James Garner

Singer-songwriter Tanya Tucker looks back on her illustrious life and career with fellow musician Brandi Carlile.

At a modern-day nursing home, an elderly man, Duke (James Garner), reads a romantic story from his notebook to a fellow patient Allie. Both Duke and Allie live in a nursing home. In 1940, Seabrook Island, South Carolina, poor lumber mill worker Noah Calhoun (Ryan Gosling) sees 17-year-old heiress Allison "Allie" Hamilton (Rachel McAdams) at a carnival. He pursues her, coerces her into dating him. Noah approaches Allie to ask for a dance, which she refuses. Allie goes on the Ferris wheel with a friend, and Noah jumps on the wheel and sits in the same carriage as Allie. Noah asks Allie out for a date, but she refuses again. Noah threatens to jump off the wheel unless Allie agrees to the date. Allie agrees to go out on a date with Noah, to stop him from jumping off. Later, Allie refuses to honor her promise of a date. Noah uses his friend Fin and his girlfriend Sara (Heather Wahlquist) to lure Allie for a movie night and Noah reaches there with Fin. Noah later walks Allie home. Allie reveals that she had not seen a movie in ages, as she doesn't have much time. Her schedule is decided by her parents, and she has tutors and activities almost all day. Noah goads Allie by insinuating that she is not free to do as she pleases. They share a dance in the middle of the street. Noah and Allie start a romance. They started spending every waking hour together and fall in love with each other. They argued a lot, and rarely agreed on anything, but they also had a lot of fun. Allie learned swimming and how to drive a truck, with Noah. Despite their differences they were crazy about each other. When Allie meets Noah's father Frank Calhoun (Sam Shepard), he immediately likes her. Frank is warm, inviting and free of any prejudice. However, when Noah meets her parents, they disapprove. Noah is made to admit that he makes 40 cents an hour at his job at the lumberyard. They believe that Noah has too much spirit for Allie, who comes from a different background and circumstances. Noah takes Allie to an abandoned house at Windsor Plantation that he intends to buy for them. Allie also gives specs to Noah that she wants incorporated in the house for herself. She wants a white house with blue shutters, and a room overlooking the water, where she can paint. A big porch that wraps around the house, where they can sip tea and watch the sun go down. They try to make love for the first time (Allie is talking too much and is very nervous, while Noah wanted to be patient and respectful to her feelings) but are interrupted by Noah's friend Fin (Kevin Connolly) with the news that Allie's parents have the police looking for her. When Allie and Noah return to her parents' mansion, Allie's mother Anne (Joan Allen) calls Noah trash (she says that Allie is likely to end up pregnant or heartbroken) and they ban her from seeing Noah. Allie says that her parents don't know anything about love as they don't enjoy each other's company at all. Noah walks out and Allie chases after him. They have an ensuing argument (Noah says that Allie is eventually going to leave him and suggests that they slow things down between them), and she impulsively breaks up with him, but immediately regrets it. The next morning, Anne announces that the family is returning home to Charleston. Allie attempts to contact Noah, but is unable to find him, so she asks Fin to tell Noah that she loves him. Allie says that it is not over between them and that they just had a fight the previous day. When Noah gets the message he rushes to Allie's home, only to find the house gated up and empty. Noah writes to Allie every day for a year, but Anne intercepts the letters such that they never reach Allie. When all 365 go unanswered, he stops writing to move on. Noah enlists with Fin to fight in World War II and fight in the Battle of the Bulge, where Fin is killed in battle. Allie volunteers in a hospital for wounded soldiers, where she meets captain Lon Hammond Jr. (James Marsden), a young lawyer who comes from old Southern money. After a few years being together, the two become engaged to the delight of Allie's parents. When Noah returns from the war, his father has sold their home so that Noah can buy the abandoned house. While visiting Charleston, Noah witnesses Allie and Lon kissing at a restaurant; he convinces himself that if he restores the house, Allie will come back to him. Once it's completed, Noah resists selling it. Later, while Allie is being fitted for her wedding dress, Allie is startled to see in the newspaper that Noah has completed the house to the specifications she made years before. After Allie asks permission from Lon to take a little trip before the wedding, Allie returns to Seabrook to find Noah living in the restored house. The two renew their relationship and make love. Noah tells Allie about the 365 letters, and they realize her mother kept them from her. Several days later, Anne appears in the morning on Noah's doorstep to warn Allie that Lon has followed her to Seabrook. She also reveals that she once loved a lower-class young man in town and still wonders how changed their