Darren McGavin

Billy Madison (Adam Sandler), a 27-year-old heir to a wealthy father, has spent his entire life reaping the benefits of his family's hotel chain with 650 properties, Madison Hotels, a Fortune 500 company. 61,000 people work for the hotel chain. He spends his days drinking with best friends, Jack (Mark Beltzman) and Frank (Norm Macdonald), and creating disturbances across his father's estate. Billy is so baked in the sun and on drugs that he sees Penguins chasing him everywhere. Billy feels that it is too hot for penguins and wants to capture them and send them back to colder climates. Juanita (Theresa Merritt) is the house maid and cares for Billy. One day, Billy ruins a dinner meeting between his father, Brian (Darren McGavin), and his business associates. Billy is very late arriving for the dinner and then acts obnoxiously after being instigated by Eric Gordon (Bradley Whitford), Brian's executive vice president. This prompts Brian to lose any remaining faith in Billy, as he chooses the conniving Eric to become the next CEO of the company. Brian also passes over Carl, who is a senior and loyal employee to the company for his entire working life of 25 years. Brian said that he and his now deceased wife always wanted to turn over their empire to Billy, but Eric argues that the 61,000 employees will have their jobs in danger when Billy takes over. When Billy, who despises Eric, protests that he can be responsible, Brian reveals that he secretly bribed all of Billy's school teachers in order for him to pass. Billy begs his father to reconsider his decision. The two finally come to a compromise: Billy must pass elementary, middle, and high school (grades 1-12) on his own within the course of twenty-four weeks (two weeks per grade), in order to prove his competence. Miss Lippy (Dina Platias) is Billy's first grade teacher, where he reads stories and plays dodge ball. Billy is brutal with the other kids at dodge-ball. Billy has a lot of trouble with simple hand eye coordination required to create a cotton snow-man. The urinals for first grade are too small for Billy. He passes first grade when he draws a blue duck. Every time Billy passes a grade, he throws a grand party for all his fellow students at his mansion. Rollo is the school janitor who brings news of Billy's progress to Eric. Billy passes 2nd grade after completing the spelling bee correctly. Shortly after enrolling into school, Billy becomes attracted to a third-grade teacher named Veronica Vaughn (Bridgette Wilson), who initially is disgusted with Billy and finds his enrollment to be a distraction for the other students. He eventually finds himself as one of Veronica's students and earns her respect by defending Ernie (Jared Cook), his friend and classmate. Eric peed his pants while on a class trip and to save him from embarrassment, Billy throws water on his pants and pretends that peeing in pants is cool. The whole class pees inside their own pants. Billy starts getting Valentine cards from the pretty girls in school, but he has the hots for Veronica. Billy becomes popular among the third graders and begins to miss them as he advances through school. Veronica and Billy hook up after he passes 3rd grade. Carl warns Billy that Eric is up to something. When Billy reaches ninth grade, he finds that rather than being the cool guy that everyone looks up to, he is now considered a loser; realizing how it feels to be on the receiving end of bullying, he calls up an old classmate, Danny McGrath (Steve Buscemi), and apologizes for the way he treated him in high school. Danny accepts his apology and crosses his name off a list of people to kill. Billy's progress frustrates and alarms Eric, leading him to take the offensive while Billy struggles in high school. He visits Billy's grade school principal, Max Anderson (Josh Mostel), and threatens to reveal his past as a professional wrestler that is filled with controversial incidents, especially a particular one back in 1983, when Max accidentally caused the death of another man while performing a stunt. Coerced, Max publicly states he took bribes from Billy in return for passing him. The announcement angers Brian who chooses to give the hotel chain to Eric. Billy becomes distraught and reverts to his original care-free lifestyle. Veronica and others come to Billy's aid, convincing him to keep fighting Eric. He returns to school and begins to study again; however, Billy realizes that he must reclaim the hotel chain. His grade school friends visit Max at his home and convince him to retract his previous statements. Veronica encourages Billy to practice by removing one piece of clothing for every correct answer he gives. With Billy's named cleared, Brian and Carl Alphonse (Larry Hankin), a loyal, long-time employee of Madison Hotels argue to Eric that Billy deserves another chance, but Eric disagrees and threatens to file a lawsuit. Billy challenges Eric to an academic decathlon that will determine his father's successor. Although both men excel in different activities, Billy manages to take a single-point lead before the contest's final event, a Jeopardy! style academic test. The game progresses as Eric is given the chance to answer and potentially win. However, he is asked to answer a question about business ethics, of which he has no concept, and begins to break down. Refusing to admit defeat, he brandishes a gun at Billy. Max, clad in his wrestling outfit, subdues Eric. The attack fails to keep Eric down and laughing maniacally, he makes a final attempt to get revenge on Billy by turning his gun on Veronica. Suddenly, Danny McGrath appears with a high-powered rifle and disables Eric by firing a single shot into his buttocks. Danny and Billy share a quick wave, before he departs. At Billy's graduation, he announces that he is passing the hotel business to Carl and will instead attend college with hopes of becoming a teacher.

