and refuses to belive Benjamin. Benjamin is left with just a note from Elaine saying that she loves him but that her father is really angry and it can never work out.Benjamin drives back to Pasadena and arrives at the Robinson house that evening looking for Elaine. After getting no response by knocking on the front door, goes around to the back of the house and forces open a screen door. Benjamin quickly sees that Elaine is not there, but finds Mrs. Robinson instead. She coldly tells him he won't be able stop Elaine and Carl's wedding and she immediately calls the police and play-acts by claiming that a man broke into her house and is assaulting her. Finally seeing the sociopath that Mrs. Robinson really is, Benjamin flees and drives back to Berkeley to hide out there.The next morning, Benjamin goes to the Delta Chi Fraternity house to look for Elaine or Carl where he learns from Carl's frat brothers that the wedding is in Santa Barbara that very morning. Benjamin then speeds off towards Santa Barbara, stopping only at a gas station to ask for directions to the church. Benjamin is in such a hurry that he rushes off without refueling.Consequently, Ben runs out of gas and must sprint the last few blocks. He arrives at the church just as the bride and groom are about to kiss. Thinking he is too late, he bangs on the glass at the back of the church and screams out "Elaine!" repeatedly. Elaine turns around, hesitates by looking at her parents and her would-be husband, but then screams out "Ben!" and starts running towards him. A brawl breaks out as everyone tries to stop her and Benjamin from leaving. Elaine manages to break free from her mother, who claims "It's too late!" for Elaine apparently already said her marriage vows, to which Elaine replies, "Not for me!" Benjamin holds everybody off by swinging a cross ripped from the wall, then using it to jam the outside door while the pair escape. They run down the road and flag down a bus. The elated and smiling couple take the back seat. But in the final shot, Benjamin's smile gradually fades to an enigmatic, neutral expression as he gazes forward down the bus, not looking at Elaine. Elaine also seems unsure, looks lovingly across at Ben but notices his expression and turns away with a similar expression as the bus drives away, taking the two lovers to an uncertain future.



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It's the last night of the summer in 1962, and a number of friends are meeting at Burger City for one last hurrah. They include:-Steve Bolander (Ron Howard), The recently-graduated Class President.-Curt Henderson (Richard Dreyfuss), another recent graduate and Steve's best friend, who was awarded the local Moose Lodge's first scholarship.-Laurie Henderson (Cindy Williams), who is heading into her Senior Year in high school, and was the head cheerleader, as well as Steve Bolander's girlfriend. She is also Curt's younger sister.-Terry "The Toad" Fields (Charles Martin Smith), a rather nerdish and socially awkward kid with glasses and a mutual friend of Stve and Curt.-John Milner (Paul Le Mat), a young man and high school graduate in his early 20's who spends most of his days fixing cars for a living and racing a yellow deuce coupe, said by some to be the fastest car in the Valley.At Burger City, Curt confides to Steve that he is considering not heading East for college the next day. Steve is upset by this, but Curt feels that maybe he needs to get his feelings in order. After their discussion, Steve tells Terry that he is going to give him his 1958 Chevrolet Impala until he comes back from college. As Terry only has a little Vespa scooter, the opportunity to have a hot set of wheels makes him ecstatic.After the formalities, Steve gets into Laurie's car, and tells her that he thinks they should see other people while he is away. Laurie tries to hide the fact that this upsets her, but becomes very quiet considering the ramifications.Meanwhile, Curt and John talk about how it seems every girl that comes by is ugly or has a boyfriend. "Where is the dazzling beauty I've been waiting for all my life," bemoans Curt. John's conversation turns to how the strip that they cruise on keeps shrinking, remembering when a tank full of gas was needed to complete a full circuit.It is then that the group decides to split up. John heads off cruising in his yellow deuce coupe, while Terry heads out in Steve's car. Curt decides to accompany Steve and Laurie to the "Freshman Hop," a sockhop in the school gymnasium.As Milner heads off to cruise around, he encounters a couple of his buddies also cruising down the streets, who tell him of a "very wicked 56 Chevy looking for him," as well as alerting him to cops watching for speeders.Steve, Laurie and Curt have pulled up to a stop light, with a white Thunderbird next to them. As Curt looks, a blonde driving the vehicle smiles at him, and seems to mouth the words "I love you," before taking off. Curt is taken by the vision of this 'goddess,' and pleads with his friend and sister to follow the Thunderbird. However, his words fall on deaf ears.Milner soon after encounters a carload of girls. When he asks if any of them wants to ride with him, one of the girl's sisters volunteers. However, it is only after she gets into his car does he realize what he's gotten himself into. The girl, named Carol (Mackenzie Phillips), is easily a very young girl, and John is determined to not have her along with him for the rest of the night.Meanwhile, Steve, Laurie and Curt have made it to the Sockhop. Laurie's friend Peg (Kathleen Quinlan) confides that Laurie will be fine without Steve, but Laurie is still upset and confused about Steve's wish to see other people. Steve meanwhile, has explained his plans to some of his own friends, who laugh that he will use the opportunity to "screw around." Curt meanwhile, roams the halls of the school and comes across his old locker. He tries the combination, only to find that it has been changed.After Steve and Laurie meet up after talking to their friends, Steve wishes to dance, but Laurie refuses, her anger over his decision boiling to the surface. Curt meanwhile, meets one of his teachers who is Chaperoning the dance. Mr. Wolfe (Terence McGovern) and Curt then discuss the teacher's past, how he went to a college in Middlebury, Vermont, and only stayed one semester. Wolfe contends that he wasn't the adventuresome type, and Curt explains how he might not be as well. The teacher encourages Curt to not stay, but to go out and explore life.Back in the yellow deuce coupe, John and Carol continue to be at odds with each other. Carol explains how she and her friends used shaving cream to coverup someone's windshield as a gag, and shows John that she still has a can with her at that moment. They then fight over the music on the radio, with John being irritated by the Beach Boys song "Surfin' Safari" on the radio. John's night is further complicated when Officer Holstein (Jim Bohan) pulls him over. Holstein gives Milner a ticket, claiming one of his taillights is out, and claims that he received reports of John speeding, but is going to let him go this time, promising that one day soon, he's going to catch him in the act. After Holstein leaves, John gives Carol the ticket to put in a pouch on the driver's side door, which already contains plenty of tickets from "the law."Terry meanwhile, has pulled up to a light, next to a black 56 Chevy. The driver is Bob Falfa (Harrison Ford), who shouts over to Terry that he's looking for John Milner, and to let John know that he's looking to race him. After the encounter with Falfa, Terry notices a blonde walking the streets. After saying that she resembles Connie Stevens, the girl stops to talk to Terry. Terry claims he's known as "Terry the Tiger," and offers to let her feel the tuck-and-roll upholstery of the Impala. The girl, named Debbie (Candy Clark), gets in, and the two drive off.Back at the sockhop, Steve and Laurie are chosen to lead a spotlight snowball dance, and put on smiling faces for the rest of the students. As they dance together, Laurie continues to argue quietly, before beginning to cry, and telling Steve to "go to hell," as the song "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" fills the gymnasium.Curt meanwhile, has run into his ex-girlfriend, Wendy (Deby Celiz). With nothing else to do at the school, he asks if he can tag along with her and her friend Bobbie (Lynne Marie Stewart). Wendy agrees, much to the ire of her friend.Back in the gymnasium, as the music picks back up, Steve and Laurie are now dancing intimately, when a teacher named Mr Kroot (Mark Anger) tells them to "break it up." Steve gets smart and tells Kroot to 'kiss a duck,' as well as calls him a 'marblehead.' Kroot tells Steve that he is suspended, but Steve smilingly tells Kroot that he graduated last semester, and by all accounts, Kroot can't do anything to him. As Kroot storms off, Steve and Laurie laugh at the moment. After the incident, they decide to go to The Canal to be alone, their relationship appearing to have been patched up.Terry meanwhile, has taken Debbie to Burger City to get food. As they wait, a former 'flame' of Debbie's leans into the car to talk to her. Debbie ignores all his advances, before flicking a lit match at him. Debbie confides that the guy is just 'Horny,' and that she likes Terry because he's different. As Terry's face develops a smile, Debbie tells Terry that she figures he's smart enough to get them some liquor. Seeing a new way to impress Debbie, Terry heads off to a liquor store, leaving behind the order they placed.Curt has now come to occupy the back seat of Bobbie's VW Bug, and Wendy in the passenger seat. Seeing the white T-Bird, Curt demands they follow it, much to Bobbie's irritation. When Wendy asks Curt who this girl in the T-Bird is, Curt says he has no idea. Bobbie meanwhile, claims that she's the wife of a guy who owns a jewelry store. Curt doesn't believe it, since the girl in the T-Bird is young and beautiful.Wendy confides to Bobbie about Curt's dream to be a Presidential Aide, and to one day shake hands with President Kennedy. Curt and Wendy then playfully bicker about telling of his future ambitions, and Curt invites her into the backseat to cuddle. Wendy then confides that she thinks Curt's decision to stay in town is a good idea, saying that maybe they can attend the local college together. Just then, Kip Pullman (Ed Greenberg) pulls up next to their car. Bobbie tells Curt to 'say anything' to Kip, whom she has a crush on and would like to meet. Curt then takes her request a bit too far, and yells over to Kips that "Bobbie is madly in love with him, and trembles at the sight of his rippling biceps." This causes Bobbie to pull over immediately, demanding Curt leave her car. Curt does so, and then sees the T-Bird off a ways. He chases after it, but it soon disappears, and he is unsure where to go or what to do next.John meanwhile, has given in to Carol's request for a drink, and takes her to Burger City for a Coke. While there, John meets one of his hot rod buddies, and explains that he's babysitting Carol. Carol gets upset and throws her drink at him, before storming out of the car. John lets her go for a bit, but then feels a sense of responsibility and catches up to Carol, who gets back into his coupe.Terry meanwhile, has gotten to the liquor store, but is unsure how to get a bottle of Old Harper for Debbie. As he ponders outside the store, a wino comes up, and Terry asks him to help. The wino takes Terry's money, but instead buys wine and exits out the back door of the store. Terry goes in, and runs off a list of things for the storekeeper to give him along with the bottle of Old Harper. However, the storekeeper still asks Terry for his ID. Terry returns to the car, now without the money, and asks Debbie for more. She is at first upset, but agrees. As Terry approaches the store again, he sees another man approaching. Terry explains his situation, and the man claims he will help Terry. However, seconds later, the man rushes out, and tosses Terry the bottle of Old Harper. The man appears to have robbed the store, and the store owner soon after emerges, firing on the man with a gun! Terry hightails it back to the Impala, and quickly gets out of there with Debbie.Meanwhile, John has taken Carol to an old junk yard, and gives her a run down of the various vehicles that he's known about, usually belonging to guys he's known who have long since died in crashes or accidents. Carol claims that John told her he's never been in an accident, but he confides that he's come close a couple of times, and that so far, noone has been able to beat him.Curt meanwhile, has taken to sitting on the hood of a car, watching an episode of "Ozzie and Harriet" through the window of an appliance store. As he notices, several guys who are part of a gang called "The Pharoahs" accost him, claiming he's sitting on a car that belongs to a friend of theirs. When Curt gets off, one of the members tells Curt that he appears to have left a scratch in the hood. The guys then take Curt along with them in their car, deciding on a 'fitting punishment. As Curt feels he is going to die, the white T-Bird passes by. Shortly thereafter. Falfa's 56 Chevy passes, and the leader of the Pharoahs claims that this guy aims to beat Milner, claiming John's days are numbered.Meanwhile, John and Carol encounter another carload of girls. The girls claim that John's car deserves their special prize. When John is eager to accept it, the girls hurl a waterballoon at him, which misses and hits Carol. John bursts into laughter, but Carol wants revenge, and John seems eager to have a little mischief. As both cars come to the next red light, John proceeds to flatten the other car's tires, and Carol sprays shaving cream all over the other car's windows, before the two jump back into John's car and drive off.Terry and Debbie have made it to the Canal, where Terry mixes up the Old Harper with some soda. Terry and Debbie attempt to get intimate, but there appear to be too many people walking around. Terry leaves the car door open and the music on, and he and Debbie go looking for a quiet place to be alone.Curt and the Pharoahs pull into a miniature golf establishment, where the Pharoahs attempt to pry open the pinball machines in the main building for gas money. They are soon caught by Mr. Gordon (Scott Beach), who is a member of the Moose Lodge in town. Curt claims that the guys he is with are his friends, and Gordon takes Curt into the back to meet with another Moose Lodge member named Hank (Al Nalbandian). They both congratulate Curt on winning the Lodge's first scholarship, before he takes leave along with the Pharoahs, who have finished cleaning out the change in the pinball machines. The leader of the Pharoahs is impressed with how Curt handled the situation, and decides that he and his friends will consider making Curt one of them.Back at the Canal, Terry stops necking with Debbie, when he realizes the music from the car has stopped. He and Debbie then return to where the car was, only to find that it has been stolen!Meanwhile, in another part of the Canal, Steve and Laurie are getting intimate in her car. The conversation shifts a little towards Steve's decision of wanting to go, and how Curt does not. The talk again upsets Laurie, and she stops giving in to Steve's advances. When he claims he wants something to remember her by, she goes limp, infuriating him more that she is just going to let him do whatever but she isn't going to take any pleasure out of it. When Steve makes an off hand comment about Laurie watching her brother 'doing something,' Laurie yells that Steve is "disgusting" and kicks him out of the car, before driving off.Terry and Debbie are walking near the canal, with Debbie explaining about reports of a person in the area dubbed "The Goat Killer," who kills and dismembers his victims. Terry is getting more and more freaked out by her talking, when a noise distracts them. At first thinking it might be the goat killer, Terry is relieved when it turns out to be Steve. When Debbie explains that their car was stolen, Terry attempts to divert the subject (not wanting Steve to know that "his" car was stolen).Back with John and Carol, John attempts to trick Carol into telling where she lives, to try and take her home, but Carol is stubborn, claiming she isn't going home until she "gets some action." It is then that Bob Falfa's car pulls alongside John, and the two trade barbs, with Bob insisting on racing John. They do a small race through several lights before John stops at a red light and Bob continues on through. Carol notes that Bob is fast, but John says that while he is fast, he also seems stupid.Meanwhile, Steve separates from Terry and Debbie, and goes back to Burger City, while Terry and Debbie go off to report the car stolen.Curt and the Pharoahs have meanwhile located a Police Car watching for speeders. The