lives would have been if she had chosen differently. Noah and Allie argue and he tells her to decide what she wants, not what everyone else does. She drives back to her hotel, sobbing and confused. Anne then gives Allie the letters that Noah wrote to her as an admission that she had hidden them from Allie. Subsequently, Allie confesses to Lon that she had spent time with Noah, and eventually returns to her relationship with Noah. In the present narrative, it is revealed that the elderly woman is dementia-stricken Allie (Gena Rowlands), Duke is actually Noah, who uses a pseudonym to not startle her in her disoriented state. The journal he reads to her she wrote during the early stages of her illness, detailing their romance and life together so he could help her come back to him. Noah has kept the promise to read it to her almost daily. Almost at the end of the journal in the notebook, Allie asks Noah what happened at the end of the story and Noah prompts her that she knows. She briefly recognizes him and remembers. Allie asks how long they have before she forgets again and Duke tells her possibly five minutes. They dance to their song, "I'll Be Seeing You", and she asks about their kids. However, Allie's dementia quickly relapses and she panics to see a stranger touching her, so is sedated. Noah suffers a heart attack and is sent to the hospital while Allie is sent to a dementia ward in the same hospital. Noah visits Allie's room in the middle of the night causing her to remember him again and proceeds to remind her of her illness, though he reassures her that they can do anything with the love they share. While sleeping, both Noah and Allie pass away in each other's arms and a nurse discovers them in the morning.

Forty years after their original space mission was scrapped, a retired Air Force "space cowboy" leads a group of former astronauts on a dangerous mission.

A retired detective accepts a simple task, unaware that it will tear open old, forgotten, but deadly wounds. Retired ex-cop and private detective Harry Ross (Paul Newman), who lives with rich actor Jack Ames (Gene Hackman), who is dying from cancer and his actress wife Catherine (Susan Sarandon) gets mixed up in murder when he is asked to deliver blackmail money. He walks into a twenty-year-old case involving the mysterious disappearance of Catherine's former husband. Raymond Hope (James Garner) is another ex-cop who also does occasional errands for the couple. —John Sacksteder <jsackste@bellsouth.net>

Set in the American Old West, the story is a first-person account by a wisecracking gambler Bret Maverick (Mel Gibson), of his misadventures on the way to a major five-card draw poker tournament being held on the paddle steamer Lauren Belle. Besides wanting to win the poker championship for the money, he also wants to prove, once and for all, that he is "the best". Maverick rides into the fictional town of Crystal River intending to collect money owed to him, as he is $3,000 short of the poker tournament entry fee of $25,000. His efforts to make up this $3,000 provide some plot motivation, as well as diversions caused by, and in the company of, three people he encounters at a poker game at Crystal River: an antagonist named Angel (Alfred Molina), a young con-artist calling herself Mrs Annabelle Bransford (Jodie Foster), and legendary lawman Marshal Zane Cooper (James Garner). The first two are also rival poker players. Maverick, Bransford and Cooper share a stagecoach. They narrowly escape a fatal plunge into a ravine after their elderly driver suddenly dies. During their journey they agree to help a wagon train of migrant evangelist settlers who have been waylaid by ruffians. The settlers offer Maverick a percentage of the recovered money they desperately need to start their mission, while one spinster missionary suggests marriage to Cooper, but both men turn down the offers. They are also headed-off by a troop of Indians led by Joseph (Graham Greene). Unknown to his companions, Joseph and Maverick are good friends, and Maverick allows himself to be "captured." Joseph is another one of his unreliable debtors, and Maverick tries to collect the $1,000 that Joseph owes him. In and around his tribal grounds they collaborate on a scheme to swindle a Russian Grand Duke. Still seething over his loss in the Crystal River game, Angel receives a telegram instructing him to stop Maverick from reaching the Poker game at Lauren Belle, and has also learned that Maverick had conned him in Crystal River. Angel catches up with Maverick after he has left Joseph's tribe, beats him up and attempts to hang him. Despite being tied to both a tree and to his horse, Maverick escapes and reaches the poker game, which is taking place on a paddle steamer. Bransford and Angel have also reached the game, and Cooper has been engaged to oversee its security. Still $2,000 short, he makes his way to the Lauren Belle and finds Bransford, who is still $4,000 short herself. Spotting the Archduke aboard, Maverick poses as a Bureau of Indian Affairs agent investigating the shooting of Indians for game, conning the Archduke out of $6,000 to cover his and Bransford's entry. Commodore Duvall welcomes the competitors