Cliff Robertson

On August 23, 2000, an earthquake reaching 9.6 magnitude hits the city of Los Angeles, causing it to be separated from the continental mainland by flooding the San Fernando Valley (now called the "San Fernando Sea") and turning it into an island from Malibu to Anaheim. Just prior to this, an American presidential candidate (an obscure reference to Jerry Falwell; played by Cliff Robertson), who is also an out-spoken, Christian theocracist, had made a doomsday prediction of the disaster during his campaign, saying L.A. was a "city of sin", and that; "Like the mighty hand of God, waters will rise up and separate this sinful, sinful city, from our country." In the chaos that followed, the candidate is elected as the new President and a new constitutional amendment appoints him for life in office. This President declares that all people not conforming to the new "Moral America" laws he sets for the country (banning such things as smoking, alcoholic beverages, red meat, owning firearms, profanity, non-Christian religions (including atheism), and non-marital sex) will lose their citizenship and be deported to Los Angeles Island. Like New York City in Escape from New York, Los Angeles is turned into a penal colony of sorts. A containment wall is built around the shores of the mainland, armed guards and watchtowers are posted everywhere and those sent to the island are exiled permanently. In 2013, Cuervo Jones (Georges Corraface), a Che Guevara-like Shining Path Peruvian Revolutionary, seduces the President's daughter, Utopia (A.J. Langer), via a holographic internet system and brainwashes her into stealing her father's remote control to the "Sword of Damocles" super weapon a series of high-tech satellites capable of destroying electronics anywhere on the planet using a focused electromagnetic pulse. The President had threatened to use the system to render enemies of America "unable to function", and eventually dominate the world. Utopia gets away in an escape pod from Air Force Three and lands on L.A. Island to be with Cuervo. With the satellites under his control, Cuervo promises to take back America with the assistance of an allied invasion force of Latin American nations that are standing by for his signal to attack. Cuervo threatens that if the President tries to stop him, he'll "pull the plug" on the country and demonstrates his power by blacking out the capital (which has been moved to the President's hometown of Lynchburg, Virginia, also the real-life hometown of Jerry Falwell). Cuervo also knows the secret "world code", (which is 666), that can activate all the satellites and knock out power for the entire planet. Meanwhile, Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell), is captured for another series of crimes. The Duty Sergeant (Peter Jason) welcomes Snake to the deportation area, but he instead escorts Snake and leaves him in a vacant room. A minute later, the President, the police base camp commander Malloy (Stacey Keech Jr.) and his aide Brazen (Michelle Forbes) arrive and offer him a deal: Snake will go to the island as an exile to retrieve the remote device. The President says he will give Snake a full pardon for all the crimes he has ever committed if he is successful. The President indicates he doesn't care if Utopia is returned or not, saying she is a traitor and "dead to me". Initially, Snake refuses to get involved, but to ensure his compliance, Malloy tells Snake that he was secretly infected minutes earlier with the man-made Plutoxin 7 virus which will kill him in 10 hours. If he completes the mission, Snake will be given the antidote. Snake is given a sub-machine gun, a personal holographic projector, a thermal-camouflage overcoat, and a countdown clock for how long he has to live. The virus works fast, and Snake is given a device to records the minutes counting down from 10 hours to find the device and get out before he dies. Like New York, Los Angeles is now in ruins, and a hot-bed of crime. Snake sneaks into the city with a nuclear-powered mini submarine which he soon loses when the unsturdy platform it landed on crumbles, causing the sub to sink into the ocean. Making his way across the island, Snake meets an array of characters. One of them is 'Map to the Stars' Eddie (Steve Buscemi), a swindler who makes a living selling interactive tours of L.A.. Next, Snake runs into, a knife-wielding skinhead (Robert Carradine) who uses corpses for target practice. Snake also passes by Pipeline (Peter Fonda), a hippie surfer who surfs the frequent tidal waves that frequent the coastline. Snake then meets a young woman (Valeria Golino) whom directs him to the location of Cuervo Jones camp, but they both get captured by a group of mutant people and held in the former Beverly Hills hospital where they are threatened by the insane and deformed "Surgeon General of Beverly Hills" (Bruce Campbell). Snake uses a knockout dart hidden in his clothing to subdue the Surgeon General and forces his people to release