leader of the Pharoahs charges Curt with hooking a towcable to the rear axle of the car. Curt is unsure about this, but is told that he has to do this, or the Pharoahs will still plan to make him suffer for the vehicle he scratched. Curt has some close calls, but eventually gets the cable hooked. As he rushes back to the Pharoahs, they then speed by the officers, with Curt yelling at the top of his lungs, "Stand by for justice!" The cops then take off, but the cable catches, tearing the rear axle off their car. Nearby, Terry and Debbie are witness to the incident as well.Carol soon finds herself confused when John takes her along a dark stretch of road, and John seems intent on having his way with her. Carol's spitfire demeanor wavers and she insists that much of her toughness was pretend. John explains that if he knew where she lived, he could take her home, and Carol immediately tells him her address. Of course, John was hoping that his 'trick' would work, and they head off for her place.At Burger City, Steve meets up with a waitress there named Budda (Jana Bellan). Budda takes a moment to talk with Steve, who explains about how he and Laurie broke up. Budda takes this opportunity to tell Steve how she secretly likes him, and offers to have him come over to her place after her shift is over. As they talk, both are unaware that Laurie has returned to Burger City as well and is outside, having stopped at seeing Budda and Steve talking in a booth. Laurie assumes the worst, and quickly leaves before they see her. Back inside the restaurant, Steve declines Budda's offer, and watches her get back to work.Outside, The Pharaohs pull up with Curt, and eagerly applaud what he has done. The Pharaohs are eager to induct Curt the next evening into their group, but Curt does not tell them that he'll be gone. Curt then gets into his car, and sees the white T-Bird pass by. He tries to start up his car, but it won't turn over, and he watches once again as the mysterious blonde slips from his grasp once again.Laurie is cruising around the strip when she encounters Bob Falfa. She parks her car and gets in with him, and they begin to cruise. Falfa attempts to talk with her, but Laurie explains she does not want to talk.John finally gets Carol to her place, and they have an awkward goodbye, until John gives her the cover to his gearshift as a memento. Carol happily takes it and goes to her house, as John drives off, a strange look on his face.Back at Burger City, Curt has run into Steve, and is shocked when Steve explains that he is now considering not going to college out East. Curt attempts to calm Steve, but also ends up fixing his car, and takes off, leaving Steve unsure of just what to do now.Meanwhile, Terry has had an adverse reaction to the alcohol, and has thrown up most of it. After Terry recovers, he and Debbie walk a ways off, and find Steve's Impala parked in a lot! Terry finds the car unlocked and the keys gone. He attempts to hotwire the car when the guys who stole it confront him, and attempt to beat him up. Debbie attempts to stop them, but they are both saved when John rolls by, and comes over and scares away the two men.Back at Burger City, another classmate of Steve's tells him that Laurie was seen driving around with Bob Falfa. Just as Terry and Debbie pull up outside Burger City with his car, Steve rushes out and shoos Terry and Debbie out of his car, and drives off. Debbie is shocked that Steve just took Terry's car, and Terry tells her the truth about how the car wasn't really his, and how he just has a Vespa Scooter for transportation. Even so, Debbie smiles and tells Terry that she had a good time, and as she takes leaves, tells him that she'll probably see him around.Curt meanwhile, has made his way to a radio station on the outskirts of town. Rumor is that Wolfman Jack, whose voice has played across the airwaves all evening is located here. As Curt enters the station, he encounters a bearded man sitting in the control booth. Curt hands the man a piece of paper featuring a dedication and a request to the girl in the white T-Bird. The man explains that he can have the dedication sent into the Wolfman's main station and broadcast the next day. But Curt explains that he needs the request put out tonight, as he is unsure if he is going to be leaving town or not.The man in the control booth then explains to Curt that he really should not sell himself short, and to go out and experience life. Curt takes the words to heart, and is excited when the man tells him if he can, he'll try to get the message relayed right away. As Curt is about to exit the studio, he hears a familiar voice. He turns, and sees the man in the control booth speaking into his microphone, in the voice of Wolfman Jack. Curt smiles at having met one of his heroes, and exits the building.John is still at Burger City when Falfa comes up in his Chevy. John tells Falfa to meet him out at Paradise Road for their race. Terry pleads to go along, and John concedes.The word spreads throughout the strip, and soon reaches Steve's ears, who heads out there when word comes that Laurie is riding with Falfa.Meanwhile, Curt has returned to Burger City, and over to a nearby phone booth. On his car radio, he hears Wolfman Jack relay his dedication to the blonde in the T-Bird, and smiles as Wolfman calls Curt a good friend. Wolfman dedicates the next song to the blonde, and gives her the number of the phone booth at Burger City, encouraging the girl to call Curt.Meanwhile, John, Falfa, and a number of other kids have rolled out to Paradise Road. Once out there, John finally realizes that Laurie is riding with Falfa, and asks what she is doing. Laurie gives a nonchalant "None of your business." Laurie stays in Falfa's car, but Terry gets out to drop the flag for the race. As the vehicles take off, the race stays tight, until Falfa's vehicle skids off the road, rolls, and crashes.Steve arrives just in time to see the aftermath, and rushes to the wreck, to see Falfa emerge and Laurie beating and hitting him. Steve pulls her off Falfa as some of the other teenagers pull Falfa away from the car just as it bursts into flames.In a moment of desperation, Laurie cries and pleads for Steve not to leave, to which Steve embraces her, and tells her he will stay.Terry talks to John, and explains how impressed he was how John beat Falfa, but John confides to Terry that just before Falfa's car swerved off the road, he was beating him. Terry explains that John was just nervous, and that he'll never be beaten. John just backs up Terry's hero worship, and to calm him down, says that they'll take on all comers, as Terry yawns, muttering, "what a night."Meanwhile, back at Burger City, the phone rings, and Curt answers it, ecstatic to be talking to the girl of his dreams. He inquires about her name, but she does not give it. When Curt asks to meet her, she explains that she'll be cruising the strip again that night, but Curt wants to meet her now. She then says goodbye as Curt struggles to speak more, and the line goes dead.Several hours later, Curt goes to the airport to get on the plane to head East, with his friends and family saying goodbye. Steve does not accompany him, and Curt boards the plane, and takes off to a new adventure. As he glances out the window of the plane, he sees a white Thunderbird travelling along a stretch of road.As the plane banks off, the audience is treated to images of John, Terry, Steve, and Curt, along with where they ended up in life:-John Milner was killed by a drunk driver in December 1964.-Terry Fields was reported missing in action near An Loc in December 1965.-Steve Bolander is an insurance agent in Modesto, California.-Curt Henderson is a writer living in Canada.


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Late one morning in the Hawthorne Grill, a restaurant on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, a couple of young Brits called Honey Bunny (Amanda Plummer) and Pumpkin (Tim Roth) discuss the pros and cons of robbing banks versus liquor stores. Then they add restaurants to the equation, realizing they can make more by taking customers' wallets than they get out of the till. They stand up in their booth and announce that they're robbing the diner.Earlier in the day, Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) and Vincent Vega (John Travolta) arrive at a San Fernando Valley apartment building. They are hit men in the employ of Marsellus Wallace and have come to retrieve a valuable belonging of Wallace's from a group of would-be crooks led by a young and naive guy named Brett (Frank Whaley). They take back the valuable item -- kept in a briefcase, it glows warmly and transfixes whoever looks at it. Jules recites what he claims is a Bible verse, Ezekiel 25:17, before he and Vincent execute Brett.Story #1: Vincent Vega And Marsellus Wallace's WifeAt his strip club, Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames) pays boxer Butch Coolidge (Bruce Willis) to throw his next fight. Jules and Vincent arrive; though it's only a few hours after their visit to the Valley, the two hit men are sporting gym clothes in place of the suits they wore earlier in the day. While Jules heads to the men's room, Vincent goes to the bar and encounters Butch. The men take an instant dislike to each other. Vincent insults Butch but before Butch can retaliate, Marsellus calls Vincent over and embraces him. Marsellus is leaving town that evening and Vincent is to take Marsellus' wife, Mia (Uma Thurman), out for dinner to keep her entertained. Rumors abound that Marsellus gravely wounded another associate, Antoine, who he believed had been improperly friendly with Mia, so Vincent is nervous. Before picking Mia up, he visits his drug dealer, Lance (Eric Stoltz), and buys some high-quality heroin. Properly sedated, he escorts the cocaine-addicted, chain-smoking Mia to Jack Rabbit Slim's, a West Hollywood 1950s-themed restaurant. After some small talk about European travel, Mia's failed acting career, foot massage, and the rumors about Antoine (which Mia dispels), Mia enters herself and Vincent in a dance contest. They dance the twist and win an award. After dinner, they return to the Wallaces' home. Vincent goes to the bathroom to talk himself out of making a pass at Mia. Meanwhile, she discovers the baggie of heroin in his coat pocket and, assuming it's cocaine, snorts some. She immediately passes out and begins to foam at the mouth. Panicked, Vincent takes the dying Mia to Lance's where they argue about what to do with her. Following Lance's advice, Vincent is able to revive her with a shot of adrenaline administered straight to the heart. Vincent takes Mia home. They agree not to tell Marsellus what happened since both of them would get in trouble for it.Story #2: The Gold WatchThe following night, before his fight, Butch dreams of an incident from his childhood: Back at his Tennessee home in 1973, Captain Koons (Christopher Walken) visited Butch to bring him a gold watch. The watch had belonged to Butch's great-grandfather, who took it to World War I with him. Butch's grandfather had taken it to World War II, and Butch's father to Vietnam. Butch's father died as a POW, but gave the watch to Koons to return to Butch. Koons says that he and Butch's father had to hide the watch in their rectums to keep it away from their captors.Butch wakes from the dream. Instead of throwing the match (not shown on-screen), he fights so viciously that he kills his opponent. He took Marsellus' money and bet it on himself; his winnings will amount to a small fortune. Butch makes small talk with Esmarelda (Angela Jones), the driver of the cab he is in, who reveals that she knows he's the boxer who killed his opponent; she seems fascinated with the topic of death. Esmarelda drives Butch to the seedy motel where he and his French girlfriend, Fabienne (Maria de Medeiros), are staying, having abandoned their apartment. In the morning they will travel to Butch's hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee, claim their winnings, and leave the country. While packing the next morning, however, Fabienne reveals that she forgot the gold watch, the belonging Butch cherishes above all others. After a savage outburst in which he wrecks the motel room, Butch takes Fabienne's car to get the watch, parking a few blocks away and walking through a vacant lot to his apartment building as a precaution. He enters without incident and finds his wristwatch in the bedroom. He realizes he's not alone in the apartment when he notices a submachine gun in the kitchen. Catching Vincent off guard as he emerges from the bathroom, Butch kills him with the gun he found.Leaving the apartment with his watch, Butch encounters Marsellus crossing the street. He tries to run Marsellus over with his car but only wounds him and is hit by another car himself. Both are injured and Marsellus chases Butch into a pawn shop. There, the owner, Maynard (Duane Whitaker), overpowers them. Marsellus and Butch wake up in the basement of the pawn shop, bound and gagged. Maynard has called his cousin Zed (Peter Greene), who works as a security guard. Maynard and Zed are apparently a pair of redneck serial killers who kill passersby who happen into their store. While the Gimp (Stephen Hibbert), a huge manchild dressed head to toe in black leather fetish gear, watches Butch, Maynard and Zed take Marsellus into the next room and begin to rape him. Butch escapes and knocks out the Gimp. Rather than leave the pawn shop, he procures a samurai sword and rescues Marsellus; in the process, Maynard is killed and Zed emasculated by a shotgun blast. Marsellus stays behind to oversee the torture-execution of Zed ("I'ma get medieval on your ass," he tells him), but promises that as long as Butch never mentions what happened and never returns to Los Angeles, Marsellus will forget that Butch betrayed him in the boxing ring. Butch agrees. In the final scene, Butch and Fabienne leave town on Zed's chopper-style motorcycle.Story #3: The Bonnie SituationThree days earlier, flashing back in time to just after Vincent and Jules finish killing Brett for stealing Marsellus' prized possession, a gang member they had not known about bursts out of the bathroom and empties his gun point blank at them. However, all of the bullets miss Vincent and Jules, hitting the wall behind them, so they kill the gang member. Jules is certain this is a miracle but Vincent dismisses the idea. They leave with Marvin (Phil LaMarr), Marsellus' inside man in the gang. In the car, Vincent asks Marvin if he believes in miracles, but accidentally shoots him in the head and kills him. The inside of the car is now covered in blood and brain matter. Jules drives to the house of his only friend in the Valley, a former colleague named Jimmie (Quentin Tarantino). Jimmie lets them hide the car but angrily tells them that they have to get rid of the body within an hour -- before his wife Bonnie comes home from her night shift at a hospital. Jules calls Marsellus at his home to explain their predicament. Marsellus then calls Winston Wolf (Harvey Keitel), a suave and professional criminal and gambler who solves problems. Wolf arrives at Jimmie's house and tells Vincent and Jules how to clean up the car and themselves -- they have to strip out of their business suits and wear Jimmie's spare T-shirts and shorts (which explains their appearance at the strip club) -- then helps them dispose of the car and body at a junkyard belonging to a discreet friend named Monster Joe, whose daughter is Mr. Wolf's girlfriend.With the whole situation resolved, Jules and Vincent decide to have breakfast at the Hawthorne Grill, where they continue their discussion about miracles. Jules reveals his plan to leave his criminal life and travel the globe as a mendicant, helping those suffering under tyranny. Vincent mocks him, then goes to the bathroom. Just then Honey Bunny and Pumpkin (from the prologue) begin their robbery of the diner. They collect the cash from the register and the patrons' wallets. Jules gives Pumpkin his wallet, but when Pumpkin tries to take Marsellus' briefcase, Jules pulls his gun and disarms Pumpkin. While Vincent holds Honey Bunny at bay, Jules explains to Pumpkin how, even earlier that morning, he would have killed Pumpkin and Honey Bunny without a second thought. He recites his ersatz version of Ezekiel 25:17 again: "The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who in the name of charity and good will shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you."Jules explains that while he previously thought it was cool to make such a cold-blooded passage the last thing his victims heard, he now realizes that the "tyranny of evil men" part of the passage refers to him, and he intends to become a better person. He and Vincent allow Honey Bunny and Pumpkin to leave with all the money but not the briefcase. They leave the diner themselves and head to Marsellus' strip club.



