Dennis Hopper

Two rival bikers gangs, the Victors and the Six-Six-Six's, refuel their decades-old rivalry.

Nine strangers, with no apparent connection between them are abducted: drugged, kidnapped and sealed in a house together. Nine strangers - a priest; a dancer; a designer; an aspirant rapper; a former tennis pro; a woman on probation; an unsuccessful composer and his wife; and a detective - are randomly abducted, drugged and locked in a house by a wealthy maniac. They are informed through a public address system that there are seventy-five cameras following them, and only one will survive and win US$ 5,000,000.00 to keep quiet. The psychological game begins, with fear and greed affecting the participants.

The film opens with a recap of the zombie outbreak during the credits, and we are brought to the time setting of today. In a small, run-down town, zombies are everywhere, and they seem to retain knowledge of their lives before they died. Some zombies try to play instruments in a town square. A teenage boy zombie holds hands with a female teenage zombie as if on a date. The teenage zombies walk past a gas station, where the zombie attendant hears the bell that signifies that someone is there. The zombie walks outside and is ready to fill a car with gas, but he sees that there is no car so he puts back the gas nozzle. From the name-tag that he has, his name is Big Daddy (Eugene Clark). Watching Big Daddy through binoculars is Riley (Simon Baker) and his new rookie. Riley sees that the zombies are getting somewhat smarter, and that they are thinking more. This worries him. Riley is a part of a group of humans who venture out to small towns and gather essential supplies for people back at the last known human city. Riley built a vehicle that is justly named 'Dead Reckoning', which is basically a combination of a bus, train, and tank. It is fully loaded with machine guns, rockets, and fireworks. Riley and the rookie meet up with Cholo (John Leguizamo), who also has the same job as Riley of collecting supplies as well as dumping trash in a nearby landfill. Riley tells Cholo that the zombies are thinking, and to be careful when they go into the town. Cholo brushes off the warning, but Riley gets his point across. It is Riley's last night out, and he doesn't want anyone dying. Cholo reveals that it is his last night out as well. A figure is walking towards Riley and the rookie, but they don't see it. The rookie turns around, sees it, and gets ready to blast it to hell when Riley recognizes it and orders the rookie to lower his weapon. It is only Charlie (Robert Joy), a man who has half of his face burnt from a fire. Charlie is slightly retarded. He is Riley's right-hand man, and is his trusted friend. Charlie and Riley wonder how Cholo is retiring tonight, unless he won the lottery. The rag-tag team of humans get in their jeeps and motorcycles, and proceed towards the town. Pretty Boy (Joanne Boland), the female operator of Dead Reckoning, fires off some fireworks over the town. All the zombies stare at the sky, their attentions focused on the lights. This allows Riley and the humans to move freely throughout the town unnoticed. Big Daddy is the only zombie who does not look at the fireworks. He sees his fellow undead companions looking at the sky, and he tries to shake their attention from it. The humans are just about finished with finding things to bring back home when Cholo tells Riley that he just needs to make one more stop at a store. Cholo really is going to the shop to steal alcohol, which sells well on the streets back home. Riley urges him not to go, but Cholo ignores him. He takes the rookie and Foxy (Tony Nappo). There's something wrong: the fireworks are jammed. The zombies are starting to become aware of the humans in their midst, and start to stumble towards them. Riley orders Dead Reckoning and the rest of his team to evacuate and retreat back home. Riley and Charlie will go and bring back Cholo with his men. Dead Reckoning starts to head out and blasts away many zombies with its machine guns. Big Daddy sees the danger of the guns and tries to get the other zombies to take cover, but they are not getting it. He holds onto a zombie's head and tries to push him towards the ground, but the machine gun fire blasts the zombie's head off. Big Daddy, still holding onto the zombie's head, sees that it is still alive. To put it out of its misery, he drops the head and stomps on it, crushes its brains. Big Daddy roars with rage. Back at the shop, while looking for some quality alcohol, Cholo is jumped by a zombie. Foxy and the rookie can't get a clean shot, but Cholo prevails safely when he pulls his spear gun from his leg and blasts the zombie's brains out. He collects the alcohol and stops at the counter. He empties a box and tells the rookie to collect it. Some of it falls behind the counter. Cholo and Foxy wait outside. The rookie reaches over the counter and a security guard zombie bites a chunk out of his hand. The rookie screams in pain and stumbles outside. Riley and Charlie pull up to the store and see what's happening. Riley blasts the zombie's brains out. Cholo orders Riley to step aside, as the rookie is going to become one of them. While Riley argues about the rookie's fate, the rookie snatches Riley's pistol and blows his own brains out. This is not how Riley wanted to start his retirement. Riley, Charlie, Cholo, and Foxy go back to the city. Before one of the bikers leaves, Big Daddy tries to grab him but instead grabs his machine gun. Big Daddy doesn't know what to do with it, but slings it over his shoulder and starts to walk in the direction that Dead Reckoning left. The other zombies, including a butcher zombie (Boyd Banks), a tambourine-playing zombie from the town sqare (Jasmin Geljo), a blond female athlete zombie wearing a woman's red softball uniform (Jennifer Baxter) with the number 9 printed on it, as well as the zombie teenage couple and several others, follow Big Daddy. Arriving back at their base that has an underground tunnel leading under a river to the fortified city, Cholo and Foxy watch a commercial for Fiddler's Green, an upper-class community that resides on a hill overlooking the city. It has its own mall, bank, and restaurants with tuxedo-clad waiters. The wealthy live there, and everyone else lives in the streets below. The city is fortified with electrified fences and soldiers staying on guard. At the barrier, a stray zombie tries to climb the fence, but is electrocuted and shot to pieces. The city is surrounded by water on all sides, and the main way to get into the city is called The Throat, which is a bridge. Fiddler's Green is where Cholo wants to retire, and he is confident Kaufman (Dennis Hopper), the owner and manager, will allow him to enter. Riley confronts Cholo about the rookie's death, but Cholo tells him that is the price they pay, and they all knew the risks that came with the job. Cholo takes the finest alcohol he stole and starts to head on over to Fiddler's Green. Riley and Charlie give antibiotics to a homeless man's son, and they head on over to a garage. Riley invested his money in a car, and he was going to drive away to a place with less people, somewhere north like Canada. But, his car is gone and he is not happy about it. Riley and Charlie head off to meet Chihuahua (Phil Fondacaro), who had promised Riley the car. Cholo goes through Fiddler's Green's lavish mall and eventually makes his way to Kaufman's office on the top floor of the building. He pours some champagne into glasses and gives one to Kaufman. Cholo tells him that he is going to retire with all the money Kaufman owes him. Kaufman, however, tells him that space is limited in Fiddler's Green. Cholo sees right through this statement and the millionaire tells him that only certain people are allowed to live there. Kaufman basically tells him that he is not good enough to live there, and sends in a security officer. Kaufman tells Cholo that they will talk again when Cholo is less excited and sends him away. He tells the security officer that he will no longer need Cholo's "services". He understands, and tries to kill Cholo in the stairway, but Cholo is smarter and knocks him out. This double-cross is the last straw for Cholo. He leaves. Riley and Charlie go to Chihuahua's underground place, which basically is a Vegas-like joint where people can gamble and buy prostitutes. People can even take a picture with a zombie at a booth (the zombies at the picture booth are Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright of "Shaun of the Dead"). Chihuahua is a midget who acts tough but couldn't hold his own in a fight. Riley confronts him about his car, but he says that he'll find it soon. He signals one of his guards to keep an eye on Riley. Tonight is a new kind of betting: people bet on which zombie will win in a