him and the young woman. Snake and the woman escape to a nearby junkyard where after, she reveals her romantic feelings for Snake, she is killed in the cross fire of a gangland shooting. Snake has a run-in with 'Map to the Stars' Eddie again who tries to lead him to Cuervo's camp, only to betray him and Snake is captured. An increasingly sick Snake is brought to the former L.A. arena where he is forced to play basketball by trying to get five two-point basket shots within 10 seconds of each other. Snake manages to defeat the basket shots and earns praise and recogniton from the crowd (similar to in New York when he defeated a rival in a boxing ring). Snake escapes from the arena during another aftershock earthquake and gets away with a little help from Pipeline who shows him how to surf the tsunami waves that wash over the area. Snake hides out on board the former Queen Mary cruise ship located in former Long Beach where he meets local gang leader Hershe Las Palmas (Pam Grier) whom was formerly Bill 'Carjack' Malone, a transsexual and former accomplice of Snake from Cleveland, Ohio, who after hearing about his mission to find the black box remote control device, tells him the Plutoxin virus is a propagandized lie and won't kill him. She agrees to help Snake attack Cuervo Jones main camp to get the remote control device and escape from the island. Snake and Hershe's men commandeer hand gliders and fly to Cuervo's staging area. Snake and Hershe's men land at the former amusement park, Happy Kingdom by the Sea, and in a climatic gun battle, defeats Cuervo by gunning down most of his men and claiming the remote control device. Eddie appears again and offers his help to Snake, despite being a double agent playing both sides. Snake commandeers a police helicopter that lands and grabs Utopia with him as they, along with Eddie, Hersche and her few surviving men, board the helicopter to fly away. But then Cuervo fires a rocket at the helicopter, damaging it and killing Hershe and her men. Eddie manages to shoot and kill Cuervo, but he falls out of the helicopter. Eddie lands on the ground unharmed, but is now facing several of Cuervo's armed and angry men. Snake manages to fly the damaged chopper to the mainland where he and Utopia abandon the helicopter before it crashes. Just then, Commander Malloy, Brazen, and the President appear with a platoon of soldiers. Snake then hands off the wrong remote to the President (similar to what Snake did to Hauk in 'New York') while Utopia is taken to the electric chair for execution, despite her pleas for forgiveness. Snake is relieved, but only more angry then ever when the timer for his life runs out and he learns that the Plutoxin 7 virus was indeed to be nothing more than a fast, hard hitting case of the flu virus, not in the least bit lethal to Snake. Thinking he has control of the satellites, the President tries to use it to stop a Cuban invasion force threatening Florida. Activating the remote, the President hears only Eddie's "Map to the Stars" intro over 'I Love L.A.' instead. In anger, the President orders Snake to be executed, but Snake had activated his hologram projector and the Snake that gets shot is an illusion. Snake activates the device, entering the world code (666), against pleas to stop. All over the world, the satellites activate their EMP weapons at the world, thus shutting down every electrical device, and turning the world back into the Dark Ages. At the deportation center, Utopia praises Snake for "turning off the world", and saving her. The illusory Snake disappears, since he has "turned off the Earth". In the final shot, Snake is a few hundred yards away from the President and his soldiers, who are now looking for him, where he finds a pack of cigarettes on the ground and lights one up. The cigarette box is labeled "American Spirit." As Snake walks off into the woods as dawn is starting to break, he then says to himself: "Welcome to the human race."

At Vernon Academy, a prestigious boys' preparatory school in Illinois, Jonathan Ogner (Andrew McCarthy) arrives on campus to begin his senior year. Upon entering his dormitory, he is greeted by his new roommate, Squire Franklin Burroughs IV (Rob Lowe), who is nicknamed "Skip." Following a brief chat, Skip coerces Jonathan to dress in women's underwear as part of senior-class ritual, then locks him out of the building, exposing him to ridicule by the other students. Later, Skip apologizes for the prank, explaining it as a school tradition. Jonathan endures the taunts of his classmates until lunch the next day, when he runs from the cafeteria in tears. Skip returns to his room and discovers Jonathan hanging from the ceiling. The horrified student fetches Mr. Kennedy (Remark Ramsay), the headmaster, but when they enter the room, Jonathan's body has been replaced with a mannequin bearing Kennedy's likeness. The prank earns Jonathan the respect of Skip and his classmates. That night, over a bottle of vodka, Jonathan admits that he