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An English spinster, Rose (Katharine Hepburn), is the sister of a missionary, Rev. Samuel Sayer (Robert Morley). The two Christian missionaries are in a remote African village with grass huts and a little wooden church, which is located somewhere deep in a German African colony during WWI near the Ulanga River. The German war machine appears to brutally start burning the little straw hut village, killing the native women and children while kidnapping the African men, and just as quickly the German terror vanishes. When the smoke clears from the burning village, all is in ruin. The meek and fragile Rev. Samuel Sayer is so distraught by what he has just witnessed he kills himself. Rose is left all alone to fend for herself;she is lost in despair. There is no safety here, and the German threat is all around. There is no way out except to travel south down the dangerous and unforgiving Ulanga River. The river leads to Lake Victoria and possible freedom. Except for the last danger, which is the Louisa - a German gunship that patrols the Tanganyika shore of the lake up to the southern mouth of the river. The Ulanga is filled with dangers like animals that can eat you, rocks and white water rapids that can smash and sink a boat. It has only been successfully navigated once by a map maker named Spangler a hundred years ago and no one since has repeated the feat.Rose is straggling about the burnt village in shock and despair from her brother's suicide when a Mr. Charlie Allnut (Humphrey Bogart) shows up out of nowhere to save her. This scruffy old gin-swigging rummy is a boat captain who is unshaven and crusty. Mr. Allnut is there to deliver mail and supplies to the village. Mr. Allnut travels up and down the northern part of the Ulanga on a rusty old 12-foot boat called the African Queen. The boat barely runs, powered by a small antique steam engine on its last legs kept together and encouraged to run with a few well placed kicks and bangs from a hammer by Mr. Allnut. Mr. Allnut buries Rev. Sayer and takes Rose to the African Queen for safety before the Germans come back. While on the African Queen Rose attempts to convince Mr. Allnut they should go south down the Ulanga and sink the Louisa. Mr. Allnut thinks the spinster is a crazy old maid and tells her so. And Rose thinks Mr. Allnut is washed-up rummy good for nothing coward unfit to be a captain. As impossible as it may seem Mr. Allnut decides to follow her suggestion because its the only way to avoid the Germans, and probably the only way to shut Rose up and stop her from nagging on and on about her crazy plan to fight the German navy.During the first few days aboard the African Queen navigating the Ulanga they annoy each other to the point of being disgusted. Rose reads her bible while Mr. Allnut drinks rum from a generous supply he has on board until he passes out every day. Rose decides to dump all of Mr. Allnuts bottles of gin into the river one morning while Mr. Allnut is still passed out. When Mr. Allnut awakes, he is emotionally destroyed by the thought of no more booze. How could you, Miss? Mr. Allnut asks over and over as the African Queen smokes and tugs along the Ulanga. Rose decides to stop talking to Mr. Allnut and gives him the silent treatment until he gives in to her plan to sink the Louisa. Mr. Allnut continues to talk to Rose even though Rose refuses to acknowledge his existence on the little boat. Mr. Allnut pretends he doesn't care even though the silence is slowing killing him. It is apparent they cannot stand each others company. Finally Mr. Allnut can't take the silence anymore and agrees to Rose's impossible plan to sink the Louisa using home made torpedoes made by Mr. Allnut. Mr Allnut says he can make them from the supplies on the boat - explosives and two gas canisters used for welding.As the two strangers sail down Ulanga River like great map makers before them and determined to sink the Louisa, Rose is impressed by Mr. Allnut's abilities and admires his seamanship when they hit big white water and how he skillfully navigates past the dangerous rocks. They ride into some really rough white water that causes Rose to feel aroused by the thrill of the ride. Not understanding the experience she compares it to a thrilling sermon delivered by her brother when the holy ghost consumed him. The spiritual excitement overcomes her as she describes her excitement to Mr. Allnut. Rose and Mr. Allnut survive a second and more dangerous set of white water rapids, along with extra dangers from African guerrillas shooting at them from the banks of the river hoping to kill them and capture the African Queen. When they realize they have survived certain death again they start hugging and kissing. After they kiss, they realize they are in love. It's implied they are lovers that afternoon after much flirting and a quick nap. However, their troubles are not over as the African Queen breaks down and they work as a team to fix it. Mr. Allnut shaves, baths and listens to Rose read the good book. They make tea and find they adore each others company. They call each other dear and tell each other sweet nothings.Nevertheless there is still more danger ahead. The river disappears, the water is shallow, and Mr. Allnut is forced to get into the mucky river and pull the African Queen by hand to higher water. Blood sucking leeches, mosquitoes, and dangerous animals torment the couple's efforts. The African Queen comes to a complete stop, stuck dead in mucky swamp water and high weeds covering any sight of land or water ways. They are lost in the weeds and can't see anything. They are disheartened and beaten and accept their doomed fate as they hold each other in exhaustion waiting to die. Passed out on the African Queen they lie there defeated. When it begins to rain and the river rises, the African Queen becomes unstuck and floats down the river only a few hundred feet from high water and the mouth of the Ulanga River. The Ulanga River is pouring into Lake Victoria and they see the Louisa gunship for the first time as it makes a routine patrol..The two lovers are now alive again! With new hope and determination they are convinced they can now sink the Louisa. They wait in the banks of the Ulanga out of sight of the Louisa until it comes back on its routine patrol. They have fixed and fastened two homemade torpedoes to the insides of the African Queen. By cutting circle holes above the water line they can stick the tips of the torpedoes through the holes which act as battering rams that will compress on collision and ignite the explosives to explode the gas canisters when they crash into the Louisa at full speed ahead. Rose and Mr. Allnut lovingly argue about who will stay ashore while the other steers the boat into the Louisa. The hero will jump just before the collision and explosion that will sink the Louisa on impact. They both decide they would not want to live without the other so they will do it together. Rose and Mr. Allnut wait until the Louisa comes back on its patrol routine that evening and begin to plan to ram the Louisa. Building steam as the weather starts to change and the waves grow higher. The Louisa is not expecting the African Queen to even be there let alone capable of exploding and sinking the Louisa. As they steam towards the Louisa the lake begins to become rough, a rain storm squalls, and the seas begin filling the boat with water. A rogue wave turns the African Queen upside over tossing Rose and Mr. Allnut into the lake. The two are separated by another huge wave and disappear. Have they drowned? Alas, the Louisa is not sunk and the African Queen appears to be gone with the two star-crossed lovers.The sun appears after the storm and we see Mr. Allnut is alive. He was rescued and captured by the Germans. Mr. Allnut is now standing on the Louisa's deck in the captain's office. He is being interrogated by the Louisa's captain (Peter Bull). The captain is determined to have Mr. Allnut answer his questions. The German captain always ends each question with the threat of death and hanging to Mr. Allnut, who is depressed and despondent. Mr. Allnut answers each question and threat of death with a hopeless sigh of, who cares! Because Mr. Allnut believes his Rose has drowned. Mr. Allnut is relieved by the thought of hanging rather than live without his Rose. Suddenly he hears Rose's voice coming from a life boat that has rescued her. Mr. Allnut, thrilled that Rose is alive, decides to deny he knows her in hopes of saving her from his fated hanging by the Germans. But the very English Rose not only argues with the captain but brags how she and Charlie and the African Queen sailed down the Ulanga, and how Charlie made homemade torpedoes, and how they came within feet of sinking the Louisa by themselves and would have, but the storm saved the Louisa from their doom when the weather caused the African Queen to sink and a wave tossed them into the water. The Louisa's captain thinking them both crazy decides to hang them both. On the deck of the Louisa, Rose and Charlie stand holding hands deeply in love, happy about dying together. Standing there with the hangman's rope around their necks Charlie asks the Louisa's captain to marry them as his last request before hanging. Charlie says he really doesn't care about getting married but it would mean a lot to the Mrs. A teary-eyed Rose is thrilled by the suggestion. The Louisa's captain thinks they are both mad but reluctantly agrees to marry them. The two are so happy to be married that they don't care they are going to be hung. Just as he pronounces them man and wife the Louisa explodes. The sunken African Queen has been hit by the Louisa. Rose and Charlie find themselves swimming and the Louisa is gone. They did it. A wood plank with the name African Queen floats by and the two grab it as they swim to apparent safety. Swimming away, the two sing merrily, "There was an old fisherman..."


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Private eye Sam Spade and his partner Miles Archer are approached by Miss Wonderly to follow a man, Floyd Thursby, who allegedly ran off with her younger sister. The two accept the assignment because the money is good, but Spade also implies that the woman looks like trouble, though she projects wholesome innocence.That night, Detective Tom Polhaus informs Spade that Archer has been shot and killed while tailing Thursby. Even later that night, two officers visit Spade at his apartment and inquire about Spade's whereabouts in the last few hours. Spade asks what the visit is really about. The officers say that Thursby was also killed and that Spade is a suspect, since Thursby likely killed Archer. They have no evidence against Spade at the moment, but tell him that they will be conducting an investigation into the matter.The next day, Spade gets a visit from Archer's wife, with whom he has been having an affair. The widow asks Spade if he killed Miles so that they could be together. Spade dismisses her and tells her to leave, and coldly orders his secretary Effie to remove all of Archer's belongings from the office. He then goes to a new address left in a note from his client, whose name he learns is Brigid O'Shaughnessy. He also finds out that Brigid never had a sister, and Thursby was her acquaintance who had betrayed her.Later, Spade is visited by another man, Joel Cairo, who offers Spade $5000 if the private eye can retrieve a figurine of a black bird that has recently arrived. While Spade has no idea what the man is talking about, he plays along. Suddenly, Cairo pulls a gun on Spade, and declares his intention to search Spade's office. But when he approaches Spade to search his person, Spade disarms him and knocks him unconscious. After cataloguing Cairo's belongings and questioning him in return, Spade returns Cairo's firearm and allows the man to search his office. Following this, Spade is again contacted by Brigid O'Shaughnessy. She offers her sympathies for the death of his partner. Spade senses a connection between O'Shaughnessy and Cairo, and casually mentions that Cairo has contacted him. O'Shaughnessy gets extremely nervous when she hears this. She tells Spade that she must meet with Cairo, and asks Spade to arrange a meeting. Spade agrees.When Cairo and Brigid O'Shaughnessy meet, they make references that the reader and Spade don't initially comprehend. Cairo says he is ready to pay for the black figurine. Brigid O'Shaughnessy, however, says she does not have it at the moment. They also refer to a mysterious figure, "G" ("the fat man" in the film), whom they seem to be scared of. The two then continue to talk about some events that happened overseas. Eventually, O'Shaughnessy insinuates that Cairo is a homosexual, and Cairo insinuates that O'Shaughnessy simply uses her body to get what she wants, and the two begin to fight. At this point, the police show up, coincidentally, to talk to Spade. Spade greets them at the door, but refuses to let them in. The officers say they know Spade was having an affair with Archer's wife; just as they are about to leave, they hear Cairo screaming for help. They force their way into Spade's apartment, and Spade invents a story that involves describing how Cairo and O'Shaughnessy were just play-acting. The officers seem to accept, if not believe, Spade's story, but they take Cairo with them down to the station for some "grilling". Spade sends Brigid to stay with Effie, where she will be safe.The next morning, Spade makes his way to the hotel where Cairo is staying. Cairo shows up disheveled, saying that he was held in police custody through the night. Meanwhile, Spade notices that he's being tailed by some kid named Wilmer Cook. He confronts the gunsel[1], and tells him that both he and his boss, "G," will have to deal with him at some point. He later receives a call from Casper Gutman, who wishes to meet with him. Gutman, a huge person weighing over 300 lbs, says he will pay handsomely for the black bird. Spade implies that he can get the item (though at this point this is a bluff), but wants to know what it is first.Gutman tells him that the figurine was a gift from the Island of Malta to the King of Spain a few hundred years ago, but was lost on ship in transit. It was covered with fine jewels, but acquired a layer of black enamel at some time, to conceal its value (estimated to be in the millions). Gutman learned of its whereabouts seventeen years ago, and has been looking for it ever since. He traced it to the home of a Russian General, then sent three of his 'agents' (Cairo, Thursby and Brigid O'Shaughnessy) to get it. The latter supposedly did retrieve the figurine, but learned of its value and decided to keep it for themselves. Spade starts to get dizzy at this point (Gutman has drugged him), and when he goes to leave, Wilmer trips him and knocks him out by kicking his temple.When Spade awakens, he returns to his office and tells the story of the Maltese Falcon to Effie. Soon afterwards, an injured man, identified as Captain Jacobi of "La Paloma," shows up at the office; he drops a package on the floor and then dies of gunshot wounds. Spade opens the package, and finds the figurine falcon. Sam is called away from the office. To prevent losing the item, Spade stores the package at a bus station lost luggage counter and mails himself the collection tag. He first goes to the dock where "La Paloma" was anchored, but learns that a fire had been started on board. He then proceeds to the place Rhea Gutman said she was when she phoned earlier. There he finds a drugged-up, seventeen-year old girl, her stomach all scratched up by a pin in attempts to keep herself awake, who just manages to give him some information about the whereabouts of Brigid, which turns out to be a false lead.When he arrives back at his apartment, he finds O'Shaughnessy in a shadowy doorway. Inside, Wilmer, Cairo, and Gutman are there waiting. Gutman hands Spade $10,000 in cash in exchange for the bird. Spade takes the money, but in addition says that they need a "fall guy" to take the blame for the murders of at least Thursby and Jacobi, if not Archer as well. Reluctantly, both Cairo and Gutman agree to make Wilmer the fall guy. Gutman proceeds to tell Spade the missing pieces of the story. The night that Thursby was killed, he was first approached by Wilmer and Gutman. The latter attempted to reason with him, but Thursby remained loyal to Brigid O'Shaughnessy and refused to cooperate. Later things escalated, then Wilmer shot Thursby. Also, Brigid O'Shaughnessy had seduced Captain Jacobi and hid the Falcon with him. Later, Brigid O'Shaughnessy instructed Jacobi to deliver the package to Spade. Once Gutman learned of this fact, he attempted to remove Spade from the situation with the spiked drink. Wilmer managed to shoot the captain, but Jacobi still got to Spade's office to deliver the figurine. After finishing his story, Gutman warns Spade to be very careful with Brigid O'Shaughnessy as she is not to be trusted.Spade places a call to his secretary, Effie, and asks her to go the office and pick up the figurine. Effie brings it to Spade's apartment, and Spade hands the package to Gutman, who at this time is overwhelmed with excitement. He checks the figurine, but quickly learns that it is a fake. He realizes with dismay that the Russian must have discovered the true value of the falcon and made a copy. During this time, Wilmer manages to escape from Spade's apartment. Gutman quickly regains composure, and decides to go back to Europe to continue the search. Before he leaves, Gutman asks Spade for the $10,000. Spade returns $9000, saying he's keeping the remainder for his time and expenses. Then Cairo and Gutman leave Spade's apartment.Immediately after Cairo and Gutman leave, Spade phones the police department and tells them the entire story. Wilmer killed Jacobi and Thursby. He also tells them what hotel Gutman is staying at and urges them to hurry, since Gutman and Cairo are leaving town soon. Afterwards, Spade angrily asks Brigid O'Shaughnessy why she killed Miles Archer. At first, Brigid O'Shaughnessy acts horrified at this accusation, but seeing that she cannot lie anymore, she drops the act. She wanted to get Thursby out of the picture so that she could have the Falcon for herself, so she hired Archer to scare him off. When Thursby didn't leave, she killed Archer and attempted to pin the crime on Thursby. When Thursby was later killed himself, she knew that Gutman was in town and that she needed another protector, so she came back to Spade.However, she says that she's also in love with Spade and would have come back to him anyhow. Spade coldly replies that the penalty for murder is most likely twenty years, and he'll wait for her until she gets out. If they hang her, Spade says that he'll always remember her. He goes on to say that while he despised Miles Archer, the man was his partner, and that he's going to turn her in to the police for his murder as that was a line he could not cross in the industry of detective work. Brigid O'Shaughnessy begs him not to, but he replies that he has no choice. When the police get Gutman, Gutman will finger Sam and Brigid as accomplices. Thus the only way Spade can avoid getting charged is to say he played both sides against each other. He tells Brigid O'Shaughnessy that he has some feelings for her, but that he simply can't trust her. Just before the police arrive, Brigid O'Shaughnessy asks Spade if the Falcon had been real, and he'd gotten the entire $10,000, would it have made a difference. Spade replies that, while she shouldn't be so sure that he's crooked, more money would have been one more item on "her side."When the police finally show up at Spade's apartment, Spade immediately turns over Brigid O'Shaughnessy as Archer's killer. They tell Spade that the kid Wilmer was waiting for Gutman at the hotel and shot him when he arrived. Spade also hands over the $1000 bill, and the falcon to the police as evidence.