to the tournament, with Cooper overseeing the security of the game and the $500,000 prize money and watching for any cheaters, who will be summarily thrown overboard if discovered. After the others are eliminated, the four finalists are Maverick, Bransford, Angel, and Commodore Duvall (James Coburn), the boat's owner and the tournament organizer. Prior to this game, Maverick and Bransford have a tryst in his quarters. Maverick almost fails to reach the final table by the 5:00 AM deadline, having had his stateroom door chained shut (by an unknown person) after a short tryst with Bransford. He manages to climb outside the steamer to reach the table on time. The game proceeds, with Bransford the first eliminated, and shortly thereafter a "fixed" hand is dealt to the three remaining players. The Commodore is given four 8s and Angel is given a low straight flush, whilst Maverick has the 10, jack, queen and king of spades. The Commodore and Angel each bet "all in". Maverick observes the dealer bottom-dealing to the others, protests the conduct of the hand, and eventually accepts one card dealt by Angel and calls without checking the card. It turns out to be the ace of spades, giving Maverick an unbeatable royal flush and the championship. An enraged Angel draws his gun, but he and his stooges in the audience are gunned down by Cooper and Maverick. Three plot twists follow Maverick's win. First, Cooper steals the $500,000 prize money instead of presenting it to Maverick. Second, it is revealed that the Commodore and Cooper were secretly in cahoots on the theft and that Angel had actually been working for the Commodore. Third, the Commodore betrays Cooper, but before he can shoot him, Maverick ambushes the two around a campfire and steals back the money, leaving them a single gun to settle their affairs. The gun turns out to be unloaded, and Cooper beats up the Commodore, then sets out to take revenge on Maverick. Later, Maverick is relaxing in a bath-house when Cooper finds him, and drops the facade to reveal that he is in fact Maverick's father. The real conspiracy was in fact between the two of them. However, Bransford enters the bath-house and robs Cooper and Maverick (whose relationship she had surmised from their similar mannerisms). After she escapes, Maverick reveals she only got away with half of the money, as Maverick had hidden the rest in his boots. Maverick and his father smile as he comments that it will be a lot of fun getting the rest of the money back from her.

On November 5, 1975 in Snowflake, Arizona, logger Travis Walton (D.B. Sweeney), and his co-workers - Mike Rogers (Robert Patrick), Allan Dallis (Craig Sheffer), David Whitlock (Peter Berg), Greg Hayes (Henry Thomas) and Bobby Cogdill (Bradley Gregg) - head to work in the White Mountains. Driving home from work, the loggers see an unearthly light in the distance through the treeline. Upon investigating, they come across an unidentified flying object. Curious to learn more, Walton gets out of the truck to examine closer, only for the hovering object to reach and strike him with a bright beam of light, hurling him several feet backwards. Fearing Walton has been killed, the terrified loggers escape from the scene. Rogers decides to go back to the spot to retrieve Walton, but he is nowhere to be found. Going back to town to report the incident, the loggers are meet with skepticism by Sheriff Blake Davis (Noble Willingham) and Lieutenant Frank Watters (James Garner). They are suspected of foul play, something believed that quickly spreads over their small town, leaving them as social outcasts. Watters realizes there was a great deal of tension between Walton and Dallis and that Dallis has a criminal record, leading him to believe this is a murder investigation. Watters also discovers a tabloid newspaper in their truck with headlines about aliens, hinting that they used the article to concoct their story. The loggers are accused of murder and are threatened by Travis' older brother Dan Walton (Scott MacDonald). After a large search party found no sign of Walton, the loggers are offered the chance to take a lie detector test. After the testing is complete, Rogers is outraged that the results are not shared and he and "his guys" refused to return the next day to retake this. After the loggers leave, the test's administrator informs Watters and Davis that, with the exception of Dallis (whose results were inconclusive), the loggers seem to be telling the truth. Five days later, Rogers receives a phone call from someone claiming to be Walton. He is found at a Heber gas station, alive but naked, dehydrated and severely traumatized. A ufologist questions Walton but he is thrown out and Walton is taken to a hospital. Rogers visits Walton while in the emergency room and ends up telling Walton that he leave him after he was struck by the beam of light but came back to get him. Walton appears enraged by this and turns away from Rogers who blames the whole incident on Walton for getting out of the truck. During a welcome home party, Walton suffers from a mental breakdown and flashback of the abduction by the extraterrestrials. In his flashback, he awakens inside a slimy cocoon. Breaking out of its