cheated on the Scholastic Aptitude Test, or SAT, believing that his "life depends" on being accepted to Harvard University, even though he has always been an exceptional student. He and Skip sneak out of the dormitory to meet Lisa (Virgina Madison) and Susan (Deborah Thalberg), who attend Vernon's sister school, Foxfield Academy. Jonathan ruins the evening by vomiting in the backseat of Skip's car. Sometime later, Skip appoints Jonathan as secretary to the school's dance committee, which travels to Foxfield to meet with Headmistress DeBreul (Fern Persons) and several students, including Lisa and Susan, to plan a Halloween dance. Jonathan's clumsiness in the presence of the women causes a series of mishaps, including the baring of Lisa's breasts and the destruction of a vase given to the school by Eleanor Roosevelt. Jonathan is banned from Foxfield for life, denying him the only source of female companionship within a hundred miles of Vernon. Skip directs Jonathan to the Free and Easy Club in Chicago, Illinois, where he is likely to meet a sex partner. Skip also instructs Jonathan to return to school with a pair of panties as evidence of his conquest. At the club, Jonathan endures two awkward encounters before he meets Ellen (Jacqueline Bissett), an older, uninhibited English woman in her late-thirties. Taking Skip's advice, Jonathan lies about his age, saying he is a doctoral candidate at Northwestern University. Afraid of further embarrassing himself, Jonathan leaves the bar and hails a taxi. Ellen joins him and directs the driver to her hotel, where she and Jonathan make love in an elevator. Two days later, Jonathan returns to Vernon with a pair of Ellen's panties, and word spreads quickly of his sexual prowess. During a subsequent tryst in Chicago, Ellen asks to visit Jonathan at Northwestern the following weekend. When Jonathan claims that he will be attending a conference in New York City, Ellen offers to meet him there, leaving Jonathan no choice but to make travel plans. In a Manhattan clothing store, Ellen inadvertently sees Jonathan's student identification card and (seeing that he is underage and lied to her about himself attending Northwestern) runs from the store. Before Jonathan can stop her, she speeds away in a taxi. Jonathan returns to Vernon in a state of depression, resulting in a decline in his health and his schoolwork. Skip tries to lift his roommate's spirits, but makes no progress until Jonathan is notified that he has been accepted to Harvard. Over the Christmas holidays, Jonathan visits Skip at the Burroughs family's lavish estate. While the boys converse with Mr. Burroughs (Cliff Robertson) in the den, Skip's mother, who happens to be Ellen, appears. Following a brief introduction and an awkward pause, Ellen retires to her bedroom. At dinner, Ellen drinks heavily while Jonathan struggles to hide his discomfort. Afterward, when Mr. Burroughs scolds Ellen for her behavior, she seeks comfort from Jonathan, who declines her advances. Jonathan leaves the next day at Ellen's request. Upon returning to school, the students of Vernon learn that they are under investigation by a man named Balaban (Stuart Margolin), whom they believe to be a drug enforcement agent. After flushing several pounds of marijuana down the school's toilets, it is revealed that Balaban is targeting students who cheated on the SAT. Over the next few weeks, Jonathan receives several desperate phone calls from Ellen, until he finally agrees to meet her in Chicago. Skip asks to join him, but Jonathan insists on going alone, purportedly to mourn his ill-fated romance. In Chicago, Ellen and Jonathan exchange angry words before falling into each other's arms and making love. Meanwhile, Skip arrives in the city with friends from Vernon and Foxfield with the intention of surprising Jonathan, but when they burst into the hotel room, Skip is appalled at the sight of his mother in bed with Jonathan and runs from the room. Back at Vernon, Skip tells Jonathan that he is not upset by the affair, but is unable to hide his anger, and shows little emotion upon learning of his mother's commitment to a mental hospital. Later, in the cafeteria, Kennedy introduces Balaban to the students, and announces that each of them will be interviewed as part of the investigation. Although Jonathan manages to hide his guilt from Balaban, he worries that Skip may betray him as an act of retribution. When Skip is summoned by Balaban, he defies the investigator and utters an obscenity as he leaves the room. The incident makes Skip a hero among the students, and exacerbates Jonathan's guilt. He tries to instigate a conversation with his roommate, but Skip remains silent until Jonathan makes a provocative statement about Ellen, and a brawl ensues. The boys take the fight into the wooded area behind the school, and then into the dormitory. When both are exhausted, Jonathan explains that he was truly in love with Ellen, but promises never to see her again. Skip offers his forgiveness.