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"A bit of the old ultra-violence".London, England in the foreseeable future. "Our humble narrator" Alex DeLarge (Malcolm McDowell) and his droogs, Georgie (James Marcus), Dim (Warren Clarke), and Pete (Michael Tarn), are seated in the Korova Milk Bar stoned on milk laced with narcotics.Shortly, the gang leaves the Korova for a night of ultra-violence. They encounter a wino (Paul Farrell) in a concrete subway tunnel under a local motorway, and beat him with their truncheons. Later, they arrive at a derelict theater. On the stage, another gang, led by a schoolmate named Billy Boy, is preparing to rape a voluptuous girl. Instead, the two gangs have a battle in which Alex and his droogs are victorious.Alex and his droogs next head out into the dark countryside looking for action. Alex pilots their stolen Durango 95 sports car. After playing "hogs of the road", driving on the wrong side of the road and running a number of other travelers into ditches and over embankments, Alex suggests making the "surprise visit". Stopping at a fancy country house that displays a backlighted sign that simply reads "Home", they trick their way into the house. They beat its owner, a writer named Frank Alexander (Patrick Magee), and gang rape his wife (Adrienne Corri) while Alex brightly croons Singin' in the Rain.When they've finished having fun, the gang returns to the Korova. A woman seated at an adjacent table sings the chorus from Beethoven's 9th symphony. Listening to the woman, Alex is ecstatic - "I felt all the malenky little hairs on my plott standing endwise" - but Dim ruins the mood when he makes a farting noise. Alex hits him in the crotch with his truncheon. Henceforth, Dim is resentful and threatening but Alex dismisses him.Dawn is nigh as Alex arrives at his apartment. Before going to bed he fantasizes scenes of violence while listening to Beethoven's 9th symphony.In the morning, Alex's mother (Sheila Raynor) tries to wake Alex for school, but he feigns illness. At the breakfast table she discusses the situation with his father (Philip Stone). Alex's parents seem foolish and impotent. When Alex later awakens and wanders about the apartment in his underwear he encounters his probation officer, Mr. Deltoid (Aubrey Morris), in his parent's bedroom - Deltoid is so much a member of the family that Alex's mother had given him a key. The officer lectures Alex about his school truancy and threatens him with jail. Then Deltoid is abashed when he discovers that, in addition to water, the bedside glass from which he's been drinking also contains a set of dentures.After Deltoid leaves, Alex begins another busy day. He picks up two girls at a local shopping mall record store and brings them home. In a sped-up sequence backed by the William Tell Overture, he has sex with both of them.Later that day, he encounters his droogs in his apartment house lobby. They ominously tell him that they've been "talking". They feel that Alex has been abusing them, especially Dim, and they suggest that Alex has been taking more than his fair share of the spoils from their robberies. Then Georgie shares an idea to make lots more money. He wants to rob a rich lady who owns an upscale health farm at the edge of town. Alex perceives Georgie's independent thinking as a threat but appears to go along with it. He then unexpectedly attacks his droogs as they walk along a river bank outside the apartment block. He throws first Georgie and then Dim into the dirty river water. When Alex offers to help pull Dim out of the water, he slashes the back of Dim's outstretched hand with a hidden dagger. Alex makes the excuse that the sound of Beethoven from an open window inspired his violence but his droogs don't believe him. They all retire to a restaurant where Alex first humiliates his droogs, then considers Georgie's idea.Arriving at the health farm that evening, the droogs try the same trick they'd used at Alexander's house the previous night: tricking the woman in the house into believing that one of them has been injured in a traffic accident. However, the proprietress (Miriam Karlin) is suspicious and calls the police telling them that she'd heard the news reports about the writer and his wife being tricked in the same manner. When the droogs aren't let into the house, Alex climbs up a drainpipe, enters a second floor window, and confronts her. They fight, the woman defending herself with a bust of Beethoven, until Alex strikes her with a huge plastic phallus sculpture. Then, as police sirens are heard in the distance, Alex runs out the front door. It is there and then that his droogs take their revenge. Dim hits Alex in the face with a milk bottle and the droogs flee. As Alex writhes and screams on the ground the police arrive.At a police station, an uncooperative and belligerent Alex is questioned by several cops. When an overzealous beat cop punches Alex in his bandaged face for no reason, Alex kicks the officer in the groin. The other officers then beat Alex until Deltoid shows up. Deltoid tells Alex that the proprietress of the health farm has died, and he spits in Alex's face and tells him how disappointed he is. Alex laughs it off, but is soon headed for prison.Prison.Alex has received a 14-year sentence. He deposits his possessions with Chief Officer Barnes (Michael Bates), undresses, and is inspected for hemorrhoids. After answering several questions about his health and personal well being, Alex is given prison garb. He's now prisoner number 655321.Two years have passed when Alex is shown scheming to get favors by feigning piety. He helps the prison chaplain (Godfrey Quigley) with his service and he studies the Bible. But rather than thinking pious thoughts, Alex visualizes himself torturing Jesus at the crucifixion, killing people in battle, and laying about with concubines in an Old Testament setting.Alex tells the chaplain that he's heard of a new treatment, the so-called Ludovico Technique, that helps criminals get out of prison. The chaplain says that it's experimental and that he's not sure it's right for Alex. But Alex, who wants a way out of prison life, plots how to be selected for the experiment. Later, the government's Interior Minister (Anthony Sharp) visits the prison and, when Alex makes a show of himself, the minister picks Alex as a perfect Ludovico subject. Alex is taken before the prison governor (Michael Gover) who tells the boy that, although he'd rather punish him, Alex will shortly be released.The Ludovico Technique.Chief Officer Barnes then transports Alex to the Ludovico Centre. Alex is given a room and is interviewed by Dr. Branom (Madge Ryan). She promises him that he'll be fine, then gives him an injection.In his first day of treatment Alex appears in an auditorium in a straight jacket. His head is strapped to the back of a restraining chair so that he can neither turn his head nor look away. An eye doctor installs lid-clamps that forcibly keep Alex's eyes open. Then, while the doctor constantly drops eye wash into Alex's grotesquely clamped eyes, Alex is subjected to two violent films. The first shows explicit scenes of a severe beating, the second, a gang rape. Half way through the first film Alex begins to feel sick. By the end of the second, Alex is shouting for something into which to vomit. At the rear of the auditorium, Dr. Brodsky (Carl Duering) explains to observers that the drug administered to Alex causes a form of paralysis with deep feelings of terror and helplessness. In his room following the treatment, Dr. Branom assures Alex that his feeling of sickness is a sign that he's getting better.On the following day Alex is back in the auditorium, this time for two shows: morning and afternoon. Then, while viewing scenes of Nazis during World War II, Alex begins screaming in earnest. "Stop it! Stop it! Please, I beg you! It's a sin!" The background music is none other than Beethoven's 9th symphony. Alex screams that he shouldn't be made to feel sick while listening to such beautiful music. Brodsky loudly apologizes saying that it can't be helped while quietly he speculates to nearby staff that perhaps this is the punishment element, and wouldn't the prison governor be pleased.Two weeks later, presumably after 12 more treatments, Alex is paraded before a group of dignitaries by the Interior Minister. Alex is there for demonstration purposes. He is first confronted by an angry Irishman (John Clive) who throws him to the ground and forces Alex to lick his boot. Next he's approached by a statuesque platinum blond (Virginia Wetherell) clad only in panties. She comes right up to Alex and tempts him. Alex collapses in a fit of nausea when he tries to touch her breasts. The Interior Minister proclaims a new era in law enforcement and social justice, but the prison chaplain claims that the procedure has debased Alex's human nature by taking away his ability to actually choose good over evil. The Interior Minister counter claims that the only thing that matters is results.Welcome Home.Alex returns home to find his parents plus a stranger (Clive Francis) sitting in the living room reading newspaper accounts of his release. He enters and tries to be friendly but is met only by awkward excuses. When he inquires about the stranger eating toast on the couch, his father tells him that the stranger is a lodger who can't be kicked out because he's already paid the next month's rent. Alex is upset but the lodger, who has ingratiated himself with Alex's parents, pushes the situation by castigating Alex for the things he did before going to prison and for breaking his parents' hearts. Before Alex can hit the lodger, his psychological conditioning kicks in leaving him gagging and fighting for air. When he has recovered, Alex storms out.Alex later stares at the Thames river below a bridge, presumably contemplating suicide. He's approached by a bum seeking spare change. Alex fishes some cash from his pocket and hands it over. Then, taking a closer look, the bum recognizes Alex as the same guy who beat him in the subway tunnel two years earlier. Alex looks at the bum in horror and tries to escape, but is trapped in the very same tunnel by the bum and his elderly compatriots. They hit and kick Alex as he cowers on the ground, disabled by his conditioning. Two cops show up to break up the fight. To Alex's further horror, his rescuers turn out to be Dim and Georgie, two of his former droogs, who are now constables. Demonstrating that police training hasn't altered their basic violent natures, they handcuff Alex, drive him out of town, march him into a wood, push his head into a cattle trough filled with filthy water, and beat him with their batons. They then remove the cuffs and leave him battered and gasping. With thoughts of home echoing in his head, Alex staggers to the first house he can find. It displays a welcoming, backlighted sign that simply reads: "Home".At home, Frank Alexander is at his typewriter, sitting in the wheelchair that has been his personal transport since he was severely beaten two years earlier. Julian (David Prowse), his muscular attendant, answers the doorbell. As Julian opens the door, Alex collapses into the entryway. Julian carries him into the house.When confronted by a concerned Mr. Alexander who asks: "My God. What's happened to you, my boy?" Alex, who now realizes he's at the very same residence in which, two years earlier, he and his droogs had ganged raped Alexander's wife, is thunderstruck by his precarious situation. But he relaxes when he realizes that Mr. Alexander doesn't recognize him "[voice-over] For in those carefree days, I and my so-called droogs wore our maskies, which were like real horrorshow disguises". Mr. Alexander, who recognizes Alex only as the subject of the Ludovico treatment, invites the lad to have a bath and some supper.As Alex relaxes in the bath, Mr. Alexander calls a friend with whom he discusses how Alex's Ludovico conditioning represents the thin edge of totalitarianism, and how that can be used against the sitting government. As he finishes the conversation, Alexander leaves the impression that the time for a visit has been arranged when he looks at his watch and replies, "He'll be here". He then hangs up the phone.Mr. Alexander sits in his wheelchair relishing a fantasy of political intrigue when he becomes aware of singing coming from the bathroom. In his bath, Alex has struck up a bright rendition of Singin' in the Rain. Mr. Alexander's face twists in agony and rage as he realizes just who Alex is.Later, at the dinner table, an obviously distraught Mr. Alexander encourages Alex to eat and drink. Flanked by the wheelchair-bound Mr. Alexander and the burly Julian, Alex eats a plate of spaghetti while Mr. Alexander insists that Alex have some red wine with his meal. "Try the wine. Have another..." Mr. Alexander tells Alex. As he eats, Alex grows increasingly fearful, wondering if the hostile-looking old man knows his real identity. Then Mr. Alexander brings up the subject of his wife's rape and subsequent death. He believes that, though she officially died of pneumonia, it was her broken spirit that killed her. She was, according to Mr. Alexander, a victim of the modern age, just as Alex is a victim of the modern age. He tells Alex that two friends are expected and that they will help the boy.A minute later, man named Dolin (John Savident) and a woman (Margaret Tyzack) enter. They question Alex about the Ludovico treatment and whether it is true that, in addition to conditioning him against sex and violence, it has also made him incapable of listening to music. "No, missus", Alex replies. "You see, it's not all music. It's just the 9th." They ask what he feels when he hears Beethoven's 9th symphony and he admits to thoughts of suicide. The woman then asks, "Do you still feel suicidal?" Alex replies that he feels low, like "any second, something terrible is going to happen to me", at which point he passes out, face down, into the plate of spaghetti. He has been drugged by the wine. Dolin congratulates Mr. Alexander who then asks Julian to bring the car around to the front. The conspirators have plans for Alex that will embarrass the government.Alex awakens the next morning in a small, second floor bedroom in an unknown country house. The room is flooded with the strains of Beethoven's 9th symphony blasted from a stereo in the room below "[voice-over] I woke up. The pain and sickness all over me like an animal." As Mr. Alexander beams in satisfaction, Alex is driven to suicide. He leaps from the second floor window to the stone patio below.Cured.Days (or maybe weeks or months) later, Alex wakes up in a hospital with legs, arms, and head in casts. Newspaper clippings reveal that the government is being vilified for inhuman experimentation. The Interior Minister is being subjected to especially fierce attack. When his parents visit, Alex gives them their much deserved final rejection.Later, Doctor Taylor (Pauline Taylor), a psychiatrist with blue hair, shows Alex a series of cartoons having sexual or violent connotations. Alex is to supply the punch lines. She is testing him to determine whether his Ludovico conditioning is still active. It isn't.Later still, the Interior Minister visits Alex. He assures Alex that he wants to be his friend. With oily smoothness well-larded with weasel words the Minister apologizes for what his government has done. He promises Alex a good job on a good salary, provided of course that Alex helps the government. "We always help our friends, don't we?" He assures the lad that the subversive writer, Frank Alexander, who has been threatening him has been put away. For his part, Alex milks the meeting for all it's worth. As the aristocratic Minister spoon-feeds dinner to the juvenile thug, Alex asks the name of his new friend. Decorously clearing his throat, the Minister replies that his name is "Frederick". He tells Alex that he can be instrumental in changing public opinion. "Do you understand, Alex?" he asks. "Do I make myself clear?" "As an unmuddied lake, Fred" is Alex's response. As a symbol of their understanding, the Minister calls for his assistants. They sweep in with flowers, followed by a massive stereo system blasting Beethoven's 9th symphony, followed by a troop of reporters and photographers. Alex poses with his new friend, Fred, as the choral climax of Beethoven's 9th symphony reaches its zenith. Alex's eyes roll back into his head as he fantasizes about an orgy in the snow with a gorgeous blond to the applause of Victorian onlookers.Alex is heard in voiceover: "I was cured, all right".