fight. One zombie is spray-painted black on his mouth while the other is spray-painted red. In order to make them fight, they throw in a prostitute named Slack (Asia Argento). She tries desperately to fend off the ravenous zombies while the crowd of gamblers cheer for their zombie to win. Riley sees what's going on, sees that no one is going to help this poor woman, and shoots/kills the two zombies in the ring. The shots prompt panic and everyone rushes to get out. Chihuahua tries to leave too. Charlie pulls out his rifle, licks the barrel, aims carefully, and blasts his head open. One of Chihuahua's men tries to shoot Riley, but Slack kicks him out of the way and takes the bullet for him in her arm. Charlie kills the other man. The police arrive and demand to know what is going on. All that is left is Riley, Charlie, and Slack. Riley just tells them "someone shot the little man." Meanwhile, Big Daddy and the zombies get to a blocked pathway. They don't know how to get in, but Big Daddy sees the Butcher still holding his meat cleaver. He signals for him to hit the board blocking them with the cleaver, and the Butcher does. He hits the board repeatedly until Big Daddy can look through it. A couple of zombies suddenly appear in front of the hole in the board, and Big Daddy sees that they are hung upside down. He looks around and sees other zombies hanging upside down and having targets wrapped around their bodies. Big Daddy sees his target for all the pain his fellow zombies have endured: Fiddler's Green. Riley, Charlie and Slare are in the city jail. Charlie asks Slack why she was put in the cage with the zombies. She tells him that she wanted to become a soldier, but someone else thought she would be a better whore and put her on the street. Riley tells her that she didn't answer Charlie's question. Slack tells them that Kaufman runs everything in and around Fiddler's Green, from the betting to the prostitution. She tried to help out some people of whom Kaufman didn't think too highly, and so he sentenced her to the cage fight. Slack asks Riley what his story is, and he says that nothing bad happened to him. She says that the zombies happened to everyone, and that's bad. Riley is not one for conversation, so Slack just pulls out a joint from her boot and smokes it. Cholo, Foxy, Pretty Boy, Mouse (Max McCabe), and several other people decide to steal Dead Reckoning and hold Fiddler's Green for ransom. They try to pass off old papers as current ones requesting them to take Dead Reckoning from the soldier's hands, but the soldier to whom they give the papers doesn't buy it. Cholo hears gunfire and takes out his gun, wondering what it is. The soldier says that it is nothing to worry about, and that it is only target practice. Meanwhile, two soldiers are wasting time and shooting at a giant inflatable person. The shooter is saying that he would shoot better if the other soldier wouldn't keep breathing down his neck. The other soldier is confused, as he is not close to the soldier. He turns on the light behind him and searches the surrounding grounds. He doesn't see anything, but he hears something out there. Big Daddy suddenly appears with the horde of zombies and attack the two soldiers. Cholo hears the screams and asks if they're practicing screaming too. The alarm goes off and the soldiers leave Cholo and his crews unguarded. They take Dead Reckoning and see that Big Daddy and the zombies are knocking over an non-electric fence. Soldiers are blasting the zombies, but there are too many of them. They knock the fence down and feast upon the soldiers, tearing them apart. The soldiers are getting slaughtered. Cholo and company take off in Dead Reckoning. Upon seeing the vehicle, Big Daddy remembers what it did to the other zombies and squeezes his machine gun in his hand. It fires into the ground. He then points the gun at Dead Reckoning and fires at it. He hits it, but some of his shots miss and blow up a propane tank. One of the zombies catches on fire, and Big Daddy shoots and kills him to put him out of his misery. Big Daddy sees Fiddler's Green across the body of water and starts to move towards the lake with the other zombies including Butcher, Number 9, Tambourine Man, and the zombie teen couple. Cholo contacts Kaufman, who is a bit annoyed that he is still alive. Cholo tells Kaufman the deal: Kaufman will give him and his crew $5 million or he will blow Fiddler's Green apart using Dead Reckoning. He wants the money transported to the port. Kaufman has until midnight, which is a couple of hours away. Kaufman talks with another businessman, and tells him that he will not deal with terrorists. However, Dead Reckoning could destroy their lifestyle and community. Kaufman has Riley pulled out of jail and brought to his office. He tells Riley that Cholo has taken Dead Reckoning and that he wants back his two million dollar vehicle. He charges Riley to bring it back; Cholo can be brought back dead or alive. Riley wants his friends to help him with this mission. Kaufman allows it. All Riley wants in return is a car and plenty of weapons to last him a long time. He is fully prepared to travel to Canada in hopes of less people and zombies. Kaufman agrees. While Riley and Kaufman are discussing their deal, Charlie and Slack are talking back in jail. Charlie tells Slack that he takes care of Riley. Slack asks him why. Charlie says that Riley pulled him out of the fire that scarred him, and that they have been friends ever since. Cholo is working out in Dead Reckoning while talking to Foxy. Cholo justifies his actions by saying that unless he does something, he's going to end up like the poor bastard outside (it's a zombie with a lawn mower). Cholo stops working out, pulls out his spear gun, and shoots the zombie in the eye. Cholo then orders Mouse to go to the port and wait for Kaufman's boat. Mouse will then report back to Cholo if they are rich or not. Mouse gets off Dead Reckoning on his skateboard and goes to a boathouse on the port. He gets scared of the movement within the boathouse, but it turns out to be rats. Riley, Slack, and Charlie are released from jail and are getting geared up with weapons from the army. A soldier offers Charlie a machine gun that fires 18 bullets per second, but Charlie says that he won't need that many and prefers his rifle. The soldier calls him a retard. Riley tells the soldier that he shouldn't make fun of him. Slack takes the machine gun happily. But, Kaufman doesn't completely trust Riley and his friends. In come three soldiers that will make sure Riley doesn't fail: a tough Latino named Manolete (Sasha Roiz), a wisecracking female solder nicknamed Motown (Krista Bridges), and a hulking eithnic Samoa soldier named Pillsbury (Pedro Miguel Arce). They head to the army post where they can get a vehicle, but they find it in flames and in ruin from the previous massacre that took place when Cholo left. They search the nearby parts for keys for a jeep, with Riley and Manolete going off on their own while Charlie and everyone else hang around a jeep. Riley and Manolete come across a severed foot in an army boot in the supply room. It is dark except for Manolete's flashlight. They hear a dripping sound. Upon further searching, they find a couple of zombies feasting on dead bodies. Manolete is ready to blast them away with his machine gun, but Riley tells him that they should use their hand guns. Riley and Manolete blast the zombies away, and they encounter Brubaker, now a zombie, chewing on a femur bone. Riley blasts his brains out. Outside, Motown decides to hotwire a jeep. Charlie licks his rifle, then aims at something lurking about. Slack asks him why he licks his gun, and he just says that it is to prevent the reflection from getting into his vision. Slack asks him how can he even see, seeing how his aiming eye is on the burnt side of his face. He points the rifle at her face. She gets scared and pulls her machine gun out, but Charlie was really aiming directly next to Slack and blasts a zombie square in the forehead. She aims her machine gun at Charlie and pulls the trigger, but she was returning the favor by killing a zombie behind him. However, the shot was so close to Charlie that his ear starts to bleed (he complains that his shot didn't hurt her). Riley and Manolete meet up with the team at the jeep. Once they are all in the jeep, a decapitated zombie walks up to Manolete and freaks him out. The zombie is not decapitated, though; the head is hanging behind his back. The zombie snaps ! his head forward and bites Manolete's arm. Pillsbury kills the zombie and they drive off. It turns out that Riley can track Dead Reckoning with a homing device he placed in its center. Riley also reveals that his little brother was bitten by a zombie. In under than an hour, he turned and Riley had to kill him. Slack tells him that he was