A car thief and a punk rocker fall in love as they become embroiled in deaths attributed to an aphrodisiac.

A former FBI agent turned small-town sheriff agrees to help the FBI chief infiltrate the Chicago mafia when the FBI chief's son is killed by them. Small-town lawman Sheriff Mark Kaminski, a dishonoured agent kicked out of the FBI for excessive brutality, agrees to lend an old friend a hand. But to infiltrate Luigi Patrovita's powerful Chicago mafia, the tough officer will need all the help he can get. As revenge fuels the suicide mission, Mark, now posing as the mysterious Joseph P. Brenner, must use every trick in the book to force his way through the crime organisation and tear it apart from the inside. For the sake of his friend, Mark takes the law into his own hands in this deadly unofficial assignment. However, how far can the intruder go without blowing his cover? —Nick Riganas Mark Kaminski is kicked out of the FBI for his rough treatment of a suspect. He winds up as the sheriff of a small town in North Carolina. FBI Chief Harry Shannon, whose son Blair Shannon has been killed by a mobster named Luigi Patrovita, enlists Kaminski in a personal vendetta with a promise of reinstatement into the FBI if Patrovita is taken down. To accomplish this, Kaminski must go undercover and join Patrovita's gang. —Dave Gan <longbow@bigfoot.com>

Set in an undeterminate year of the 1940s, Ralphie Parker (Peter Billingsley) is a nine year-old boy living in the small town of Hohman, Indiana. His older self (voice of Jean Shepherd) narrates his experiences and thoughts through the short weeks before Christmas. As he, a few friends, and his younger brother Randy (Ian Petrella) look into the display window of a local store, Ralphie has his eyes set on the only item he wants for Christmas; an Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle, with a compass in the stock and "this thing which tells time" (a sundial). Knowing full well that he could never request this item openly to his parents, Ralphie sneaks advertisements for the gun into his parents' magazines the next morning. At the breakfast table, he fails to bring up the subject in casual conversation, and with less subtlety than was intended. He then accidentally lets slip his desire to his mother (Melinda Dillon) who immediately rejects the idea with the dreaded phrase: "you'll shoot your eye out." Disappointed, Ralphie enjoys a reverie about how he alone, armed with his gun, stands between his family and a gang of stripe-shirted ruffians in a Western-style standoff. Meanwhile his grouchy father (Darren McGavin) is forced to battle the temperamental house furnace in the basement amid a slur of inaudible curses. While walking through the frozen, snow-covered neighborhood on his way to school, Ralphie meets up his two friends, Flick (Scott Schwartz) and Schwartz (RD Robb), while Randy lags behind, heavily bundled under a thick, wool snow jumper that leaves his arms sticking straight out. Before class, Flick and Schwartz argue over what would happen should someone stick their tongue to a frozen flag pole, engaging in a delicate nuance of phrase during which Schwartz dares Flick to stick his tongue to the pole. Upon the dreaded triple-dog-dare, Flick puts his tongue to the pole to find it stuck tight. He starts screaming but the others run into school as the bell rings. Their teacher, Miss Shields (Tedde Moore), notices Flick's absence and, when she sees him outside, calls the fire department and local police and tries to comfort Flick. As the students watch with excitement, Ralphie feels a pang of guilt. Still, when Flick is escorted to his desk, a bandage around his tongue, and Miss Shields gives a brief speech on how whoever put Flick up to sticking his tongue to the pole should atone for their misdeed. But Ralphie explains that kids know better not to get caught. Miss Shields then gives them an assignment; to write a theme about what they want for Christmas. Ralphie sees this as an opportunity to write about the Red Ryder gun, hoping that his teacher will sympathize with him and secure a little reprieve with her authority as an adult. On the way home, Ralphie, Flick, Schwartz, and Randy are confronted by a local bully named Scut Farkus (Zack Ward) and his toadie Grover Dill (Yano Anaya). Poor Schwartz is subjected to a painful hammerlock before they all run away, screaming shrilly, while Randy lags behind unable to keep up wearing his thick winter clothing. Ralphie makes it home and finishes his theme just as his father comes home, shouting excitedly, before being surrounded by the neighbor's dogs. Ralphie watches from his window above and comments how his neighbors, the Bumpuses, owned dozens of bloodhounds that ignored everyone else on earth except for the Old Man. Mr. Parker exclaims that he won a grand prize in a local magazine sweepstakes, showing his wife the telegram that says it