Clifton Collins Jr.

Two parents enter a race against time when they receive a distressing late-night phone call from their daughter after she caused a tragic car accident.

Consumed by the idea of winning a final championship, an aging rider pushes himself to achieve his goal. Everything changes however, when a rookie rider arrives, claiming to be his son.

A woman takes advantage of her growing celebrity status when the police and the public think her dead husband is just missing.

Los Angeles, 1969. As the final chapter of Hollywood`s golden age draws to a close, fading TV star Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his longtime stunt double Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) make their way around an industry they hardly recognize anymore. The ninth film from Quentin Tarantino features an ensemble cast and multiple storylines, and is a glowing tribute to the memories of a bygone era.

In 2005, Otis Lort is a movie star who has an extreme alcohol problem. He crashes his car and gets into a violent, drunken altercation with police. He is forced to go to a rehab facility, where his counselor, Dr. Moreno, tells him that if he leaves the facility before they say he is ready, the court will send him to prison for his violent offenses. Dr. Moreno tells Otis that he has PTSD, which he denies repeatedly, but she encourages him to look into his past through exposure therapy. Going back a decade earlier to 1995, Otis remembers working as a child actor, who is accompanied on set by his father, James (Shia LaBeouf), a former rodeo clown. James is four years sober but clearly on edge and unpredictable, manic and aggressive. The two live in a meager motel complex where a shy young woman (FKA Twigs) lives across from them. Otis is in the Big Brother program at the behest of his mother, despite James's dislike and jealousy. Otis wants to go to a baseball game with Tom from the program, and James agrees if Tom comes over for a barbecue. To 2005 again, Otis is shown communicating with his rehab roommate Percy and continues therapy. He resists the process, finding it unhelpful. Back to his memories, Otis remembers Tom coming over for the barbecue, and James throwing him into the pool and violently threatening him. When he is offered a part in a movie that will be shot in Canada, Otis calls his mother, who isn't sure if James can accompany him because he's a registered sex offender. This causes James to begin screaming at her via Otis, who has to relay both of his parents conversations back to each other. Back to present, after resisting yet again, Otis's counselor Alec advises him to go into the woods and scream as loud as he can. Then the film shows James attending an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, where he tells of his abusive stepmother, how he got into drugs and alcohol abuse, and while blacked out attempted to rape a woman which got him registered as a sex offender. Alone at his place, Otis spends time with the Shy Girl, and the two cuddle and he gives her money. James forces Otis to rehearse his scenes over and over again, and he stops to scream at the neighbors across the way for being too loud. Otis asks him to stop, and tells him that no one else would hire him because he's a sex offender, and that Otis is his boss since James is making money off him. In 2005, Otis thanks Alec for the advice, and continues to work with Dr. Moreno on controlling his anger. In 1995, Otis finally confronts his father and tells him he needs to start being a better dad to him. James hits him in the face twice, furious at Otis for speaking to him that way, and then leaves on his motorcycle and scores drugs at a strip club. Alone, Otis spends time with the Shy Girl, and the two are caught waking up together the next morning by James. The Shy Girl slaps James and leaves, and James vomits and asks Otis how he thinks it feels to hear his own son talk to him like that, and to have to resort to accepting payment from him. Otis tells James if he didn't pay him James wouldn't be there. James takes Otis to marijuana plants he has been growing off the highway and smokes cannabis with him. In 2005, Otis revisits the motel, and imagines himself finding his father there in his rodeo clown costume. He tells his father he's going to make a movie about him. James asks him to make him look good. The two ride away on James's motorcycle, which fades into Otis alone driving away.

Aoi lives in an apartment by herself. Shusei moves in next to Aoi's apartment. Shusei is a very popular student. Due to a mistake, Aoi makes the sprinkler go off in his room. Until his room is fixed, he stays with Aoi. Aoi Nishimori's (Ayame Goriki) parents moved to another city for work, but Aoi didn't want to transfer to a new high school. She stays behind and lives in an apartment by herself. Shusei Kugayama (Kento Yamazaki) moves in next to Aoi's apartment. Shusei is a very popular student at their high school. Due to a mistake, Aoi makes the sprinkler go off in his room. Until Shusei's room is fixed, he stays with Aoi.