On April 18, 1942, during World War II, a squadron (16 planes) of B-25 bombers (The Doolittle Raid) from the USS Hornet launches a lightning raid on Tokyo. The strike stuns the Imperial Japanese Navy and its commander Admiral Yamamoto (Toshiro Mifune). With hard evidence of the threat posed by the carriers of the American Pacific Fleet to the Japanese home islands, Yamamoto devises a plan to lure out the American fleet and destroy it once and for all by forcing it to sortie against the invasion of Midway Island. At Pearl Harbor, Captain Matt Garth (Charlton Heston) is tasked with gauging the progress of decryption efforts at Station HYPO, headed by Commander Joseph Rochefort (Hal Holbrook), which has partially cracked the Japanese Navy's JN-25 code (they have cracked 10% of the code), indicating that a major operation will soon take place at a location the Japanese refer to as "AF". The US only have 4 carriers and need time to build more. They are concerned that Yamamoto will strike back, due to the Doolittle raid. Rochefort says the Japanese are planning an attack in Coral Sea and give Garth a list of ships they will be using for the attack. Garth is also asked by his son, naval aviator Ensign Tom Garth (Edward Albert), to help free his girlfriend Haruko Sakura, an American-born daughter of Japanese immigrants, who has been interned with her parents, by calling in favors to have the charges against the family dropped. Yamamoto and his staff present their plans for Midway to the commanders (on his flagship battleship Yamato) who have been chosen to lead the attack - Admirals Nagumo (James Shigeta) and Yamaguchi (John Fujioka) of the Japanese carrier force and Admiral Kondo (Conrad Yama) of the invasion force. Kondo is not happy with the plan devised by strategist Captain Kameto Kuroshima (Seth Sakai). The plan calls for Nagumo's carrier-based planes to destroy Midway's US defenses, before Kondo can land his invasion forces there. But the land-based carriers of the US at Midway have a range of 400 miles more than the carrier based planes that Nagumo has. The Jap carriers will be destroyed, if they are spotted. Vice Admiral Boshiro Hosogaya (Dale Ishimoto) wants more time to study the plan and suggests postponing the decision till after Coral Sea. Yamamoto is convinced that the only way to defeat US is to strike now when they are weak. After the inconclusive Battle of the Coral Sea (US lost one ship and sunk one Jap light carrier and some smaller ships. Carrier Yorktown was heavily damaged), Rochefort uses a simple ruse to confirm that "AF" is Midway (He gets the Midway unit to transmit a fake message, which he knows will be picked by the Japanese. Once the Japanese transmit over their radio, they identify the location as "AF", thus confirming that its Midway). Now knowing the location and roughly the date of the attack, Admiral Nimitz (Henry Fonda) and his staff prepare a trap of their own. Captain Vinton Maddox (James Coburn) is the US naval strategist who says that the midway plan is a Jap ruse to divert forces from Hawaii. Maddox says that the safe play is to defend Hawai and give up Midway. Rochefort informs Nimitz that the Japanese have changed the JN-25 code. it will take 2 months to break it. US is now blind. Yamamoto lays out the plan. Hosogaya will attack the Altusian Islands to divert Nimitz's attention away from Midway. 24 hours later, Nagumo will attack Midway and Kondo will move in with his invasion force. Vice Admiral William F. "Bull" Halsey Jr. (Robert Mitchum) would be leading the US fleet, but it would take them 48 hours to get there. By which time, Nagumo would be ready for them. Unknown to them Halsey was injured at Coral Sea and is hospitalized in Hawaii. Rear Admiral Raymond A. Spruance (Glenn Ford) is the replacements, and the Japanese are unfamiliar with his battle tactics (Ray is a cruiser commander and he got the job only because Halsey was asked to recommend his own replacement). Yamamoto is aboard the Akagi (Rear Admiral Ryunosuke Kusaka (Pat Morita) is Yamamoto's COS). Lieutenant Joichi Tomonaga (Sab Shimono) is the air commander filling in for Fushida (who led the air raid on Hawaii), as he is in sick bay with a flu. The carriers USS Enterprise and USS Hornet, augmented by a hastily repaired USS Yorktown that had been damaged at Coral Sea, will sail to a point north of Midway and lie in wait for the Japanese fleet (Raymond plans for a contingency just in case the Japanese are going for Hawaii again). Meanwhile, Matt has been unsuccessful in freeing the Sakuras, infuriating Tom, who ships out on his carrier. The Japanese had sent 2 scout planes to check for the US fleet at Pearl Harbor, but it could not complete the mission as it could not be refueled due to the presence of an enemy ship at the rendezvous point. Yamamoto is advised not to break radio silence to speak with Nagumo and continue as planned. Meanwhile Nagumo is unaware of the failure of the scout planes and since he didn't hear from Yamamoto, he assumes that the US fleet is still at Pearl Harbor. The battle begins on June 4 as Nagumo's carrier force launches its air attack on Midway Island. Nagumo is not sure of the position of the US fleet and holds back half his planes and the best pilots. Kusaka protests, but Nagumo is adamant. The American base is attacked, but the airstrip remains usable, meaning