Bill Pullman

The story behind the transformative culture of one hotel, the impact of leadership, trusting in the forgotten, and the revitalization of a community.

Denzel Washington returns as Robert McCall, serving an unflinching justice for the exploited and oppressed - but this time it`s personal.

Strait-laced go-getter Roger hopes to propose to his dream girl during a weekend getaway at her family's lake house, but his eager-to-be-best-buds potential brother-in-law might accidentally wreck his plans. Roger (Taran Killam), a strait-laced politician, has big plans to propose to his dream girl (Gillian Jacobs) at her family's lake house. But everything goes awry when he meets his potential brother-in-law Todd (Bobby Moynihan): a full-time camp counselor with a heart of gold and a wild sense of fun, pining to be Roger's best friend, and ultimately catapulting him into a series of unfortunate events. As Roger tries to take a stand amidst outrageous fishing excursions, propulsive water jetpacks, and American-history-themed musicals, he realizes that being a part of a new family might be more difficult than he'd thought.

A former black ops commando who faked his death for a quiet life in Boston comes out of retirement to rescue a young girl and finds himself face to face with Russian gangsters.

Dana is a woman who doesn't deal well with confrontation. She likes her job, her friends, and the cozy comfort of her neighbourhood - Toronto's own Queen Street West. But when the world forces her to stand up, will she be able to handle it? —Anonymous Dana is a woman who doesn't deal well with confrontation. She likes her job, her friends, and the cozy comfort of her neighbourhood - Toronto's own Queen Street West. But when the world forces her to stand up, will she be able to handle it? Snow is a feature film by Ryan Couldrey, adapted from the award-nominated graphic novel by Benjamin Rivers. Like the graphic novel on which it's based, Snow features locations, characters, and a cast and crew entirely based in Toronto, Canada. Proudly featuring zero romantic sub plots.

Years after he left Damascus under suspicious circumstances, Adib Abdel Kareem must confront what he left behind when his daughter goes missing. One afternoon, on a typical day at work, Adib is confronted with devastating news: His eldest daughter, Muna, has gone missing in Damascus. Now Adib, who has not been back in over 20 years, must return to Syria and deal with his secret past in order to find her. "Inescapable" is a thriller about a father's desperate search for his daughter and the chaos of the Middle East he left behind. —Ruba Nadda Unknown to him, Syrian-Canadian Adib Abdul-Kareem's eldest daughter Muna, a photographer, has traveled to his homeland to find out more about her father, as he had never talked about his Syrian past to his family. He does learn about her travels only because she has gone missing in Damascus, most of her belongings still in her hotel room. Adib decides to head back to Damascus to find her, and enlists the help of his old girlfriend Fatima, a Canadian diplomat named Paul, and an old colleague Sayid to find Muna while he's in Damascus, some who seem to know more about Muna's disappearance than they initially let on to Adib. Adib does this all at his own personal risk as he used to work in the Syrian military secret service, and was convicted in absentia and sentenced to death for purportedly being an Israeli spy. Adib, who managed to get back into Syria on an illegal visa with Fatima's help, has to uncover why Muna has gone missing and if it has anything to do with his Syrian past. He also has to reconcile with Fatima, who long felt abandoned by Adib when he left the country thirty years ago. —Huggo

In 1995, Ray and Gary go to the United States to find Elvis memorabilia to sell on the market stall Ray runs in London. A former US Army cameraman, Harvey, sells them a silent black and white film of Elvis performing live, but later returns with an intriguing offer. Harvey takes Ray to Miami, Florida to see a film from 1947, showing the autopsy of an alien supposedly killed in a UFO crash in Roswell, New Mexico. Harvey wants to sell the film for $30,000. Gary and Ray return to England to look for an investor to give them the money. Ray convinces Laszlo Voros, a Hungarian homosexual art and drug dealer obsessed with crop circles, to give him the $30,000 and retrieves the film from Harvey. Back in England, the pair discover that the film has degraded from humidity and heat and is now completely unwatchable. In order to avoid serious repercussions from Voros, they decide to make their own recreation of it. They base the content on Ray's memories of the original, and, with the help of some friends, fashion a convincing replica of the dead alien using a mannequin and meat products obtained from a friend's butcher's shop, turn the living room of Gary's sister into a film set, and shoot the film on a Bell and Howell spring-wound camera. Ray gives a copy of the final product to Voros, who believes it to be real. Having convinced Voros, Ray and Gary decide to sell the film to other venues, earning them a large sum of money. However, when Voros hears about its international distribution, he demands 80% of the profits. A potential clash is averted when Voros is killed by a green Land Rover while standing naked in the middle of a crop circle, leading to speculation that he has been killed by a CIA agent. Ray and Gary travel to Argentina to promote the film, followed by reporter Amber Fuentes, who seduces Ray. She eventually tracks down Harvey, who demands from Ray and Gary that they maintain his anonymity. To fulfil this obligation, they produce an interview with a homeless former actor playing Harvey, which convinces Amber. She remains sceptical, however, about the film's authenticity. Ray and Gary are now persuaded that some of the original 1947 footage might actually be recovered by film restoration experts in order to be viewed. However, after viewing the results, the pair bury the film, telling each other that they cannot continue with the endeavour.

