Don Murray

After being dumped by his girlfriend, a boy runs away to California. But he ends up in heaven because he dies after trying to help a family from drowning in a river. In heaven he'll meet a beautiful girl, who has never reincarnated before. In 1952 while driving to California to start his life anew, twenty-something Mike Shea accidentally dies while doing a heroic act. Despite floundering in his life - he was having troubles holding a steady job and his supposed girlfriend was about to marry someone else - he was not ready to leave the living. In heaven, he learns that despite it being a fantastical other world existence, he still has human emotions, such as romantic love, which he feels for a "new" soul he meets named Annie Packert (i.e. she has never been among the living on Earth), who in turn loves him. He also learns that one's next life is somewhat predetermined by their stay in heaven. So when Annie is sent to Earth for her first go around as a human, Mike pleads with the man in charge at heaven, Emmett Humbird, to locate him in his next human life at least in the same country so that he can find Annie. Emmett reluctantly agrees, but only gives Mike thirty years in his next life to find her. Those next lives of Annie and Mike are as Allison Chandler and Elmo Barnett respectively. Each carries a bit of their experience with each other in heaven to their new subconscious human being, Ally's manifesting itself in an imaginary childhood friend named Mike, whereas Elmo grows up to be a drifter but one not sure for what he is looking. With Elmo receiving a little help from both Emmett and some people from his past life, will the match made in heaven find its way to Earth before the thirty year deadline? —Huggo A romantic, occasionally funny, drama about two souls who consummate their marriage literally in "Heaven". Mike Shea, in his first life dies as a young man performing a heroic rescue. Shortly after arriving in "Heaven" he meets a new soul, Annie Packert, who has never lived on Earth before. The drama centers around their separation soon after being wedded and the burning question is whether they will reunite on Earth before time runs out or whether they are fated to eternal soul-searching. —Anonymous During the 1950s, Mike Shea lives with his parents and has a normal relationship with his girlfriend. But one day, she tells him that some other man has proposed her matrimony and the worst: she has said yes. So, Mike runs away from his little town to California, with his dog. The trip is going fine, until a car accident crosses in his way. An entire family has fallen to a river and they're trapped inside their car. In an heroic gesture, Mike dives in the river and he rescues all the family members, but unfortunately he dies drowned. He goes to heaven and he meets with his aunt, who is now a talented painter. After find some known people from his life in Earth, Mike meets with a beautiful woman, Annie, a new soul which has never reincarnated before. Mike learns that he can reincarnate and return to Earth. But before that, he and Annie fall in love and get married. The problem is that Annie is very curious about Earth and some time later, she tells Mike that she wants to reincarnate in a baby. Mike's now very sad missing Annie and he wants to return to Earth and find her. He will make a deal with Emmett, a kind of angel, in which Mike will have 30 years to find Annie, otherwise each one will have an unhappy life with other people. Annie in the 1960s has become a toy designer, named Ally, married with a filmmaker. Meanwhile, Mike is a quite disorientated kid, which tries everything, like being a painter, then a soldier, just to become later a musician. Many years pass, but it seems that Mike and Annie are having some difficulties to meet each other again. —Alejandro Frias