Midway can still launch aircraft. The Japanese carriers are then spotted by American scouts (The US ships had spotted Kondo's invasion force but had still no clue of Nagumo's carrier strike force. So, Raymond launches a second strike of seaplanes to look for the carrier behind a storm front that was hitting Midway). A massive aerial force is launched from the American carriers. Meanwhile Nagumo is elated that the first strike on Midway is a success and Kusaks convinces him to launch the 2nd strike by arming them with contact bombs instead of having them armed with torpedoes against enemy carriers. Meanwhile, Nagumo is shocked to learn of a sighting by a scout plane of an American carrier, throwing his plans into disarray as he orders that the next strike wave (which was being rearmed with bombs for an attack on Midway) be rapidly re-armed for an attack on the carrier. He has to wait more as the returning planes from the first strike on Midway are near empty on fuel, and Nagumo orders them to be recovered before launching the strike against the US carriers. Raymond has intel on only 2 enemy carriers and knows 2 are still missing. He takes a gamble and launches 114 aircraft against the 2 knows carriers. But due to Enterprise and Yorktown waiting to recover their scouts, only the torpedo planes are launched, and the fighters and bombers are delayed by a few minutes. Torpedo bombers from Hornet are the first American planes to locate the Japanese fleet. With fuel running low, they attack without fighter protection and are slaughtered by the Japanese Combat Air Patrol. Tom is severely burned when gunfire starts a fire in his cockpit. The Japanese fighters, however, are drawn down to wave-top altitude by the low-flying torpedo planes, leaving them out of position when dive-bombers & fighters from Enterprise and Yorktown arrive. As the Japanese are preparing to launch their second wave, the American bombers attack and reduce three of the Japanese carriers - Akagi, Kaga and Soryu - to burning wrecks within minutes. The remaining Japanese carrier Hiryu immediately launches aircraft. Following the returning American bombers, they soon discover Yorktown and inflict severe damage. The crew manages to bring the fires under control as a scout plane reports that Hiryu has been spotted. Below decks, Matt meets Tom and reconciles with him. Due to a shortage of pilots, Matt joins the counterattack against the Japanese carrier just before its second wave of aircraft strikes. Yorktown is soon burning, and the order is given to abandon ship. But the Japanese think they have sunk a 2nd carrier, not knowing that they just hit the Yorktown once again. Hiryu is sunk, dealing a fatal blow to the invasion. The American planes return to Enterprise and Hornet, but Matt, his plane badly damaged, is killed during landing. Yamamoto receives news of the loss of all his carriers. The admiral orders a general withdrawal as he contemplates how he will apologize for his failure to the Emperor.

A small-town police chief investigating a murder is offered help by a self-described psychic. However, when the chief discovers that the "psychic" is in possession of information known only to the police, he suspects that the man may be more involved in the case than he lets on. —Anonymous

In the summer of 1942, American Lieutenant Colonel Robert T. Frederick (William Holden), a War Department staff officer with no prior combat or command experience, is summoned to Britain where he is selected by Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten (Patric Knowles) to raise a commando force composed of both American and Canadian personnel for operations in German-occupied Norway. Robert had written a report criticizing this plan of Mountbatten and was summoned to explain his position. Mountbatten refuses to back down, even after Robert says that there is no extraction plan for the troops from Norway. Mountbatten assigns Robert to raise this brigade. Back in the U.S., Frederick arrives at the derelict Fort William Henry Harrison in Montana where he receives his American troops - all of whom are jailbirds, never-do-wells, and misfits. When the hand-picked elite Canadian contingent arrives, there is immediate friction with the Americans and chaos ensues. Robert's team includes Maj. Cliff Bricker (Vince Edwards) (who joined the paratroopers as he hated to fly). The camp is in a dilapidated state and Robert says Cliff is the biggest hustler in the army and asks him to arrange all the supplies the camp needs. Capt. Cardwell (Tom Stern), is the Garrison CO of Fort William Henry Harrison US troops include Pvt./Cpl. Omar Greco (Richard Jaeckel) (who thinks about escaping the camp), Pvt. Billy 'Bronc' Guthrie (Bill Fletcher), Pvt./Cpl. Rockwell W. "Rocky" Rockman (Claude Akins), Pvt. Theodore Ransom (Andrew Prine) (who went AWOL from his previous unit after he struck the CO after he serenaded his girlfriend. He walked into Fort Harrison voluntarily). Canadians are led by Maj. Alan Crown (Cliff Robertson), Cpl./Sgt. Peacock (Jack Watson), Pvt. Henri Laurent (Jean-Paul Vignon), Sgt. Patrick O'Neill (Jeremy Slate) (close combat specialist). The rabble-rousing Americans needle the docile Canadians and try to provoke them. There is healthy competition between the Americans and the Canadians. Crown insists that Robert should take advantage of the Canadian