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Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) goes to a New York City taxi depot where he applies for a job as a driver to the tough-talking personnel officer (Joe Spinell). Travis claims that he is an honorably discharged Marine (it is implied that he is a Vietnam Veteran). After making an impression on the personnel officer, Travis gets the job for the night shift due to his chronic insomnia.Via his narrative journal, Travis is soon revealed to be a lonely and depressed young man of 26 years. His origins and hometown are unknown. He sends his parents letters as well as birthday and Christmas cards, lying about his life and saying he works with the Secret Service. Travis spends his restless days alone in his rundown apartment somewhere in Manhattan, or in seedy porn theaters on and off 42nd Street. At one porn theater he tries to make an advance on the concession lady to no avail. He works 12 or 14 hour shifts during the evening and night time hours carrying passengers among all five boroughs of New York City. Sometimes during his breaks, he goes to a local all-night diner to have something to eat or just a few cups of coffee where fellow taxi drivers also hang out during their late-night lunch breaks. One of whom is a self-appointed philosophical type named Wizard (Peter Boyle). Wizard talks about the degradation of the night time in the city. Travis barely interacts with the other taxi drivers, mainly speaking awkwardly and shyly when he's spoken to.During taxi driving, Travis spies and becomes infatuated with a woman named Betsy (Cybill Shepherd), a campaign volunteer for New York Senator Charles Palantine, who is running for the presidential nomination and is promising dramatic social change. Travis spies Betsy joking with a co-worker named Tom (Albert Brooks). Travis works up the nerve to ask her out and Betsy is initially intrigued by Travis. She agrees to a date with him after he flirts with her over coffee and sympathizes with her own apparent loneliness. She compares him to a character in the Kris Kristofferson song "The Pilgrim."Travis is further revolted by what he considers the moral decay around him. One night while on shift, Iris (Jodie Foster), a 12-year-old child prostitute, gets in his cab, attempting to escape her pimp. Shocked by the occurrence Travis fails to drive off quickly enough and her pimp, "Sport" (Harvey Keitel), reaches the cab. Sport forcibly grabs Iris away with him and gives Travis a crumpled twenty dollar bill as a bribe not to say anything, which haunts Travis with the memory of his failure to help the girl.During one of his shifts, Travis picks up Senator Palantine himself (Leonard Harris) and an aide. He tells the senator he plans to vote for him and the senator, acting like a real politician, tells Travis he learns more from cab drivers than limo drivers. The senator asks Travis "what's the one thing that bugs you the most?" and Travis responds that he would like the next president to "clean the scum off New York City."On their date, however due to his lack of social skills, Travis takes Betsy to a porno theater to view a hardcore Swedish "sex education" film (titled: Language of Love). Offended, she leaves him and takes a taxi home alone. The next day he tries to reconcile with Betsy, phoning her and sending her flowers, but all of his attempts are in vain and she refuses to speak with him. Going back into the campaign office, Travis confronts Betsy and shouts that she will "burn in hell like the rest of them".Rejected and depressed, Travis later picks up a man (director Martin Scorsese) who appears to be as mentally unbalanced as he is. The man tells Travis to park outside an apartment building while letting the meter run. He tells Travis to look at the woman in the window and tells him that's his wife in her boyfriend's apartment. He tells Travis he plans to kill them both with a .44 Magnum.One evening at the diner, Travis tries to express his despair to Wizard, but finds Wizard's half-hearted response: "that's just about the stupidest thing I ever heard".Travis's thoughts turn more violent. Disgusted by the petty street crime (especially prostitution) that he witnesses while driving through the city, he now finds a focus for his frustration and buys a number of pistols from an illegal drug/weapons dealer (Steven Prince).Travis develops an ominously intense interest in Senator Palantine's public appearances and it seems that he somehow blames the presidential hopeful for his own failure at wooing Betsy and maybe hopes to include her boss in his growing list of targets. Back at his apartment with his newly purchased guns, he begins a program of intense physical training and practices a menacing speech in the mirror, while pulling out a pistol that he attached to a home-made sliding action holster on his right arm ("You talkin' to me?"). Later, he hangs around a Palantine rally and asks a suspicious secret service man about joining the service before disappearing into the crowd.In an accidental warm-up, Travis randomly walks into a robbery in a run-down grocery and shoots the would-be thief (Nat Grant) in the face; adding to the bizarre violence, the sympathetic grocery owner (Victor Argo) encourages Travis (who has no permit for his guns) to flee the scene and then proceeds to club the near-dead stickup man with a steel pole.Later, seeing Iris on the street, he follows her. Another day later, Travis asks to pay for her time, and is sent to Sport. A tense conversation ensues but Sport sends Travis up to Iris's room. Once in her room, Travis does not have sex with her and instead tries to convince her to leave this way of life behind.The next day, Travis and Iris meet for breakfast at a local coffee shop and Travis becomes obsessed with saving this nave child-woman who thinks hanging out with hookers, pimps and drug dealers is more "hip" than dating young boys and going to school. Iris considers Travis's offer but then Sport seduces and convinces her to stay, while (seemingly) Travis spies into the window from his cab. Travis writes a note to Iris including all his money and stating that he doesn't intend to survive.Any lingering doubt in the viewer's mind about Travis Bickle's sanity is obliterated when he is suddenly and shockingly shown to be sporting a crude Mohawk haircut at a public rally. He creeps through the crowd and prepares to assassinate Senator Palantine but is spotted by Secret Service men and flees.Travis returns to his apartment to collect all his guns, then drives to "Alphabet City" (an area of New York's Lower East side consisting of Avenues A through E). He walks up to Sport and confronts him. When Sport flicks a lit cigarette at him, Travis says "suck on this" and shoots Sport in the belly. Storming into the brothel, Travis blows the bouncer's hand off. Sport, who has followed Travis, grazes Travis neck with a bullet (causing an arterial gush from his neck) but Travis unloads one of his guns into Sport, killing him. Travis again shoots the screaming bouncer who follows him up the stairs, slapping him. Iris' mafioso customer shoots Travis in the arm and Travis shoots his face off. The bouncer tackles Travis but Travis stabs him through the hand and finally kills the bouncer with a bullet to the brain. He then calmly tries repeatedly to fire a bullet into his own head under his chin but all the weapons are empty so he resigns himself to resting on a convenient sofa until police arrive. When they do, the blood-soaked Travis mimes shooting himself in the head and then blissfully thinks of the mayhem and carnage in his wake.A brief epilogue shows Travis recuperating from the incident. He has received a handwritten letter from Iris' parents who thank him for saving their daughter, and the media (in newspaper clipping) hails him as a hero for saving her as well. Travis blithely returns to his job and suddenly seems on more friendly terms with the other cabbies. One night one of his fares happens to be Betsy. She comments about his saving of Iris and Travis' own media fame, yet Travis denies being any sort of hero. He drops her off without charging her. As he is driving off, he gets a strange look on his face and adjusts his cab's rear view mirror, giving the impression that his irrationality is about to break through again.


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Walter Neff (MacMurray) is a successful insurance salesman for Pacific All-Risk returning to his office building in downtown Los Angeles late one night. Neff, clearly in pain, sits down at his desk and tells the whole story into a Dictaphone for his colleague Barton Keyes (Robinson), a claims adjuster.It is the story of how he meets the sultry Phyllis Dietrichson (Stanwyck) during a routine house call to renew an automobile insurance policy for her husband. A flirtation develops, at least until Neff hears Phyllis wonder how she could take out a policy on her husband's life without him knowing it. Neff knows she means murder and wants no part of it.Phyllis pursues Neff to his own home, and persuades him that the two of them, together, should kill her husband. Neff knows all the tricks of his trade and comes up with a plan in which Phyllis's husband will die an unlikely death, in this case being thrown from a train. Pacific All-Risk will therefore be required, by the "double indemnity" clause in the insurance policy, to pay the widow twice the normal amount.Keyes, a tenacious investigator, does not suspect foul play at first, but eventually concludes that the Dietrichson woman and an unknown accomplice must be behind the husband's death. He has no reason to be suspicious of Neff, someone he has worked with for quite some time and admires.Neff is not only worried about Keyes. The victim's daughter, Lola (Jean Heather), comes to him convinced that her stepmother, Phyllis is behind her father's death because her mother also died under suspicious circumstances when she was her nurse. Neff begins to care about what might happen to Lola, both of whose parents have been murdered. It is for this reason Phyllis wants her killed because she had suspected her of murdering her parents in the first place.Then he learns Phyllis is seeing Lola's boyfriend, Nino, behind his back. Trying to save himself and no longer caring about the money, Neff believes the only way out is to make the police think Phyllis and Lola's boyfriend did the murder, which is what Keyes now believes anyway. However, when Neff and Phyllis meet, she tells him she has been seeing Lola's boyfriend only to provoke him into killing the suspicious Lola in a jealous rage. Neff, now wholly disgusted, is about to kill Phyllis when she shoots him first. Neff is badly wounded but still standing and walks towards her, telling her to shoot again. Phyllis does not shoot and he takes the gun from her. She says she never loved him or anyone else and had been using him all along, "until a minute ago, when I couldn't fire that second shot." Neff coldly says he does not believe this new ploy. Phyllis hugs him tightly but then pulls away and looks up at him, startled that he has not responded. Neff says "Goodbye, baby," then shoots and kills her. Before leaving, he convinces Nino to not go inside because Phyllis was responsibile for trying to break up him and Lola. Neff convinces him that she still loves him and she's waiting for him to call her. Nino reluctantly agrees to call Lola and takes his quarter.Neff drives to his office where he dictates his full confession to Keyes, who arrives and hears enough of the confession to understand everything. Neff tells Keyes he is going to Mexico rather than face a death sentence but collapses to the floor before he can reach the elevator.[edit] Alternate endingWilder shot an alternate ending to the film (to appease censors), featuring Neff paying for his crime by going to the gas chamber. This footage is lost, but stills of the scene still exist.source:Wikipedia

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Shortly after moving to Los Angeles with his parents, 17-year-old Jim Stark (James Dean) enrolls at Dawson High School. In the opening scene, Jim is brought into the police station for public drunkenness. When his mother, father and grandmother arrive at the police station to retrieve him, conflicts in Jim's family situation are introduced as he explains to the arresting officer. His parents are often fighting. His weak-willed father (Jim Backus) often tries to defend Jim, but Jim's picky and domineering mother always wins the arguments for his father cannot find the courage to stand up to his wife. Jim feels betrayed both by this fighting and his father's lack of moral strength, causing feelings of unrest and displacement. This shows up later in the film when he repeatedly asks his father, "What do you do when you have to be a man?"The next day, while trying to conform with fellow students at the school, he becomes involved in a dispute with a local bully named Buzz Gunderson (Corey Allen). While Jim tries to deal with Buzz, he becomes friends with a shy 15-year-old boy, John, who is nicknamed Plato (Sal Mineo), who was also at the police station the night of the opening scene for shooting and killing puppies. Plato idolizes Jim as a father-figure much to Jim's concern. Plato tells Jim that his parents divorced several years ago and are never in Los Angeles. His mother lives away in her hometown and never visits, calls or writes, while his father (a wealthy business executive) is always traveling and avoids comming home, leaving only his housekeeper to look after Plato. Plato experiences many of the same problems as Jim, such as searching for meaning in life and dealing with his absent and selfish parents who "don't understand."In the school hallway, Jim meets Judy (Natalie Wood), whom he also recognizes from the police station the previous night, where she was brought in for being out alone after dark, who originally acts unimpressed by Jim, saying in a sarcastic tone, "I bet you're a real yo-yo." She is apparently the property of Buzz. Judy too has an unhappy homelife when it shows her before going to school when she deals with her unattenative and sexist father who gives all his attention to Judy's younger brother as well as ignors both Judy and his wife for he feels that women are ment only to serve him, and nothing more.That afternoon, Jim goes on a field trip with his science class to the Griffith Observatory. At the Planetarium, he watches a dramatic presentation of the violent death of the universe. After the show, he watches Buzz and his thugs slash a tire of his car for no reason, and then Buzz challenges him to a knife fight, while the gang taunts Jim as a "chicken." Jim reluctantly takes part in the fight and wins, subduing Buzz by holding his switchblade up to his neck before discarding both knifes off a railing. Both Jim and Buzz get slight injuries during the knife fight. Not to be outdone, Buzz and his thugs challenge Jim to a "Chickie Run" with Buzz and Jim racing stolen cars towards an abyss. The one who first jumps out of the car loses and is deemed a "chicken" (coward).That evening, the "game" is held with Judy and several students in attendance to watch. But the race ends in tragedy for Buzz when a strap on the sleeve of his leather jacket becomes looped over a handle on the car door, preventing him from jumping out before the car goes over the cliff.Jim runs home and tries to tell his parents what happened, but quickly becomes frustrated by their failure to understand him and storms out of the house. Jim goes to the police to find the sergeant who took his statement the previous night to tell him about the accident involving Buzz's death, but learns that the police officer is not there. Jim refuses to speak to any policeman and will speak only to the sergeant and he leaves. But Jim is spotted leaving the station by three of Buzz's friends, Crunch (Frank Mazzola), Goon (Dennis Hopper), and another one of Buzz's gang members whom is not named. Mistakenly thinking that Jim told the police about the "Chickie Run", they decide to hunt Jim down to "silence him"... permenently.Jim meets up with Judy and they go to an abandoned mansion to hide out. Plato finds them there (he was the one who told Jim about the house). There they act out a "fantasy family," with Jim as father, Judy as mother and Plato as child. However, Crunch, Goon, and the other boy soon discover them, and terrorize Plato who finally brandishes his mother's handgun that he took from the house, shooting Crunch, and at Jim, and a police officer who investigates, in a clearly unstable state.Plato runs and hides in the Observatory, which is soon besieged by the police. Jim and Judy follow him inside, and Jim convinces Plato to lend him the gun, from which he silently removes the ammunition magazine. When Plato steps out of the observatory, he becomes agitated again at the sight of the police and charges forward, brandishing his weapon. He is fatally shot by a police officer as Jim yells to the police, too late, that he had already removed the bullets. Plato was wearing Jim's jacket at the time, and as a result, Jim's parents (brought to the scene by police) think at first that Jim was shot. Mr. Stark then runs to comfort Jim, who is distraught by Plato's death. Mr. Stark promises to be a stronger father, one that his son can depend on. Thus reconciled, Jim introduces Judy to his parents and they drive off together as dawn starts to break.