Eight years after the vigilante MacManus brothers, Conner (Sean Patrick Flanery) and Murphy (Norman Reedus), and their father Noah (Billy Connolly) assassinated Papa Joe Yakavetta (Carlo Rota), they have been hiding out in Ireland. One day, their uncle Sibeal arrives at their cottage to inform them that a renowned Boston priest was murdered by a mysterious assassin who attempted to frame The Saints by using their same ritual assassination style. In response, the brothers dig up their old gear and weapons, and depart back to Boston, USA. En route aboard a container ship, they meet a Mexican underground fighter named Romeo (Clifton Collins), who recognizes them as The Saints. Romeo convinces them to let him join them as their new partner. Hearing a radio broadcast regarding Papa Joe's son, Concezio Yakavetta (Judd Nelson), they deduce that he hired the hit-man who killed the priest in order to draw them out of hiding. Meanwhile in Boston, Detectives Dolly (David Ferry), Duffy (Brian Mahoney), and Greenly (Bob Marley) are at the scene of the priest's murder. They are greeted by FBI Special Agent Eunice Bloom (Julie Benz), the protege of Paul Smecker (who died a few years ago), and investigator to the priest's death. The Southern-accented streetwise Bloom and the other detectives deduce that it was not The Saints who murdered him, beginning an investigation to find the real assassin. They later find the assassin's name is Ottilio Panza (Daniel DeSanto), who appears to be working for a mysterious old man named "The Roman" (Peter Fonda). Conner, Murphy, and Romeo hit a warehouse that is being used by an Asian gang to process heroin for Yakavetta. After killing everyone at the warehouse, Connor and Murphy reunite with their old bartender friend, Doc (Gerard Parkes). They learn that the assassin who killed the priest was an independent contractor and not a part of Yakavetta's crew, and that Yakavetta himself is hiding in the Prudential Tower. Later at the warehouse, now a crime scene, Bloom asserts that The Saints have returned. The MacManus brothers and Romeo have one of Yakavetta's underbosses set up a meeting with a group of mobsters at a bar, where they kill them. Panza arrives shortly after and attempts to ambush the brothers, but Bloom arrives in time to save them by wounding Panza, who flees. Bloom introduces herself, revealing her intentions to help The Saints. The group then cleans up the crime scene to make it look as if the mobsters had turned on each other. Later, Bloom reunites the other detectives with The Saints, thus bringing them in on their plans. A little later, Yakavetta calls a meeting with his crew, during which, The Saints arrive and kill everyone including Yakavetta. Bloom interrogates Yakavetta's right hand man, learning of The Roman's involvement with Panza. Later at the bar, Greenly arrives to celebrate the boys' victory and is unexpectedly shot and killed by Panza. Noah, earlier having decided to help his sons, unexpectedly arrives to demand Panza tell him The Roman's location. They engage in a type of "Russian roulette" stand-off, and after Panza still refuses to answer, Noah kills him. Meanwhile, Noah reveals to the group that he has known The Roman since he was a young man. In 1950s New York, Noah watched a trio of mobsters brutally murder his father in front of his eyes. Consumed with anger and wanting revenge, Noah killed the mobsters with the help of his best friend Louie, who is revealed to be The Roman. Noah still felt unsatisfied, so Louie helped him pick out mobsters to kill. They continued this until 1975, when Louie gave Noah up to the police. Bloom illegally obtains a file regarding Louie's location in York, Maine and gives it to Noah. Louie, anticipating The Saints' arrival at his mansion, has several hitmen stationed on the grounds. When Noah arrives, Louie reveals that he only used Noah to eliminate the competition in the mafia, afterwards giving him up to the police when he was done. After this, however, the mafia cast him out. He then helped rebuild the Yakavetta family after Papa Joe's demise, and let The Saints take out the rest of the mafia so Louie could take control. Louie signals the hitmen waiting to take out The Saints to make their move, but The Saints kill them all. Noah suffers a fatal gunshot wound, and with his last breath, he kills Louie. The police arrive and arrest the wounded Connor, Murphy, and Romeo. A few days later, a disguised Bloom meets with Uncle Sibeal, who has arranged to take her to a safe place out of the country to flee FBI prosecution. It is then revealed that Paul Smecker (William Dafoe) is alive, having faked his death and developed a network of support for The Saints and their work. He then tells Bloom his plans to break The Saints out of prison. Bloom is happy to help out. As protesters outside of the prison shout for the freedom of The Saints, the wounded Conner and Murphy stare out of their window at the sea of prisoners in the yard, finding that they'll have plenty of work while they wait to be freed.

In 1959, the four dead bodies of the Clutter family are discovered on their Kansas farm. While reading The New York Times, Truman Capote (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is riveted by the story and calls The New Yorker magazine editor William Shawn (Bob Balaban) to tell him that he plans to document the tragedy. Capote travels to Kansas, inviting childhood friend Nelle Harper Lee (Catherine Keener) to come along. He intends to interview those involved with the Clutter family, with Lee as his go-between and facilitator. Alvin Dewey (Chris Cooper), the Kansas Bureau of Investigation's lead detective on the case, brushes him off, but Dewey's wife Marie (Amy Ryan) is a fan of Capote's writing and persuades her husband to invite Capote and Lee to their house for dinner. Capote's stories of movie sets and film stars captivate Marie. Over time, her husband warms to Capote and allows him to view the photographs of the victims. The Deweys, Lee, and Capote are having dinner in Jan 1960 when the murder suspects, Perry Smith (Clifton Collins Jr.) and Richard "Dick" Hickock (Mark Pellegrino), are caught. Flattery, bribery, and a keen insight into the human condition facilitate Capote's visits to the prison where the accused are held. Capote learns that the defense lawyers persuaded Smith and Hickock to waive their rights for a prelim hearing, as that would "curry favor with the judge". Capote begins to form an attachment to Smith. He informs Shawn of his intent to expand the story into a full-length book. Following the trial and conviction (where both are sentenced to death), Capote gains continued access to the murderers by bribing Warden Marshall Krutch (Marshall Bell). Smith had stopped eating for a month and Capote uses his special visiting rights to feed infant food to Smith and nurse him back to health. Capote spends the following years regularly visiting Smith and learning about his life, excepting a year-long stint when he goes to Morocco and Spain to write the "first three parts" of the book, accompanied by his romantic partner Jack Dunphy (Bruce Greenwood). The story of Smith's life, his remorseful manner, and his emotional sincerity impress Capote, who becomes emotionally attached to him despite the gruesome murders. Capote aids Smith and Hickock by obtaining expert legal counsel for them and initiating an appeal in the Kansas supreme court. Still, he is frustrated, as Smith declines to relate exactly what happened on the night of the murders. Dewey is angry with Capote and threatens to hunt him down if the appeals lead to the perpetrators being let off in any way. Smith is also not happy with Capote as Capote will always dodge the question whether he will show his book to Smith. Capote has written a few chapters, but always lies that he has not written anything. Though initially an effort to provide proper representation and extend Capote's opportunity to speak with the killers, the appeals process drags on for several years. Without the court case being resolved, Capote feels he is stuck with a story without an ending, and he is unable to complete his book. Eventually he gets Smith to describe the killings and his thoughts at the time in great detail (Smith admits that he and Hickock entered the house on a tip that the house had $10,000 in it. In the end Smith ended up shooting everyone as there was only 50$ in the house). He has what he wants from Smith, but in the process, he sees a callousness and selfishness in his own actions. He withdraws the legal aid he has provided Smith and Hickock and leaves them to fend for themselves in the Supreme Court, their last appeal. Now with everything in hand, Capote still must wait for the appeals process to conclude before he feels he can publish his work. In the course of time, Lee's best-selling novel To Kill a Mockingbird is turned into a movie, but Capote is unable to share in the joy of his friend's success, too caught up in drinking through his own misery. With the last appeal rejected, Smith pleads for Capote to return before he is executed on Apr 14th, 1965, but Capote cannot bring himself to do so. A telegram from Smith to Harper Lee ultimately compels Capote to return to Kansas. There he is an eyewitness as Smith and Hickock are executed. Capote talks to Lee about the horrifying experience and laments that he could not do anything to stop it. She replies, "Maybe not. The fact is you didn't want to." The final scenes show Capote looking through photos from the case and at the writings and drawings given to him by Smith. An epilogue points out that In Cold Blood turned Capote into the most famous writer in America, also noting that he never finished another book. He died in 1984 due to alcoholism.