combat experience, but Robert points out that Canadians lost at Dunkirk, and he is training the unit to win. Robert asks Crown to get O'Neill to beat the crap out of Rockwell in the mess hall in order to demonstrate the superior training and fighting abilities of the Canadians. O'Neill takes command of the hand-to-hand combat training for the brigade. The brigade is trained to ski on the icy slopes near the camp. The Canadians are under strict order not to fight the Americans. The 2 units go to a bar, where the local lumberjacks' barge in and insult the Canadians. The Canadians give as much room to the locals as possible and are looking to avoid a fight. But when the lumberjacks hit Sgt Peacock, the Americans come to their aid and beat the locals in the bar brawl. This brings the 2 units closer together as one team. Robert is delighted to see the brigade coming together, but orders $1/month to deducted from each man's pay till the $3000 damage bill is repaid. By the time Frederick manages to overcome the national differences and mold the First Special Service Force into a highly trained commando unit, he is informed that the Allied High Command have had a change of heart and offered the Norwegian missions to British troops. Left without a role, the brigade is ordered to be disbanded, and its soldiers reassigned. Frederick remains undeterred and manages to persuade Lieutenant General Mark Clark (Michael Rennie) (Commander of the U.S. Fifth Army) to give his men a chance to prove themselves with a new mission in Italy. Clark's skeptical deputy commander, Major General Maxwell Hunter (Carroll O'Connor), orders the 1st Special Service Force to reconnoiter a German garrison in a well defended (and surrounded by mountains) Italian town, but Frederick goes one better and captures the entire town. He devises a plan to enter the town by trekking over a mountain and then entering the town by hiking 2 miles in ice cold water of the mountain river. Robert and his men enter the town by stealth and kill the German's one by one, even taking over their tanks, defending the city. Gradually, they take a large number of German soldiers as their prisoners. In the process, they earn the nickname "Die Teufelsbrigade" - The Devil's Brigade (given to them by the enemy CO). Robert earns the respect of his men, who celebrate his birthday in a grand style. Convinced now of the ability of Frederick's men, Lieutenant General Clark promotes Frederick to full Colonel and gives them a task no other Allied troops have managed to accomplish - to capture Monte la Difensa. The town is a key point on the way to Rome. Allied armies have tried to take the town for 3 weeks, with heavy casualties, and failed each time. Facing severe obstacles, the Devil's Brigade attacks the undefended eastern side of the mountain by scaling a cliff the Germans believed could not be climbed. The Allied forces pound an artillery barrage from the front, diverting the German attention, allowing Robert's men to climb the cliff in 3 hrs. The cliff side of the plateau was poorly protected, and Robert's brigade was able to climb on top. Reaching the top as a unit (Germans were occupied with the artillery barrage from the front side), they take the stronghold despite considerable losses, allowing the Allies to continue their advance north into Italy. The Brigade continued to fight many more battles throughout Italy till Rome. They built a myth about themselves and too many good soldiers died to keep it true.

Rich playgirl Kit Jordan (nee Katherine Lawson Chandler) is in Acapulco vacationing with her current husband, Pete Jordan, formerly an American beach boy working the Acapulco shores for rich women. Meanwhile, the body of one of Pete's fellow beach boys, Billy Andrews, washes to shore. On his wrist is a bracelet engraved with "Love is thin ice." The police investigate whether it was murder or suicide. Conflict arises when Billy's old girlfriend, Carol, makes a play for Pete, and beach boy Hank tries to score with Kit, and the stability of the marriage is put to the test. —K. Jackson <kjackson@moon.jic.com> The dead body of a young man is discovered washed ashore the beach in Acapulco, the victim identified as American Billy Andrews. His death, which Lt. Riccardo Andrade is investigating, points to it being a possible suicide. The focus then moves to the circle in which he was known to travel as a beach gigolo, he among the stable of men who prey upon primarily middle age, wealthy female tourists. The center of this circle now revolves around the married Jordons, Kit and Pete, the latter who used to be among those gigolos and the former who used to use their services and who "dated" Billy before she met and married Pete. They now provide guidance to any of the beach community who needs help. While Pete does not take advantage of Kit and her money, Kit is more dependent on him emotionally, she arguably unable to handle it if he were ever to leave her. The king of the gigolos is now Hank Walker, who mentors another younger man, Chuck Austin. Hank not only uses sex to make money, but uses it to make money in a worse way in blackmail if the opportunity arises, his latest target being middle age American Margot Eliot, who is more aware of the situation than Hank may realize. Hank also has his sights set back on Kit, as a local source of money in seeing the easy street in which Pete seems to live. Also arriving onto the scene is Billy's former girlfriend, American Carol Lambert, in her search for him. As a bond of sorts forms between Pete and Carol, the question then becomes if the Jordons' marriage can withstand this intrusion, especially on the somewhat shaky foundation on which it was built. —Huggo