membrane, a puzzled Walton finds himself in a zero-gravity alien environment inside a cylindrical enclosure, whose walls contain other similar cocoons. Struggling in the low gravity, he breaches a nearby cocoon by chance, horrified to discover that this contains decomposing human remains. Exploring further, he drifts towards a neighboring area, seeing several humanoid figures below him. Drifting uncontrollably towards them, he surmises that the immobile figures are actually spacesuits, one of them occupied by an extraterrestrial creature. Walton attempts to escape, but is apprehended by two extraterrestrial creatures who drag him down corridors full of terrestrial detritus such as shoes and keys before arriving in a bizarre examining chamber. The aliens hold the struggling Walton to a raised platform in the middle of the chamber, stripping him of his clothes and covering him with an elastic material that completely restrains him. Despite Walton's terrified screams, the small aliens clinically force him to undergo an experiment in which a gelatinous substance is shoved into his mouth, a long pipe is inserted down his throat, his jaw is clamped open and a device is stabbed into his neck. Overhead equipment then begins lowering towards him while fully conscious during the experience. After a needle-like ocular probe extends towards this exposed eye, Walton loses consciousness until finding himself back on Earth, disoriented and severely traumatized. While interviewing Walton, Lieutenant Watters expresses his doubts about the abduction, dismissing this merely as a hoax. He notes Walton's newfound celebrity because of the tabloids' attempt to profit from his story, believing that he had faked the abduction to become a celebrity. However, with the investigation closed, Watters is forced to abandon his pursuit and leaves town. Two and a half years later, Walton visits Rogers, now a hermit, and the two reconcile while they struggle with trauma over the past. The film's closing titles inform that in 1993, Walton, Rogers and Dallis were resubmitted to additional polygraph examinations, which they passed, corroborating their innocence.

After driving through the night in their pickup truck holding their life's belongings, divorced mother Emma Moriarty (Sally Field) and her son Jake (Corey Haim) arrive at their new home in Eunice, AZ. The property is a run-down ranch fixer-upper, so they resignedly set to work cleaning and repairing. Emma has grown up working hard and is handy with hardware, and they work well together to get the place in shape. She goes into town to install advertisements under car windshields to advertise her services as a horse boarder and trainer. When she comes to the corner drug store on the main road, she stops to admire the beautiful vintage car parked there before starting to add her flyer. She is interrupted by the store and car owner, a widower named Murphy Jones (James Garner), who allows her to display the sign in the store window. She sits at the old-fashioned soda fountain to learn about her new neighborhood. She tells Murphy she has moved there from Modesto, CA, this time; he tells her the town is progressive enough to have a cross-dresser, but she should go elsewhere to raise public consciousness. Jake starts at his new school, and Emma spends a lot of time alone waiting for business, and she keeps Jake up late playing rounds of cards. One evening they go to town together and spot Murphy playing fiddle at the weekly dance. He stops to talk to them during a break and tells them he shares the stage with other local town officials. The available women outnumber him, so he is a busy widower. He has an ongoing feud with the town over parking his classic car in front of the store and not feeding the parking meter. Vandals have been a problem, so he wants to keep the car close where he can watch it. While Emma is in the town hall to get a license for her business, she overhears him while he pays his fines (he has 22 outstanding tickets to pay off to avoid getting arrested). When Emma says one can't fight city hall, Murphy replies that one can wrestle them. He proposes that the town plant a tree, which he will pay for, in place of the meter, and the officials give in; soon the public works department removes the meter and installs Murphy's tree. Things become tough for Emma, as the bank can't provide her a loan. She stops by Murphy's pharmacy to see if she can borrow money from him. He shows her that he is carrying several townspeople on his books to help keep them on their feet, and since he hardly knows her she would be at the bottom of the list. Back at home she tells Jake they have to be frugal as money is running out. The boy goes into town to find a job, and Murphy offers him a dishwasher job after school, then takes him for a ride in the 1927 car, which he has maintained showroom new. On the way he picks up the town's oldest resident, Amos Abbott (Charles Lane), who is walking down the side of the road. He tells them he has found love at age 89 with an elderly widow. The cantankerous senior asks Murphy to let him off before reaching his destination, complaining that Murphy drives too fast at the car's top speed of 30 