This is taken from Wikipedia - set in chronological order, but not the order of the film. The film begins with the suicide of Peter, and ends with Karen in the hospital. This is a synopsis of the director's cut, so some events may not be featured in the original PG-13 version. Kayako Saeki (Takako Fuji), a young Japanese woman, is unhappily married to Takeo Saeki (Takashi Matsuyama). She becomes obsessed with Peter Kirk (Bill Pullman), an American college professor working in Tokyo. She writes about her feelings for him in a diary. She follows him and sends him love letters. One night, Kayako returns home and enters her bedroom upstairs. She finds her husband reading her diary. In a rage, Takeo attacks Kayako, shoving her to the floor, banging the walls while yelling and screaming. Kayako breaks her ankle and crawls down the stairs, but before she can escape, Takeo catches her and snaps her neck. Takeo looks up to see their eight-year-old son, Toshio Saeki (Yuya Ozeki), at the top of the stairs; a witness to the murder. Takeo drags Toshio to the bathroom and drowns him in the bathtub. Takeo also slits Toshio's cat's throat and tosses the carcass on the floor of the bathroom. He wraps Kayako's body in plastic trash bags and places it far in the corner of the attic. He puts Toshio's body in his bedroom closet and tapes it shut with Duct tape, and then hangs himself. In order to find out why Kayako is sending him the letters, Peter Kirk comes to the Saeki residence the next day with one of Kayako's love letters in hand. He sees Toshio's hands hanging out of the bathroom window, bruised and scratched. Peter goes inside and decides to stay with the boy until the parents return. Peter looks through the rest of the house, entering Takeo and Kayako's bedroom in the back where he finds several family photos in a pile on the floor. Kayako's face has been torn out of every one of them. He finds Kayako's diary and thumbs through it, learning more about Kayako's obsession with him. The closet door catches his eye and, upon inspecting it, he finds the cut-outs of Kayako's face nailed all over the door and smeared with blood. Kayako's lifeless corpse falls out from the attic and lands on the closet shelf. Peter runs into the hall and hears thumping noises coming from Toshio's room and finds Takeo hanging from a noose of Kayako's hair. The next morning, in front of his wife, Maria (Rosa Blasi), Peter commits suicide by jumping off the balcony just outside his apartment bedroom. Matthew Williams (William Mapother), his wife, Jennifer (Clea DuVall), and ailing mother, Emma (Grace Zabriskie) move to Tokyo as a result of Matthew's promotion. His sister, Susan (KaDee Strickland), also lives in Tokyo and helps them find a home. Matthew and Jennifer decide on a suburban house despite Emma's strange reactions to the place. Emma's health and condition deteriorate rapidly following the move. Jennifer becomes disenchanted with life in Japan as she cannot sleep during (what she assumes to be) Emma's restless stirrings, unable to speak the language, and has gotten lost once on a walk. Matthew assures her things will improve and that if they don't, the family will return to the United States. Jennifer falls asleep on a couch in the living room, after having made and partially eaten a bowl of ramen, which she left on the table. The sound of the bowl hitting the floor wakes her. She scolds Emma for making the mess, but then sees a trail of wet child's footprints leading out to the hall. She sees a cat on the landing of the stairs and sees a pair of white arms gently pick it up. She continues upstairs and enters her bedroom (Toshio's former bedroom). The door closes behind her. Matthew returns from work and finds the house in complete disarray with trash strewn everywhere. He calls out to his wife, who doesn't answer. He finally finds her on their bed, unable to move or speak and struggling to breathe. Before he can call an ambulance, he is startled by the sudden appearance of a young boy making cat sounds. He backs up against the closet as Toshio appears suddenly over his head. Later, Susan is preparing to leave the office. After attempting to call, Susan increasingly becomes concerned from not being able to reach Matthew. She then attempts to visit the house, but she is stopped by the sound of moaning coming from the hallway. She quickly exits to the stairs but is frightened when the lights start to flicker and shatter. Susan looks over the railing to see Kayako's ghost crawling up the stairs. Susan flees to the security office, seeking help. There, the security guard promises to go check it out. Susan watches the monitor as the security guard investigates. Kayako's black ghost materializes in the hallway and walks toward the security camera, and Susan runs. Susan takes a taxi cab back to her apartment. She enters an elevator, and it ascends several floors. Susan does not notice, however, that Toshio is standing outside each set of elevator doors she passes. Susan makes it safely inside when her phone rings. It is Matthew claiming to have forgotten her apartment number and asking to be buzzed inside. She tells him where to find her and activates the buzzer with the phone. Before she can hang up, the doorbell rings immediately. Thinking Matthew couldn't possibly have had time to arrive, she checks the peephole of the door. Shocked to find it is Matthew, Susan believes he is pranking her. She angrily throws open the door, but no one is there. The death rattle sound emerges loudly through the phone in Susan's hand. She drops and breaks the phone, yet the death rattle can still be heard. Cowering in bed, Susan reaches beneath the covers and pulls out the rabbit's foot phone charm from her phone and drops it in fear. A lump billows from underneath the covers and moves toward Susan. She lifts the sheets and finds herself staring into the face of Kayako's ghost. It yanks her under the covers, and the sheets fall flat upon the now empty bed. Yoko (Yoko Maki) is a girl whose work is to take care of Emma and clean the house. When picking up trash on the floor and stairs, she hears someone walking around up in the attic. Following the noise, Yoko enters a closet in the bedroom and sees a small door in the ceiling, which leads to the attic. Using a lighter, Yoko sticks her head up through the door and slowly turns around, looking for the source of the sound. She eventually comes face to face with the ghost of Kayako Saeki, who attacks her, dragging her up into the closet. Karen Davis (Sarah Michelle Gellar) is then called in to work at the house and care for Emma after Yoko disappears. While working, Karen finds a room that's been taped shut with cat-like noises coming from it. When she rips off the tape and opens the door, she finds a little boy (Toshio). The boy refuses to come downstairs so she asks him for his name. "Toshio," he says, in a toneless, eerie voice. Emma begins stirring and muttering in the other room. As Karen calms her, a dark shadow of hair emerges from a corner of the room, terrifying Emma. Karen looks up to see Kayako reaching for Emma. Kayako's hair, which was covering her face, flies back to reveal the whites of her eyes. The irises roll into place and focus on Karen as she backs away in fright. Alex, Karen's boss, finally arrives to find Emma dead and Karen in a state of shock. Karen is taken to the hospital while detectives question Alex. Detective Nakagawa (Ryo Ishibashi) asks Alex about the people that lived there, and tell him that Yoko has been missing from work. The detectives notice that the phone handset is missing from the cradle and push the page button. They trace the sounds to the attic where they discover the corpses of Matthew and his wife. They also make the grisly discovery of a human jaw and wonder to whom it belongs and where the rest of the body might be. Later in the movie, Yoko is spotted again by Alex as she is shuffling down the stairs of the caretaking facility where Alex, Karen, and Yoko work. As he is walking towards her, he accidentally slips on a liquid, which he discovers is blood when he touches it. Alex calls out repeatedly to Yoko, who does not answer in any way until she reaches the bottom of the stairs. She then turns around to reveal her face, now horribly disfigured without her jaw and her tongue is hanging out. Alex screams in terror, and the screen fades to black. Karen tells her story to detectives, emphasizing the appearance of a boy. Over the next few days, she is constantly tormented by Kayako, in her shower, on a bus, etc. Frightened but determined, she begins to research the history of the house. Eventually, she learns of the murders. Detective Nakagawa becomes convinced that the rash of deaths and missing people is connected to the house when he views the entire security video taken at Susan's office building. He watches as Kayako proceeds down the hall, then to come face to face with the camera as the video fuzzes out. He then returns to the Saeki house with two cans of gasoline. He is distracted by sounds of Toshio drowning in the bath tub. He enters and finds a boy hanging out of the tub, and tries to revive him. His eyes snap open, and Takeo appears behind him. He shoves Nakagawa into the tub and drowns him like Toshio. Karen questions Maria Kirk, Peter's widow, who does not appear to know anything about the house, its occupants, or why her husband committed suicide. She allows Karen to search through old photos. Karen discovers a living Kayako in the background of every photograph, clearly following the couple. Karen then attempts to go talk with her boyfriend, Doug (Jason Behr), at their apartment. However, she discovers he has gone looking for her after his own investigation. Karen then returns to the house in search of Doug. Inside the house, Karen experiences a flashback of Peter Kirk's visit. She watches him, reliving the experience with him finding the body of Kayako and leaving the home. Karen flees downstairs. Doug grabs her ankle before she leaves. He is incapacitated, and she tries to drag him to the door. A door opens upstairs. Kayako's ghost crawls down the stairs toward them, and Doug dies in the same way Jennifer Williams did. Karen opens the door, but Kayako's ghost is suddenly there. She slams the door and kicks over one of the gas cans. She takes Doug's lighter and tosses it onto the gas as Doug suddenly becomes Kayako. The screen goes white. (In the director's cut, there are shots of Karen being put into an ambulance van). At the hospital, Karen learns that the house was saved from burning and mourns Doug's dead body. Suddenly, Kayako's hair and arm comes from beneath the sheet that covers him, but Karen realizes that it's just her imagination. Kayako then appears behind Karen. As Kayako utters her death-rattle, the movie ends with an eyeshot of her.

A young man's peculiar upbringing renders him unable to competently cope with the struggle of growing up. Seventeen year old Jason Slocumb, Jr. - Igby to most that know him - comes from east coast old money, the second son of self-absorbed and controlling Mimi Slocumb and medically-diagnosed schizophrenic Jason Slocum, Sr., the latter who has for several years been institutionalized in a Maryland psychiatric facility. While Igby's economics-studying Columbia-attending older brother Ollie Slocum has embraced and aspires to continue their wealthy life, Igby has rebelled against it, considering his brother a fascist (although he could soften that label to Republican). Because of Jason's situation, Mimi has largely left the role of male role model for Ollie and Igby to their godfather, D.H. Banes. Igby's rebellion has led to him being kicked out of one prep school after another, the latest, a military academy, from which Igby escapes before he can graduate. As such, Mimi and D.H. arrange for Igby to live in New York with Ollie for the summer while working for D.H. renovating some of his properties, before Mimi arranges for yet another strict school for the fall so that Igby can at least graduate. Igby is largely able to hide out for most of the summer with the help of Rachel, D.H.'s younger heroin addict mistress, and Sookie, a slightly older waitress with who he falls in love. An issue with Sookie and the aftermath of a joint mission with Ollie leads to Igby having a clearer picture of what his immediate future will look like. —Huggo Igby Goes Down is a personal tale about a 17 year old misfit boy who copes with his mother's cancer and his father's insanity by pursuing relationships with older women. Truly an intellectual, Igby is a modern day Holden Caulfield, and the world he lives in is far removed from the high standards of expectation he holds for it. —Dan Bloggs Igby Slocumb, a rebellious and sarcastic seventeen year-old boy, is at war with the oppressive world of his East Coast "old money" family. With a schizophrenic father, a self-absorbed, distant mother, and a shark-like young Republican big brother, Igby figures there must be a better life out there, and he sets out to find it. After happily flunking out of several Prep Schools, Igby escapes into the bohemian underworld of Manhattan. His darkly comic trip--shared by a deviant cast of characters, including his terminally bored, part-time lover Sookie, his Godfather's trophy mistress Rachel, and smack-dealing performance artists Russel--veers from bizarre to tragic in Igby's ultimately noble attempt to keep himself from "going down." —Anonymous