Armando Sancho (Clifton Collins Jr.) is a former Los Angeles gang member who has transitioned into law enforcement. Sancho, however, who is surrounded by corruption, finds that life as a police officer is just as morally bankrupt as life as a gangster. Salim Adel is Sancho's partner. One night, Sancho and Salim were planting evidence and stealing drugs from a drug bust, when they were seen by an old man. Salim asks the old man to retreat, but perhaps he was hard of hearing and stood his ground. Salim shoots the old man in the head after repeating the warning a few times. After being implicated in the shooting of an innocent man himself, Sancho is pressured (by IA officer Bryant (Judy Reyes)) to testify against his loose-cannon friend and partner, Salim Adel (Cuba Gooding Jr.), who has a history of abusing citizens. Sancho lives with his sick and wheelchair bound mother (Soledad St. Hilaire) and believes that some lines of decency should not be crossed. And yet, he also does not want to be a rat. Sancho picks up Salim at 8 AM from his house where he stays with his girlfriend, and his son Elijah (Dax Ramgoolam). Salim and Sancho have been called in to testify in front of Internal Affairs at 6 PM that day. On their patrol, they reach downtown at 8:34 AM. They find a couple in a car who are lost, and Sancho tries to help them. The couple cannot understand Sancho's accent, and this angers Salim. He arrests the husband and proceeds to sexually harass the wife in front of her husband. Salim steals the couple's PDA, before Sancho intervenes and allows them to leave. They then drive into Police HQ for a daily briefing from Captain Spain (Keith David). Spain declares war on the drug cartels in the city and wants his cops to remind the people that there is war going on in the streets. Spain meets Sancho and Salim separately say that police tactics are working as crime is going down in the city. He wants the cops to stick together and stop anyone from outside interfering in how they do things. Indirectly, Spain asks Sancho and Salim to lie to IA. Meanwhile, Spain is in touch with a kingpin to supply drugs to him. At a local bar at 9:42 AM, the Lieutenant (Cole Hauser) approaches Sancho and Salim and says that they have an opportunity. Lieutenant says that Brax (Wood Harris) is Damian Baine's (Wyclef Jean) right hand man. Damian owns every nightclub in town. Lieutenant tells Sancho and Salim to deliver 13 Kilos of drugs from the evidence locker to Damian at his Mexican nightclub. Sancho doesn't like the deal and feels there something is off. They pick the drugs from the evidence locker at 10:19 AM, by using a fake requisition slip from a judge requesting to produce the evidence in court. They meet Brax at a Taco Pup at 10:47 AM, who asks them to bring the drugs to Baine's club. Sancho tells Salim that if Baine kills them both, IA will never know that the incident with the dead old man was set up by the Lieutenant. Salim feels Sancho is getting paranoid, but Sancho is adamant that they will keep the drugs in the car when they meet Baine. At 11:13 AM, they reach Baine's club. Despite the warning, Salim takes the drugs into Baine's club. Baine says that Canadian gang Hells Angels have set up shop at the beach and are buying drugs from anyone willing to sell. They want to jack up prices by having a monopoly and driving all other suppliers out of business. Baine wants Salim and Sancho to use the 13 Kilos of drugs to lure the Hells Angels and steal the money and their drugs. The police get one third of the entire loot. Salim convinces Sancho that this is the mother-lode, and they won't have to do small gigs if they manage to pull this heist off. They reach the beach at 1:43 PM. They pick up drug sellers Rita (Aimee Garcia) and Splooge (Khleo Thomas) on the beach. When Sancho roughs up Splooge, Rita spits on Salim, leading him to sexually harass Rita in front of Splooge. As Splooge is taken away, Rita vows to kill Salim. Turns out Splooge is Salim's informant, and they staged the whole arrest to make it look genuine. They reach the Canadian Beach Bungalow at 3:17 PM. Splooge goes in first and distracts the Hells Angels and the cops follow in a few minutes later. Sancho is stunned to find one of the Hells Angels to be his family member, who says that the entire money belongs to Roland (Robert LaSardo). As Sancho is distracted, Splooge runs away with the drugs and Salim is shot. As Sancho pursues the shooter, Salim finds the money bag and hides it. Sancho puts Salim in the squad car and drives him away. Brax and his entourage enter the house but find no drugs or money. Sancho finds Splooge at the beach and pursues him, leaving Salim in the squad car. Splooge escapes and Sancho takes Salim to a safe-house at 5:09 PM. Turns out the whole deal was set up Lieutenant to get rid of Salim and Sancho. Salim and Sancho would attack Hells Angels to steal money and the drugs. Brax would kill them while they are in the house, and it would like Hells Angels killed the 2 dirty cops who were selling evidence from the police locker. Sancho suspected Salim, but Salim convinces him that they are both partners and in this together. The drugs hidden by Splooge are found by kids, who overdose on it. Officer Rodriguez (Nick Gonzalez) attacks the safe-house but is captured. He confirms that Lieutenant is behind the setup and the drugs were payment for their murder. Baine was supposed to kill them at the Taco Pup, but he got greedy and thought he could get both the drugs and the money and get rid of his competition by getting the police to eliminate Canadian Hells Angels. Salim realizes that Sancho was going to tell the truth to the IA and the department knew about this, and hence Lieutenant made this plan up. Salim and Sancho surrender to Roland. Roland wants his money back, but Sancho didn't know that Salim had hidden the money. It is revealed that Salim never killed the old man and had stepped away. It was Sancho who thought that the old man was reaching for his gun and shot him. Roland wants Sancho to shoot Salim, but Sancho prefers to shoot himself. Seeing this, Salim reveals that he knows the location of the money. Roland shoots Sancho regardless for going against his first family. Salim manages to escape when police are already at the spot where he hid the money. He returns the drugs recovered to the evidence locker. The drugs are destroyed as they were mixed with heavy duty rat poison. Lieutenant tells Salim that Sancho killed his girlfriend. Spain and Lieutenant indicate that they are holding Elijah hostage till Salim implicates Sancho in the day's events. As Salim exits the HQ, he is assassinated by Roland's men.