mph. Emma finds Murphy one day at a horse auction. She has already strolled the grounds and checked out some of the animals up for bid. She sits with him and points out the problems with each horse that comes up on the block, until a healthy one appears for Murphy to bid on; he ultimately buys the horse and boards it at Emma's, where he comes and watches her train it, and he starts to admire her character. On the way home one afternoon, Emma is tailgated by a rambunctious young driver who causes her to swerve off the road and hit her head. He stops to check on her, but she faints when he says he has no insurance. Murphy visits her in the hospital where she is crying at the thought of the expenses of staying there. He has put the word out and some folks from town have put up their horses at her place. She breaks down and sobs that she worries she is raising her son all wrong, then blurts out that she is 33 years old and living like a nun. He cajoles her into taking a walk down the hospital hallway with him while he addresses her concerns; he has observed that her son is a fine young man, and to avoid living like a nun she should say yes next time she is asked. Before leaving he wryly notes that her hospital gown was open in the back the whole time they were talking. Emma finally gets home to find a new problem waiting on her porch: her ex-husband Bobby Jack (Brian Kerwin) has found her and claims he has changed his spots and is a reformed man. Emma worries about his past habits, including spending money they didn't have (but helping himself to hers), but he is out of work and she can't bring herself to put him out, so they settle into an awkward routine. Of the three, Jake is happiest, enjoying having his dad back in his life. Murphy meets Bobby Jack in the stable, and they civilly maintain an aloof tolerance. Emma sets her ex to work with her on taking care of the horses. When the house's only toilet stops up (due to a flushed cigar butt), Murphy comes to the rescue as Bobby Jack is inept at plumbing. Making small talk, Murphy notes that he can also sew as his mother taught him how to follow a pattern. He ignores Bobby Jack's comments on that information. Emma invites Murphy to stay for dinner, and soon it becomes a ritual, with Murphy spending more evenings at the house. During a game of cards, Murphy excuses himself and Bobby Jack. On the porch Murphy calls him out for dealing off the bottom of the deck when they're only playing using matchsticks for money. He warns not to do it again, especially in front of Jake. When Bobby Jack wonders what they'll say about why they stepped out, Murphy replies they had a pissing contest and Bobby Jack won. Low on funds, Bobby Jack helps himself to Emma's wallet while she is sleeping, and the next day uses the money to buy Jake a hat to impress his son. Murphy is in the shop and says hello. The four of them then go together to the movies and catch the latest slasher movie installment. Murphy is the first to bow out of the gory movie, and Jake soon joins him outside. Jake tells Murphy he saw his dad cheating at cards, and Murphy tells the boy it was a good thing that he noticed, and he can decide whether or not to take after Bobby Jack. Emma is next to arrive, repulsed at the "human hamburger" onscreen, when she notices some activity nearby; Murphy says there is a weekly bingo game and they join in. In the ladies' restroom between games, a local woman tells Emma that Murphy's wife died suddenly, never having been sick a day in her life. Murphy was an emotional wreck and reclusive for years afterward. At the next round of bingo, Emma wins the biggest jackpot of the night: $200. Bobby Jack uses the bingo funds behind Emma's back to buy beer for a big party to which he invites the entire town. Murphy and Emma wind up doing dish duty while the others have fun. Emma asks Murphy how old he is and Murphy creatively dodges the question. When he takes out a load of trash and runs into Bobby Jack, who accuses him of "banging" Emma, Murphy won't be baited into an argument. Some time later, at a benefit dance, Emma finds herself with both men trying to usurp her time on the dance floor, cutting in on each other before either can get a dance with her; she finally stops, joins their hands and tells them to dance with each other as she has had enough, and they gamely dance their way off the floor to the other folks' amusement. One evening Emma invites Murphy to dinner, but he doesn't seem interested, so finally she confesses that Jake wanted to see him; when he enters the house he finds they have arranged a surprise birthday party for him. He thanks them for tolerating him in his darker moments, grateful for their support. Emma takes him aside and asks him how many candles they need on the birthday cake, and he tells her to set it on fire. While Emma and Bobby Jack are putting hay in a stall, he makes a move to kiss her, but suddenly she is overcome with sneezing and ruins the mood. She realizes that it's time to make up her mind; she picks up Jake from school and tells him that she will be putting his dad out because they can't continue to live together as if they are still married. She apologizes to him for the realities he