A television weatherman scams a local lottery. Winter 1988. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania is Russ Richard's oyster, there where he is the popular weatherman for WTPA Channel 6 News. That popularity allows him many perks in the city, especially at his local Denny's. Things start to go off the rails for him as this winter is unseasonably warm and not white, meaning that no one is buying from his snowmobile dealership, and none of his usual sources are willing to advance him any money to tide him over this rough business patch. In turning to Gig, a slightly shady acquaintance who operates a strip club and bar, Russ decides to turn to illegal activities to get the money he needs. After one failed attempt at that criminal life which has its own negative consequences, Russ instead decides on a lottery scam, his partners in crime being Gig, and Crystal Latroy, Russ' colleague at WTPA as the Pennsylvania Lucky Six Lottery girl - the lottery numbers which are drawn live on air during WTPA's supper hour news - and his sometime lover. Crystal is also sleeping with her and Russ' married boss, WTPA manager Dick Simmons, in an effort to get ahead in the world. Russ, Gig and Crystal are able to devise a plan to win the next jackpot, worth $6.4 million. As they enact the plan, which requires the assistance from a few others, the plan also potentially starts to go off the rails as those in the know and those who think that they know something about the fraud want what they believe is their fair share which, if Russ would agree, would get him further in the hole than he was before going into the venture. But as things get more and more dangerous and potentially lethal, Russ, Crystal and Gig begin to have diverging views on how to get out from the increasing mess based on their own tolerance of the risk for the potential reward. —Huggo Winter, 1988: Harrisburg PA's celebrity weatherman, Russ Richards, is broke: he's borrowed heavily to open a snowmobile dealership, and it's still unseasonably warm. Gig, his seedy pal, advises him to run an insurance scam; when it goes awry, Russ is out another $10,000 and in trouble with Dale, a bat-wielding thug. Gig convinces Russ to rig the state lottery with the help of Crystal, a gold-digging ditz with a heart of tin. They have to find a beard to buy the ticket, and then they have to cash it. Soon, murder and various double-crosses add to Russ's nightmare. A lazy cop zeroes in. Jail is closer than riches. Will Russ have to choose between his money and his life? —<jhailey@hotmail.com>

In Aroostook County, Maine, Fish and Game officer Walt Lawson is scuba diving in Black Lake when he is suddenly attacked and bitten in half by an unknown creature. The next day, Sheriff Hank Keough, Fish and Game officer Jack Wells, and American Museum of Natural History paleontologist Kelly Scott go to the lake to investigate the incident with mythology professor and crocodile enthusiast Hector Cyr joining them. After Kelly and Hank's canoe is flipped over, they discover a severed human toe and a moose head. Meanwhile, Hank's deputy, Burke, has his head bitten off when his boat is attacked while Wells and Cyr are diving. The following day, as Hank and Hector argue, a large brown bear arrives, but a gigantic 30 ft (9.1 m) long saltwater crocodile leaps out of the water, snatches the animal in its jaws, and drags it into the lake. After finding Burke's severed head, Jack, Kelly, and Hank witness Delores Bickerman, an elderly hermit living near the lake, feeding a blindfolded dairy cow to the giant crocodile. She reveals that she has been feeding the reptile for years after the crocodile followed her husband Bernie home and eventually killed him two years ago when he got between the croc and a runaway horse. Afterwards, she was placed under house arrest for initially lying to the police. Hector decides to take Deputy Sharon Gare on a trip in his helicopter and unexpectedly lands it in the crocodile's territory. While he is scuba diving, he is confronted by the creature, but he and Gare escape after distracting it with an inflatable raft. Later, Jack and Hank plan to allow Florida Fish and Game to kill the crocodile when they arrive, but Hector suggests instead that he should lure it out of the water and tranquilize it into unconsciousness. Jack reluctantly accepts the proposal and they use one of Bickerman's cattle, dangled from the helicopter, as bait. After a few hours, the crocodile soon appears and rears up as it lunges at its prey. Hector pulls up and loses the animal, but crashes the helicopter into the lake. The crocodile comes on land and begins to pursue Jack, Kelly, and the group. Kelly is knocked into the lake by the crocodile's tail, but she makes it into the helicopter in time. The crocodile catches up to Kelly and prepares to make its move, but is itself trapped in the helicopter. Jack grabs a gun and shoots it, but the firearm turns out to be a tranquilizer rifle. As Hector comes out of the water, another crocodile attacks and bites him, but Hank blows it up with his grenade launcher. Soon after, Florida Fish and Game officers arrive, where they load the neutralized crocodile onto a truck and take it to Portland, Maine to figure out what to do with it. One week later, Bickerman is shown feeding bread crumbs to many baby crocodiles, revealing the two adults were actually a mating pair. The surviving adult crocodile is later seen tied to the back of a flatbed trailer, speeding down a road somewhere.