lying when he said nothing bad happened to him. He says coldly "nothing bad happened to me. That happened to my brother". Slack turns around and kills Manolete, since he is going to die. Meanwhile, Big Daddy and the zombies are at the lake, and they are all staring at the water. Big Daddy jumps in to give an example, and the zombies follow. Slack is driving the jeep, and Riley tells her quickly to pull over. She does, and Charlie holds Pillsbury and Motown at gunpoint. Riley knows that Kaufman will probably not live up to their deal and probably paid off the three soldiers to kill him and his friends once they find Dead Reckoning. Riley tells them that once they find Dead Reckoning, he will do whatever he wants with it. If they have a problem, they will be killed. They continue to drive and locate Dead Reckoning. Meanwhile, Mouse informs Cholo that the money didn't make it. He then blasts away a zombie that tried to get into the boathouse. When he goes to inspect the body, he is overrun by zombies, including one dressed like a clown. They eat him. Big Daddy and his clan cross the lake and head to the streets of the human city. The zombies first attack two girls who were making out, then they attack everyone. Note: Tom Savini makes a zombie cameo as his biker character from the original Dawn of the Dead and hacks apart many people with his machete. The zombies are using shovels, chains, guns, knives, and various other weapons (including their teeth) as means of dismembering people. It is total chaos in the streets below Fiddler's Green. The Butcher zombie attacks a soldier with his cleaver. The soldier has a grenade in his hand and pulls the safety pin out. The Butcher hacks off the soldier's hand (still holding the grenade), and the soldier falls onto his own hand. The grenade explodes and blows the soldier in half. The female softball player zombie, Number 9, manages to grab an M-16 assault rifle from a scared soldier. She doesn't know what to do with it, and this gives the soldier some time to reach for his back-up weapon. Big Daddy comes by and shows Number 9 how to pull the trigger. He directs the machine gun from firing into the ground to firing into the soldier's crotch, then his belly, then his upper body. Number 9 reluctantly drops her softball bat, and now holds onto the rifle and opens fire on more humans until she runs out of ammuntion. The Tambourine zombie relunctantly drops his tambourine to take posession of a crowbar for use as a weapon against the humans. Riley and his group find Dead Reckoning. Pillsbury punches Motown out, thus being trusted by Riley. Riley and Charlie walk out to Dead Reckoning alone while Pillsbury and Slack hide in the nearby bushes. Motown is left in the jeep, knocked out. Riley and Charlie eventually talk their way in into the vehicle but are held at gunpoint by Cholo and his men. Cholo pulls out his spear gun and holds it under Riley's chin. Pretty Boy gets ready to fire rockets at Fiddler's Green. Riley protests, mainly because even if they hit it dead on, the destruction will kill many innocent people in the streets below. Slack sees that they are in danger, and she gets ready to fire. Motown wakes up, grabs a gun, and runs to the vehicle. She gets jumped by a zombie, who bites and rips a chunk out of her neck. Riley hears her screaming, sees Slack in the bushes, and pushes Cholo out of Dead Reckoning. Slack fires and hits Cholo in the stomach. She and Pillsbury then blow away Motown and the zombie that attacked her. Charlie gets his gun back and turns the tables on Cholo's crew. Kaufman sees and hears the explosions outside in the streets below and thinks that Dead Reckoning has fired upon the city. Riley tells him (via phone) that it's not Cholo. Kaufman then fills out a couple of bags with money and is getting ready to leave. One of the businessmen sees what Kaufman is doing. Kaufman tells him to get down because there is a zombie nearby. The guy gets on the floor without looking and Kaufman shoots him. There wasn't a zombie anywhere near them, and Kaufman along with his black servant head down towards the mall. Riley allows Cholo to leave with Foxy, and gives them guns. Riley then takes over Cholo's crew and Pretty Boy turns Dead Reckoning towards the city to save the people. Cholo and Foxy start to walk away when they encounter a zombie. The zombie bites Cholo and he stabs it in the head with a knife. Cholo is now doomed and Foxy aims his shotgun at his head. "It's your call" he says. Cholo says "no" and "I've always wanted to know how the other side lives". They take the jeep that Riley used to get there and drive back to the city outskirts. Cholo has a score to settle with Kaufman. Cholo wishes Foxy the best of luck, and Foxy drives away without Cholo. He starts to walk towards Fiddler's Green. Big Daddy and the zombies are at the mall's entrance. They can't get in. Big Daddy, who is now holding a jackhammer by this time, uses it to smash the windows of the mall's entrance. The zombies follow his example and they gain access to the mall. They tear apart the upper-class snobs in the mall. The shoppers trample over each other trying to avoid certain death. Big Daddy encounters Kaufman and his servant. Kaufman tells Big Daddy that he "has no right" and shoots him, but keeps missing his head and hitting him in the leg and shoulder. Big Daddy roars with anger and continues to pursue Kaufman, who has gone to the underground parking complex. His servant unlocks the flashy car and then goes to open the garage door. While he is gone, Big Daddy sneaks up on the car and starts to smash it with his bare hands. The servant sees the zombie and runs away... in the opposite direction... with the car keys. Big Daddy sees the gas nozzle nearby, and starts to pour gasoline all over the car. He smashes the windshield with the nozzle and pours the gas inside of the car. Big Daddy then leaves. Also, some of the people who survived the attacks on the mall and on the streets are now running to the gates of the city. However, the gates are still electrocuted. Zombies are still following them, and they are trapped. They are doomed. Meanwhile, Dead Reckoning is just outside of the city's main bridge, Deep Throat. Riley has to get off and open the gate, seeing how it is up. While he goes inside and pushes the button to lower the bridge, Dead Reckoning is bombarded with hordes of zombies. Zombies are scratching at the vehicle and breaking their fingers/fingernails. One of the undead lunges for Riley and causes him to drop his gun. He yells out for Slack to kill it, but she's having her own problems with the zombies directly outside. Riley manages to decapitate the zombie using some controls from the bridge. Pretty Boy drives Dead Reckoning around, crushing most of the zombies around them. Slack then tells Riley to jump up on the roof, and he does, narrowly missing the clutches of zombies. They cross the bridge to get to the city, but they don't see a legless zombie is still holding onto the vehicle on the back. Kaufman gets out of his car and looks around for Big Daddy. He gets out a reserve set of car keys from his bag and plans to drive way himself. Instead, Cholo comes from the shadows and pulls out his spear gun. He misses Kaufman, and is subsequently shot in the chest. He doesn't go down. Kaufman shoots him in the leg. Nothing. He shoots him in the shoulder. Cholo slowly slumps to the ground. While Kaufman is not looking, Cholo gets back up and attacks him. Kaufman is out of bullets, and Cholo is a zombie. Before Cholo can tear out his throat, Big Daddy returns with a propane tank on fire. He rolls it to the car and because it is drenched in gasoline, it explodes, killing both the zombie Cholo and Kaufman. Big Daddy is happy. Dead Reckoning finally reaches the city, but they only find zombies eating people. It seems like there are no survivors in the city. Riley orders Charlie and Pretty Boy to fire the rockets at the zombies to destroy them. She does, and the zombies explode. When the smoke clears, Riley sees that nothing is moving. Everyone is dead. But then people slowly come out of hiding and walk towards Dead Reckoning. There are survivors. They plan on rebuilding the city slowly but surely. Riley still wants to leave for Canada. Slack, Pretty Boy, Pillsbury, Charlie, and the two other people in Dead Reckoning agree and they plan on going with Riley. Riley sees Big Daddy once again through binoculars who is leading his zombies out of the city. He decides not to kill him, though, because the zombies are only looking for their own place to live, just like Riley and his friends are. The legless zombie on the back of the vehicle jumps a crew member, but Pillsbury manages to kill the zombie. Riley and his crew take off for Canada in Dead Reckoning and fire fireworks in the sky, since they won't be needing them anymore.