will be delivered that night. During dinner that night, Randy displays his typical dissent for food and refuses to eat until his mother playfully asks him how pigs eat. Randy dives into his food face first, laughing hysterically, while Mr. Parker and Ralphie look on with disgust. Then, the doorbell rings and everyone immediately stops. They run to the door where Mr. Parker allows the delivery men to wheel in a large box and opens it with fervor to reveal a lamp that's designed to look like a woman's leg, complete with stocking, high heel shoe, and a shade that looks like a skirt. While Mr. Parker gushes over it, Ralphie's mother is clearly uncomfortable, especially when her husband tells her to display it in the front window for the entire neighborhood to see. Only one thing draws Ralphie and his brother away from the glow of electric sex gleaming in the window, and that's their favorite radio program; "Little Orphan Annie." Scut and Grover chase the friends and Randy couldn't catch up. The next day at school, Ralphie hands in his theme and has a momentary daydream where his paper is given the best grade in class before being brought out of it by Miss Shields. After school, he and his friends are once again chased through the alley by Scut and Grover. That evening, the family goes out to pick a Christmas tree. On the way home, the car blows a tire and Mr. Parker goes outside to fix it. When his mother encourages him to help his father, Ralphie is only happy to do so, but when his father accidentally knocks the hubcap that Ralphie is using to hold the tire bolts out of his hands, Ralphie utters the big one that he heard his father say in private over and over again. Ralphie says: "oh, fudge!" (Actually the F-dash-dash-dash word). At home, his mother puts a bar of soap in his mouth, one that he dislikes in taste above all others he's had the opportunity to sample. His mother asks where hes heard that word and, although Ralphie admits to us that his old man used the word as fluently as an artist would use paint, he chickens out and blurts out his friend Schwartz's name. When Mrs. Parker calls Schwartz's mother and tells her, we hear her screaming maniacally and giving Schwartz a sound beating. She sends Ralphie to bed and tries the soap and dislikes the taste. Sent to bed, Ralphie cries to himself and fantasizes about seeing his parents years into the future to reveal that all the soap sessions his mother gave him resulted in premature blindness, causing his parents to moan and grieve over their wrongdoing. Scut and Grover chase the friends and Randy can't catch up. At school, the students bring in apples as small gifts for Miss Shields before Christmas. Ralphie gives her a large fruit basket, hoping that it will help sway her final decision on his paper. Upon arriving home, he checks the mail to see that his long awaited package from the Little Orphan Annie Secret Society with his secret message decoder pin has arrived. He listens to the encrypted message on the radio that night and rushes up to the bathroom to decode it, only to realize that the secret message is nothing but an advertisement for Ovaltine. Wiser, but nonetheless disappointed, Ralphie casually swears under his breath. Later that night, the furnace blows black smoke into the kitchen again and the Old Man rushes down to do battle. Mrs. Parker appears complacent as she strolls into the living room with a watering can before a loud crash is heard. Ralphie watches as his father rushes up the stairs and finds his wife holding his broken lamp. She admits it was an accident before shouting, after Mr. Parker claims she was jealous that he won it, that it was the ugliest lamp she's ever seen. Mr. Parker attempts to fix the lamp but it quickly falls apart, much to his wife's amusement. He musters all the dignity he can as he takes the remains to the back yard and buries them. At school, Ralphie is handed his theme back from Miss Shields. He looks in horror at the large C+ stamped across the top with the phrase "you'll shoot your eye out". He imagines his teacher clad in a witch's outfit, laughing at him next to his harlequin mother who must have surely gotten to her. Ralphie spends the rest of the day in class feeling depressed and hopeless that he'll never get the Ryder BB gun and surrounded by happier kids who were all getting what they want for Christmas. On the way home, Ralphie walks alone and is suddenly hit in the face with a snowball. He takes his glasses off and sees Scut Farkus and Grover Dill approach him. Ralphie tears up until Scut starts to mock him and laugh, Ralphie, having had enough of Scut and Grover bullying him his friends and Randy, to snap and he charges angrily at Scut, tackling him to the ground and beating him. Grover runs off as the neighborhood kids cheer Ralphie on. Randy picks up his discarded glasses and goes to get their mom as Ralphie starts to swear. She