has had to face, but he asks to be dropped off and wants to walk home the rest of the way. When Emma gets home, a strange truck is parked there, and in the house is a young woman named Wanda (Anna Levine) with twin baby boys Linus and Larry; they're Bobby Jack's children. Emma tells her to consider learning typing or a skill in case she needs it, but Wanda just wants to stay home with the children. When Jake arrives home, she sits the twins in his lap and introduces her son to his new half-brothers. Emma talks to Bobby Jack on the porch and tells him that he has to start being responsible. Though he balks at first, he realizes he has used up his time as a free spirit and leaves for good with Wanda and the kids. Confused and lost, Emma goes into town to talk to Murphy; he tells her that Bobby Jack stopped in for baby supplies on the way out of town. She asks him what she should do, and he sets her straight; he is not her advisor, as there are professionals in town for that. Then he kisses her passionately, says that if she doesn't know how things are, she might not be as smart as he thought she was, puts her out the door and turns the "closed" sign up. Driving home in the truck, she thinks things over. At home Murphy has finished his ride and stabled his horse. After he and Emma make some awkward small talk, he tells her that he may be worn, but sturdy and faithful, and he is in love for the last time in his life. She replies that she is in love for the first time in her life and asks him to stay for supper, but he replies that he will only do so if he is still there for breakfast. She agrees. As they go into the house together, he tells her his age. He is sixty.

Sergeant Major Zack Carey (James Garner) arrives at his last duty post, an Army base in Georgia called Fort Clemons, with his wife Ladonna (Shirley Jones) and his son Billy (C. Thomas Howell). The guard at the main gate welcomes him as he enters with his family in a station wagon. Behind him is a moving van with their belongings and a World War II Sherman tank on a trailer (he tells the guard he never said he travelled light). Personnel help him remove the tarps from his prized possession as Ladonna supervises the moving of furnishings into their on-base housing. As Zack rolls the tank onto solid ground, a staff sergeant reporter from Soldier Magazine named Jerry Elliott (Mark Herrier) interviews him, as he is the only Army man who owns a tank. He has restored it over fifteen years, adding a radio and PA system so he can drive it in parades and other events. Of his two sons, his eldest son Jonathan has died and Billy, born six years later, is just 16. When asked why anybody would want to own a tank, he replies that it is very hard to shoot yourself while cleaning it. Zack visits the base commander, Major General V.E. Hubik (Sandy Ward), who is familiar with him, welcomes him wholeheartedly and takes him on a tour of the base. Zack has made an offer on a fishing boat on which he and his wife can enjoy retirement. The General says Zack could be the next senior Sergeant Major of the Army and work out of the Pentagon, but Zack says he has only one son left who will go on his own soon, and he doesn't want to miss any quality time with him. Back at the house Elliott the reporter asks Billy what his father is like, and Billy says he is a cross between George Patton and Danny Thomas. Ladonna recommends that Zack goes to the local NCO club and he finds its more like a disco, geared to a younger crowd and much too noisy for his tastes. He does run into an old friend, Ed Tippett (Dorian Harewood) who works at the base Provost Marshall's office. When Ed says to come meet the wife, Zack says he knows Linda and Ed corrects him: Gwen is the new wife. At home Zack is slightly disheartened and talks to Ladonna about the club and his friend's divorce, saying all he wants to do is finish his duty and get on the boat, then the couple share a cuddle. At his first assembly with his command personnel the next morning, Zack stresses taking care of their own without problems reaching their superiors, and keeping to Army regulations in all matters. He also says he wants to see a proper bar on the base so Army personnel of a certain age don't have to dance, as he calls it, the funky monkey. Early the next morning Zack hits the battalion field to do his morning jog and shouts for all to hear that he finds himself alone; in moments the entire battalion has filed out of their barracks and they form ranks on the field to engage in early morning physical training with their sergeant major. The General is awakened by the sound of the troops passing. He watches Zack out his bedroom window and smiles. Sometime later, when Ladonna gets home, Zack happily announces that the sellers accepted their offer on the boat. He forgot she is entertaining the NCO wives in the house that night, so they can't eat dinner at home or celebrate yet. She suggests Zack go into town for dinner. He stops at the local bar, the Outpost Café, and talks with a woman named Sarah (Jenilee Harrison), who has aspirations to go to California and become a beautician. Zack becomes loose with the beer, says he has been in the Army for 30 years and jokes