When a young drifter is forced to stay the winter in a small seaside town, he inadvertently becomes the catalyst for deceit, double crossings and murder amongst the locals. It is out of season and the temporary employee Pierre of an amusement park seaside has all his savings stolen by the crook Simeon Guant, a friend of his girlfriend Kelly Phillips. Kelly is daughter of the owner of the park, Michael Philipps, who is married with Eileen Phillips. Eileen cheats her husband with Simeon, and they plot to kill Michael simulating a burglary and get his life insurance. Pierre, without any money, associates to the owner of a bar, the former thief Harry Barlow, who teaches him how to burglar. The reunion of these six characters has no happy ending. —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The wannabe sons of mobsters go to a remote town in the Midwest, and get themselves into more trouble than anyone could anticipate. The four sons (Diesel, Green, Pepper, Davoli) of major Brooklyn mobsters have to team up to retrieve a bag of cash in a small Montana town ruled by a corrupt sheriff. Specifically, the story gets started when Matt Demaret (Pepper) goes on a job to deliver the money for his mob father (Hopper) on the advice of his uncle (Malkovich). Things don't go as planned though... —Ryan McIntosh

Documentary that chronicles how Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now (1979) was plagued by extraordinary script, shooting, budget, and casting problems - nearly destroying the life and career of the celebrated director. Documents the sensational events surrounding the making of Apocalypse Now (1979)' and Francis Ford Coppola's struggle with nature, governments, actors, and self-doubt. Includes footage and sound secretly recorded by Eleanor Coppola, wife of Francis. —Murray Chapman <muzzle@cs.uq.oz.au> In the late 1970s, as renegade filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola struggles to complete an epic allegory of the Vietnam War, "Apocalypse Now (1979)," his wife, Eleanor, films his daily travails with a camera of her own. The documentary based on her footage details the difficulties of the large production -- from weather-related delays in the Philippines to star Martin Sheen's heart attack while filming -- and it provides unprecedented behind-the-scenes clips of one of Hollywood's most-acclaimed films. —Jwelch5742

At last the Feds have caught him! Infamous 60's radical Huey Walker is heading for jail. So how come it's Huey's yuptight FBI escort who ends up behind bars? In 1989, clean-cut FBI man John Buckner is detailed to escort heavily-bearded Huey Walker back to jail for offenses dating back to his days as a celebrated hippie radical. After Walker dupes Buckner on the train he falls into the hands of a couple of well-meaning refugees from the 60's, the two men with apparently nothing in common find themselves on the run together. But appearances can be deceptive. —Jeremy Perkins {J-26} The young FBI agent John Buckner is instructed to bring Huey Walker, a hippie from the sixties, to prison. They travel by train, and of course, Huey tries to escape. John loses his freedom and his identity through one of Huey's tricks: He plies him with drink and takes his gun, his handcuffs and his passport. Now John ends up in jail instead of Huey... When the mistake is discovered, John sets off in pursuit of Huey. —Tony Kessen <rhkessen@cs.vu.nl>

In 1955 Florida, a Korean vet has a breakdown and is incarcerated in a "maximum security" mental health prison, where patients are abused. An American war hero attempts suicide and ends up in Chattahoochee State Mental Hospital. But he realizes that the doctors in the hospital are humiliating patients, and staff are murdering them. —Harun Mehmedinovic <Pkojovic@concentric.net> Emmet Foley, a decorated but troubled Korean War vet suffering from PTSS and impotence, has a breakdown and goes on a shooting spree in his neighborhood, subliminally hoping to commit "suicide by cop." Failing that, he shoots himself in the chest but survives to be sentenced to a "maximum security" mental health facility in 1955 Florida. While recovering, he begins to feel a sense of rage over the mistreatment and open abuse of his fellow inmates, whose needs are ignored in an atmosphere of neglect and filth. With the help of another inmate and his faithful sister, he begins a campaign against the entrenched bureaucracy to improve conditions for his fellow patients. —duke1029

A police veteran and his rookie partner fight Los Angeles gangs. A confident young cop is shown the ropes by a veteran partner in the dangerous gang-controlled barrios of L.A. about to explode in violence in this look at the gang culture enforced by the colors that members wear. —Keith Loh <loh@sfu.ca> A tough, experienced Los Angeles police officer is paired with an over-confident younger officer in a taut police drama. The story takes place in the gang infested areas of Los Angeles' inner city where the colors gang members wear show gang affiliation. —robsturner@earthlink.net