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L.B. "Jeff" Jeffries (James Stewart) recuperates from a broken leg during a sweltering New York summer. As a successful photographer, he's known for taking difficult pictures no one else can get, including the one of an out-of-control race car which smashed his camera and broke his leg an instant after it was snapped. Jeffries lives in a small apartment, and spends his time in a wheelchair looking out the rear window into the courtyard of the building; he can also see into the lives of all his neighbors, catching glimpses of their daily routines. It's the sort of thing only an invalid might do, watching them eat, clean, sleep and argue. There's the girl who exercises in her underwear, the married couple who sleep on their small balcony to beat the heat, the struggling songwriter working at his piano; and there's the salesman who lives across the courtyard from Jeffries, the one with the nagging bedridden wife. They seem to fight all too often.Every day a therapist comes to visit Jeff, dispensing her mature wisdom and berating him for sitting there all day spying on his neighbors. Stella (Thelma Ritter) tells him she can smell trouble coming. He should get his mind off his neighbors and think about marrying that beautiful girlfriend of his. Jeff replies that he's not ready for marriage. Sure, she's a wonderful girl, but she's also a rich, successful socialite, and Jeff lives the life of a war correspondent, always on the go, usually living out his suitcase and often in an unpleasant environment. It's not the life he wants to offer her. "Well" says Stella, "that girl is packed with love for you right down to her fingertips.""That Girl" arrives shortly after Stella leaves. Lisa Carol Fremont (Grace Kelly) breezes in wearing a stunning satin dress, looking every inch the beautiful socialite she is, and obviously very much in love with Jeff. They have dinner, but soon enough the conversation turns to the future, and they quarrel. Jeff sees no way they can reconcile their different lifestyles, and she walks to the door, telling him goodbye. "When will I see you again?" asks Jeffries."Not for a long time," she replies sadly. "At least, not until tomorrow night."The night drags by, and it's too hot for Jeffries to sleep. It starts to rain. He dozes in his wheelchair by the window, but notices activity across the yard. The salesman goes out carrying his heavy silver sample case, and Jeffries looks at his watch: it's 2:00am. The blinds in the bedroom are drawn, so Jeffries can't see the wife. Later, the salesman returns, lifting the case easily, as if it were empty. Twice more he goes out in the rain in the middle of the night, lugging the heavy case, but coming home with it lighter. Intrigued, Jeffries wonders what the salesman is doing, but he finally dozes off around daybreak.Discussing the incident with Stella, and then later with Lisa, they all begin to watch the salesman. With the blinds now open, they can see that the wife is gone. Jeffries pulls out his binoculars, and then a large telephoto lens to get a better look. They watch as he goes into the kitchen and cleans a large knife and saw. Later, he ties a large packing crate with heavy rope, and has moving men come and haul the crate away. Stella runs around the front of the building to catch the name of the moving company, but misses the truck. By now they're all thinking the same thing; there's foul play going on, and the missing wife has been murdered by the salesman. They check his name on the front of the building: Lars Thorwald (Raymond Burr).Jeffries calls in an old Army buddy - Thomas J. Doyle (Wendell Corey) who's now a detective, and explains the situation to him. Naturally he doesn't believe a word of it, and tells Jeffries to stick to photography. After further checking, the detective finds that Mrs. Thorwald is in the country, has sent a postcard to her husband, and the packing crate they had seen was full of her clothes. Chastened, they all admit to being a little ghoulish, even disappointed when they find out there wasn't a murder after all. Jeffries and Lisa settle down for an evening alone, but soon a scream pierces the courtyard. One of the neighbors had a little dog they would let roam around the yard, and now it's dead with it's neck is broken. It had been digging in Thorwald's small flower garden. All of the neighbors rush to their windows to see what's happened, except for one. Jeffries notices that Thorwald sits unmoving in his dark apartment, with only the tip of his cigarette glowing.Shortly after the dog is found dead, Jeff notices a change in Thorwald's small flower garden in the courtyard: using a slide he'd taken about two weeks before he discovers that the zinnia that the dog had been digging around is now a few inches shorter. Jeff suspects that Thorwald had buried something there & had dug it up after murdering the dog. Convinced that Thorwald is guilty after all, they slip a letter under his door asking "What have you done with her?" and then watch his reaction. Lisa delivers the note and slips away before Thorwald can find her. When she returns to the apartment, excited, Jeff has a look of excitement on his face as well, realizing that Lisa is a courageous woman who likely could accompany him in his adventurous life.Calling Thorwald's apartment, Jeffries tells Thorwald to meet him at a bar down the street, as a pretext to getting him out of the apartment. When Thorwald leaves, Lisa and Stella grab a shovel and start digging, but after a few minutes, they find nothing.Refusing to give up, Lisa climbs the fire escape to Thorwald's apartment and squeezes in an open window, much to Jeffries' alarm. Rummaging around the apartment, Lisa finds Mrs. Thorwald's purse and wedding ring, things she surely would never have left behind on a trip. She holds them up for Jeffries to see, but he can only watch in terror as Thorwald comes back up the stairs to the apartment. Lisa is trapped.Calling the police as Thorwald goes in, he and Stella watch helplessly as Lisa tries to hide, but is found by Thorwald moments later. They see her try to talk her way out, but Thorwald grabs and begins to assault her. Terrified by their helplessness, they can only watch as he turns out the lights and listen as Lisa screams for help. The police arrive and beat on Thorwald's door, saving Lisa just in time.Jeffries watches from across the courtyard as the police question Lisa, then arrest her. Her back is to him, and he see her hands behind her back pointing to Mrs. Thorwald's ring, which is now on her finger. Thorwald sees this as well, and realizing that she's signaling to someone across the way, looks up directly at Jeffries with murderous understanding.Pulling back into the dark, Jeffries calls his detective friend, who agrees to help get Lisa out of jail, and is now convinced that Thorwald is guilty of something. Stella takes all the cash they have for bail and heads for the police station. Jeffries is left alone, and looking back over to Thorwald's apartment, he sees all the lights are off. Down below, he hears the door to his own building slam shut, then slow footsteps begin climbing the stairs. Thorwald is coming for him, and he's trapped in his wheelchair.Looking for a weapon, he can find only the flash for his camera. He grabs a box of flashbulbs, and under his door he watches the hall lights go off. Footsteps stop outside his door, then it slowly opens. Thorwald stands in the dark looking at Jeffries. "Who are you?" he says heavily. "What do you want from me?" Jeffries doesn't answer, but as Thorwald comes for him he sets off the flash, blinding Thorwald for a few seconds.He is slowed but not stopped, and Jeffries keeps setting off flashbulbs in Thorwald's face, but he finally fumbles his way to Jeffries' wheelchair, then grabs him and pushes him towards the open window. Fighting to stay alive, Jeffries cannot stop Thorwald, and is pushed out. Hanging onto the ledge, yelling for help, he sees Lisa, the detective and the police all rush in. Thorwald is pulled back, but it's too late; Jeffries slips and falls just as the police run up beneath him. Luckily, they break his fall, and Lisa sweeps him up in her arms. Thorwald confesses to the murder of his wife, and the police take him away.A few days later the heat has lifted, and Jeffries sleeps peacefully in his wheelchair, now with two broken legs from the fall. Lisa reclines happily next to him, now wearing blue jeans and a simple blouse, and reading a camping book. She smiles at him as he sleeps, but pulls out a hidden fashion magazine from under the cushion.



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Sights of Vienna, Austria, flash across the screen as an Englishman's voice (Carol Reed) describes the racketeer trade in the post-World War II era. He describes that many amateurs have tried to get involved in this career, but he implies that they always end up dead. Meanwhile, the city is quartered into sectors policed by occupying forces -- the English, the Russians, the Americans and the French -- though they barely can handle the criminal element and don't even speak the same language. The city is devastated ("bombed about a bit," says the narrator), covered in jagged rubble. He begins to tell the story of an American coming to Vienna named Holly Martins, who has come to accept a job from an old friend.Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten) gets off his train and is surprised that his friend, Harry Lime, isn't at the station to meet him. Holly goes to Lime's flat, but the building porter (Paul Hrbiger), through extremely broken English, tells him that he just missed Lime's friends leaving with a coffin. The porter says that Harry was killed, hit by a truck right in front of the building.Martins goes to a massive graveyard and finds a funeral service. An Englishman (Trevor Howard) hovering nearby informs Holly it is Harry's funeral. Standing by the grave are two middle-aged men, both of whom eye Holly suspicously. Also in attendance is a pretty woman (Alida Valli) who doesn't notice him. After the funeral, Martin begins to walk back into town, and the Englishman offers him a ride.The stranger introduces himself as Major Calloway, a police officer in the British sector of Vienna, and offers to buy him a drink. Holly agrees and proceeds to drink while reminiscing about Harry. It is revealed that Holly is an author of pulp Western novellas. As he talks about his old friend, Calloway says that it's better that Lime is dead, since he was a murderer and a racketeer. Holly takes umbrage at Calloway's suggestion and reaches to punch him, but he's quickly socked in the face by fellow English soldier Sergeant Paine (Bernard Lee). Paine apologizes and escorts the tipsy Martins to the nearby hotel, explaining to Holly earnestly that he is a huge fan of his books. Calloway sets Martins up at the hotel for the night, telling him he can catch a plane out of Vienna the next day. Holly promises he will prove him wrong about Lime.Happening by on the way out of the hotel is another Englishman named Crabbin (Wilfrid Hyde-White). Paine tells Crabbin that Holly is an author, and though Crabbin has never heard of him, he is excited to have a writer in Vienna. Crabbin introduces himself to Holly and explains he represents the British cultural propaganda department in Vienna. He invites Holly to stay and give lecture in a few days at the department's meeting. Figuring he could use the extra time in town as an opportunity to look into Harry's death, Holly accepts the offer.Holly is then called on the hotel phone by a man who identifies himself as Baron Kurtz. The man says he is a friend of Harry's. Martins and Kurtz set up a meeting at a nearby cafe. When they meet, Holly recognizes Kurtz (Ernst Deutsch) as one of the two men at Harry's funeral. Kurtz is carrying one of Holly's books, which he says Harry had given to him, and a small dog.Holly proceeds to grill Kurtz about the circumstances of Harry's death. Kurtz and Martins go out to the street in front of Harry's apartment building to reconstruct the events of the accident. Kurtz's version is this: he was walking out of Harry's flat with him when Harry saw a Romanian friend of his, Popescu, across the street. Harry then began to cross the street to greet Popescu when a truck drove up and ran Harry over. Then Kurtz and Popescu carried Harry to the sidewalk. Shortly thereafter, Harry's doctor, Dr. Winkel, happened by. The doctor was too late to save Harry, however. Holly asks Kurtz to help him investigate further, but Kurtz says as he is an Austrian, he must be careful with the police. Martins tells him the police think Harry was a racketeer. Kurtz points out most everyone in Vienna is mixed up in some sort of racket, but mostly nothing serious--tires, stamps, etc.Kurtz describes how after Harry was hit, he instructed him to see after Holly when he arrived. Holly points out the porter, who is near them outside the apartment sweeping, told him that Harry died instantaneously. Kurtz looks the porter over and says that Harry died before the ambulence arrived, but that he was still alive immediately after he was run over. Holly tells Kurtz he wants to speak to Popescu, but he says Popescu has left Vienna. At Holly's insistence, Kurtz tells him the identity of the pretty woman at the funeral. He does not remember her name, but he tells Holly she was a companion of Harry's who works as an actress at a local theater. Kurtz tells Holly he lives in the Russian sector but works at the Casanova Club, and if he has any need for advice to contact him there. Holly then tries to question the porter again. However, the porter's wife, overhearing the conversation, looks frightened and calls for her husband to come inside.That evening, Holly goes to theater where the woman, named Anna Schmidt, is performing. He introduces himself as a friend of Harry Lime's, and she tells him to come back after the show. When he meets her afterwards, Martins finds out that Anna, so depressed over Harry's death that she declares she wishes she too were dead, had been dating Harry for some time and that Harry had allegedly asked Kurtz that Anna be taken care of as well just before he died. Martins thinks it funny that Harry had time to think of both him and Anna right after the accident, even though he supposedly died instantly, or at least very quickly. Anna also reveals that the man driving the truck was Harry's own driver. Holly tells Anna that he has a feeling that there's something suspicous about Harry's death -- that seemingly everyone he knew was at the scene -- and he convinces her to help him speak to the porter again.Anna and Holly go to talk with the porter in Harry's apartment. Anna pokes around the flat, seemingly reminiscing, and half-heartedly translates the German for Martins. The porter tells them that Harry's neck was broken in such a way that he had to have died immediately; therefore, there was no way he could have asked Kurtz that Anna and Martins be taken care of. He also says that three men carried Harry to the sidewalk, not two (Kurtz & Popescu), as Kurtz had claimed. Holly asks the porter why he did not reveal this information at the inquest, and the porter responds he didn't want to be mixed up in the situation and that he wasn't the only witness who did not give a complete testimony. As Holly tries to convince the porter take his story to the police, the conversation becomes heated. The porter, who becomes fearful, insists in German that Holly leave and never come back. An elfin boy spies them arguing just before Holly and Anna leave.Holly walks Anna back to her place and they are met by Anna's landlady (Hedwig Bleibtreu), who frantically tells her that the police are inspecting her apartment. Holly and Anna go upstairs to find Major Calloway and Sergeant Paine supervising as her apartment is torn apart. Calloway asks for her passport, which he and Paine inspect and then suspect is fake. The Major tells her he must keep it. Holly tells Calloway that he suspects Harry may have been murdered, but he says he doesn't care how Harry died as long he's dead. He suggests Holly should go back to the airport and go home. As they continue to go through her things, including love letters to her from Harry, Anna explains quietly to Holly about her passport, which she reveals Harry forged for her. She explains that she is Czechoslovakian and that the Russians would claim her and have her deported if it was found out that she was not Austrian. Calloway takes Anna back with the other officers to the police station, and on her way out, Holly asks her to remind him of Harry's doctor's name so he can go talk with him.Holly goes to ask Dr. Winkel (Erich Ponto) about Harry's death. The doctor was the man standing by Kurtz at the funeral. In his home, Holly sees the same small dog that Kurtz was carrying earlier. The doctor tersely adheres to Kurtz's take on the events, and he confirms that he arrived after Harry was already dead. Holly asks if it's possible that Harry was pushed in front of the truck, if he knows if Harry could have died instantaneously or not, and if there was a third man who helped carry Harry's body to the sidewalk. Dr. Winkel tells Holly he can give no additional opinion as to the circumstances of the accident, since he did not witness the event and the injuries would have been the same no matter how it happened. He also says there was no third man on the scene by the time he arrived.At the international police station, Anna sees a Russian officer flipping through her papers as she waits. Calloway comes in and questions her about Harry. He shows her a picture of man named Joseph Harbin and asks if she knows who he is. Anna says she's never seen him before. He explains that Harbin is a worker in a military hospital, but she insists she does not know him. He accuses her of lying, which he says is stupid because he could help her with her passport. He explains that in one of her confiscated letters, Harry had written her to instruct her to place a call to the Casanova Club for someone named Joseph. Anna barely remembers that the message for Joseph was something about meeting Harry at his home. Calloway tells her that the day she telephoned that message to Joseph Harbin, he disappeared. Anna insists Calloway has Harry all wrong, and he sends her away, though he keeps her passport and belongings.Anna then goes with Holly, who was waiting outside the station for her, to the Casanova Club. Crabbin is inside just leaving, and he reminds Holly of the lecture he is to give the next night. Holly and Anna sit at the bar and see Kurtz playing violin for a dining couple. Kurtz looks dismayed to see Holly again and, when questioned, insists that only he and Popescu carried Harry and that the porter must have been mistaken. Kurtz says that Popescu happens to be at the club that night, despite his earlier claim that Popescu was out of town. Holly meets Popescu (Siegfried Breuer), whose account of Harry's death mirrors Kurtz's account in all aspects. Holly again asks if a third man helped him and Kurtz carry Harry's body, but Popescu denies this, asking where Holly heard such a thing. He tells him the porter at Harry's building had heard the accident and witnessed the aftermath. This is evidently news to Popescu, who was unaware that the porter was a witness since he had not given testimony at the inquest.Popescu is then seen arranging and attending a mysterious meeting on a bridge with Kurtz, Dr. Winkel, and an unseen fourth man.The following morning, while Holly wanders thoughtfully in front of Harry's former home, the porter leans out the window and apologizes to Holly for his previous demeanor, arranging to meet with him later to tell him something important. When the porter closes the window and turns around, he reacts with surprise and terror to an unseen person who has presumably snuck up behind him.Holly goes to visit Anna to tell her the porter wants to talk to him again. She is especially depressed about Harry, and she begs Holly to tell her stories about