The film takes place at the fictional Camden College, a liberal arts school in northeastern New Hampshire and it set in the late 1980s. The opening sequence introduces the three main characters - Lauren Hynde (Shannyn Sossamon), Paul Denton (Ian Somerhalder), and Sean Bateman (James Van Der Beek), in turn. They are three college students at an "End of the World" party, and although they don't interact at the party, they share a certain apathetic perspective. Lauren is at the crowded dorm party trying to lose her virginity. She wants to go to bed with Victor, her stylish dreamdate, but is settling for Raymond, the handsome film student who can't keep his eyes off other girls' breasts long enough to get her into bed. They finally go upstairs, passing Sean along the way. Sean watches with them leave with the dark look that only a spurned lover can generate, tearing up what appear to be love letters as they go. Upstairs, Lauren takes Raymond into a friend's room rather than her own and feeds him a joint, then passes out on the bed before they can go further. She wakes up getting fucked from behind, but doesn't seem particularly upset about it. Then she realizes that Joel is filming the whole episode on his vid camera and her sex partner is a 'Townie' from the party. She's still not too upset, sort of resigned. Then the door to the room bursts open and two other guys stumble in looking for a place to stash their keg of beer, Joel complains about his 'light', the Townie starts to climax and then pukes at the same time all over Lauren's back. Suddenly the film goes into rewind. (Note: If you're totally turned off at this point, stop reading. If you're only fairly disgusted, but intrigued, this opening scene sets the tone for the whole film.) We "rewind" downstairs to the party where we meet Paul, a very pretty and confident young guy who's obviously at least bisexual from first glance. He's chatting up with some other guys and has a vibe going with one of them. He suggests the two of them retire upstairs for some dope, but when they get up to the other guy's room and Paul puts the moves on, the other guy chickens out, punches Paul a few times and throws him out of his room while loudly defending his heterosexuality. Paul lies humiliated on the hall floor and has a cigarette, mentioning in voice over that his date of moments before came out of the closet a year later and became a huge queen while slagging Paul's virility. Rewind downstairs again to meet Lara (Jessica Biel), Lauren's roommate and the resident "dumb-blonde" sex queen party-girl who seems to live for getting messed up and then laid. We learn in voice-over that she does the entire football team the next year, but years later is a Senator's wife with four kids. Finally we meet Sean, who's sporting evidence of a recent beating, though it's impossible to tell if he was the winner. He looks like he didn't come off too bad at least. He does his own voice-over, a recurring trend. He complains that he rarely feels any true emotions himself (classic sociopath symptom), but enjoys vibing off other peoples' as an 'emotional vampire'. He can project a dark intensity and focus that women find very intriguing. Sean finishes ripping up the letters and notices a pretty young blonde girl (Kate Bosworth) across the room. He catches her eye and holds her attention as he walks across the room to her, noting the sexual promise of her lips. The blonde thinks she recognizes him and in fact Sean thinks he fucked her the first week of school, several months ago, but he introduces himself as 'Peter the first-year'. He says it with the tone of one both utterly confident in his lie, and utterly amused at his own blatant audacity. The blonde is hooked and she introduces herself as Kelly. Sean and Kelly go upstairs and hit the sack. Kelly's turned on and completely drunk but Sean's having trouble maintaining interest - something's missing. He finally realizes this is the first time in ages he's had sex while not drunk. End Credits. Rewind WAY back to near the beginning of first term at the college months earlier. Lauren walks through campus, Sean wakes up under a tree surrounded by beer cans. Sean goes up to his campus mailbox and picks up a love letter. It obviously is one of a series of anonymous love-notes, and Sean's really getting off on them. Not the idea of love, or loving someone, but that someone loves HIM. Then he goes to see his drug connection, a distributor in the local town. This guy Rupert may be small college town, but he's a serious drug dealer who sniffs too much of his own product and hates a debtor, while Sean still owes from last year. However, Sean manages to bs his way out of a beating and into an advance on some coke to deal on campus. Sean goes to the campus canteen for some food but it doesn't meet his approval, so he scowls at the girl serving him and dumps the whole tray in the garbage. We catch up on Lara and Lauren, new roommates, and learn that Lauren is definitely a virgin and saving herself for Victor Johnson, her former boyfriend, currently attending college in Europe. Lauren has a book full of venereal disease photos to help distract herself from her raging hormones and deny temptation. The Start of the World night party, a wickerman rip-off in some field near the college. Paul goes vamping up to Mitchell (Thomas Ian Nicholas) (the same guy who will beat up Paul later), a fairly straight guy who obviously had at least a one night stand with Paul and now wants to sweep it under the rug. He practically runs away from Paul and into the arms of Candice (Clare Kramer), a fellow student who's looking for some action and isn't shy about it. She invites Paul along for a threesome and Mitchell almost has a heart attack, but Paul bows out, much to Mitchell's relief. Paul wants Mitch to himself or not at all. Sean sits in Marc's (Fred Savage in a hilarious and unrecognizable