On an October morning in 1951, Norman Dale (Gene Hackman) drives through the Indiana countryside. In the afternoon he arrives in the small rural town of Hickory and enters the high school. He notices, on a shelf in the hall, basketball trophies won in previous years. As the bell rings to end the school day, he encounters teacher Myra Fleener (Barbara Hershey). She realizes that Norman must be the new basketball coach and teacher of history and civics. She directs him to the office of principal Cletus Summers (Sheb Wooley), where the two men recall how they met many years ago at Buffalo State Teachers College. They had lost touch until recently, when Cletus tracked down Norman and asked him to come coach at Hickory. When Norman thanks Cletus for the opportunity, Cletus interrupts and says, "Your slate's clean here." They proceed to the gym, where student Jimmy Chitwood (Maris Valainis) is shooting baskets. Cletus introduces Norman, but Jimmy ignores the new coach and keeps shooting. That evening on his farm, Cletus explains to Norman that Jimmy has been strongly affected by the recent death of the previous coach, who was like a father to Jimmy. Now the young man has withdrawn from almost everything and everyone and has decided not to play basketball this season. Cletus adds that Jimmy is the best player he has ever seen. As they finish talking, Norman cryptically mentions that he hopes things will work out for him this time. That night, Norman meets some of the townsmen in the barbershop, who bombard him with questions. He tells them he last coached 12 years ago, in Ithaca, New York, and that he has been in the Navy for the past 10 years. The men voice their opinions on what Norman should do with the team. They all agree that Jimmy must rejoin the Huskers for them to have a winning season. Losing patience with all the questions and unwelcome advice, Norman cuts short the meet-and-greet and leaves. The next morning, before school begins, Myra tells Norman that Jimmy is her neighbor, and she has been looking out for him ever since his father died. She thinks it best that he stay off the team. After school, the Huskers are already practicing in the gym when Norman walks in. George Walker (Chelcie Ross), one of the townspeople Norman met in the barbershop, is leading the practice and assumes that Norman will continue allowing him to assist. When Norman brusquely makes it clear that he doesn't need any help, George storms off. As Norman gathers the seven Huskers and begins to introduce himself, Buddy (Brad Long) rudely whispers to his teammate Whit (Brad Boyle), who is standing next to him. Norman orders Buddy to leave, and Buddy convinces Whit to go with him. Jimmy is watching, unseen, at one of the far exits. Norman begins the practice and puts the Huskers through drills of passing, running in place, and dribbling while weaving between chairs; they never scrimmage. Norman explains, "There's more to the game than shooting. There's fundamentals and defense." He also wants them to be in top physical condition because, if they continue to have only five players, substitutions and rest during games will be impossible. On the second day of practice, several townspeople walk in to observe; they've heard about Norman's unusual drills. Rollin Butcher (Robert Swan), Whit's father, brings in his son and has him apologize for walking out the day before. Rollin then tells the other men to leave, because the coach doesn't want them there. One day, as Cletus and Norman eat pie at the diner downtown, in comes Wilbur "Shooter" Flatch (Dennis Hopper), stumbling a bit and wearing a worn-out coat. Shooter, a former basketball player, describes for Norman how he almost led his team to victory in the 1933 sectional game of the tournament on a last-second shot. When Shooter asks Cletus in a low voice if he can borrow some spare change, Shooter's son, Everett (David Neidorf), who has been sitting in another part of the diner, walks up. He insists that Shooter give back the money and then escorts his father outside. One afternoon, as Jimmy shoots baskets at the school's outdoor court, Norman approaches him and asks why he wasn't in class that day, but Jimmy doesn't answer. Norman goes on to tell him that he believes Jimmy has a special talent that belongs only to him. Norman concludes by stating matter-of-factly that he doesn't care if Jimmy rejoins the team, and he walks away. From a window in the school, Myra has been watching them. Entering the school, Norman runs into Myra, who tells him to leave Jimmy alone. They begin arguing about Jimmy's future. She says she thinks Jimmy could receive an academic college scholarship if he concentrates on his studies instead of athletics. She doesn't want him to get stuck in Hickory, where the high point of his life will have been his days playing high school basketball. She doesn't understand why the townspeople place so much emphasis on the sport. She also is suspicious of Norman, wondering why someone like him has moved to Hickory, a town unaccustomed to seeing outsiders. She believes he might be running away from something. At the beginning of an afternoon pep session meant to showcase this season's Huskers, several people in the crowd begin chanting "We want Jimmy!" Norman silences them and defends his six-man squad, concluding, "This is your team." In the locker room before the first home game, Norman reminds the team what he taught them in practice: they must pass at least four times before attempting a shot. After Rev. Doty (Wil Dewitt) offers a prayer, a kneeling Strap (Scott Summers) continues praying silently, even after everyone else has departed the locker room and begun warming up. Norman tells team manager Ollie (Wade Schenck) that he will substitute for Strap in the game until Strap finishes praying. To Ollie's relief, Strap shows up right before tip-off. Early in the game, the Huskers quickly fall behind, and some of the townspeople in the crowd start yelling at the Huskers to shoot. Jimmy watches from the top row. Myra and Shooter are in the crowd as well. At halftime, Norman chews out the players, again telling them to always make at least four passes before shooting. In the second half, an impatient Rade (Steve Hollar), feeling pressure from the fans, decides to disobey the rule and shoot if he's open. Even though he makes these shots, Norman benches him. Moments later, after Merle (Kent Poole) fouls out, Rade attempts to reenter the game. Norman orders him to sit back down, even though this means Hickory will have only four players on the floor for the rest of the game. The fans yell and boo, but Shooter smiles with amazement. In the locker room after the loss, Norman asks the boys to consider whether they really want to be on the team. He reminds them that his instructions to them are "the law, absolutely and without discussion!" The next week, Norman encounters Myra and her sports-loving mother, Opal (Fern Persons), outside the feed-and-grain store. Opal invites him to Sunday dinner because she wants to talk basketball. Arriving well before dinnertime, Norman helps the two women grind sorghum on their farm. When he gets a chance to talk to Myra alone, she tells him a bit about her family and past, including the fact that she left Hickory for a few years but later returned. When he asks her if she's ever thought about getting married, she declines to answer, explaining that in Hickory, people tend to mind their own business. A few days later, Shooter unexpectedly calls on Norman at home and offers him unsolicited advice about the Huskers' upcoming game against Cedar Knob. Norman can tell from Shooter's remarks that he is quite knowledgeable about basketball history and strategy and has valuable insights into Hickory's opponents. That weekend, the Huskers travel in the team bus, owned and driven by Preacher Purl (Michael Sassone), Strap's father, to their first away game at Cedar Knob. The game is a tough one, with lots of physical contact. A drunk Shooter is present. Norman begins arguing with one of the referees, and then the Cedar Knob coach, and then one of the Cedar Knob players, who pokes Norman in the chest. Norman slaps his hand away, and Rade decks the player with a left hook. The rest of the boys begin scuffling. Norman and Rade are ejected, leaving a distressed-looking Cletus to take over as coach. The next day, Norman visits Cletus, who is suffering from heart trouble and has been ordered to be on bed rest for a while. After that, Norman goes to see Shooter at his dilapidated cabin in the woods. He offers to make Shooter his assistant coach, on one condition: he must remain sober. Offended and embarrassed, Shooter asks Norman to leave. However, at the next home game, Shooter surprises the players and perplexes the townspeople by showing up in a suit and tie, ready to accept the coach's offer. The next week, after class, Everett tells Norman he has doubts about his father's being the assistant coach, because he's a drunk who will do something stupid. After that, Myra comes in and informs Norman that a town meeting has been scheduled for Saturday, at which Hickory residents will decide if he will be removed as coach. During that Friday's game, Norman receives a technical foul and, after arguing with the referee, is thrown out. An anxious Shooter is forced to take over. The next day, Myra finds Norman standing alone along the fencerow on Cletus's farm, lost in thought. She tells him about an old newspaper article she found at the library, which describes how Norman was suspended from college coaching after he hit one of his players. Myra then says she appreciates how Norman is trying to help Shooter and how he hasn't pressured Jimmy to rejoin the team. At the town meeting that night, which takes place in the church, Norman gives a brief speech in which he defends himself. Myra then steps up to the lectern and prepares to tell the crowd what she has discovered about the coach. But she abruptly changes her mind and tearfully tells them she thinks it would be a mistake to let him go. After the residents vote on Norman's dismissal, as George finishes counting the ballots, Jimmy enters the church. He announces he has decided to rejoin the team, but only if Norman is allowed to stay. George indicates that the majority of votes are for dismissal, but Opal calls for a revote. This time most of the residents vote for Norman to stay. With Jimmy on the team, the reenergized Huskers go on a winning streak. About halfway through the season, Norman counsels Shooter, who is struggling with sobriety, that if he can't resist the urge to drink, he should go to the hospital to dry out. Shooter promises not to fall off the wagon if Norman will promise not to be ejected from any more games. At the next home game, Norman gets himself thrown out on purpose so that Shooter can take over as coach and hopefully gain some confidence. Shooter has the team run the picket fence play, and they win. Everett is proud of his father. At the end of the regular season, tournament play begins. At the start of Hickory's sectional game against Terhune, Shooter is nowhere to be found. During the game, he suddenly shows up and stumbles onto the court, drunk and yelling. After Rollin leads him away, a technical foul is called on Hickory. Everett becomes angry and distracted. When one of the Terhune players shoves Jimmy during a layup, Everett retaliates by punching him. As the two continue fighting, the other players from both teams join in. Everett is pushed hard into a trophy case in the adjoining hallway, cutting his shoulder badly. The fight breaks up and the game continues, with Hickory winning by 2 points. The next day, Norman and Everett go looking for Shooter, who has been missing since he was tossed out of the sectional. They find him lying unconscious in the snow-covered woods. Shooter is soon admitted to the hospital's alcohol rehabilitation unit, where Norman visits him. That weekend, reporters mob Norman and the team as they enter the Jasper gym for the regional game against Linton. In the locker room, Norman advises the Huskers to think about this game only and not to worry about progressing in the tournament. They should focus on the fundamentals, not on winning or losing. With the score tied at 50 with 2:30 to go, one of the Linton players hits Everett in his injured shoulder, causing the stitches to pull out. At first Norman wants Everett to ignore the pain and keep playing, but then he changes his mind and takes him out. Strap, not one of the better players, enters the game and immediately scores several points. When Buddy fouls out, only Ollie is left to substitute; he reluctantly enters the game. With Hickory up by 1, Ollie is fouled. He shoots awkwardly and misses his free throw. Linton then scores. Ollie is fouled as he shoots and misses. Two Linton players try to intimidate Ollie before he attempts his free throws, but Merle steps forward to offer encouragement. Using the same unusual underhand shooting style as before, Ollie makes both his free tosses, winning the game and sending the Huskers to the state finals. The following week, after Norman receives a haircut from Opal at her home, he notices Myra working in the muddy garden. They go on a walk. He asks her if she would like to go to a movie sometime, but she responds by bringing up the incident in which he hit his college player. He says he can't really explain or understand why he did it. They kiss. A few days later, Norman and the Huskers encounter a group of reporters gathered in the Hickory gym, waiting to interview Norman about the upcoming state-finals game. That same week, Everett visits Shooter in the hospital. On the morning of the state finals, Norman and the team enter an empty Butler Fieldhouse and are awed by its enormity. Norman has the Huskers measure the length of the free-throw lane and the distance from the rim to the floor. He reminds them that these dimensions are the same as those in the Hickory gym. In the locker room that night, Norman reviews game strategy with the team. He then tells them that the last few months have been special for him. He asks the Huskers if they would like to say anything. Merle wants to win for all the small schools that never had a chance to get to the state finals. Everett wants to win for his dad. Buddy wants to win for their coach. After Rev. Doty and Preacher Purl offer appropriate Bible verses, the Huskers take the floor. They struggle early in the game against the taller and more muscular South Bend Central Bears. But they regroup and begin to close the scoring gap until they are tied with the Bears at 40. After Rade intercepts a South Bend pass, Hickory controls the ball. With 19 seconds on the clock, Hickory calls time-out. Norman tells his players that, because the Bears will expect Jimmy to take the last shot, the Huskers will use Jimmy as a decoy while Merle attempts the final basket. Seeing the boys' uncomfortable reaction to his plan, Norman demands to know what's wrong. They say nothing until Jimmy declares, "I'll make it." Norman hesitates but then realizes that entrusting Jimmy with Hickory's last chance to score is indeed the best course of action. Play resumes, and with only 2 seconds left, Jimmy launches his shot, which sails through the net. The Hickory fans erupt in celebration and spill onto the floor. The final scene shows a grade-school-age boy shooting baskets in a quiet, empty Hickory gym as the camera zooms in on a team photo of the state-champion Huskers hanging on the wall.