him. They talk about Harry, painting him as a mischevous boy who never grew up. She insists they go see the porter together, accidently calling him Harry, which lightly miffs Holly.As they walk up to the front of the porter's building, they see a crowd gathered near the door. Anna immediately wants to leave, assuming it to be trouble. Holly, however, walks over to the crowd, where he is told the porter has been murdered. The little boy who had seen Holly and the porter arguing begins insisting something about Holly loudly in German. Slowly, the assembled crowd turns to stare at Holly. Anna explains that the crowd thinks he is the murderer. He grabs Anna and they run away. The crowd pursues them, with the little boy in the lead. Holly and Anna duck into a movie theater, losing the mob. Holly tells Anna to go back home where she'll be safe.Holly eventually makes his way back to his hotel, where he asks the desk clerk for a taxi driver. The clerk indicates that an imposing-looking man standing there is a driver already waiting for him. With Holly in the back seat, the driver speeds off recklessly without Holly saying where he wants to go. Holly, very frightened, asks him if he is taking him to be killed. The driver does not answer and finally stops in front of a doorway. Holly, sure that he's about to be murdered, starts to run, but the door opens. Crabbin greets him, and Holly realizes it is time for the speaking engagement that he'd agreed to.Holly struggles with the intellectual questions posed to him. The audience begins to dissipate, while Crabbin agonizes over the misstep of hiring Holly. Unexpectedly, Popescu arrives, and he asks Holly if he's working on a book. Holly says that he's writing a book called "The Third Man" and that it's based on fact. Popescu suggests that Holly stick to fiction, but Holly insists he will finish this "book." As the meeting is closed, two thuggish-looking men arrive and get whispered orders from Popescu. Holly takes off up the spiral staircase at the back of the building and the two thugs pursue him. Holly ducks into in unlocked room, where he is bitten by an unexpected parrot. He makes his way out of a window and finds refuge from the thugs in a car hidden among the wartime rubble.Once safe, Holly goes to the international police station to tell Calloway about his findings. Calloway, though now convinced that Harry Lime was murdered, is still indifferent and explains that it's better that Harry is dead. Holly insists he is wrong, so the Major offers to show Holly why he believes Harry is guilty of racketeering and murder. Calloway then presents a myriad of evidence, proving that Harry obtained penicillin illegally, dilluted it, and sold it to war-ravaged, poor hospitals, resulting in the painful deaths of many people. (Watered-down penicillin is not only ineffective, but it also makes the patient immune to future doses of penicillin, thus rendering medical treatment incredibly difficult or impossible.) Many of his victims were children with meningitis; the lucky ones, the Major says, died, and the unlucky ones lived and went insane. He shows Holly a slide of the hospital worker Joseph Harbin, who he explains helped steal the penicillin for Harry. The police forced Harbin to give them information about Harry's operation, but he has recently gone missing. Holly, now convinced of Harry's guilt, is devastated by the news about his old friend and agrees to go back to America.After Holly goes out to a bar and gets drunk, he buys flowers and takes them to Anna in her apartment. He drunkenly calls to Anna's cat, who is indifferent to him, and Anna explains the only person the cat ever liked was Harry. The cat slips out the window. Anna lets Holly know that Calloway also told her about Harry's misdeeds, and though she now believes in his guilt as well, it doesn't change her feelings for Harry.We then see a man outside Anna's window on the street. He ducks into a dark doorway. Anna's cat, who has run out of the apartment, curls up at his feet.In the apartment, Anna says Harry is better off dead, but not because he was punished for doing wrong, as Calloway believes. Holly agrees he's better off dead, and he no longer cares who killed him or why. He believes there was justice in Harry's death, and he says maybe he would have even killed Harry himself. He also tells Anna that he's fallen in love with her, but she makes it apparent that the feeling isn't mutual, as she thinks only of Harry.Disappointed and still drunk, Holly stumbles outside to return to his hotel, but he sees the obscured man standing in the dark doorway, the cat still at his feet. Holly shouts at him to stop spying and to show himself, but he does not move. Holly's noise causes a woman upstairs to turn on her light and open her window to yell at him to be quiet. The light from the woman's apartment shines down into the street, revealing the man in the doorway to be Harry Lime (Orson Welles). Harry smiles at a shocked Holly, but slips away when the woman turns off her light. Seeing Harry's shadow running off down a nearby street, Holly takes pursuit. He follows the sound of footsteps down a passageway that opens into a plaza, but once Holly reaches the end of the passageway, Harry is already gone.Holly brings Calloway and Paine out the area to re-enact the events, but they are unconvinced. However, suddenly a light bulb goes off for Calloway as he eyes a booth in the plaza. Opening the door on the booth, Calloway shows Holly that it is an entranceway to the Vienna sewers, with steps leading downwards. They follow the stairs into the sewers, where they see an endless range of tunnels for Harry to use as escape routes.That night, Calloway leads a team to excavate Harry's grave. When they open the coffin, the body inside is revealed to be that of Joseph Harbin.The international police come to Anna's apartment for her as she lies in bed crying in Harry's old pajamas. Anna surely assumes this is because of her forged papers. As she is led into the station, Holly sees her and yells at her that he's seen Harry alive. Calloway is standing in the hallway as the police lead her through the station, and he instructs them to bring her into his office. He interrogates her alone, asking when she saw Lime last. He explains in his coffin was Joseph Harbin's body. She looks thrilled as she realizes this does mean that Harry is alive, and she asks where he is. Calloway thinks she might know, but it is clear she was not aware he has been alive either. He says they know Harry is hiding in the Russian sector (which is where Kurtz lives, as he told Holly), and that if she helps them catch Lime, Calloway will help her with the Russians, who are about to interrogate her about her passport. She cannot help him, though, and he tells her they will catch him eventually, as Vienna is a closed city. She says that she wishes that he was dead, as he would be safe from "all of you."The next morning, Holly goes to visit Baron Kurtz's apartment in the Russian sector. Kurtz looks over his balcony and invites Holly up, but Holly refuses, as he shouts back that he wants to speak only with Harry. Dr. Winkel comes out on the balcony also, and he and Kurtz exchange concerned looks. Though they admit nothing about Harry, Holly insists that he come meet him at the nearby fairgrounds.As Holly waits next to the ferris wheel, he spots Harry walking up to warmly greet him, acting as if nothing has changed. They go for a ride on the ferris wheel. Harry shows no remorse for his penicillin racket, asking Holly about the people far below them if Holly would really care if one of "those little dots" stopped moving forever, especially if he were paid each dot. When Holly reveals that he told the police about seeing Harry, Harry is very unhappy that Holly has been talking to the cops. Harry, staring at Holly, clearly considers shooting him and throwing him out of the ferris wheel to his death. Holly takes him seriously enough to wrap his arm tightly around the car door should Harry try anything. However, when Holly also says that they've dug up his grave and found Harbin, Harry changes his mind and jokes that neither one of them would ever think of doing something to the other. Harry also reveals that he was the one who informed the Russian police about Anna's forged passport as payment for them letting him hide out in the Russian sector. As they finish the ride, Harry offers to cut Holly in on his schemes, but without waiting for an answer, Harry leaves quickly, telling him that they can meet again any time he wants, but no police.Holly goes to meet with Calloway and tells him he knows where Harry is staying. The Major tries to convince him to help them trap Harry by arranging to meet him at a cafe in the international zone. However, though Holly knows his friend has done wrong, he is unwilling to be the one to doom him. Just then, the Russian officer comes in with Anna's passport, explaining to Calloway that she must be deported. The Major mentions to him that the Russians were supposed to be helping the British police with Harry Lime, but the Russian says the two cases are not related and that they will get to his case eventually. He leaves the room, Anna's passport sitting on Calloway's desk. Calloway, seemingly resigned to Holly giving up in Harry's case, talks about how helpful Holly could have been in getting Lime, but Holly is staring at Anna's papers sitting on the desk. Holly asks what price would Calloway pay for his help, and he tells him to name it.Paine accompanies Anna to board the train that will save her from the Russian authorities. Just as she settles into her car, she spies Holly trying to see her off inconspicuously. Understanding that her leaving must have been part of a deal Holly struck with Calloway, she gets off the train and confronts Holly about why he's there. He admits he has agreed to "betray" Harry in turn for her getting away. Anna makes it evident that she's disgusted with Holly and could never do anything to hurt Harry. She leaves angrily, ripping up her passport, and allows the train to depart with her belongings.Now despondent, Holly asks that Calloway and Paine just take him to the airport, having changed his mind to help them catch Harry. He shows them Anna's torn up papers. Calloway agrees, but on the way to the airport, the Major makes an extra stop. It is the children's ward of a hospital, where Calloway shows Holly the devastating effects of Harry's dilluted penicillin. Horrified by the sight of painfully dying children, Holly reluctantly agrees again to entrap Harry.At a cafe Holly waits to meet Harry while Calloway, Paine, and several other policemen stake out nearby in the shadows. Anna comes into the cafe to admonish Holly, his location disclosed to her by Baron Kurtz as he was being arrested. While she talks to him, Harry has snuck in the back of the cafe. Just as Harry enters behind Anna, she yells at Holly for being a police informant. Harry reacts, drawing a gun to shoot Holly. Anna is standing in the way and tells Harry that he must escape or the police will get him. Harry tells Anna to move so he can kill Holly, but he spots Sergeant Paine entering the front of the cafe and turns to run.Harry rushes to the nearest sewer entrance and goes down into the tunnels. Paine, Calloway, Holly, and international policemen pursue Harry through the maze of sewer passages. Harry, for a time, evades the many men, but he is eventually cornered. Holly happens upon the panicked Harry and, hiding from the range of Harry's gun, tells him that he must give up. Sergeant Paine, followed by Calloway, comes rushing to Holly to warn him to get back, but Harry shoots Paine, and he falls. Harry tries to run but is shot by Calloway.Harry manages to crawl out of sight while Calloway leans over the dying Paine. Holly takes Paine's gun and sets off after Harry, and Calloway tells him to shoot on sight. In a passageway, badly wounded, Harry strains to climb up steps to escape through a sewer grate. He manages to make it to the top of the staircase, where he reaches his fingers up through the grate, feeling the air above. However, he is too weak to lift the manhole cover, and he drops his head into his arms. Holly walks up and aims the gun at Harry. Harry weakly lifts his head and nods slightly at Holly, a silent okay for Holly to mercy-kill him. A shot rings out in the sewers. Calloway sees the figure of Holly emerging from the passageway alone.Soon after, Harry again has another funeral in the same cemetery. Holly, Calloway, and Anna are the only attendees. After the service, Calloway begins to drive Holly to the airport. Seeing Anna walking behind them down the same tree-lined trail as the first time he saw her, Holly asks to get out to speak to her. Holly waits for Anna as she walks down the long road toward him. When she nears him, though, she does not acknowledge his presence and walks by. Holly doesn't say anything, but he puts his head down and lights a cigarette.


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At the end of an ordinary work day, advertising executive Roger O. Thornhill (Cary Grant) hurries from a Madison Avenue office building to a business meeting at the Oak Room bar of the Plaza Hotel. After asking his secretary to phone his mother, he realizes that she won't be able to reach her by telephone, so he will need to send a telegram instead. When a hotel pageboy passes by calling for a Mr. George Kaplan, Thornhill flags him down, to inquire about sending a telegram. Unfortunately, this also draws the attention of two henchmen, names Valerian (Adam Williams) and Licht (Robert Ellenstein), who mistake Roger for Kaplan because from the vantage point they are standing at, he appears to be answering the page. As Roger steps into the corridor to send his wire, the henchmen abduct Roger at gunpoint and force him into a waiting car.Wordlessly, they drive him out of Manhattan to a Long Island country estate displaying the name "Townsend" at its entrance. The car snakes up a long winding driveway to the front entrance. A maid lets them in the front door, and Roger is locked inside the library of the mansion. Left alone, he finds a newspaper on the desk addressed to "Mr. Lester Townsend, 169 Baywood, Glen Cove, N.Y."Shortly, the library door opens and there enters an urbane English-accented gentleman (James Mason), evidently none other than Townsend himself, followed soon after by his personal secretary, Leonard (Martin Landau). The gentleman addresses his captive as "Kaplan," and by his questions, Roger can only assume that the real Kaplan must be some sort of secret agent on this man's trail. Roger tries to convince him that his name is Thornhill and has never been anything else, but his skeptic captor will not hear of it. To "prove" his point, the man proceeds to recite the elusive Kaplan's recent itinerary of hotels, cities, and ever-changing hometowns, including Kaplan's present occupancy of room 796 at the Plaza Hotel, and his future stops in the next few days in Chicago and Rapid City, South Dakota. To find out how much "Kaplan" knows about his organization and their current arrangements, he puts Leonard in charge of extracting the information while he withdraws to join Mrs. Townsend (Josephine Hutchinson) and their party guests. Leonard unseals a fifth of bourbon taken from a liquor cabinet, and with the aid of Valerian and Licht, he begins to force the whiskey down Roger's throat.Having failed to get any information from their victim, Valerian and Licht place the severely intoxicated Thornhill behind the wheel of a Mercedes on a seaside highway under cover of darkness, planning to guide him off of a cliff to his death. Almost unaware of his surroundings, Roger comes sufficiently alert at the last moment to push Valerian out of the car and start driving for himself. The two thugs follow him down the winding highway in their own car. Roger, on the verge of passing out and plagued with double vision, manages to careen his way down the cliffside highway without hitting anything. As he slams on brakes to barely avoid running over a bicyclist, a pursuing police car plows into the rear of the Mercedes, and a third car plows into the rear of the police car. Finding themselves overmatched, the two henchmen drive away leaving Roger in police custody.Roger tells everyone at the police station how his captors had tried to kill him, but in his drunken condition no one pays any attention to his bizarre story. One of the policemen mentions that the Mercedes Roger was driving was reported stolen. Roger phones his mother to let her know he is at the Glen Cove police station for the night. In the morning, Roger and his attorney Larrabee (Edward Platt) face the judge, with Roger's mother, Clara Thornhill (Jessie Royce Landis), looking on in weary bemusement. The judge gives Roger a chance to prove his doubtful story, and continues the case over to the next day.A pair of county detectives accompanies Roger, his mother, and Larrabee to the house where he says last night's events took place. They are escorted into the same library while the same maid goes for Mrs. Townsend. Roger shows them the sofa which should still be stained and soaked with spilled bourbon, but it has apparently been cleaned. He opens the liquor cabinet, only to find it is full of books. When "Mrs. Townsend" comes in, she greets Roger like an old friend, and asks if he had gotten home all right. She says that he had been so drunk when he left their party the night before, that they had all been worried about him. When Captain Junket (Edward Binns) mentions the stolen car registered to a Mrs. Babson, Mrs. Townsend asks, "You didn't borrow Laura's Mercedes?" Roger suggests that they question her husband. Mrs. Townsend informs them that he is at the United Nations where he will be addressing the General Assembly that afternoon. As his protests continue to fall on deaf ears, his mother chimes in, "Roger, pay the two dollars!" The visitors get back into the car and drive away. Behind them, a gardener looks up from his work. It is Valerian, disguised.Roger and his mother take a cab to the Plaza Hotel, where Roger tries to phone Kaplan's room. But he learns that Kaplan hasn't answered his phone in two days. Rogers cajoles his mother into getting the key to room 796 from the front desk. They go upstairs and into Kaplan's room. Both the chambermaid and the valet treat him as Kaplan, since he's the man in room 796 whom they have never actually seen. Roger finds a photo of his host from the evening before, which he slips into his pocket. The phone rings. Roger answers it and hears the familiar voice of one of his recent captors. He then calls the hotel operator and learns that the call originated inside the hotel.Roger hurries his mother out of the room, and as they enter an elevator going down, Valerian and Licht step out of one coming up just in time to join the crowded group of passengers in the down elevator. To cut the tension on the way down, Mrs. Thornhill asks the two men if they are really going to kill her son. The thugs start laughing and gradually everyone in the car (except Roger) joins in. When the doors open, Roger insists, "Ladies first." And under cover of escorting the ladies off the car, he manages to elude his pursuers and escape into the street. He jumps into a cab and asks the driver take him to the United Nations. Seeing the thugs following him, he asks the driver to lose them if he can.When he gets to the U.N. General Assembly Building, Roger asks for Lester Townsend, giving his own name as Kaplan. He is told to go to the public lounge where the attendant can page Mr. Townsend for him. Meanwhile, Valerian steps out of another taxi and tells Licht to wait with the cab on the other side of the building for him. Valerian then walks into the General Assembly Building. When Lester Townsend (Philip Ober) answers the page, he is not the same man Roger had seen the evening before. Roger asks him about the house in Glen Cove, which Townsend says is his, but the house is currently locked up with only the gardener and his wife