cameo) room, trying to collect some drug money he's owed. Unfortunately for Sean, Marc's too distracted with lying on his bed naked, shooting smack between his toes and smoking up while playing the clarinet. Badly. Sean shows up at the party looking for some beer and distracton from his troubles and catches Paul's eye. Paul invites him out for Mexican the next night, only getting Sean's attention by offering to pay. Sean agrees but is too uninterested in the whole conversation to catch that Paul's hoping for a hookup. The next morning, Saturday, Lauren wakes up studiously early and gets properly ready for her morning philosophy class, arriving at the class room early. Sean wakes late, smokes a joint, hits the crapper, puts on dark sunglasses and stumbles over towards class. Lauren finds the young Professor Lawson (Eric Stoltz) sleeping off a drunk in his office behind the class and delightedly sneaks a couple pulls on the joint still smoldering on his desk before leaving. She runs into Sean in the hallway outside class and tells him it's cancelled, where his rough uncaring confidence catches her fancy, and her obvious attraction catches his attention. Lauren wanders away leaving Sean wondering if she's his mystery pen-pal. That night... ANOTHER PARTY. Actually, the Saturday night pre-party party. Lauren decides enough is enough, she's going to get rid of her pesky virginity and Sean's the man. Unfortunately, Sean doesn't show right away. Meanwhile, Paul is increasingly infatuated with the idea of getting together with Sean, convincing himself that the feeling must be somewhat mutual. He's getting ready for their 'date' when some of Paul's more flagrantly gay friends burst in and shanghai Paul into helping take another od'ing friend of theirs to the hospital. Everyone's freaking out on the ride to the hospital except for Paul, who's much more worldly than the others and convinced their friend is just passed out. He's right. When they get to the hospital a jaded doctor who's sick of having drunken students stumble into his Emerg takes one look and starts calmly pretending that the guy's dead, just to freak the others out. However, the guy wakes up and his gay friends drag him back out to the car, much to Paul's annoyance and disgust at their naivete. At the party, Sean finally arrives just in time to run into Paul, who apologizes for missing their dinner date. Sean has no clue what he's talking about, but agrees to go up to Paul's room on an offer of some dope to smoke. Lara and Lauren see them go, but don't believe Sean could possibly be leaving to sleep with Paul. Lauren leaves the party with Prof. Lawson for lack of her first choice and goes back to his office, where she's nervous and uncomfortable. Lawson sleazily insinuates that he can't sleep with her for fear of his tenure but he hears much of her oral skills. Lauren obliges without protest, although it's obviously her first time. In Paul's room, Sean smokes up and watches porn while ignoring his host, while Paul fantasizes about making out with Sean. The next morning they're still there, interrupted by a phone call from Paul's mother. Sean leaves, 'borrowing' a number of Paul's cds at the same time, while Paul agrees to meet his mom and some family friends for dinner. Sean picks up another love note at his mail box - this one just says 'Tonight's the night'. He's more convinced then ever that Lauren his secret admirer. Paul meets his mother (Faye Dunaway) at an upscale hotel in town for dinner, where his childhood friend Richard "Dick" Jared (Russell Sams) bursts into the hotel room where Paul's staying. Dick is strikingly handsome, wildly gay, just plain wild, and obviously had a thing with Paul when they were younger. One thing Paul looks upon fondly with nostalgia but would like to leave behind. Dick swigs straight from a bottle of bourbon and tries to seduce Paul until their respective mothers burst in. Paul's mother and Dick's mother (Swoosie Kurtz) are surprised, slightly tipsy themselves, but also clueless. These women are rich, oblivious, shallow, and utterly unable to deal with their children. Luckily for Paul's mother he's reasonably responsible, at least with his own life. Dick's mother is getting dragged along behind a wild stallion. The older women leave the boys to get ready for dinner, the boys go wild for 15 minutes. Paul phones the dorm to speak to Sean, who's completely indifferent and eventually hangs up on him. Paul finally allows himself to believe that any mutual attraction was only in his mind. Back at the hotel restaurant, Dick lounges gorgeously and sucks back drinks while disrupting any attempt at conversation, until finally he storms off in a pretend huff when he gets bored. The mothers deal with this by discussing their respective car colors. Paul orders his mother another drink when she can't make up her mind without someone else's help. The next party - Dress to Get Fucked. People run around in various simple erotic costumes and states of undress. Lauren has definitely decided to give herself to Sean, much to her friend Lara's secret jealous rivalry. Sean is at the party, wearing his usual sweater and chinos, eating 'shrooms, looking for Lauren and looking for sex, but she's not there. However, Lara is in a baby-doll, looking to bag Sean before Lauren can. Next thing Sean knows, he and Lara are on her bed going at it. Lara's enjoying things and oblivious, while Sean completely wasted on 'shrooms. He can only enjoy himself by covering Lara's face with his hand so he can't see her, and imagining Lauren in her place. After he cums Sean falls off the bed, then vows not to do 'shrooms again. At least not while looking to get laid. In a dorm bathroom, an unknown girl prepares to commit suicide. She climbs in a tub of warm water and slits her wrists, doing it right. There's pain, then eventually she drifts off, sifting through her memories as she does so. It becomes clear that THIS is Sean's secret admirer. She's the girl from the canteen who saw him every day at meal time, watched from afar at every party, never approached him, and was never noticed at all. Then she saw him leave the party with Lara. Lauren returns to her room, while Sean's pulling up his pants. Sean tries to recover by claiming 'I only slept with her (Lara) because I love you'. Lauren staggers out and into the bathroom, where she discovers the suicide. The next morning an ambulance takes away the body and Sean tries to make up with Lauren, even though they never really had a relationship at all as far as she's concerned. No one knows about the love notes and their true author of course. Lauren blows him off. After failing to make a dent in Lauren's refusal, in frustration Sean tries to hang himself in his room, though he's obviously not really trying and just pulls the hook out of the ceiling. Then he downs all the aspirin and Nyquil he has in his bedside table, but just wakes up the next morning having puked all over himself and wet the bed. This snaps him out of the funk and he then manages to lure Lauren to his room in a moment of her weakness and potential forgiveness, just so he can fake a suicidal slit-throat in front of her, then yell Surprise!. She's non-plussed and decides Sean's a bit psycho and she definitely wants nothing to do with him. Sean gets no more love notes. Lauren's ex-boyfriend Victor (remember him?) (Kip Pardue)... returns from Europe and regales Sean and Mitchell at a diner with a two-minute montage of his travels, mostly involving taking assorted drugs in different cities, seducing attractive women, and masturbating in their presence in lieu of sex. Oh, and he almost had a threesome with a couple of terrorist swingers who subsequently bomb a tourist attraction. Victor and Mitch want some cocaine from Sean, but he says he needs to go meet his connection to get it. Victor doesn't trust Sean (he's no idiot) and after paying the $300 tag insists that Mitchell go along to ensure that Sean doesn't just pocket the cash. Sean insists on taking Mitchell's new Mercedes and driving, and Mitchell agees (he's an idiot). They get to Rupert's house (remember him?) (Clifton Collins, Jr.) and head inside, much to Mitchell's consternation (he's a lite-weight), where the drug dealer's having a little get-together with some very large bouncer-type friends. Rupert's in the kitchen sawing up bricks of marijuana with an electric knife. He isn't too impressed with the $300 since Sean owes him $3k, and Rupert's enforcer picks up a baseball bat to do some damage until Sean points at Mitch and says those immortal words: "He's got it." Rupert's so coked up he actually believes this, and all his heavy friends are converging on the kitchen for a bruising, while Mitchell freaks and denies everything. Much to everyone's surprise, Sean then relents and admits that Mitch doesn't have any money, then quickly jumps Rupert and manages to grab the knife in the scuffle. Mitchell and Sean escape out the back door before Rupert can shoot them, Mitchell squealing like a little girl. Sean also drives back to the university because he kept the car keys. The entire thrill ride has been a high for Sean and he's stoked and laughing his head off, while Mitchel is traumatized and practically wetting himself. Sean leaves Mitch cowering in his car with the coke Sean promised, which was in his jacket all along. Lauren hears that Victor is back and perks up, prettying herself for a trip his room with Lara's help while staring at Victor's picture. She leaves to finally take care of business. Sean catches up with her along the way and confronts Lauren again, trying to pry some caring from her by revealing that he attempted suicide for real before he faked it. Sean also confronts her with the love notes and how he's knows how she feels about him, but Lauren's just confused and of course denies having any idea what he's talking about. She also makes it clear that she's now convinced that no one can ever know anyone. Lauren stalks off through the snow to meet Victor, while Sean is left standing frustrated and bereft, unsure whether she's telling the truth or not. At Victor's dorm, Lauren walks in fluffing her hair and laughing to herself at Sean's bizarre behavior, knocks on Victor's door, and gives him a big kiss immediately upon opening. Victor is startled and doesn't recognize her, while Lauren doesn't really listen to what he's saying and breezily forgives him for not calling her to say he was back from Europe. Victor starts to pretend that he completely remembers Lauren, then realizes that no, he actually has no idea who this girl is. Victor's door glides open further to reveal a blonde in lingerie bouncing on his bed, who gestures at Lauren to come in. Victor asserts his complete ignorance as to who Lauren is and she stumblingly apologizes for the mistake and staggers away in apparent confusion. (We are left in confusion - Victor comes off as innocent and Lauren guilty in their encounter, so was he really an old boyfriend and he's completely forgotten her (believable for Victor)? Or did Lauren just fantasize their whole relationship in her months of fetishizing the idea of giving herself to him? Who knows?) Sean goes to his mail box, seemingly hoping for another letter but not really expecting one and meets up with Rupert and his enforcer waiting to administer a beating. Sean almost gets away but fails, receiving his lumps. Christmas time, the End of the World party, the ending where we came in at the beginning. Sean stands in the hall holding his letters and his aches, while all our other players occupy their starting places. He tears up the letters, but instead of eyeing the blonde, turns around and walks out of the party. We flash to outside the dorm house and out walks Lauren, to discover Paul sitting on the porch. One provides smokes, the other a light, and they start walking across the dark campus. (At this point you have no idea whether after Sean walked out the events from the opening sequence actually happened or not.) Paul asks Lauren about the letters and she once again denies knowledge. Paul just shrugs. They come across the parking lot, where Sean has been sitting in the darkness on his old motorcycle, watching them walk across the campus. He roars off through the slush and snow as they watch. Sean roars down the highway, musing only about what waits moments down the road. Depending on how much you sympathize with him, he is either in denial of his pain, or this is further evidence of his sociopathy and how little any of the previous events actually affected him.