The movie opens with a boy, Tim (Joshua Miller) playing on a bridge. He hears a yell, and sees Samson/John (Daniel Roebuck) sitting on the shore. The boy pedals off, and Samson smokes a cigarette by the naked corpse of Jamie (Danyi Deats). Samson leaves in a daze, and Tim spots him at a convenience store. While Samson haggles with the clerk, he steals two beers and leaves them for Samson. Tim asks Samson for dope, and gets in Samson's car. They drive to Feck's place for drugs, but he's not home. As Tim returns home, his brother Matt (Keanu Reeves) is arguing with his mother (Constance Forslund). His little sister Kim (Tammy Smith) wants Matt's help for a funeral for her lost doll, and we learn that the family is dysfunctional. Layne (Crispin Glover) arrives to pick up Matt, and Tim asks to come along. Layne refuses, and Tim bicycles off, despite his mother's complaint. Layne and Matt arrive at Feck's house, where Feck (Dennis Hopper) is playing saxophone for an inflatable doll. Layne gets drugs from Feck, and Feck talks about the girl he had to kill. At school, Layne and Matt smoke pot with Clarissa (Ione Skye) Maggie (Roxana Zal) and Tony (Josh Richman). Samson/John arrives and takes them to see Jamie's body. Matt is nervous and leaves, and Layne starts planning how to get alibis. Mr. Burkewaite teaches his class about radicals, and Clarissa flirts with him. The murder story starts to spread, and Layne tries to borrow Mike's (Phillip Brock) truck. Mike refuses, but is willing to drive. They see the body, and Layne tells them to help bury her. No one is willing to help, including John. Clarissa is uncomfortable with the secret, but Layne threatens her. She's too scared to call the police, and later calls Matt, but Matt is too shy to talk. That nigth, Layne rolls Jamie's body into the river. John buys him beer, but doesn't seem to care that Layne is trying to protect him. At John's house, they see police cars. Layne panics, but John is calm. They go to Feck for help, and Layne leaves John with him. Feck recognizes a kindred spirit, and they begin to talk. Matt brings detective Bennett (Tom Bower) to the place where the body was, and the cops fish her out of the river. Bennett grills Matt about the murder. Matt's mother picks him up from the police station, and he gets in a fight with her boyfriend Jim (Leo Ross). Tim appears, and Matt chases him. Tim threatens Matt with telling Layne about Clarissa's phone call, and Matt hits him. Tim runs off, and meets up with his friend Moko (Yuzo Nishihara). They borrow his father's car and head to Feck's. Layne, Clarissa and Matt go to Mike's house to extract his confession, but Mike's father drives them off with a shotgun. Layne gets annoyed and kicks Clarissa out of his car. Matt gets out and walks her home. She kisses Matt and they decide to go to the park. On the way, they stop at the convenience store and bump into John and Feck, buying beer. Layne arrives at Feck's, and Tim/Moko hide. After Layne leaves, Tim and Moko enter and search for Feck's gun, but find weed instead. They get wasted at Feck's. Meanwhile, John and Feck break into a store and steal ammo. Matt confesses to Clarissa that he told the cops about Jamie. They begin to make out. John and Feck wind up at the river's edge, and John starts messing with Feck's doll. Feck realizes John is crazy, and tries to calm him down. John starts firing Feck's gun, and brags about his murder. Matt hears the gunshots, but doesn't stop making love to Clarissa. They fall asleep in the park. Layne is cruising around, looking for John and popping pills. Feck muses about getting old, then fires a shot. When he comes home, Tim and Moko attack him and take his gun. In the morning, the police find Layne, passed out in his car, and take him to the station for questioning. Matt returns home, and his mother screams that she's leaving her kids. Reporters interview kids at the school, and Bennett questions Layne. In class, Burkewaite rails about morality, and that no one cares about Jamie. Clarissa is distraught. Tim watches Matt and Clarissa, holding Feck's gun. Layne calls Feck, and the police break in on Feck, so Layne hangs up. The kids go to the river's edge to skip school, and Matt sees Feck's doll in the river. Layne arrives and tries to attack Mike again. Matt intervenes and tells Layne that he turned John in. Layne runs off, then finds John, dead. Tim shows up and tries to shoot Matt for hitting him, but Matt talks him out of it. The police arrive and cart everyone off. At the end, Feck is in the hospital, confessing to his original murder and for killing John. The movie ends with Jamie's funeral, and the kids finally show emotion.