In 1944, After the Norwegian resistance leader Royal Norwegian Navy Lieutenant Erik Bergman (George Chakiris) travels to Great Britain to report the location of a German V-2 rocket fuel plant, the Royal Air Force's No. 633 Squadron is assigned to destroy it. The only reason Germans have not been able to deploy their V2's in the war is because they don't have enough rocket fuel. If this plant is left as is, the D Day invasion could be blown up to smithereens. The squadron is led by Wing Commander Roy Grant (Cliff Robertson), a former Eagle Squadron pilot (an American serving in the RAF before the US entered the war). The factory will start shipping fuel in 18 days, so Roy has 17 days to train his squadron for this mission. Roy is to train his squadron at a valley in Scotland that mimics the entry to the fjord but is not as difficult to navigate as the actual fjord. Squad includes Group Captain Don Barrett (Donald Houston), Squadron Leader Frank Adams (Michael Goodliffe), Flight Lieutenant Gillibrand, Australian (John Meillon), Squadron Leader Scott (John Bonney), Flying Officer Evans (John Church), Flight Lieutenant Nigel (Sean Kelly), Flight Lieutenant Singh (Julian Sherrier), Flight Lieutenant Frank (Geoffrey Frederick), Flight Lieutenant Jones (Johnny Briggs) The plant is in a seemingly impregnable location beneath an overhanging cliff at the end of a long, narrow fjord lined with numerous anti-aircraft guns. The only way to destroy the plant is by bombing the cliff until it collapses and buries the facility, a job for 633 Squadron's fast and maneuverable De Havilland Mosquitos. The squadron trains in Scotland, where there are narrow glens similar to the fjord. There, Grant is introduced to Bergman's sister, Hilde (Maria Perschy). They are attracted to each other, despite Grant's aversion to wartime relationships. The Norwegian resistance is tasked with destroying the anti-aircraft defenses of the facility immediately before the scheduled attack. When unexpected German reinforcements arrive (Bergman is informed of this by his colleagues in the resistance), Bergman returns to Norway to try to gather more forces. Air Vice Marshal Davies refuses to delay the mission day, and Bergman insists that there is no way that the Brits can land any more re-enforcement by the way of land or water to neutralize the German guns. The Germans attack the air base causing loss of life and equipment, but Roy is able to re-group quickly. One plane is lost during training due to the difficult maneuvers involved. Roy spends time with Hilde after Bergman returns to Norway. However, Bergman is captured while transporting desperately needed weapons, taken to Gestapo headquarters and tortured for information. Since Bergman knows too much, he must be silenced before he breaks. Grant and newly married Pilot Officer Bissell (Scott Finch) are sent in with a single Mosquito to bomb the Gestapo building. Though they are successful, their shot-up Mosquito fighter-bomber crashes on its return (the landing gear doesn't work properly as it is all shot up), and Bissell is wounded and becomes blind. A tearful Hilde thanks Grant for ending her brother's suffering. Roy says his goodbyes to Hilde and leaves, as he knows he will most probably not survive the mission. Still worried, Air Vice-Marshal Davis (Harry Andrews) decides to move up the attack to the next day. The ammunition being used are Earthquake bombs which will topple the overhanging cliff on top of the fuel factory and bury it under rubble. The pilots are worried that their planes might be in danger from the explosion of bomb from the plane in front of them. 12 bombs are required to transfer enough force to topple the cliff. The men don't know what the factory makes, but Favis assures them that this is a critical mission. The resistance will attack at 0630 hours and the squadron is to enter the fjord between 0655 and 0705 hrs. However, the resistance fighters are ambushed and killed, leaving the defenses still intact. The resistance are not able to radio that their attack has failed, but they miss a critical check in point with London as well. Davis gets an intelligence call that the Germans ambushed the resistance fighters. Although Grant is given the option of aborting, he decides to press on. Many aircraft are lost to anti-aircraft fire and the remaining are attacked by the German air force after they drop their bombs. Many aircraft fly their planes into the cliff, after being hit and damaged. 9 aircraft are lost to score 6 direct hits and only 1 bomb is left. The last bomb budges the mountain, and it falls on top of the factory, burying it completely. The factory is destroyed at the cost of the entire squadron, though a few crews are able to ditch in the fjord. Grant crash-lands but a local man helps Grant's navigator, Flight Lieutenant Hoppy Hopkinson (Angus Lennie), pull the wounded wing commander from the burning wreckage. Back in Britain, Davis tells a fellow officer who is aghast at the losses, "You can't kill a squadron."