Lieutenant General Eugene Irwin (Robert Redford) is brought to a maximum-security military prison to begin a ten-year sentence for his decision (in violation of a presidential order) to send U.S. troops on a mission in Burundi, resulting in the deaths of eight soldiers. Irwin walks about how castles have not changed in 1000 years in their role on the battlefield. They sit on high ground and command a territory as far as the eye can see, they have big walls for protection and strong enough to withstand a frontal attack and has a garrison of men who are trained and willing to kill. Finally, a castle has a flag, and that flag belongs to the soldiers of the castle. Nobody takes the flag, but the garrison of the castle. When the flag flies high, the castle is complete. Irwin compares the prison to a castle that is designed to keep people in. Colonel Winter (James Gandolfini), the prison's commandant, is a great admirer of the general but is offended by a comment by Irwin that he overhears. Irwin criticizes Winter's much-prized military artifacts collection, saying that the used bullets from the Civil War it includes is something no combat veteran - such as Irwin - would ever have. Colonel Winter, who has never seen combat in his career, quickly resents what he perceives as Irwin's attempt to change the attitude of the prisoners, and his admiration and respect of Irwin fades fast. A tenet of Winter's methods for running the prison is that the prisoners are no longer soldiers and therefore should not follow military customs and courtesies. Irwin notices that Winter instructs his guards not to intervene when a fight breaks out in the common outside area among inmates. Then, non-lethal force is used in the form of rubber bullets to bring the inmates under control. Irwin is assigned to laundry duty. There are specific gangs of inmates who protect their own turf. A "white" gang works on the prison wall and doesn't allow anyone to touch it. The inmates complain to Irwin that Winter instigates violence, uses extreme force and then only provide basic medical treatment. There have been 13 critical injuries in the last 11 months. Twice inmates have been hit in the head with rubber bullets and killed. Irwin is only ever visited by his daughter Rosalie (Robin Wright). On one occasion, Irwin is punished harshly after stopping a guard from clubbing a prisoner, Corporal Ramon Aguilar (Clifton Collins Jr.), who had made the mistake of saluting Irwin in the prison yard. Continuing to observe acts of cruelty, Irwin attempts to unify the prisoners by building a "castle wall" of stone and mortar at the facility, which in many ways resembles a medieval castle. Envying the respect Irwin is clearly receiving, Winter orders his guards to destroy the wall. Aguilar, directly involved in the building of the wall, takes a stand before the bulldozer. Winter orders a sharpshooter to fire a normally non-lethal rubber bullet directly at Aguilar's head, killing him. After the wall is destroyed, Irwin and the inmates pay final respects to Aguilar in formation. Colonel Winter later tries to make amends with Irwin, but Irwin calls him a disgrace to the uniform and demands his resignation. The prisoners begin to behave like soldiers around Irwin, using code words and gestures, infuriating the commandant. Winter reaches out to an anti-social prisoner named Yates (Mark Ruffalo), a former officer and Apache pilot convicted of running a drug smuggling ring, bribing him to inform about Irwin's plans in exchange for a reduced sentence. Irwin organizes a plot to throw the prison into chaos. His intent is to show a friend, Brigadier General Wheeler (Delroy Lindo), the commandant's superior officer, that the commandant is unfit and should be removed from command under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. During a visit by General Wheeler to the prison, Winter receives a letter threatening the kidnapping of Wheeler by the prisoners. After ordering his men into action, Winter discovers that the kidnap scheme was a fake. Irwin orchestrated it as a way to detect how prison guards would react during an actual uprising. Wheeler offers to transfer Irwin to another prison but Winter declines. Yates tells Winter that Irwin intends to take over the prison, then raise the flag upside down to signal distress. Yates becomes the key to their plan, tasked with stealing a U.S. flag from the warden's office, revealing that he is on Irwin's side and seizing a Bell UH-1 helicopter used by guards. Winter orders all the prisoners to the yard in an attempt to prevent their plot, but Irwin anticipated this and a prisoner uprising commences. Using improvised weapons (some resembling medieval ones) and the tactics of a military unit, the prisoners capture an armored vehicle and the helicopter. The prisoners place a call to Wheeler's headquarters and inform him of the riot. Winter has little time to regain control before Wheeler can arrive to see the prison under siege. He orders the use of live ammunition against the prisoners. He also knows from Yates that Irwin's ultimate goal is to raise the American flag upside down, a classic signal of distress. Irwin's men create havoc but ultimately are confronted with overwhelming numbers of guards, all armed with live ammunition in their weapons. Knowing further resistance would only mean a massacre, Irwin orders the prisoners to stand down. Despite Winter having successfully halted the uprising with the threat of overwhelming force, Irwin elects to hoist the flag personally. Winter then tells Irwin to return his flag but Irwin replies "It's not your flag". Irwin begins walking toward the flagpole to raise it. An increasingly unsettled Winter tells Irwin, "You will not raise that flag upside down," but Irwin continues walking toward the flagpole. Colonel Winter orders his men to open fire on Irwin, but they refuse to do so on the orders of Winter's second-in-command, Captain Peretz (Steve Burton). The colonel cannot persuade anyone else to follow his command, so he proceeds to shoot Irwin fatally himself. Peretz places the commandant under arrest. The prisoners salute the flag, and Winter now sees that Irwin has actually raised the U.S. flag in the correct manner, meaning he shot Irwin for no reason. It flies above the prison's walls as Brigadier General Wheeler arrives and Colonel Winter is led away in handcuffs. The story ends with the inmates building a new wall as memorial to their fallen comrades. Aguilar's and Irwin's names are among those carved onto the castle wall.