living on the grounds (implying it to be Valerian and the house maid). Townsend says that he always stays in the city when the General Assembly is in session. Roger asks about Mrs. Townsend and learns that she has been dead for many years. As Roger shows him the picture of his captor, Townsend flinches and begins to collapse. Valerian has thrown a knife across the lounge and flees unnoticed, and Townsend falls dead at Roger's feet. Reflexively, Roger pulls the knife out of Townsend's back just as people begin to look at the commotion, and a photographer's light bulb goes off. It appears to everyone around him that Roger has killed the real Lester Townsend! Roger drops the knife, bolts to the exit and jumps into a taxicab.The next morning, the action changes to inside the boardroom of a government intelligence agency in Washington D.C. where a group of planners remark about the photo of "U.N murderer" Roger Thornhill on the front page of a newspaper. They consider how to deal with the sudden appearance of a man who has been mistaken for the non-existent George Kaplan. It is revealed that these agents invented a non-existent agent named "George Kaplan" as a decoy for their real agent who has infiltrated an enemy group headed by a man named Vandamm. They've succeeded in making Vandamm believe that their phantom "Kaplan" is the real agent, by creating a trail of hotel registrations complete with prop clothing and other personal belongings moved in and out of the various hotel rooms by fellow agents. And now Vandamm has somehow mistaken Thornhill for Kaplan. The intelligence chief, a middle-aged gentleman called the Professor (Leo G. Carroll) suggests that the agency do nothing to help Thornhill. If they try to help him, they risk exposing their real agent who would probably be killed. For the time being, they will simply wait and let this real-life "Kaplan" (Thornhill) lend credibility to their invented "Kaplan."Meanwhile back in New York, Roger calls his mother from Grand Central Station to tell her he's taking the train to Chicago. He has learned that Kaplan checked out of the Plaza and has gone on to the Ambassador East in Chicago, so Roger is following him there to find out what is going on. He tries to buy a ticket on the 20th Century Limited, but the ticket agent recognizes him and quietly calls security. Roger slips away unseen, makes his way to the platform, and boards the 20th Century Limited without a ticket, closely pursued by police. Colliding with a beautiful young woman (Eva Marie Saint) in the train corridor, he ducks into a nearby compartment as the police appear at the other end of the corridor. The woman misdirects the police off of the train as it gets underway.As time passes, Roger manages to elude the conductors while they tally up the passenger count. Then he makes his way to the dining car, where the steward seats him with the same beautiful young woman who had helped him in the corridor earlier. She introduces herself as Eve Kendall. He gives her a false name, but she answers: "No. You're Roger Thornhill of Madison Avenue, and you're wanted for murder on every front page in America. Don't be so modest." But she assures him she won't turn him in, since it's going to be a long night and she doesn't particularly like the book she's started. He lights her cigarette from his personally monogrammed "R-O-T" matchbook. "Roger O. Thornhill. What does the 'O' stand for?" she asks. He tells her, "Nothing." When he admits he doesn't have a ticket, she invites him to share her drawing room, just as the train comes to an unscheduled stop. Two men in plain clothes get out of a police car and board the train. Roger and Eve leave the dining car to make their way to her compartment.Presently, Eve is lying on the lower berth while Roger talks to her from his hiding place in the closed upper berth. A knock comes at the door, and the two police detectives enter and question her about the man she was talking with at dinner. She deflects their questions, saying she'd never seen him before, and that they hadn't talked about anything important. They leave to continue their search. Using a key she had stolen earlier from a porter, Eve opens the upper berth to let Roger out.As the evening progresses, Roger and Eve become very close very quickly, falling in love in spite of not knowing much about each other. A buzz at the door announces the porter, who is ready to make Eve's bed for her. Roger hides in the washroom while the porter is there, and Eve returns the berth key to the porter, telling him that she had found it on the floor. The porter leaves. Since there's only one bed, Eve insists that Roger is going to sleep on the floor as they return to their interrupted embrace.In another part of the train, the porter delivers a note into the hand of Leonard, who passes it to his boss. The note reads, "What do I do with him in the morning? Eve."In the morning, Eve and Roger get off the train in Chicago with Roger dressed in a redcap's uniform and carrying her luggage. He walks ahead as the two police detectives stop and ask if she has anything to report. She doesn't, and she rejoins Roger. She is also aware of Vandamm and Leonard walking a short ways behind. She tells Roger to change back into his suit which she's hidden on one of her cases, while she calls Kaplan for him.The police soon discover a redcap who is missing his uniform, and they begin to examine every redcap porter in the station trying to find Thornhill. Roger ducks into the men's room, quickly changes, and starts to shave with a very tiny travel razor from the train's washroom. The police walk right past him, not recognizing him through the shaving cream on his face.Meanwhile, Eve in a phone booth is making notes, while in another booth several booths away Leonard is giving instructions into the phone. Eve and Leonard leave their booths at the same time, taking no notice of each other. When Roger joins her, she says that Kaplan wants him to take the Indianapolis bus and to get off at a stop known as Prairie Stop, where Kaplan will meet him at 3:30 p.m.. He asks how he can find her again later. Eve, for some reason, is clearly nervous. She looks toward an empty doorway and tells him, "They're coming!" He hurries away.That afternoon, Roger steps off the bus in the midst of a vast open prairie and begins to wait. An occasional car or truck drives by, with long empty intervals between them. Looking around, Roger notices a nearby corn field, and a crop duster at work in the distance. And still he waits. A man gets out of a car on the opposite side of the road. Thinking he might be Kaplan, Roger approaches. But the man is just waiting for the next bus. The man comments on the crop duster, observing that it seems to be dusting where there aren't any crops.After the man gets on the next bus, Roger is left alone again. The crop dusting plane approaches, swooping low over Roger's position. It comes around and approaches again, strafing the ground with machine gun fire. Roger tries to flag down a car, but it doesn't stop. The plane strafes again, and Roger runs into the corn field, hiding among the tall stalks. The plane's first pass over the field accomplishes nothing, and Roger begins to think he's eluded them. On its next pass the plane drops pesticide over the field. Gasping for breath, Roger has to abandon the cover of the corn stalks. He sees a gasoline tanker truck approaching, and he stands in its way forcing it to stop, which it does barely in time, knocking him to the ground unhurt. The tanker's quick stop presents a sudden obstacle to the low-swooping plane, and it flies headlong into the load of gasoline, bursting into flames. Roger and the drivers flee the truck moments before the second gas tank explodes. Some passersbys stop to view the accident scene, and Roger steals a pickup truck from one of them and drives away. The stolen pickup is next seen that evening parked on a Chicago street.Roger inquires at the front desk of the Ambassador East Hotel for George Kaplan's room number, only to learn that Kaplan had checked out that morning at 7:10 a.m., leaving a forwarding address for the Hotel Sheraton-Johnson in Rapid City, South Dakota. Roger can't understand how he could have gotten the message that morning at 9:10 a.m. if Kaplan had already left. Standing in confusion for a moment, Roger spots, of all people, Eve Kendall entering the lobby. She picks up a newspaper and takes the elevator to the fourth floor. Roger tells the desk clerk that Eve Kendall is expecting him in room 4-something-or-other, he can't remember the whole number. The clerk tells him 463.Roger rings the buzzer at room 463, and is admitted by a surprised Eve. She runs into his arms, apparently happy to see him alive, but he keeps his barriers up. Roger also notices a newspaper detailing the crop dust plane crash into the tanker truck killing both men aboard the plane. Roger plans to stick with Eve and not let her out of his sight, but Eve says that she has plans of her own. The phone rings. Eve tells the caller that she will meet them, jotting an address on a memo pad. She tears off the note and places it into her purse, where she also carries a small handgun. Roger insists on having dinner with her, but she tells him to leave and never see her again. Last night was all there was, they're not going to get involved. He keeps insisting that they have dinner first. She gives in, on the condition that he have the hotel valet clean up his dusty suit. Roger goes into the bathroom to shower, and he passes his trousers out to her. The valet takes his suit away. Then Eve slips away, not knowing that Roger was faking the shower and was watching her. He uses a pencil to shade over the impressions on the top blank sheet of the memo pad, revealing the address she had jotted down as "1212 N. Michigan."A few hours later, wearing his own suit again, Roger steps out of a taxi at 1212 N. Michigan to find an art auction underway in the gallery at that address. In the crowd, Eve Kendall sits under the attentive and watchful eye of Roger's recent captor, the false "Lester Townsend," with Leonard standing close by. Townsend/Vandamm puts his hand on Eve's shoulder, apparently as a clear sign of affection, and he smiles at her while she smiles back. Consumed by anger and jealousy, Roger approaches the trio, and his accusatory tone causes the suspicious "Townsend" to draw away from Eve. She becomes alarmed. Just then an unusual primitive figurine goes up for sale. "Townsend" bids on the sculpted figure, and when he wins the sale, Roger learns that his name is Vandamm. By now, Vandamm has had enough of "Kaplan," and he tells Leonard to finish him off who walks off. This whole scene is observed by the Professor who is lurking in the crowd. Roger starts to leave, but Valerian blocks his way at the main entrance, while Leonard blocks the front stage.(Note: It is speculated here that Vandamm's other henchman, Licht, was shooter in the crop duster plane which crashed along with the anonymous pilot aboard. Thus, Licht, from this point, is never seen again in the movie.)As Vandamm and Eve make their exit, Roger is trapped and must wait behind in the crowd. To manufacture an escape, Roger begins to disrupt the auction, bidding wildly and making rude remarks about the art work. When the police finally arrive, Roger starts a fight with a gallery employee to provoke an arrest. Vandamm's men can do nothing as the police lead him away. As they leave, the Professor makes a quick phone call. When Roger identifies himself as the United Nations killer on their way downtown, the policemen call the station for instructions. They are told to take him to the airport instead of police headquarters.At the Northwest Airlines counter, the Professor arrives and takes Thornhill off the policemen's hands, and leads him out onto the tarmac to catch a plane to Rapid City, SD, near Mt. Rushmore. The Professor explains that Vandamm has a house near Mt. Rushmore, and they think that will be his jumping off point to leave the country the following night. He explains that George Kaplan does not exist, but that he and his associates in Washington need for Roger to continue to play the role of Kaplan for the next 24 hours, to assure Vandamm that everything is all right. They want Vandamm to continue on his journey so that they can learn more about his spy organization overseas and his dealings with smuggling government secrets in and out of the USA. Roger learns that Eve is the government's undercover agent, and that the scene Roger made at the art auction has put her life in jeopardy. Roger's harsh words, and Eve's candid reactions, had made it obvious to Vandamm that his mistress is emotionally involved with a man he believes to be a government agent. For Eve's sake, Roger agrees to co-operate with the Professor to help set things right again.A meeting is set up between "Kaplan" and Vandamm in the cafeteria of the Mt. Rushmore Visitors Center. While the Professor stands hidden in the background, Vandamm arrives with Eve and Leonard. In exchange for not revealing Vandamm's plans to leave the country that night, Roger asks Vandamm to give Eve over to him so that she can get what's coming to her. Vandamm reluctantly agrees. When Roger takes hold of Eve, she draws the handgun from her purse, shoots Roger, and runs away. The Professor emerges from the crowd, examines Roger and shakes his head regretfully. Leonard prompts Vandamm to leave before the authorities arrive. Park employees carry Roger out on a stretcher, and the Professor has him loaded into a Park Service vehicle. They drive away.The Park Service vehicle stops in a secluded wood where a very healthy Roger steps out to find Eve waiting for him. She had asked for this meeting so that they can clear the air. Eve tells him that she had met Phillip Vandamm some time ago at a party and fallen in love with him. Then the Professor had contacted her and told her Vandamm's sordid secrets, asking her to use her unique relationship with Vandamm to help the government, the first time anyone had ever asked Eve to do anything important. Roger is glad that it will all be over when Vandamm takes off that night, and he and Eve can go on with their lives. But she and the Professor tell him that she will be going away with Vandamm, because they still need her to find out more information about him. Roger doesn't want to let her go, and he tries to hold her back forcibly. But the Professor's driver knocks him down, and Eve drives away to return to Vandamm's house.That evening, Roger finds himself locked in a hospital room wearing next to nothing. The Professor brings in a change of clothes for him to use for the next few days on his stay in the hospital. Roger asks the Professor if he could have some bourbon to help ease his stay, and agreeably the Professor leaves to fetch the bourbon. Roger quickly finishes dressing, climbs out the window and along a ledge, making his escape through the neighboring hospital room.He makes his way to Vandamm's house, where he sees lights flashing at a nearby landing strip as if someone is signaling an incoming plane. From outside the living room window, he overhears Vandamm reassuring Eve that everything is all right, and that the plane is about ten minutes away. Leonard asks to have a parting talk with Vandamm in private. Eve goes upstairs to get her things. Leonard notes that even though Eve's actions that afternoon had dispelled Vandamm's doubts, he still doesn't trust her enough to tell her that the figurine they bought at the auction in Chicago holds a bellyful of microfilm. Leonard's suspicions had been aroused by the scene at the Visitors Center. To prove his point, Leonard aims Eve's gun at Vandamm and fires. But Vandamm finds himself unhurt, just as Kaplan must have been unhurt, because the gun is loaded with blanks. Leonard had searched Eve's luggage and found it and immediately knew it was a fake shooting. Not appreciating this cruel revelation from Leonard, Vandamm punches him in the face. But Vandamm quickly regains his composure and knows for certain now that Eve has betrayed him, and that she is working with Kaplan. He tells Leonard that the solution to this is simple: he will drop her from the plane over the ocean.Roger has to warn Eve. He climbs up to her balcony just as she leaves her room and returns downstairs. He jots a note inside the cover of his monogrammed matchbook saying, "They're onto you. I'm in your room." From the upper landing, he tosses the matchbook down to her. It lands on the floor. She doesn't see it. Leonard comes over to speak to her, and he picks up the matchbook, tossing it onto the coffee table as he walks away, not realizing its origins. Then Eve recognizes it and reads the message. She makes an excuse and comes upstairs again.Roger warns her that Leonard found the gun with the blanks, that they plan to do away with her, and that the figure from the auction is filled with microfilm. Roger begs her not to get on that plane, but dutifully she goes downstairs again. The entourage leaves for the plane, and only the housekeeper, Anna (Nora Marlowe), remains downstairs. Roger tries to slip out through the house, but the maid Anna stops him at gunpoint. She tells him that after the plane leaves with Vandamm, Valerian (who is revealed to be Anna's husband), as well as Leonard will return.At the landing strip, Eve is wavering about whether to get on the plane or not. As Vandamm gives his goodbyes to Leonard and Valerian, he also tells them to say goodbye to his sister back in New York (the same woman who impersonated Mrs. Townsend for the authorities). Suddenly, shots ring out at the house, and as everyone turns to see Roger fleeing the house, Eve grabs the figure out of Vandamm's arms and runs away into the darkness toward Roger. He has driven a car from the house toward the plane, and Eve jumps into the car. They speed away. Valerian and Leonard give chase on foot. Roger explains it took him five minutes to realize the housekeeper had been covering him with that same gun filled with blanks.They stop at the front gate, which is now closed and locked. Abandoning the car, they run into the dark woods. Before long they find themselves at the top of the Mt. Rushmore monument, with Leonard and Valerian in hot pursuit. Seeing no other way out, they start climbing down the stone faces. Leonard and Valerian split up and start climbing down after them.Pausing for breath, Roger suggests that if they get out of this alive, that they go back on the train together. Eve asks if that was a proposition. Roger tells her it was a proposal. When Eve asks what had happened to Roger's first two marriages, he tells her his wives had left him because he led too dull a life. The two thugs keep coming at them from two sides, and they all continue climbing down.As Roger and Eve come around an outcropping, they are surprised by Valerian waiting with a drawn knife. He pounces on Roger, and the two of them tussle until Roger manages to kick him away. Valerian plunges to his death.In the meantime, Leonard has caught up with Eve and is trying to wrest the figurine out of her hands. He gets the statuette away, and pushes her over a ledge. She falls a few feet and manages to grab onto another ledge with her fingertips. Roger comes to help her. He reaches her and takes hold of her wrist, but he can't pull her up. Leonard comes to the ledge just above him. Roger pleads with Leonard to help them. Instead of helping, Leonard steps on Roger's fingers. Just then a shot rings out. Leonard drops the figure which shatters, revealing the hidden microfilm. He falls into the depths, already dead.On the summit, the Professor and the captive Vandamm stand with a group of park rangers. One of the rangers puts away his gun.Now the only way for Roger to save Eve is to pull her up on his own. As he finally succeeds in lifting her up, the scene changes to a Pullman compartment, and Roger is lifting his bride into the upper berth. The honeymooners embrace as the train enters a tunnel.



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