Set in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the film begins in a diner called Benny's Billiards, where local tough guy Rusty James is told by Midget that rival group leader Biff Wilcox wants to meet him that night in an abandoned garage lot for a fight. Accepting the challenge, Rusty James then talks with his friends: the wily Smokey, loyal B.J., and tall, nerdy Steve; who all have a different take on the forthcoming fight. Steve mentions that Rusty James' older brother, "The Motorcycle Boy," would not be pleased with the fight as he had previously created a truce forbidding gang fights, or "rumbles." Rusty James dismisses him, saying that the Motorcycle Boy (whose real name is never revealed) has been gone for two months, leaving without explanation or promise of return. Rusty James visits his girlfriend, Patty, then meets his cadre and walks to the abandoned garage lot, where Biff and his buddies suddenly appear. The two battle, with the fight ending when Rusty James disarms Biff and beats him almost unconscious. The Motorcycle Boy arrives dramatically on his motorcycle and his appearance distracts Rusty James who is slashed by Biff in the side with a shard of glass. Incensed, the Motorcycle Boy sends his motorcycle flying into Biff. The Motorcycle Boy and Steve take Rusty James home (past Officer Patterson, a street cop who's long had it in for the Motorcycle Boy) and nurse him to health through the night. Steve and the injured Rusty James talk about how the Motorcycle Boy is 21 years old, colorblind, partially deaf, and noticeably aloof; the last trait causing many to believe he is insane. The Motorcycle Boy and Rusty James share the next evening with their alcoholic, welfare-dependent father, who says that the Motorcycle Boy takes after his mother whereas, it is implied, Rusty James takes after him. Things start to go wrong for Rusty James and he's eventually kicked out of school after his frequent fights. Despite Rusty James's desire to resume gang activity, the Motorcycle Boy implies that he has no interest in doing so. Shortly after, Rusty James goes to a party at a lakeside cabin hosted by Smokey, where he has sex with another girl, causing Patty to break up with him. At Benny's some time later, Rusty James sees that Patty and Smokey have begun dating, and Smokey confesses that he set up the entire party so that Rusty James would cheat on Patty, driving her to leave him for Smokey. The two brothers and Steve head across the river one night to a strip of bars, where Rusty James enjoys briefly forgetting his troubles. The Motorcycle Boy mentions that he located their long-lost mother during his recent trip while she was with a movie producer, which took him to California although he did not reach the ocean. Later, Steve and Rusty James wander drunkenly home, and are attacked by thugs, but both are saved by the Motorcycle Boy. As he nurses Rusty James again, the Motorcycle Boy tells him that the gang life and the rumbles he yearns for and idolizes are not what he believes them to be. Steve calls the Motorcycle Boy crazy, a claim which the Motorcycle Boy does not deny, further prompting Rusty James to believe his brother is insane, just like his runaway mother supposedly was. Rusty James meets up with the Motorcycle Boy the next day in a pet store, where the latter is strangely fascinated with the Siamese fighting fish, which he refers to as "rumble fish." Officer Patterson suspects they will try to rob the store. The brothers leave and meet their father, who explains to Rusty James that, contrary to popular belief, neither his mother nor brother are crazy, but rather they were both born with an acute perception. The brothers go for a motorcycle ride through the city and arrive at the Pet Store where the Motorcycle Boy breaks in and starts to set the animals loose. Rusty James makes a last-gasp effort to convince his brother to reunite with him, but the Motorcycle Boy refuses, explaining that the differences between them are too great for them to ever have the life Rusty James speaks of. The Motorcycle Boy takes the fish and rushes to free them in the river, but is fatally shot by Officer Patterson before he can. Rusty James, after hearing the gunshot, finishes his brother's last attempt while a large crowd of people converges on his body. Rusty James finally reaches the Pacific Ocean (something the Motorcycle Boy failed to do) and enjoys the shining sun and flocks of birds flying around the beach. He also tries to forget what happened to his brother.

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Young tomboy Mattie Ross (Kim Darby) loves her father. But when this father gets killed by a tramp called Tom Chaney (Jeff Corey), she is determined to see him hang. She goes to Fort Smith and discovers that Tom Chaney has fled in the Indian territory, where only a marshall can get him. A marshall who has true grit, in order to vanquish not only Chaney, but also the group of outlaws he has connected with, led by the notorious bandit Ned Pepper (Robert Duvall) and including Moon (Dennis Hopper) and Quincy (Jeremy Slate). So Mattie finds the toughest marshall of the West : the one-eyed Reuben J. "Rooster" Cogburn (John Wayne), who's never known a dry day in his life, and hires him - with $100 - to go after Chaney and Pepper. Rooster soon pairs with young Texican La Boeuf (Glen Campbell) who also looks for Chaney as he had killed a Texas-senator before murdering Mattie's father. Mattie and La Boeuf are soon at odds, as the latest doesn't want her to join the chase, but Mattie hangs on and Rooster lets her come with them. Strong-headed Mattie, fast talking La Boeuf and sharp Rooster engage themselves in a battle of wits and, at the same time, on Chaney's tracks. After an ambush where Moon and Quincy are killed, Mattie gets face to face with Chaney and wounds him before being kidnapped by Ned Pepper. Ned forces Rooster and La Boeuf to withdraw and leaves Mattie with Chaney as a hostage. But La Boeuf comes back and captures Chaney. Mattie and La Boeuf witness the last fight between Ned Pepper and three of his men on one side, Rooster all alone on the other. They all charge on their horses and Rooster kills three men and injures Pepper before his horse (Bo) is killed under him. He desperately tries to get his gun as the dying Ned comes closer. At the very last moment, La Boeuf fires from the hill he stands on with Mattie and shoots Ned before Rooster gets killed. Chaney then escapes and hits La Boeuf on the head with a big stone, only to get shot again by Mattie. With the gunfire, she falls in a pit where a deadly snake threatens her. Rooster arrives at that moment, kills Chaney who was still trying to hurt Mattie and goes down the pit to save Mattie. The snake bites her and Rooster's unable to go up the pit with the unconscious Mattie. La Boeuf wakes up just a little while to pull them out with a horse and a rope, before falling dead. Rooster leaves him on the field and kills his horse under him to bring Mattie to a doctor. At the end of the movie, Mattie is back to her ranch where she heals slowly. Rooster comes and visits her. She shows him the cemetery where her father rests and she offers him, as he has no family, to rest beside her after his death. He takes on the offer with a joke and departs, jumping over a fence and yelling: "Come and see a fat old man sometime!"