In the opening scene, Fred Madison (Bill Pullman), a saxophonist, is seen sitting in his house one morning, wearing a robe and pajamas, smoking a cigarette, looking disheveled when the intercom from the front door of his house buzzes. Over the intercom, a distorted man's voice says: "Dick Laurent is dead." When Fred looks out a window, police sirens are heard in the distance, but the streets outside his house are empty. One evening, Fred's wife Renee (Patricia Arquette) opts out of coming to the club to watch him and his band play; instead she plans to stay at home and read, an excuse Fred obviously finds flimsy. Red-faced and sweating, Fred plays discordant acid jazz at the Luna Club while the audience goes wild. He calls his house during a break, but Renee does not answer (three different phones at the house are seen to be ringing). Arriving home later, Fred sees Renee asleep in bed. Fred's silent expression shows his lingering doubts about Renee's faithfulness. The next morning, a mysterious package arrives on the front doorstep containing a VHS videotape. Renee doesn't mention the tape, but Fred sees it and demands that they watch it. The tape only displays a 20-second image of the outside of their home. The relieved Renee tells a perplexed Fred that the tape "might have been from a real estate agent." Another evening later, Renee accompanies Fred to the Luna Club to watch him perform, but she soon leaves with some men, while Fred on stage watches. Later that night back at their house, Fred tries to make love to Renee, but gives up in failure, humiliated when she pats him on the back and dispassionately consoles him. He tells her about a dream he had: she was crying out for him, "Fred, where are you?" He couldn't find her and says that he saw someone in bed that looked like her but wasn't her. The Renee in the dream screams in terror as Fred approaches her in bed. Fred then seems to wake up in bed lying next to Renee, but when he turns to look at her, he sees not her face but the pale, frightening looking face of a man superimposed on her silhouette. Bill startles out of the nightmare, now fully awake for real. As the days pass, a second tape arrives, showing the interior of their house-- the unseen intruder also films them in bed, sleeping. Fred and Renee call the police. Two detectives, Al and Ed (John Roselius and Louis Eppolito), watch the video. They recommend that Fred and Renee resume using their security system, and search the house for signs of forced entry. The departing cops say "We'll keep watch over the house. We'll do the best we can," having neither found nor resolved anything. That evening, Fred and Renee go out to a party held by Andy (Michael Massee) an old friend of Renee's. Renee drunkenly stumbles, giggling, into Andy's arms while pleading with Fred to get her another drink. A jealous Fred goes to the bar for a drink where he meets a strange-looking middle-aged man wearing all-black clothing, who is only known as the Mystery Man (Robert Blake). The Mystery Man tells Fred that they've met before and that he is at his house right now. (Note: it was in fact the face of the Mystery Man that Fred saw in place of Renee's in his nightmare) Fred phones his house using the Mystery Man's cell phone and the voice of the Mystery Man answers at the house while he's standing right in front of Fred. When Fred asks the Mystery Man who he is, the Mystery Man just laughs and takes back his cell phone only saying that it's been a pleasure talking to him. After the Mystery Man walks away, the shaken Fred approaches Andy and asks him who the Mystery Man is and is told that he is a friend of Dick Laurent. When Fred repeats the message he heard on the intercom, that "Dick Laurent is dead," Andy nervously asks how Fred knows Dick Laurent and insists that "Dick can't be dead." Fred then forcibly grabs Renee and they leave the party. Driving home, Fred questions Renee about Andy and her past connection to him. Renee answers vaguely, failing to alleviate Fred's jealous suspicions. Arriving back at their house, Fred makes Renee wait in the driveway while he checks inside for intruders and finds no one. While Renee prepares for bed and removes her makeup in the bathroom, Fred walks around the dimly lit house and finds himself standing in front of a dark hallway. Fred walks down the hallway and disappears, eventually encountering a mirror reflection of himself. Renee walks out of the bedroom and stands at the base of the hallway. She calls out for Fred, just as in his dream earlier. Shortly before Fred emerges from the darkness of the long hallway, we see a shadow moving through another part of the house. The next morning, another VHS tape arrives and Fred watches it alone. To his horror it contains gory images of him killing Renee; Fred is glimpsed kneeling down on the floor beside the bed covered in blood and wailing over Renee's bisected and mutilated dead body with blood everywhere. As Fred calls out for Renee, time jumps abruptly and suddenly Fred is seen being beaten in an interrogation room by the same two police detectives, Al and Ed, who earlier offered to watch the house and now accuse him of killing his wife. A terrified Fred claims that he didn't kill Renee. But seconds later he becomes confused and pleads to the detectives, "Tell me I didn't kill her!" Tried, found guilty and sentenced to death, Fred, still dazed and confused, is locked away on death row for the murder of Renee. Shortly after arriving, Fred is plagued by frequent headaches. After he collapses in the prison yard one day, he's brought into the infirmary where he complains to the prison doctor that he can't sleep. The doctor doses Fred with a sedative and he's locked back in his cell, where his headache continues to rage and he hallucinates strange visions of the Mystery Man, a burning cabin in the desert (with the flames moving in reverse), and a dark stretch of highway. Fred also has a dream of another man standing on the side of a road, while he begins to physically transform into that man. The next morning, during a routine check of the cells, the prison guards are shocked to find that the man in Fred's cell is not Fred. The man is discovered to be Pete Dayton (Balthazar Getty) a young, confused auto mechanic whom the prison officials discover has a past record for auto theft. Since Pete has committed no crime aside from the auto theft five years earlier, he is released into the care of his parents Bill and Candace (Gary Busey and Lucy Butler), who come to collect Pete dressed like bikers in black leather jackets, jeans and dark glasses. The Dayton family return home to their house in Van Nuys. At the same time, Pete is being followed by two detectives, named Hank and Lou (Carl Sundstrom and John Solari), to find out why and how Pete ended up in Fred Madison's prison cell. For the next day or two, we see Pete laying around his parents house on a lawn chair in the back yard, watching the blue sky, and a dog in the back yard next door playing in a kiddie swimming pool as his face slowly heals from the physical transformation and he begins to adjust to his new life and new memories. One evening, Pete is laying on his bed when four of his outgoing friends, Steve V (Giovanni Ribisi), Teddy, (Scott Coffey), Lanie (Heather Stephens) and Carl (Al Garrett), arrive and asking where he has been for the past few days. Speaking for the first time, Pete acknowledges his friends by their names and he tells them that he hasn't been feeling well, but accepts their request to go out with him, having been inside his parents house for days. Pete and his friends meet up with Pete's girlfriend Sheila (Natasha Gregson Wagner) and two of her girlfriends. At a bowling alley with a bar in the back, they have drinks and dance. Sheila asks Pete about his whereabouts for the last several days, but Pete can't remember. She remarks that he looks and appears "different". The next day, Pete returns to work at an auto repair garage where he is welcomed back by the owner Arnie (Richard Pryor) and his co-workers. Pete is called on by Mr. Eddy (Robert Loggia), a charming but hot-tempered gangster, to tune up his Mercedes. Mr. Eddy takes Pete for a drive so that he can listen to the problem in the engine, which Pete fixes. During a drive along a mountain road overlooking Los Angeles, a pushy and belligerent motorist tailgates their vehicle, causing the gangster to erupt into a fit of road rage. Mr. Eddy chases down the tailgater and forces him off the road. Mr. Eddy and his two bodyguards drag the man out of his car where Mr. Eddy pistol whips him while profanely berating him about road safety, a display of violence that shocks Pete. Mr. Eddy drops Pete back at the garage where he is spotted by the two detectives, Hank and Lou. Hank identifies Mr. Eddy as a certain criminal named Dick Laurent. Hank and Lou follow Pete when he goes out that evening with Sheila. As the couple make out in Pete's car, she questions him on his moody behavior, but Pete maintains that he is just as confused as Sheila about recent events. They have sex in the front seat. The next day while at work, Pete becomes disturbed by the sounds of a saxophone playing on a radio (the same saxophone sounds that Fred Madison used to play) and switches the channels. An older mechanic named Phil (Jack Nance) asks Pete why he changed the channel. Pete only says that he doesn't like to hear that music. Later that same day, Mr. Eddy returns to the garage with his Cadillac for Pete to tune up and repair, accompanied by his beautiful blonde girlfriend, Alice Wakefield (Patricia Arquette in a dual role). She and Pete