arrives just as Ralphie is finishing a rant of slurred curses. She gets a distraught Ralphie off of Scut and helps him walk home. Scut is left to pick himself up with a bloodied nose. As Flick and Schwartz scoff at him. Ralphie is inconsolable by the time he gets home, his mom takes him to the bathroom, and splashes water from the sink on his face. And even though she tries to calm him and puts him to bed until dinner. Meanwhile, Randy hides himself under the kitchen sink, crying that "Daddy's gonna kill Ralphie". When Mr. Parker does come home, Ralphie goes downstairs, fearing the worst and knowing full well the mix of bad words he'd said during the fight. However, his mother is sympathetic and downplays the fight to Mr. Parker, giving a grateful Ralphie a reprieve. As Ralphie goes to sleep that night, the "Scut Farkus Affair" behind him, he decides the best way to receive his BB gun is to ask Santa himself. The next night, (Christmas Eve) the family goes downtown to watch the Christmas parade. Ralphie is impatient and keeps asking to leave early so that they can see Santa Claus. As soon as Santa goes by in his float, his parents concede and take him and Randy to the department store where Santa (Jeff Gillen) sits atop a frosty mountain, a long line of kids on one side and a slide going down on the other. Ralphie's parents let him take Randy while they go off on their own. Stuck at the end of a very long line, and with a Santa enthusiast nicknamed Goggles (David Svoboda) to awkwardly content with, Ralphie can only wonder if he'll make it to see Santa before closing time. When they finally make it to the top, Goggles sits on Santa's lap and immediately starts screaming before being put on the slide. Randy follows suit and Ralphie is escorted by an irritable helper elf (Patty Johnson) to sit on Santa's lap. His perspective, as he's swung around, shows clearly why most kids are afraid of Santa. In shock himself by Santa's intimidating face, Ralphie is unable to tell Santa exactly what he wants. Santa suggests a football to which Ralphie numbly agrees. He comes to his senses just as he's about to go down the slide and stops himself, struggling back to the top where he blurts out what he really wants. He gives his best smile, but Santa merely repeats what Ralphie fears, "you'll shoot your eye out, kid" before putting his boot to Ralphie's forehead and pushing him down the slide. Ralphie's parents collect him and Randy at the bottom and take them home where they decorate the tree (a task that results in blowing a dangerously packed outlet). The boys are then ushered quickly up the stairs to bed. The next morning, Ralphie wakes up to see that fresh snow has fallen overnight and goes downstairs eagerly with his brother, who claims that everything in sight is his. Their parents follow suit and presents are unwrapped with frantic excitement (except for socks). When all is said and done, Randy lies sleeping amid the wrappings with his toy zeppelin as Ralphie sits on the couch with his parents. His father asks if he got everything he wanted that year before pointing out a mysterious package behind the desk. Ralphie goes to unwrap it and finds what he thought he'd never get; the Red Ryder BB gun. His father chuckles as he fills it with BB pellets and asks to try it out. Mr. Parker explains to his wife that he had one when he was eight years old, though she still worries Ralphie will hurt himself. Ralphie runs outside and sets up his metal target board while his father drools over the Christmas turkey his mother is making. Ralphie takes aim, fires, and falls back; the pellet having bounced off the target and hitting him on the cheek, knocking his glasses off. Fearful for a second that he actually did shoot his eye out, the half-blind Ralphie collects himself and looks for his glasses but accidentally steps on them, breaking them. Despondent, he tries to think of a way to explain the accident to his mom and decides that an icicle falling off the garage would have to work. He fakes some tears and goes to his mother. She takes him to the bathroom upstairs to wash his face off with a rag.(Though Ralphie is ecstatic that his plan worked) and gives him an old pair of glasses to use. Meanwhile, the Bumpuses' street bloodhounds get into the house and run rampant through the kitchen, eating all of the turkey. Mr. Parker chases the dogs out, yelling at the top of his lungs. Before announcing to everyone that they're going out to eat. They go to a Chinese restaurant where the family listens to the waiters' attempts to sing carols before the main course is brought out, with its head still intact. The owner (John Wong) casually takes out a butcher knife and chops the head off while the family claps and begin to eat. That night, Ralphie sleeps with his Red Ryder held close, the best Christmas gift he ever received, dreaming of hunting ducks and making spectacular shots.