During an orchestrated drug bust at a marine loading dock, Detective Stan Zedkov (Michael Rooker) kills Triad lieutenant Peter Wei (Yau-Gene Chan). Zedkov had cornered Peter Wei and had injured him with a gunshot. Peter ran across the marine dock, trying to find an escape route, but Zedkov had the entire place locked up. Zedkov wanted to capture Peter alive and had told all units to back off and not fire on Peter. But when Zedkov tries to arrest him, Peter tries to shoot at Zedkov, forcing Zedkov to gun him down and kill him. Peter is survived by a wife and a toddler son. Zedkov attends Peter's funeral and tells Peter's father Terence that it was Peter who made his choice. But Terence says that Zedkov made his choice when he decided to pursue a vendetta against him and his organization. Looking to exact revenge for his son's death, crime boss Terence Wei (Kenneth Tsang), sends for professional assassin John Lee (Chow Yun-Fat). Paying off on an old debt, Lee has already killed two targets for Wei, and the crime boss tells him that this third and final job will wipe out the remainder of his obligation. Lee is a sophisticated killer and not the usual gun for hire profile. Terence wants a child for a child. Because Zedkov is a cop, Terence needs an outside who cannot be traced back to him. However, Lee's conscience prevents him from completing his final assignment: to murder Zedkov's seven-year-old son Stevie (Andrew J. Marton) before the detective's eyes. Realizing that his actions will result in retaliation against his mother and sister, Lee prepares to return to China, enlisting the help of old friend Alan Chan (Randall Duk Kim), a monk in a local Buddhist temple, to make arrangements to have his family moved to a secure location. Alan says that Lee would not be able to protect his family for long, and the only way out is an attack on Terrence himself. Infuriated by Lee's disobedience, Wei orders his men to hunt for him and has his men in China begin the search for Lee's family. Wei also hires replacement killers to finish the original job of killing Zedkov's son. No longer able to use the Triad network to get out of the country, Lee searches for alternative means outside Wei's sphere of influence. Lee Triad contact Eddie (Frank Medrano) refers him to skilled forger Meg Coburn (Mira Sorvino) to have her create for him a new passport. Lee is willing to pay her price but wants the passport in one hour. Before she can finish the job, Wei's men storm her apartment, destroying the computerized tools of her trade in the ensuing shootout, but Lee manages to escape after gunning the men down. Coburn is picked up by the police, unsuccessfully interrogated by Zedkov, and released as bait so the detective can see who tries to kill her. Meanwhile, Wei hires two skilled out-of-town contract killers named Ryker and Collins to take over the hunt for Lee and the Zedkov contract. Having been made aware that the Triads are involved, Coburn wants out, but Lee forces her to finish her original task of creating a forged passport. Getting pictures from a photo booth, Lee phones Alan, who offers the use of his own passport to create the forgery. When Lee arrives at the temple, he discovers that Alan has been tortured to the point of death. Alan tells Lee that his family was moved to Canton-but he told his torturers they were in Shanghai. Lee has little more than 24 hours before his family is found. The monk gives Lee his passport before dying in his arms. Coburn later concludes the procedure of forging a passport for Lee. Feeling compelled to stop the killing of Zedkov's son before leaving the country, Lee forces one of Wei's informers to reveal the plan, which is to kill Stevie while he and his father are at a cartoon festival in a movie theater. Lee and Coburn arrive barely in time to prevent contract killers Ryker (Til Schweiger) and Collins (Danny Trejo) from killing the boy, and Ryker is killed in the subsequent gunfight. Concerned that Lee and Coburn will make their way back to Wei's base of operations, the crime boss makes plans to flee the country and hunt down Lee's mother and sister himself. However, when two guards open the main gate for Wei and his entourage leave in an SUV, Lee stands ready, firing handguns in different directions killing many Triad soldiers. Coburn surfaces moments later driving a truck through the melee, incapacitating Wei's head consort Michael Kogan (Jurgen Prochnow), and later killing him. When Collins fires from a high perch on Lee and Coburn, Lee soon outflanks him, killing him from behind. Finally, Lee corners Wei on a fire escape platform. Though both men have emptied their guns, Lee is first to reload. Wei promises Lee that the boy and Lee's family will still die, but Lee replies, "Not in your lifetime," and kills him. Though Zedkov arrives before Lee and Coburn can get away, he lets them go, taking only their guns. Coburn reluctantly bids goodbye to Lee at the airport, presenting him with one last gift, passports for his mother and sister