make eye contact and we feel the chemistry ignite between these two characters. At the end of the day, Alice returns to the garage to pick up the car and invites Pete out for dinner. Against his better judgment, Pete begins a secret liaison with Alice, meeting her at the Starlite Motel. Hank and Lou continue to keep tabs on Pete, his affair with Alice giving them even more reason to connect him with Mr. Eddy/Dick Laurent and possible criminal activity. As the days wear on, Pete begins to experience headaches and hallucinations similar to Fred's. One evening, Alice phones Pete to cancel their nightly get-together, Pete instead rides his motorcycle through the city. Pete takes Sheila to a motel where he has rough sex with her, driven to satisfy passions awakened in him by the hot-blooded Alice. Later that night, Pete returns home to find his worried parents seated in the dimly-lit living room waiting to confront him. They tell Pete that the police just phoned them asking more questions about the night Pete vanished and to ask if Pete remembers anything. Pete continues to maintain that he has no memory about that night. Bill and Candace tell Pete that he returned home from a date with Sheila and there was a man with him that they never saw before (presumably the Mystery Man). Pete tries to remember that night and remembers (through a brief point-of-view shot) of being on the front lawn of his house with blue lighting flashing in the background. Sheila and his parents are seen running after him, calling his name, while from the point-of-view shot shows us as if Pete is being picked up by an unseen force and pulled through a supernatural-like vortex; (brief video still images of Renee's dead body are shown). Bill and Candace indicate that they saw more but refuse to discuss whatever they saw with Pete. The next day, Mr. Eddy pays Pete another visit at the garage where he brandishes a gun while making a veiled threat on Pete's life. He claims that he would kill anyone whom he caught fooling around with Alice. After work, Pete secretly visits Alice at the Starlight Motel. She tells him that Mr. Eddy suspects her and Pete of seeing each other. Alice reveals to Pete that Mr. Eddy is actually a porno producer named Dick Laurent. In a short flashback sequence, Alice tells Pete a story about how Mr. Eddy coerced her into a relationship with him by inviting her to his mansion where a thug literally held a gun to her head and forced her to strip off her clothes for Mr. Eddy. After finishing her story, Pete remains unconvinced that Alice is only a reluctant partner in this relationship, insisting "you liked it, huh?" Alice presents Pete with a plan to steal money from a friend of hers so they can leave town. She tells Pete that on the following night, she will meet with Mr. Eddy's associate Andy, a man who works with recruiting young woman to work in Mr. Eddy's porn videos (the same Andy who knew Renee in the first half of the story) at Andy's house. She'll facilitate Pete's entry into the house so that they can both rob Andy and use the money to run away together. Pete is wary of trusting Alice, but also overwhelmed by his desire to have her. That same evening when Pete comes home, he is confronted outside his house by an enraged Sheila over his infidelity. She accuses him of being "different," and tries to persuade Bill and Candace to tell Pete the truth about "that night," but they remain close-lipped. As Sheila runs off into the night, the phone rings inside Pete's house. The caller is Mr. Eddy, who, along with his associate, the Mystery Man, threatens Pete again, this time more directly. Frightened, Pete calls Alice and agrees to help with her plan tonight. Late that night, Pete sneaks out of his house and away from the two detectives in their parked squad car. He takes a local bus across the west end of the city and then walks to Andy's house and enters through the back door that Alice has left unlocked. As planned, Alice sends Andy downstairs at 11:15 pm to fix her a drink and Pete knocks him unconscious. On a huge projection screen in the center of the living room, a black-and-white porno of Alice having sex plays in a loop. Pete also sees a framed group photo of Andy, Mr. Eddy, Alice and Renee, and asks Alice whether the nearly identical women are both her. She simply points to the blonde woman and tells Pete that it's her, mentioning nothing about the dark-haired Renee. Suddenly, Andy comes to and attacks Pete. Pete pushes Andy off of him, throwing the man across the room where he impales his forehead on the corner of a glass coffee table, a freak accident that kills him instantly. Pete, now suffering a nosebleed, is horrified by the nasty turn of events, but Alice seems untroubled, coolly removing Andy's jewelry and gathering other valuables. Pete stumbles upstairs, hallucinating a motel hallway where a nightmarish version of Alice taunts Pete while having sex with a faceless man. When Pete returns from upstairs, Alice has a semi-automatic pistol, pointing it at him. But she is only looking at it for it is Andy's gun, and she gives it to Pete for safekeeping. Pete and Alice flee in Andy's red sports car. They arrive at a small cabin in the desert... the very same cabin seen burning (with the flames in reverse) in both Fred's and Pete's visions. This is where Alice plans to meet the "fence" who will give them cash for the stolen goods. Alice looks around but finds the cabin empty aside from some old furniture. While waiting for the arrival of the fence, Alice and Pete make love on the desert sand in front of the parked car. In the throes of passion, Pete whispers to Alice over and over that he wants her. Alice finally replies coldly: "you'll never have me." Alice gets up and walks away, stark nude, into the desert cabin, leaving the distraught Pete lying on the sand. Then as he rises from the sand and turns around, we now see that it is not Pete.... but Fred Madison, who seems to have exchanged places with Pete once again. Fred puts his clothes on and searches the desert cabin. He sees no trace of Alice-- instead he meets the Mystery Man again. When Fred asks where is Alice, the Mystery Man angrily informs Fred that Alice's name is not Alice, it's Renee... and he demands to know who Fred is. The Mystery Man then points a video camera at Fred and begins to film him (confirming that the Mystery Man was the one who sent the videotapes to Fred and Renee), slowly coming closer and closer. Fred flees the menacing gaze of the man and the camera, running back to Andy's car and driving away just before the Mystery Man's outstretched arm reaches him. Fred drives to the Lost Highway Motel, a nightmarish place in the middle of the desert, and sees Renee check into a room with Mr. Eddy/Dick Laurent. Fred enters the adjoining room and hears them having sex. A while later, Renee leaves Mr. Eddy and drives away. Fred then breaks into Mr. Eddy's room just as he is preparing to leave and grabs him. The Mystery Man watches from Fred's room as Fred forces Mr. Eddy into the trunk of the Mercedes and drives off. Somewhere in the desert, Fred stops the car and gets out to open the trunk, at which point Mr. Eddy leaps out and attacks him. The Mystery Man suddenly appears and gives Fred a knife to slash Mr. Eddy's throat. In answer to Mr. Eddy's question "What do you guys want?" the Mystery Man produces a mini TV, the screen of which shows Renee and Mr. Eddy watching a snuff film while engaged in foreplay beside the projector while Andy and a small group of people watch the snuff/porn film. The Mystery Man shoots Mr. Eddy to death and whispers something inaudible to Fred. The Mystery Man disappears and Fred (now holding the gun) drives off in Mr. Eddy's Mercedes, leaving Mr. Eddy's body in the desert wilderness as dawn starts to break. Back at Andy's house, all four of the police detectives, Al and Ed (who interacted with Fred and Renee), Hank and Lou (who tailed Pete), investigate the crime scene after Andy's dead body was found by some of his women. One of them notices the group photo of Renee, Mr. Eddy/Dick Laurent and Andy. Alice is no longer in the photo. (Note: all traces of Alice in the photo and the living room are gone... as if she never existed.) The detectives identify the woman in the photo as "Fred Madison's wife" and note that the photo links her with Dick Laurent. However, the fingerprints all over the crime scene belong to Pete Dayton, now the prime suspect in Andy's murder. One of the detectives states: "You know what I think? I think there's no such thing as a bad coincidence." In the final scene, things come full circle as Fred, still driving Mr. Eddy's Mercedes and wearing Pete's clothes, drives to his house where it's revealed that he is the person who leaves the cryptic message that Fred (in the past) heard through the intercom at the beginning of the movie: "Dick Laurent is dead." Just then, the two police detectives, Al and Ed, pull up in their squad car and see Fred standing at the front door of his old house and move in to arrest him. Seeing the detectives advancing towards him, Fred runs back to the Mercedes, jumps in, and drives off with the detectives in hot pursuit. As darkness falls, Fred speeds down the desert highway with several police cars close behind. As he enters the dark vortex on the lost highway, Fred screams as his head begins to shake and his features blur as he begins physically transforming again into another person. The scream fades and we're left with the same image from the opening credits-- a dark, two-lane highway that rushes silently past with no surrounding landscape or apparent destination.