Millionaire philanthropist Philip Stevens (James Stewart) arrives at his palatial estate and holds a media conference to discuss a flight containing his hand-picked guest list of rich and famous friends, which will soon be arriving in Florida. His luxury aircraft, a Boeing 747 outfitted with high-end accommodations, is packed with his collection of priceless artwork to be installed at his home, which has been converted into a new museum where Stevens hopes to share the treasures with the world. The plane, piloted by Captain Don Gallagher (Jack Lemmon) lands in Washington. Gallagher meets the plane's lead production manager Stan Buchek (Darren McGavin) upon landing, and tells him the aircraft handled perfectly, and as they observe the museum pieces being loaded into the cargo holds, wonder whether the collection or the plane is more expensive. Meanwhile a mysterious pair of men-an airline employee and a civilian--stand at the airport gift shop and quietly switch suitcases as they meet at a magazine rack, never making eye contact or speaking. The employee then enters a locker room and assumes a disguise with a mustache and wig, finding a gun in the bathroom paper towel dispenser, and joins the ground crew as the cargo is loaded. Meeting up with a companion on board later, canisters of CR-7 gas are connected to the air supply, rigged to be activated manually. Gallagher finds Eve Clayton (Brenda Vaccaro) in an office. They have been a couple for some time, and he finds the courage to bring up marriage, but she says Stevens has asked her to work in Geneva for him, which would put distance into their relationship. He wants a wife and family, and she wants her career. That evening the guests begin to arrive and board the aircraft, including Benjy (Anthony Battaglia), whose mother is Stevens' daughter Lisa (Pamela Bellwood). She is taking her son to meet his grandfather for the first time, but her own relationship with her father is strained. Emily Livingston (Olivia de Havilland) boards with her personal assistant Dorothy (Maidie Norman). She joins several art critics she knows and, after the men and she exchange banter, she sits with them as their fourth and engages in a challenging game of poker. Jane Stern (Arlene Golonka) arrives with her daughter Bonnie Stern (Elizabeth Cheshire), who was chosen for the flight to present an artwork her schoolmates designed for Stevens' museum. A film is played of Stevens greeting the passengers and urging them to enjoy their flight. Bob Chambers (Robert Foxworth), the main conspirator, will be the co-pilot for the flight that evening, and he and Gallagher settle in the cockpit, while conspirators Wilson (Michael Pataki) and Banker (Monte Markham) are among the crew members. Gallagher appears on the screen to invite the passengers to view their taxi down the runway as the plane, now known as 2-3-Sierra, begins its flight. At the bar, blind pianist Steve (Tom Sullivan) plays and sings a song for corporate assistant Julie (Kathleen Quinlan). The children challenge Dorothy to a tabletop video game while a woman leaves to find two men in the nearby office. Frank Powers (Gil Gerard) discusses a future underwater farming excursion with diver Martin Wallace (Christopher Lee), whose demeanor grows sour when the woman, his wife Karen Wallace (Lee Grant), enters the room in an inebriated state and shows off the bottles of booze she has collected. When Martin leaves, Karen teases Frank with threats to tell her husband about their affair, one which he much regrets. Eve talks to Philip from the cockpit and informs him that Lisa and Benjy are aboard, and he decides to head out to meet them. Eve then tells Gallagher she has thought things over and wonders if they can discuss their relationship in Palm Beach later. He agrees. A drink arrives for Emily, along with a calling card bearing the name of her old flame Nicholas St. Downs III (Joseph Cotton), she sees him across the lounge area and is happy to reunite with him after decades apart. Eddie (Robert Hooks) tends bar and tells Eve his wife is expecting twins, and she encourages him to call home to check on her, then speaks with Lisa in private. Determined to become independent, Lisa wants to break the news to her father that she won't be dominated by his power and position any longer, but Eve informs her that Philip is terminally ill and has months to live, and urges her to restrain herself. Julie and Martin are at the bar and discuss the sea, which enthralls him as a diver, but she admits water frightens her. Karen interrupts their talk and tosses a drunken barb at Julie, who leaves, and she and a miserable Martin exchange insulting banter. The conspirators begin their coup. The security guard is knocked out, but is hit too hard and dies instantly, so they move the body out of sight. Gallagher is lured from the cockpit to tend to a sick passenger and is subdued by a blow to the head. They secure oxygen masks to their faces, the sleeping