that he should go into the Navy now that he is a boat owner. He starts singing a loud shanty which interrupts a pool game being played by Deputy Euclid Baker (James Cromwell) and some of his friends. Euclid quickly makes it obvious to Zack that the Army isn't particularly welcome. He then tells Sarah she has wasted too much time on Zack and should be turning tricks with paying customers, then he slaps her. Zack says that the display was not necessary, but Euclid takes another swing at Sarah. Zack punches and roughs up Euclid, then gets hold of the deputy's service pistol; the bar patrons step back in alarm, but he simply drops it in the fish tank on the bar and leaves. Sarah yells at him that she could have lost her job, but he says a simple thank you would have sufficed. He immediately goes to Ed's house to tell him what happened, knowing he has made a mistake which will bring the local constabulary looking for him. Ed says the sheriff is a particularly mean variety of Georgian cracker, and it might take considerable money to get out of the situation. The next morning Euclid greets the sheriff, Cyrus Buelton (G. D. Spradlin) and brings his morning cup of coffee. Buelton upbraids Euclid for getting beaten up by somebody and not putting that person in jail. A mark on the deputy is a mark on him, and something he won't tolerate. Zack is spotted eating at the enlisted mess hall instead of the NCO mess, ruffling the feathers of Mess Master Sergeant Johnson (John Hancock), to whom it appears to be an unannounced inspection and a breach of etiquette. He storms over to Zack in a huff, but Zack explains he chose to come in because the food smelled good. He praises the clean facility, the quality of the food and that nobody slopped food onto the plates, all of which Johnson says is no less than he expects of his staff. When Zack gives high praise to the mess sergeant's own apple cobbler, the man softens and Zack earns his respect. Buelton and Euclid visit Sarah in her trailer. The sheriff awakens her and asks if she believes in Wonder Woman or the Lone Ranger. When she seems confused, he talks to her about thinking that Zack and Army men like him are her heroes. He demands that she roll over and drop her pants so he can enforce the lesson with his belt that there is no Lone Ranger. She complies. When he sees Euclid looking down at her and smirking, he whacks him upside the head before proceeding with Sarah's whipping, which she silently and tearlessly endures. The sheriff then visits the Provost Marshall's office. Ed has expected his arrival and excuses the white clerk at the counter to take on the visitor himself. Buelton says he wants Zack in his own jail and demands he be handed over. Ed casually says he will have him delivered at once, but doesn't move. Buelton challenges Ed and calls him Sambo. Ed says he will also order that by five o'clock the town be off limits to all military personnel to prevent more problems, knowing it would affect the town's livelihood. Ed then warns the sheriff, calling him Jim (as in Crow), not to exceed the speed limit leaving the base or risk spending time in his jail. Insulted, Buelton returns to his office and demands Euclid get every piece of information available on Zack. At a visit to the post hospital Zack sees a crying five-year-old boy being held down by his mother while a doctor stitches cuts to his bloodied face. The mother says his daddy isn't mad at him anymore, and Zack realizes what has happened. He calls the kid's Army father, Corporal Harris (Larry Jordan), into his office and asks if he hit his son. The man becomes defensive and says it is none of his business, but Zack makes it his business, offering to spar with him at the base gym if he feels the need to vent anger, and demands he get counseling. Harris continues to be stubborn, so Zack puts him against the wall and warns that he will visit the hospital daily to make sure the man doesn't lay another hand on the boy, threatening to risk his rank, retirement and the stockade if necessary to stop him, and the chastened man is dismissed. Zack and Billy talk about the boat at home, and Billy mentions naming it the Johnny Boy, saying it would be fitting since Johnny was his favorite son. Zack sets him straight, saying he and his mother had a different and unique relationship with Johnny, who always tried to prove himself (which might have been what had gotten him killed). Billy should never feel that Ladonna or he loved either of them more or less than the other. At school Billy is summoned to his locker. Euclid and Sherriff Buelton ask him to open his locker, but he finds a different lock on it and his combination doesn't work. On orders, the maintenance man breaks off the lock, and a bag of marijuana has been planted inside. Zack contritely visits the jail to see Buelton, and he and Euclid take great joy in humiliating him as he admits his fault and asks what he needs to do to get Billy back. Buelton says that the judge, who happens to be his brother-in-law, will surely send Billy to the county farm for two or three years of hard labor. The sheriff takes Zack on a tour of one of the work farms and has a supervisor pull a black worker off a truck, where