In suburban Chicago, 15-year-old Jade Butterfield (Brooke Shields) and 17-year-old David Axelrod (Martin Hewitt) fall in love after they are introduced by Jade's older brother, Keith (James Spader). Jade's liberal family is well known in their community for their bohemian lifestyle, allowing Jade and David to develop an all-consuming and passionate relationship; including allowing the two to make love in Jade's bedroom. In contrast to the openness of her family, David's home life is boring; his parents are wealthy right-wing political activists who are not actively involved in his life. One night, Jade's mother Ann (Shirley Knight) sneaks downstairs, and upon seeing Jade and David make love by the fireplace, starts living through them vicariously. However, Jade's father Hugh (Don Murray) watches the couple with increasing unease. Jade's nightly trysts with David begin negatively impacting her grades and her ability to sleep. One morning, she attempts to steal one of her father's prescription sleeping pills, but he catches her in the act. This is the last straw for Hugh and he demands that David stop seeing Jade until the end of the school year in 30 days. Although David is devastated, believing Hugh wants to destroy their relationship, Ann calmly assures him that the time apart is for the best and will go by quickly. Back at school, David's friend Billy (Tom Cruise) informs him that when he was eight years old, he tried to burn a pile of newspapers and after he became scared, put out the fire, only to find his parents think he was a hero for saving the house from burning. Inspired by this grim story, David starts a fire on the Butterfields' front porch after their late-night party and walks away briefly. Unfortunately, by the time he returns, the flame has spread too far under the high wind. He rushes to warn the family but he is too late, the entire house is burned to the ground. David immediately evacuates the Butterfields from the burning house before he is eventually apprehended. Following the trial, David is convicted of second-degree arson, sentenced to five years' probation, committed into a mental hospital for evaluation, and forbidden from ever going anywhere near Jade or her family again. Nevertheless, he continues to write daily, but his letters are not sent because of the court order to make no contact with Jade. David's wealthy parents arrange to have him released early from the mental hospital, much to Hugh's chagrin. Meanwhile, David receives his many letters upon his exit, and upon realizing why Jade never wrote back, he decides to pursue her even though he knows full well that this will violate his parole. After the loss of their home, the Butterfields has moved from Chicago to Manhattan, where Ann and Hugh file for divorce. At her apartment, Ann imitates she has an attraction to David, but he gently refuses her advances which leaves her rather nonplussed. When Ann isn't looking, David thumbs through her address book, learning where Jade is and discovers that she now attends the University of Vermont in Burlington. Intent on catching a bus to Vermont, David sees Hugh on the street and Hugh angrily chases him. But while running across the street to catch David, Hugh is run over by a car and killed. Hugh's fiancée, Ingrid Orchester (Penelope Milford), arrives on the scene just in time to witness David leaving. He comes close to board the bus to Vermont, but is overcome with grief and returns to Ann's apartment and consoles her. Keith orders David to leave and informs him that Jade hates him while Ingrid, catching a glimpse of David, recognizes him from the accident. Jade later goes to David's room and informs him that they have to leave their relationship in the past and move on with their lives separately. He pulls her back as she tries to leave, throwing her on the bed and holding her down until she admits she still loves him, which she eventually does, and they spend the night together. The next morning, Jade and David plan to return to Chicago and begin a new life together. Keith and Ingrid arrive at the hotel and Keith angrily informs Jade that David is blamed for their father's death. Jade initially refuses to believe this, but when David confirms that he was actually at the scene, she becomes horrified and hides behind Keith. David tries to explain that this was an accident and shoves Keith out of the way in a desperate attempt to come near her. Keith holds him off until the police arrive and arrest David for brawling, disturbing the peace and violating his parole. David is sentenced to five years in a state prison and despairs that he may never to see Jade again. Jade informs her mother at her father's lakeside funeral that no one will ever love her as David does, and Ann expresses her understanding and approval. The final scene shows David from behind bars watching Jade approach the prison through his barred cell window to comfort him.