gas is released into the cabin, and the passengers lose consciousness. Chambers takes the controls and the plane descends below radar, heading into a fog bank, reducing visibility to less than a mile. He changes the flight path over the Bermuda Triangle, taking the craft off course at 600 mph. The air traffic controller radios the plane from Palm Beach when they lose the radar signal, but he ignores it. The plan is to remove the artwork and head to South America with their black market profits, while the passengers awaken to an empty plane on deserted St. George Island. Minutes later, as Chambers looks at the vista ahead, a large offshore drilling platform emerges from the haze, and they are heading straight for it. He pulls back on the yoke and tries to turn, but the wing clips the derrick and the engine catches fire. Chambers immediately hits the fire extinguishing button and the flames go out momentarily, but the sudden loss of airspeed threatens to stall the airplane. As the engine reignites, the stall alarm goes off and the tail of the plane hits the water. The passengers awaken and start to scream and panic. Chambers struggles to keep the plane airborne, but finally it hits the water violently and stalls in the ocean. Banker is in the hold securing the art for the transfer when a cargo container slams into and breaches the bulkhead, the ocean bursts in and sends the container back to pin him to a wall, and the surging water drowns him. Wilson is killed when he enters the cockpit and is slammed into the flight panel, and Chambers is knocked unconscious at the controls. As passengers recover from the initial shock of impact, Karen looks out a window and alerts everybody as the plane begins to slip beneath the waves, settling on the ocean floor some 100 feet below the surface. The ocean bottom is fortunately above the depth that would crush the fuselage, and Gallagher calms the passengers, informing them that they have been tracked and will be rescued soon. Buchek suffers an impact fracture of his arm while trying to protect Bonnie, who has been injured under the bar. Emily looks after Dorothy, who took a blow to her head. Gallagher and Buchek ask a passenger, Dr. Williams (M. Emmett Walsh) to help. The doctor spends time tending to the wounded, though he later confesses to the lead flight attendant that he is actually a veterinarian for Stevens and is used to tending horses. Gallagher and Buchek examine the plane and find some cargo areas flooded, but others remain airtight for the time being. How long the plane will hold up, and the lack of oxygen, are concerns. Their attention is drawn by Eddie, who has suffered a severely broken leg, and Nicholas helps them take him into the main cabin to rest. Martin also offers to help, stopping momentarily to calm Karen but stressing to her that she will be fine while he is away. Gallagher and Buchek interrogate Chambers in the office when he regains consciousness and hear the confession of the conspirators' plans. They put him on watch in the passenger area. Steve the pianist is seriously hurt, Julie stays with him and, when he touches her face as a way of imagining how she looks, she gives him her earring as a token, and he says he loves her. When he requests a drink of water, in the moments it takes to bring it to him, she finds he has succumbed to his injuries. Meanwhile, Lisa assures Benjy that Bonnie will be okay. Ships and planes are sent out to search for the downed flight under the guidance of Joe Patroni (George Kennedy), and he assures Stevens that the plane will be found. With the crash happening far from their expected flight path, Gallagher tells Eve they are on their own. Buchek examines growing damage to the fuselage and finds more airtight areas being breached by water, and the passenger compartment begins to flood. As Emily comforts Julie, she hears a droning sound outside and asks all the passengers to be quiet. Martin recognizes the sound as that of an approaching ship, which brings them hope, but the ship's crew do not know the plane is submerged near them and pass the crash site. Karen lashes out at Gallagher, blaming him for their situation. Gallagher and Buchek find the only inward opening door of use on the plane, located in a rear cargo hold which has remained dry, and they wire an electrical circuit inside. Gallagher announces to the passengers that he plans to exit the plane from that airtight compartment and send a life raft to the surface with a homing beacon to alert search parties to their location. Martin volunteers as an experienced scuba diver to join him and double their chances of success, and Gallagher agrees. Buchek shows Gallagher how to touch two wires together to create the spark needed to unlock the cargo door. Karen tries to stop Martin from taking the risk, saying they should think about themselves, but he argues that selfishness sent them into their predicament, and he kisses her before he joins Gallagher. Buchek wishes