The protagonists are two freewheeling hippies: Wyatt, nicknamed "Captain America" (Peter Fonda), and Billy (Dennis Hopper). Their names are a reference to Wyatt Earp and Billy the Kid. Wyatt dresses in American flag-adorned leather, while Billy dresses in Native American-style buckskin pants and shirts and a bush hat. Wyatt is appreciative of the help they receive and of others along the way while Billy is often hostile, unappreciative and paranoid. After smuggling drugs from Mexico to Los Angeles, Wyatt and Billy sell their drugs to "Connection", a man (Phil Spector) in a Rolls Royce. With the money from the sale stuffed into a plastic tube hidden inside the Stars & Stripes-adorned fuel tank of Wyatt's California-style chopper, they ride eastward in an attempt to reach New Orleans in time for Mardi Gras. At nights, they are forced to camp out in the fields, as no motel will lodge them on account of their hippie and biker appearance. During their trip, Wyatt and Billy meet and have a meal with a rancher, whom Wyatt admires for his simple, traditional farming lifestyle. Later, the duo pick up a hitchhiker (Luke Askew) and agree to take him to his commune, where they stay for a day. Life in the commune appears hard, with naive city hippies finding this impossible to grow their own crops in a dry climate with poor soil. At one point, the bikers witness a prayer for blessing of the new crop, as put by one of the members: A chance "to make a stand," and to plant "simple food, for our simple taste." The commune also contains a traveling theater group that "sings for its supper" (performs for food). The notion of free love is practiced, with two of the women, Lisa (Luana Anders) and Sarah (Sabrina Scharf), sharing the affections of the hitchhiker before turning their attention to Wyatt and Billy. As the bikers leave, the hitchhiker (known only as "stranger on highway" in the closing credits) gives Wyatt some LSD for him to share with "the right people, at the right time". While riding along with a parade in a small town in New Mexico, the pair are arrested by the local authorities for "parading without a permit" and thrown in prison, where they befriend ACLU lawyer and local drunk George Hanson (Jack Nicholson), who helps them get out of prison and decides to go with them to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. George has a card for a whorehouse in New Orleans but states he has attempted to go in the past but never made it past the county line. As they camp that night, Wyatt and Billy introduce George to marijuana. As an alcoholic and a "square", George is reluctant to attempt this ("It leads to harder stuff", and "I don't want to get hooked"), but finally relents. While they attempt to eat in a rural Louisiana restaurant, the trio's hippie appearance attracts the attention of the redneck locals. However, a group of teenage girls are interested in the strangers and their appearance and want to meet and get a ride, the local men including the sheriff make mocking, racist, and homophobic remarks. One of them menacingly states, "I don't believe they'll make the parish line." Wyatt, Billy and George leave without eating and make camp outside of town. The events of the day cause George to comment, "This used to be a hell of a good country. I can't understand what's gone wrong with it." He observes that Americans talk a great deal about the value of freedom, but are actually afraid of anyone who truly exhibits this. In the middle of the night, the local rednecks attack and brutally beat the trio with baseball bats while they're sleeping. Billy manages to scare off the attackers by pulling a switchblade on them. Wyatt and Billy suffer minor injuries, but George is clubbed to death. Wyatt and Billy wrap up George's body in his sleeping bag, gather his belongings, and vow to return the items to his parents. Wyatt and Bill continue on and finally arrive in New Orleans and find the brothel George had intended to visit. Taking prostitutes Karen (Karen Black) and Mary (Toni Basil) with them, Wyatt and Billy go outdoors and wander the parade-filled street of the Mardi Gras celebration. They end up in a French Quarter cemetery, where all four ingest the LSD the hitchhiker had given to Wyatt. They experience a psychedelic bad trip infused with Catholic prayer, represented through quick edits, sound effects and over-exposed film. Making camp afterwards, Billy thinks they have made it and will retire rich in Florida but Wyatt declares, "We blew it." Billy doesn't know what he is talking about as Wyatt muses that they failed in their quest for freedom. The next morning, the two continue on their trip to Florida. While on a quiet local road somewhere in Alabama, two inbred-looking rednecks in a pickup spot them riding along and decide to "scare the hell out of them" with their shotgun. As they pull up alongside Billy who is behind Wyatt, one of them lazily aims the shotgun at him and taunts him, asking, "Want me to blow your brains out?" and "Why don't you get a haircut?" When Billy gives them the finger, the hillbilly fires the gun at Billy, who immediately crashes and is seriously wounded. As the truck roars off down the road past Wyatt, he races back to his fatally injured friend, who is covered in blood, and covers him with his flag adorned jacket before riding off for help. But the pickup truck has turned around and closes in on Wyatt as the rednecks don't want witnesses. The redneck fires at Wyatt as they pass him, the bike breaks apart and the bike's gas tank erupts into a fiery explosion. Wyatt is thrown off his bike and lands by the side of the road... dead. As the brutal country boys drive away, the film ends with an aerial shot of the flaming bike and the body on the deserted road, as the camera ascends to the sky. The duo's journey has ended into a terrible tragedy.

Ranch owner Katie Elder's four sons determine to avenge the murder of their father and the swindling of their mother. The Elder boys return to Clearwater, Texas for their Mother's funeral. John, the eldest, is a well-known gunfighter and trouble follows him wherever he goes. The boys try to get their ranch back from the town's gunsmith who won it from their father in a card game, after which he was murdered. Troubles come, however, just because they carry the Elder name. —anonymous

A young sailor is attracted to a mysterious mermaid performing at a carnival, but soon suspects that the girl is actually a siren who draws men to their watery deaths during the full moon. On leave in a shore side town, Johnny becomes interested in a young dark haired woman. They meet and he learns that she plays a mermaid in the local carnival. After strange occurrences, Johnny begins to believe that she may actually be a real mermaid that habitually kills during the cycle of the full moon. —<VRSC26B@PRODIGY.COM>

Lawman Wyatt Earp and outlaw Doc Holliday form an unlikely alliance which culminates in their participation in the legendary Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. After a long career as a lawman that made him a legend, Wyatt Earp (Burt Lancaster) decides to quit and join his brothers in Tombstone, Arizona. There, he would see them in a feud with the Clantons, a local clan of thugs and cattle thieves. When the showdown becomes inevitable, the help will come from Doc Holliday (Kirk Douglas), a terminally-ill gambler who happens to be another Wild West legend. —Dragan Antulov <dragan.antulov@altbbs.fido.hr>

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

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