Following a North American pandemic from a space-borne disease that wiped out all dogs and cats in 1983, the government has become a series of Schutzstaffel-patterned police states that took chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans as pets before establishing a culture based on ape slave labor. These events were foretold in 1973 as testimony by two chimpanzee scientists who came from the distant future, Cornelius and Zira, before they were killed. Widely believed to be dead, their baby was secretly raised by the circus owner Armando as a young horseback rider. In 1991, now fully grown and named Caesar, the ape is brought to one of the cities to distribute flyers for Armando's circus. During their trip, Armando advises Caesar not to speak in public for fear of his life. After seeing a gorilla being beaten and drugged, Caesar shouts "Lousy human bastards!". Armando attempts to defuse the ensuing commotion by taking responsibility for the exclamation. He plans to turn himself in to the authorities and bluff his way out while instructing Caesar to hide among the apes for safety. Caesar obeys and hides in a cage of orangutans, finding himself being trained for slavery through violent conditioning. He is then sold at auction to Governor Breck. Caesar is then put to work by Breck's chief aide MacDonald, whose African American heritage allows him to sympathize with the apes to the disgust of his boss. Meanwhile, Armando is interrogated by Inspector Kolp, who suspects his "circus ape" is the child of Cornelius and Zira. Kolp's assistant puts Armando under a machine that psychologically forces people to be truthful. Realizing he cannot fight the machine, Armando jumps through a window and dies. When Caesar learns of Armando's death, he loses faith in human kindness. In secret, he begins teaching the apes combat and has them gather weapons. Unfortunately, Breck eventually learns that Caesar is the ape the police are hunting. Meanwhile, Caesar realizes MacDonald is an ally to the apes' cause and reveals himself to him. MacDonald understands Caesar's intent to depose Breck, but expresses his doubts about the revolution's effectiveness. Caesar is later captured by Breck's men and is electrically tortured into speaking. Hearing him speak, Breck orders Caesar to be killed. With MacDonald's help, the heroes manage to trick Breck into believing Caesar died. Once Breck leaves, Caesar kills his torturer and escapes. To build his numbers, Caesar takes over Ape Management. While setting the city on fire, Caesar and the rest of the apes proceed to the command center, killing most of the riot police that attempt to stop them in the process. After succeeding in this, Caesar has Breck marched out to be executed. MacDonald pleads with Caesar not to succumb to brutality and be merciful to the former masters. Caesar ignores him, deciding to dedicate his life to man's downfall. This is the original uncut ending of the movie. After a bad reception from the first audiences due to its dark tone, the ending was reworked to add a dubbed follow-up to the speech from Caesar: As the apes raise their rifles to beat Breck to death, Caesar's girlfriend Lisa voices her objection, saying "No!". She is the first ape to speak other than Caesar, but the other apes are concerned about Caesar's bloodlust as well. Caesar reconsiders and orders the apes to lower their weapons, deciding that they can afford to be humane, since the fight is already won and they "have seen the birth of the planet of the apes".

In Texas, a woman and her young daughter head down to another town where the girl's irresponsible, hotheaded and immature father has just been released from prison on parole. With her infant daughter Margaret Rose in tow, Georgette Thomas pulls up stakes from Tyler, Texas to head to Columbus, Texas to be reunited with her husband, Henry Thomas, who has just been released from prison on parole. Columbus is Henry's hometown. Margaret Rose has never met her father. Henry is not yet ready for this reunion as he is an irresponsible soul, who has problems looking after himself, let alone a wife and infant daughter. People in Columbus are doing whatever they can to help Henry, people such as Slim, the Deputy Sheriff who has known Henry since they were kids, and the Tillmans, who have given him a place to live as well as a job to do chores around their house. However, Henry is reluctant to give up songwriting and performing with his rockabilly band, the honky-tonks where he plays the environments which exacerbated his previous life problems. Henry has the unrealistic belief that he will become the next Elvis Presley. Beyond these issues, the biggest obstacle in the Thomases becoming a happy, united family may be Miss Kate Dawson, the judgmental woman who raised Henry. Miss Kate, who still acts as his unofficial voice of reason and who believes the only right path for Henry is to go back to school, believes that Henry has never made a good decision on his own. —Huggo Henry Thomas is out on parole in a small Texan town and, in the evenings, he is the lead singer in a band. He is being pressured by his foster mother to give up his singing and go back to school. His wife, Georgette, and young daughter unexpectedly come to town to live with him. However Henry's hot temper leads him into knife fights, and jeopardizes his parole. —Will Gilbert