Gallagher luck, leaves the hold and the hatch is shut and locked. Placing their oxygen masks to their faces, Gallagher notes they can get two minutes of air to breathe as he joins the two wires once. The door creaks but does not open, so he tries again several times, finally removing his oxygen mask to investigate the connection. Martin steps over to the door, and before Gallagher can warn him, it bursts open, striking Martin and throwing him across the cargo hold in a wave of ocean water as the cabin floods. Gallagher swims to a glassy-eyed Martin and tries to revive him with oxygen, but he died on impact and the effort is futile, so he grabs the raft and exits the hold into the open ocean. Karen and the others watch in horror as Martin's body floats away. Several passengers try to settle a shocked Karen as Gallagher swims skyward, pulls the inflation device and sends the raft to the surface ahead of him. Swimming to it when he surfaces, he boards and activates the beacon, then sits helplessly hoping for a quick response. A Navy plane investigates the beeper which has suddenly appeared on radar, indicating the flight is 100 miles off course. On the airplane, Karen is obviously in an alcohol-fueled state of shock from losing her husband. She absently preens in a mirror, then approaches the main hatch and attempts to open it, which would flood the plane. Eve approaches and tries to calm her down, but they begin to struggle. Karen pounds at Eve, who finally has to punch Karen and knock her out to prevent a catastrophe. A jet pilot reports to base that he has spotted the plane, which is completely underwater at the coordinates given. Gallagher shouts with joy as the passing jet dips a wing in acknowledgment. The Navy discusses the situation, and it is decided to raise the plane as they would a submarine in a salvage operation. Patroni guides the Navy in how best to raise the aircraft without splitting it in two, while Stevens is sent to meet with the survivors. The USS Cayuga arrives at the site, and a crew comes by boat to retrieve Gallagher, who talks with Patroni as the rescue is coordinated, stressing that the passengers are running out of time. With additional salvage crew members and equipment, the vessel sends divers (Gallagher also volunteers to help with his amateur diving experience and knowledge of the aircraft) below to the plane. A diver writes to the passengers on a tablet and shows it to them at a window, indicating that they should secure themselves as the crew attempts to lift the plane from the water. Divers run heavy straps under predetermined points under the fuselage and attach them to huge bladders to fill with compressed air to raise the plane. The crew aboard the inflation boat begin sending air down to the bladders, which inflate and rise, lifting the plane from the ocean floor, but another airplane door opens under the change in pressure, water begins to fill the plane, and one bladder breaks away. The flood sends some passengers spinning in its wake. Karen is swept away toward the back of the plane and drowns. Buchek grabs Benjy and prevents him being swept away as well. Chambers is killed when debris from the flooding strikes him. As the boats and crew circle and watch at the surface, the plane breaks through the water, and rafts-one with Gallagher aboard--pull up to the hatch as flight attendants ferry Eddie, Bonnie and Jane and the other wounded passengers aboard. Emily and Nicky see that Dorothy did not survive the ascent and reluctantly leave her. The able-bodied survivors rush out to waiting boats, but when a second strap holding a bladder keeping the aircraft buoyant gives way, Eve is trapped with the water rising at her only exit. Gallagher wades into the plane to her side and they climb the stairs to the cockpit to exit by the door there, and jump into the ocean. They are lifted by helicopter to safety. The remaining bladders holding their former prison give way and Flight 2-3 Sierra disappears again underwater. On-board the Navy ship, Philips greets Lisa and Benjy, the injured are airlifted away, and Gallagher and Eve reaffirm that they have a date in Palm Beach that night as they land and greet the other grateful survivors on the Cayuga's deck.

A somewhat different take on Custer's motivation that changed him from a defender of Native-American rights into a politically-driven, headline-seeker chastiser of the Sioux during the 1870s. A look at what happened to Custer and his troops at the Battle of Little Big Horn. Custer, an outspoken believer in fair treatment for the Indians, is ousted from his post and forced into retirement. Fueled by ambition when a senator convinces him to run for president, Custer decides to upstage General Terry at Little Big Horn. —Anonymous

Sidney Pythias is a bumbling janitor picked up by cop Mike Damon as a teenage gang member worth saving from delinquency. With Damon's help, Sidney works his way through the Police Academy to become a cop too.