Broadway musical star arrives home and finds six runaway children living on the property. Broadway star, Janice Courtney goes to her countfy home to rest. When she gets there, she meets some people who change her life permanently, and discovers true love and happiness. —Marinelle K. Szenasy

Tony Ryder takes over his dead uncle's media empire while trying to keep quiet the mysterious circumstances of his death in a Palm Beach hotel room. Colonel Ryder, the publisher of a magazine, dies while on vacation. Tony, his swinging nephew, inherits the magazine and takes over. The magazine is planning to expand, they need some capital, and Tony tries to arrange a loan through his friend. He is then informed by the detective of the hotel in which his uncle died that on the night of his death, a woman clad only in a towel came out of his room and fled before the detective could catch up with her. They suspect that the Colonel was "with" her on that night, because he was smiling when he died. Tony and two of his uncle's confidantes are worried that if the bank hears of this they will not get the loan, and the magazine's wholesome image could be tarnished also. So they ask the detective to stay around to identify her. What they don't know is that the woman is Katie Robbins, one of the magazine's researchers, and that she entered the room by "accident". After the detective has identified her and had a few misconceived conversations with her, they suspect that she is trying to extort them, and she thinks that Tony's a nut. —rcs0411@yahoo.com

Frances Lawrence (Sandra Dee) is a socially awkward, 16-year-old girl about to turn 17 and is on her summer break between her junior and senior years of high school. She resists the pressure to go "man-hunting" with her girlfriends and laments the days when the girls had fun together without boys. Frances also rejects her parents wishing to fix her up on a date with the son of a friend of the family, Jeffrey Matthews. On a jaunt to the beach with her bikini-clad girlfriends, flat-chested tomboy Frances meets surfer Moondoggie (James Darren). She quickly becomes infatuated with him, but he shows no romantic interest; however, Frances is more attracted to surfing than man-hunting. At home, Francie importunes her parents for $25 for a used surfboard. Russ and Dorothy Lawrence (Arthur O'Connell and Mary LaRoche) grant their daughter's request as an early birthday present and the excited youngster returns to the beach to surf. The gang dubs their female associate "Gidget," a portmanteau word based on 'girl' and 'midget.' She associates with an all-male surfer gang led by the worldly beach bum, The Big Kahuna (Cliff Robertson). Kahuna, (who's real name is Burt Vail) is a Korean War Air Force veteran twice the age of Frances who was fed up with all the rules he had to live by when he flew combat missions and has dropped out of normal society. He travels the hemisphere surfing with his pet myna bird. Moondoggie admires Kahuna and wants to emulate him by joining Kahuna in working his way on a freighter to go surfing in Peru at summer's end instead of going off to college as his self-made father planned. Over the next few weeks, Kahuna and Gidget enjoy each other's company with Gidget questioning how he can survive an aimless and lonely existence without a job. She questions whether if Kahuna knew then what he knew now would he still make the same lifestyle choice after leaving the Air Force. Kahuna later reflects on Gidget's words after the death of his only friend, the pet bird. Hoping to make Moondoggie jealous, Gidget hires one of the other surfers in the gang to be her date to a luau party on the beach. Her plan backfires when the surfer she hired pawns the job off on none other than Moondoggie, unaware that he was the one Gidget wanted to make jealous. Gidget lies and tells Moondoggie that it is Kahuna that she wants to make jealous, and they have a romantic evening at the luau. Eventually convinced Moondoggie still doesn't consider her as a love interest. So at midnight, she flees the luau, she runs into Kahuna and agrees to take him to a nearby beach house. Alone with Kahuna, Gidget tries to make Kahuna take her virginity. Amused, Kahuna attempts to call Gidget's bluff by pretending to take her up on her offer but finds himself falling under her spell. Realizing what he was about to do and angry at the situation he's been put in, Kahuna throws her out of the beach house just as Moondoggie arrives. Gidget is mortified and escapes out the back door of the beach house as Moondoggie confronts Kahuna. The cops are called to break up the fistfight between Kahuna and Moondoggie and, after leaving the beach house, the police find Gidget stranded with a flat tire and without her driver's license. They bring her in to the police station. Gidget's father, having heard about the incident, decides to take over control of her social life, and orders her not to see the surfer gang again. She falls into a depression, to which mother shows her a tapestry from her grandmother reading "A Real Woman brings out the best in a Man." In the end, Mr. Lawrence arranges a blind date for Gidget with Jeffrey Matthews, the college-age son of a family friend, and Frances grudgingly accepts. To her surprise, Matthews turns out to be none other than Moondoggie. The two return to the beach to find Kahuna tearing down his beach shack and learns out that he's taken a job as an airline pilot. Moondoggie and Gidget realize how they feel about each other and, as an act of romantic devotion, Moondoggie asks Gidget to wear his class pin while he is away at college. Kahuna cheerfully warns Moondoggie that Gidget is quite a woman. Kahuna then goes off to his new career, while Gidget and Moondoggie walk off down the beach together.