A widower`s son calls a radio talk show in an attempt to find his father a partner.

A young college coed is leaving school for the day. She jumps on her bike and heads home. Upon arriving, she calls out to her cat to come for her meal. She spies the cat cowering under a table, growling softly. Just as she comes close to reassure her cat, a mysterious figure comes out from the shadow and violently attacks her. Quick cut to college professor Andy Safian (Bill Pullman) and Detective Dana Harris (Bebe Neuwirth) at the hospital discussing the ongoing problems with campus security. Jed Hill (Alec Baldwin), the new surgeon at St. Agnes hospital works feverishly to save the girl, even though he is told "we're going to lose her." The surgery is successful. In the locker room, Hill tells the surgeon who made the comment that while he wants to make new friends, if he ever says something like that again, he will remove his lungs with a ice cream scoop. Andy and Jed meet to discuss the girl's condition. After a moment, Andy realizes that he knew him from their old high school, Van Buren. They hope to see each other around. Andy goes to see his wife, Tracy Kessinger (Nicole Kidman), at work. As they talk in the elevator, Dr. Hill steps in with a colleague. They are invited to a reception to welcome Jed to the hospital. They politely decline and leave. As they walk along the street, they talk about the new plumbing for their Victorian house will cost them $14,000. Tracy suggests renting out the third floor to a tenant, but Andy refuses. He also suggests that she be very careful coming home from work, a maniac being on the loose. When she arrives home. Andy notices his wife getting out of the car with a man, who gives her a gentle peck on the cheek. She had told him she was coming home with a woman. She claims the man is a lawyer who is handling old business with her mother's estate. Andy apologizes. Later, they are eating Chinese food in bed and she seductively feeds him and she gently gyrates on his lap. They begin to have sex, when Andy quickly turns off the light, noticing their next door neighbor's young son is watching them. (He assumes this because of the silhouette in the window). Tracy doesn't seem bothered by it, since the mother works nights and the boy might just be lonely. The next morning, Andy is sanding the stair railing, and is surprised by Jed's appearance in the front doorway. They have a pleasant conversation and Jed invites him to go out for a drink. Jed happens to point out a Degas statue and asks if it's the real thing. Andy assumes it is. As they are drinking, Andy lets it slip that his wife has been having trouble getting pregnant. He mentions a doctor named Lillianfield that Tracy has been going to. Jed says he "is a good man." When he gets home, he suggests to Tracy that Jed take the third floor as a tenant. Tracy does not seem thrilled with the idea, even suggesting that Andy is doing it to relive his high school years again, hanging with the star quarterback. When she finds out that Andy discussed her problem with Jed, she is annoyed, but not mad. She gives in and says it's OK for Jed to move in. The doorbell rings and she asks Andy if he wants to bet if it's Jed. He says no. "Because when money is involved, you take me seriously," she mutters. Detective Harris comes in while Andy is in the middle of a session with Paula Bell (Gwenyth Paltrow). He asks his secretary to make sure she gets a wake up call in order to not miss her next class. Harris tells Andy that not much progress is being made on getting the rapist. Andy laments that he is tired of seeing students leaving the school for fear of their safety. She asks for a list of people who have access to the student's schedules. Tracy comes home and prepares to take a bath. Her pain shoots up again and she is startled when Jed appears in the bathroom to check on her. They share a long glance as they hear Andy announce that he is home. Later that night, Jed is involved in a sexual marathon with one of the nurses from the hospital. Tracy is extremely annoyed because the noise is keeping her awake. As Andy is about to go ask him to hold it down, the noise stops. The nurse jokes with him that the only reason he is a doctor is for the money and women. He laughs, and jokes about his tolerance with alcohol. After coming out of the bathroom, Tracy stares coldly as the nurse runs naked to the upstairs bathroom. The next day. Andy is annoyed that Paula still has not shown up for her appointment. After talking to his secretary, he decides to go to her house to check on her. He arrives and the house is completely quiet. He calls out for her, but gets no answer. The front door is open, so he lets himself inside. He then notices the back door is slightly ajar and that a lock of her hair is on the floor. He walks out back and notices one of her shoes. He then approaches the hedges and finds her brutalized body hidden inside. Detective Harris says he will need to provide a statement. Leter, Jed tries to cheer up Andy at the bar. He relays a story about the first time he saw a dead body in medical school. After Jed makes a comment about pro athletes not being able to stay clean for a million dollars, Andy says he would "give his right arm" for a million. Jed presses him on it, saying what if was a surgical procedure. Would he do it? Andy says no, as does Jed after cracking an ice cube in his mouth. Andy heads home as Jed decides to check on the local women playing darts. Andy comes home and Harris is waiting for him. She tells him there is circumstantial evidence tying him to the rapes. He is outraged at being considered a suspect. She then tells him he needs to come to the station to provide some sperm to rule him out. Reluctantly, he agrees to go. Tracy comes home and her pain is now unbearable. She calls out for Andy, but he is still at the station. She calls 911. While chatting it up with the dart ladies and drinking bourbon, Jed is paged to the hospital, where he sees that Tracy is the person he needs to operate on. Back at the station Andy is ruled out as a suspect and as he is leaving, is told his wife called 911. He rushes to the hospital. It turns out one of her ovaries has ruptured and needs to be removed. They discover that she was four weeks pregnant, but she miscarries due to the trauma. A doctor notices a problem with the second ovary and Jed says they need to get a histology report to make sure it isn't still a live ovary. They realize they don't have the time to do it. Jed goes out and tells Andy the options. They can remove the ovary and she'll be fine (but never able to have kids). Or they can leave the ovary in and hope she does not die from toxic shock. Andy says to do whatever he needs to. He tells Andy that she was four weeks pregnant, but the baby is gone. Jed goes in and against the advice of fellow surgeons, he removes the other ovary. Later, it comes to light that he removed a healthy ovary. Jed has the chance to bury the report, but declines. He stands by his judgement call. The turn of events destroys Tracy. She tells Andy she is leaving him, and she files a lawsuit against Jed Hill, for $20 million. At the deposition, Jed is made out to be a top notch surgeon, but has a "God-complex". He states that when people go into the chapel and pray to God that their loved ones will be alright, who does the lawyer think they are praying to. "You ask me if I have a God complex. Let me tell you something. I am God." He then gets up and walks out. Tracy's lawyer then mentions they know he was drinking the night of her surgery. They decide to settle. Tracy doesn't seem to care about the money. As she exits the building, she notices Andy across the street. She shoots him a cold stare and then leaves in her lawyer's car. Back at work, Andy is working late into the night, when one of his bulbs goes out. He goes downstairs and finds the janitor (Tobin Bell) has a makeshift place and is living down there. He finds a lock of hair on the night table as well as in a cigar box. He is startled when he appears behind him. He explains that he got kicked out of his old place and this is just temporary. Andy says not to worry about it and leaves. As he is walking away, he is jumped from behind and he ends up fighting him off and rendering him unconscious. At the station, Detective Harris invites Andy to get a drink. While there, she talks about how her family accuses her of wielding her honesty like a blunt instrument. She tells him that there is something he needs to know about his wife. Something important. He goes back to the station with her. Later, he goes to Jed's hotel to tell him that the baby was not his. It turns out that Andy is sterile (which cleared him of the rapes). Jed tells him it doesn't change anything regarding his situation. He feels bad for Andy and says that bad things happen to good people all the time, for no good reason. Andy, suspecting that maybe Tracy's lawyer is the father, goes to confront him. Andy barges in and accuses her lawyer (Peter Gallagher) of having an affair with his wife. He says he did not. But since he cannot give him any information about where she is, he should talk to her friends or mother. Andy says he should know her mother is dead, since he handled her estate. He says he never did. As he is leaving, he suggests that Andy bring her a bottle of scotch. Andy arrives and uses the bottle of scotch to entice Tracy's mother (Anne Bancroft) to open the door. They talk about Tracy's childhood, how she always stashed away any money she had, how her father abandoned her and took her hidden money. As she is drinking, she laughs about how gullible Andy is. He says he knows she has been there because of the Degas statue on her mantle. She laughs and say you can get one of them anywhere. She then tries to get him to do a card trick, and asks him to bet. He says no. "Because when money is involved, you take me seriously." She then tells him he should just "get into the game" and go for the $20 million himself. When he brings up Dr. Lillianfield, she smiles and tells him "Welcome to the game." He finds Lillianfield's address through a ruse using a change of address excuse. He finds out the address and lies in wait inside the house. He hears Tracy as she comes in the door. To his horror, Dr Lillianfield turns out to be Jed Hill. They kiss passionately as she orders him to take her upstairs and have sex with her. After they go upstairs, Andy leaves the house, devastated. He goes home and knocks a bunch of items from her dresser to the floor. But, he notices something odd. There is a syringe with some liquid still inside of it. He then notices the neighbor's son's silhouette again, playing on his keyboard. As they walk along the beach the next morning, Jed laments about how his mentor wrote him a letter saying he was sorry about everything. While Tracy finds it amusing, Jed is upset that his mentor never apologized about not giving him the chief of staff job at Mass General. They kiss and head back to the house to make love again. While she is laying on the bed, a syringe sticks her. Jed realizes that now Andy knows what it going on, that he has been in the house. Jed rehashes the plan and lets Tracy know the improvised part of her getting pregnant was what tipped Andy off. He figured out there was no Dr Lillianfield. Tracy says to let her handle him. At a bar/restaurant, Tracy acts all loving and seductive with Andy, trying to convince him that things can go back to normal. She runs her foot up his leg, until Andy tells her that she dropped her shoe. She realizes that her ploy is not working. She then goes on the attack, trying to intimidate him, saying that if he goes to the police, that will make him look crazy. She gets up and wishes him "happy hunting." Andy then tells her to sit down. He tells her he knows what was in the syringe and that the lab guys told him that the substance in the syringe could cause the ovarian cysts she got if injected in massive doses. He then suggests that maybe he should have put curtains up in the bedroom because someone might have seen her injecting herself to cause the cysts. Enraged, she shatters a wine glass in her hand. He then warns her that if anything is to happen to him, the police will go to her neighbor's son. He wants half the money. Back at the house, Jed suggests strongly they give him the money and they should leave the country. He tells her they don't have a choice. She then suggests that without the kid, there is no case. He is horrified by the suggestion. He then slaps her and tells her not to bring it up again. If something happens to the kid, he will be the state's star witness against her. She then pulls out a gun and kills him. Tracy waits outside her former neighbor's house and waits for her to leave. She calls Andy and tells him she has his money. He gives her a meeting place and then heads out in his car. After he leaves, she approaches the neighbor's house. She then silently walks upstairs and slowly approaches the boy with plastic wrap, while he is playing his keyboard as usual. She puts it around his head, only to find that it is really a CPR dummy from the police station. Tracy goes ballistic, smashing the dummy on the keyboard. Andy turns out the light and taunts her saying, "Like shooting tuna in a barrel, huh?" She lunges for him and they fall through a bannister and land on the floor. As she is about to get up, Detective Harris, dressed as the neighbor (she is a nurse), stomps on a piece of wood Tracy is preparing to pick up saying "I won't mind shooting you." She tells Andy he may need a doctor. He laughs. Tracy is led out to the police car and sees the neighbor and her blind son go back into the house. She is stunned. She looks at Andy with a mixture of sadness, shock and, belatedly, respect. The car drives off and Harris and Andy sit on his porch. She suggests he needs ice. He says he'll take his with some scotch. They head off in her car.

The story concerns a small group of 20-somethings who live and work in Seattle. Some of them are friends, even close friends, while others are acquaintances who inhabit the periphery of the plot. Linda Powell works for an organization that deals with environmental concerns. She meets a young U-Dub (Univ of Washington) student, Luiz, who is a foreigner. She's flattered by the attention and the two begin dating. Linda is quite happy, telling a friend that the relationship feels new and exciting and that she and Luiz don't seem to be hindered by the usual problems that couples faced or that she faced in the past. She goes so far as to give him the remote control for her garage parking space, saying he's always welcome. At a later point, Luiz tells her he's having problems with his student visa and has to leave the country for a few days to straighten it out. Linda goes out to a rock club with her friend and spots Luiz at the bar with another woman. Linda leaves upset, being consoled outside by her friend. We're introduced to Steve Dunne while he talks to the audience in his kitchen. Steve lives in an east side apartment building where several of the story's other characters live. Steve laments a recent breakup with a girlfriend and relates a few anecdotes about his own life like the time a doctor tried to explain how couples have children or how his father told him "Have fun, stay single", when Steve was only eight years old. Steve works for a firm that does city planning and hopes that one day his ambitious personal product of building a luxurious commuter train for the city's workforce may be a way to solve the problems of pollution and traffic problems created by drivers. By chance, Steve sees Linda in a rock club and approaches her. Over the din of the live band, Alice in Chains, he tries to convince her he's not a sleazy guy looking only for sex by saying that he doesn't have an "act". She counters, saying that "not having an act *is* [his] act." Steve walks away rejected. A few days later, while at a magazine rack with his friend Dave, Steve bumps into Linda again and the two have a conversation. They go on a date and seem to enjoy each other's company, however, Steve, feeling somewhat doubtful and insecure, doesn't call her back for four days. He still convinces her to give him one more chance and while talking at Steve's apartment, Steve tries to give her the remote to his garage parking space. Linda is immediately defensive, saying she has to leave, reminded of how she gave her remote to Luiz. She goes home and as she's settling in, Steve rings her doorbell. Overwhelmed, Linda jumps into his arms and kisses him, taking him upstairs to her place. The two have sex and become more serious about each other. After a few weeks, Linda drops a bomb: her period is late. Steve buys several home pregnancy tests and the results come back positive. Steve asks her to marry him. Linda has her doubts and leaves her answer ambiguous. While driving, Linda runs a red light and is violently broadsided by a pickup truck. She goes into shock after a few moments and wakes up in a hospital room with minor injuries, however she has lost the baby. Depressed, she decides to tell Steve she's going to Alaska for a few weeks for her job. The two don't acknowledge it right away, but they're breaking up. Steve becomes very depressed but still soldiers on with work. One of the mayor's aides gets him lunch with the mayor where Steve can pitch his commuter train. The mayor coldly rejects the proposal outright, saying he's seen such ideas before and that Seattlelites love their cars too much. Steve becomes more depressed than ever, quits his job and holes up in his apartment which soon becomes a nightmare of strewn trash and unopened mail. Janet, one of his neighbors and a good friend, visits him and tells him that he needs to snap out of his depression before it consumes him. She gives him a secret knock to let him know she'll be checking up on him in the future. Steve begins to clean up his place and look for another job. While waiting for a response to one of his applications, Janet's secret knock sounds at the door. He opens it to find Linda standing there. She's willing to give their relationship another try. Janet Livermore is a 23-yr-old who works in a downtown coffee shop. She has a boyfriend, Cliff Poncier, the lead singer of a local rock/punk band called Citizen Dick. Cliff works three jobs between gigs, is very dedicated to getting his band a recording contract (even though they're not very popular in the Seattle music scene and often receive negative reviews both for live performances & a recently recorded album) and isn't very attentive to Janet, who's crazy about him. Janet becomes somewhat obsessed with her breast size, especially since Cliff decorates the walls of his apartment with posters of big-breasted women. She asks Cliff if her breasts are too small & he gives her an honest "Sometimes." She makes an appointment with a plastic surgeon and the two work out a computer model of what size she'd like to be. When she goes for the procedure, Steve takes her and she tells him what she's looking for in a man; someone who has their own place, a steady job, is responsible and appreciates her and who'll say "God bless you" when she sneezes. Steve tells her it's a "tall order" and she says she's narrowed the list down considerably to someone who will say "God bless you" when she sneezes. She later puts Cliff to that test, issuing a fake sneeze while sitting next to him and he coldly hands her a box of tissues asking her not to get him sick before his next gig. The doctor surprises her with what he calls a first of his career: he tells her he thinks she doesn't need the surgery and that if Cliff can't appreciate her for who she is then he doesn't deserve her. He also tells her he's attracted to her but she very kindly turns him down, saying he's a doctor and handsome and should be able to attract lots of beautiful women. Janet decides to break up with Cliff and makes the best of her single life, regrouping and enjoying her solitude. Cliff tries to win her back by placing rose petals arranged in her name in her kitchen and putting a new stereo in her car. (When Cliff demonstrates how the remote works, he turns the volume up so loud that it shatters all the windows in the car.) Another of Steve's neighbors, Debbie, is also looking for love and romance and uses a gift certificate she'd gotten from her friends for a video dating service -- they originally got it for her as a gag gift. A budding socialite, Debbie has the video made (the director is played by Tim Burton in a cameo) and receives videos from several candidates, some of whom are desperate, others who are pretentious. She narrows the field to one guy, Jamie, who is a bike riding enthusiast and seems genuine. Debbie goes a overboard, buying an expensive bike, a gaudy riding outfit and makes a date with Jamie at a posh waterfront restaurant. On the big day, however, Debbie goes to the wrong location of the restaurant and misses Jamie entirely. She rides home to see if Jamie left any messages and finds him there talking happily with her roommate Pam, whom he knew from college. Debbie is immediately jealous and accuses Pam of stealing her date. Since Pam has never been very fond of Debbie, the two start a loud argument that Jamie overhears. Debbie demands that Pam pay her money equivalent to the cost of the video. Jamie decides to retreat from them both. Spurned, Debbie takes a vacation she'd been planning in Cabo San Lucas. On the flight down she sits next to a precocious pre-teen boy who hits on her. When the flight lands, she meets the boy's single father who compliments her gaudy earrings and Debbie is immediately floored. The two hit it off and begin a long distance relationship that seems promising. Cliff helps Debbie move out when she and Stu decide to move in together. Cliff eventually realizes that he can only win Janet back if he treats her better. He leaves a message on her answering machine, singing a new song he'd written for her. He meets her in the elevator of the building when they're both going out for the evening. He compliments her, sounding very sincere. When she suddenly sneezes, he says "Bless you". The two of them embrace passionately. The film ends with an overhead shot of the apartment building that zooms out to show the Seattle skyline with dozens of young voices chattering about love, relationships and complaints.

A psycho-killer with mommy issues, a charming crooked cowboy and their girl steal some jewels. The cowboy decides not to share and goes on the run with the loot. A crazy chase across the country between former partners in crime begins.

An aging patriarch unites all of his family members for his birthday, but the familial assemblage is teeming with personal and social problems. A man's family reunites for his 77th birthday. He loves all of his children and grandchildren; he doesn't exactly connect with his children, but he connects with his grandchildren much better. When he tells them what he really wants for his birthday, they do what they can to grant his wish. —rcs0411@yahoo.com

An emotionally distant writer of travel guides must carry on with his life after his son is killed and his marriage crumbles. After the death of his son, Macon Leary, a travel writer, seems to be sleep walking through life. Macon's wife, seems to be having trouble too, and thinks it would be best if the two would just split up. After the break up, Macon meets a strange outgoing woman, who seems to bring him back down to earth. After starting a relationship with the outgoing woman, Macon's wife seems to think that their marriage is still worth a try. Macon is then forced to deal many decisions —Justin Sharp <rainman88@earthlink.net> After the murder of their young son, the marriage between Macon and his wife Sarah disintegrates, and she moves out. After a freak accident puts him on crutches, Macon goes to stay with his quirky siblings at the family home, where he meets the spirited Muriel, a dog trainer with a young son of her own, with whom he begins a friendship. When Sarah learns about this, she attempts a reconciliation and Macon is forced to make a decision. —Jwelch5742 Macon Leary is the author of a travel book for people who want to travel with the minimum fuss and as little impact as possible on their lives. Arriving back from a working trip, his wife announces she can no longer deal with the fact that he is dealing with the death of their son the same way that he travels: with minimum impact. Macon subsequently meets the quirky Muriel, who it seems is just the opposite to Macon. —Murray Chapman <muzzle@cs.uq.oz.au>

An anthropologist goes to Haiti to research a drug that makes someone appear dead by suspending all vital signs. In 1985, after a successful research in Amazonas, Dr. Dennis Alan from Harvard is invited by the president of a Boston pharmaceutics industry, Andrew Cassedy, to travel to Haiti to investigate the case of a man named Christophe that died in 1978 and has apparently returned to life. Andrew wants samples of the voodoo drug that was used in Christophe to be tested with the intention of producing a powerful anesthetic. Dr. Alan travels to meet Dr. Marielle Duchamp that is treating Christophe and arrives in Haiti in a period of revolution. Soon Alan is threatened by the chief of the feared Tonton Macuse Dargent Peytraud, who is a torturer and powerful witch. Alan learns that death is not the end in the beginning of his journey to hell. —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Dennis Allan is a scientist who visits Haiti on the strength of a rumour of a drug which renders the recipient totally paralyzed but conscious. The drug's effects often fool doctors, who declare the victims dead. Could this be the origin of the "zombie" legend? Alan embarks on a surprising and often surreal investigation of the turbulent social chaos that is Haiti during the revolution which ousted hated dictator "Baby Doc" Duvalier. Often a pawn in a greater game, Alan must decide what is science, what is superstition, and what is the unknown in a anarchistic society where police corruption and witch-doctory are commonplace. —Murray Chapman <muzzle@cs.uq.oz.au>

Planet Spaceball, led by President Skroob (Mel Brooks), has wasted all of its air. Skroob schemes to steal air from their peace-loving neighboring planet Druidia by kidnapping the daughter of King Roland (Dick Van Patten), Princess Vespa (Daphne Zuniga), on the day of her already arranged wedding to the narcoleptic Prince Valium (Jim J. Bullock). Vespa says that she does not love Valium, but Roland replies that Valium is the last prince left in the Galaxy and as per the rules, a Princess can only marry a Prince. Skroob wants to force Druidia's ruler King Roland to give him the code to the shield surrounding the planet. Druidia has 10,000 years of fresh air. Skroob sends Dark Helmet (Rick Moranis) to complete this task with Spaceball One, an impossibly huge ship piloted by Colonel Sandurz (George Wyner). Before they can arrive, Vespa herself abandons her marriage and flees the planet along with her Droid of Honor, Dot Matrix (Joan Rivers), in her personal Mercedes spaceship. Spaceball One closes in on Vespa and her spaceship and starts firing warning shots across her bow. Vespa is terrified and calls her father to get her some help. King Roland contacts the mercenary Captain Lone Starr (Bill Pullman) and his Mawg (half-man, half-dog) sidekick, Barf (John Candy), offering a lucrative reward to retrieve Vespa before she is captured. Lone Starr readily accepts, as he is in major debt with the space gangster Pizza the Hutt (Dom DeLuise). Lone Starr owed 100,000 Spacebucks, but Pizza the Hutt who says that the due amount is 1 million Spacebucks due to the late charges. They are contacted by Pizza the Hutt and his robotic minion Vinny to retrieve the money they owe them "or else Pizza is going to send out for you". Lone Starr and Barf, in their Winnebago spaceship (Eagle 5), reach Vespa before Spaceball One (they scramble the radar of the Spaceball One, but throwing a bottle of Jam at their radar), rescue her and Dot, and escape into hyperspace. When the radar is repaired, Dark Helmet realizes that Vespa has been taken by Lone Starr and decides to go after them. Dark Helmet and a reluctant Sandurz use "Ludicrous Speed", but heavily overshoot the group when they try to follow. Vespa is livid at being rescued in such a filthy spaceship such as the Eagle 5. While being rescued, she demanded that Barf carry her matched luggage to the Eagle 5. Running out of fuel, the Eagle 5 crew and passengers crash on the nearby desert "Moon of Vega". The four escapees travel on foot for a while, but ultimately pass out in the relentless heat. They are found by the Dink-Dinks, a group of diminutive aliens in sparkly robes, and taken to the hidden cave of the wise old sage Yogurt (Mel Brooks). Yogurt introduces Lone Starr to the power of "The Schwartz". Yogurt also introduces the audience to the film's merchandising campaign, which becomes prevalent throughout the rest of the film. During their respite on the moon, Lone Starr and Vespa begin to flirt, but Vespa insists she can only be married to a prince. Lone Starr shows Yogurt a medallion bearing an indecipherable message that was found with him when he was abandoned as a baby. The Spaceballs break the fourth wall by going through a VHS copy of the film to locate the Eagle 5's whereabouts. Helmet disguises himself as Roland to lure Vespa and Dot out of the cave. The Spaceballs capture Vespa and return with her to the planet Spaceball. The Spaceballs threaten to reverse Vespa's nose job, forcing Roland to give over the code to the shield that protects Druidia. Dark Helmet takes Spaceball One to Druidia, and transforms the ship into Mega Maid, a giant robotic maid with a vacuum cleaner that begins sucking the air from the planet. As Lone Starr and Barf prepare to chase Helmet, Yogurt gives Lone Starr a ring that he can use to channel the Schwartz. Lone Starr, with Yogurt's help in repairing his ship and training in the Schwartz, races to the planet Spaceball to rescue Vespa. Lone Starr and Barf infiltrate the prison and break them out, and all four escape in Eagle 5 while leaving their stunt doubles to be captured. Spaceball One transforms itself into a giant maid (Mega-Maid), opens the shield, and uses a vacuum cleaner (vacuum of space) to suck the air from Druidia. Lone Starr taps into the Schwartz to reverse the flow and return the air (saving Roland and the Druidians), then pilots Eagle 5 into the head of Mega-Maid. Lone Starr finds a self-destruct button, but Helmet interrupts and they engage in a duel using light-saber-like weapons that extend from their Schwartz rings. Helmet steals Lone Starr's ring and drops it through a floor grate, but Lone Starr gets a telepathic message from Yogurt telling him that the power lies within him instead of the ring. As Helmet prepares to attack, Lone Starr levitates a mirror and reflects Helmet's blast, knocking him into the self-destruct button. Lone Starr returns to Eagle 5 and pilots it to safety. Skroob, Helmet and Sandurz fail to reach any escape pods in time and discover the "cancellation button" is out of order as Mega-Maid explodes. Lone Starr and Barf discover that Pizza the Hutt had locked himself in a limousine and ate himself to death, absolving them of the debt. The duo return Vespa and Dot to Roland, but take only enough money to cover their expenses. The remnants of the Mega-Maid crash-land on a nearby planet populated by intelligent apes, who express dismay at the stranded Spaceballs. After being scared by a singing Xenomorph at a diner, Lone Starr and Barf find a final message from Yogurt hidden in a fortune cookie, telling them that Lone Starr's medallion means he is a prince and can thus marry Vespa. The two return to Druidia just in time to stop her wedding to Valium, and Lone Starr announces his royal lineage and marries Vespa. The film ends with them riding off in Eagle 5 and a message to the audience stating, "May the Schwartz Be With You".