he was on break from the work detail, to exercise negative feedback, which consists of beating the man for malingering. Buelton demands $10,000, which he feels Zack can afford after getting word of the article in the magazine. He also warns not to bring in any lawyers. Zack says he will play it his way as long as Billy is safe. He visits his son in jail and tells Billy that Buelton is getting revenge, he will be set free soon and to stay strong. Billy calls his dad sir, and Zack stresses to Billy that he should be as polite to his captors. Back at home Ladonna slaps Zack, furious at him for "whoring" and putting their son in danger. She refuses to listen and says she wants to get a lawyer and bypass any of his ideas. The next day, while Zack is conducting a firearms inspection, Ladonna pulls up in the car and confesses that she had no idea what kind of man Buelton was. At the sheriff's office, Zack quietly hands Buelton the money in a bag, which the sheriff says will keep Billy alive for a while, and Zack argues additional shakedowns had not been part of their deal. The sheriff says hiring the lawyer was dumb. Billy has been tried and sentenced to three years of hard labor at the work farm where, without protection, he might be victimized by degenerates or shot while trying to escape. In the jail cell, Billy has suffered a beating and yells at his father, as he has been told a version of what happened with Sarah at the bar, asking if she was worth it. Zack goes home and thinks things over, weighing his options. At dawn he goes to his tank, prepares the vehicle and then drives it toward the main gate. Major General Hubik is apprised of the situation, and he tells the guards to bar the gate. Zack simply swerves past them, taking down part of the fence as he heads into town. Zack awakens Euclid at the jail with his tank and trains the muzzle on him, asking him to let his son out of jail. Euclid says Billy was taken to the county farm overnight as a precaution, and only a couple of drunks are inside. Sarah has come out of her trailer and says the lawyer they hired is also in the jail. Zack has her retrieve Euclids keys to release the prisoners, then tells him to take the radio out of the squad car. Euclid refuses, saying it's a new radio and the sheriff would kill him if it got ruined, so Zack uses the main gun on the tank to take out the squad car. Then he shoots the main phone line out of town with a machine gun. He drives through the jail using his tank as a juggernaut to level the building. Finally he has Euclid strip naked and Sarah handcuffs him to a telephone pole. She asks Zack to take her with him, as she can't stay there anymore, and he agrees. Outside the work farm, they observe Billy through binoculars, helping a work crew. Zack blasts a truck as a diversion and uses the sound system in the tank to tell Billy to lie down flat; he aligns the tracks vertically on either side of Billy and drives the tank over his son to retrieve him using the hatch in the floor, and the trio take off. The police are called in to block the road, but Zack drives the tank over the squad cars. Buelton talks to the governor of Georgia (Wallace Wilkinson) saying he has a 52-year-old sergeant major who is crazy, along with a sixteen-year-old "dope fiend" and a 20-year-old hooker in a Sherman tank, and asks for help, but he refers the sheriff to the Army. Billy helps Zack with tank maintenance while Sarah washes in the river. He has a disagreement with his father because of Sarah's presence, but Zack says she is willing to testify how she was arrested for vagrancy and forced into prostitution by Buelton on a trumped-up charge, lending weight to their cause, and Zack can then add his testimony as well. He tells Billy they're not running from, but to, the law, hoping to go over the state line, where true authority in neighboring Tennessee can put a stop to Buelton's abuse of power. Buelton visits Hubik to demand aid from the military. Hubik replies the only indiscretion the Army has against Zack is his destruction of a 20-foot section of fence, and Zack had resigned earlier in the day. Then he mentions the Posse Comitatus Act, a law prohibiting the Army rendering aid in a civilian matter without the permission of their Commander in Chief: the President of the United States. The sheriff, unfamiliar with the term, misinterprets it and takes umbrage, thinking he has been called a "pussy communist," and storms off to deal with Zack in his own way. The news media has received word of the fugitives in the tank. Buelton puts his men at every gas station to the state line to stop Zach from refueling. When the tank begins to run out of gas, they pull up to some gas pumps at an off-road home. When Zack restrains the owner, he is surprised when Mr. Gant (Danny Nelson) doesn't protest. He says Zack can have anything he wants, as his sister's son was sent to the work farm and never got out. After a quick rest and a meal, they continue on their way. Buelton speaks to his supporters about Gant abetting a felon. Folks appear at the property with torches to burn the home down and have him serve as a lesson to others. He stands up to them, and suddenly the tank appears. Zack has doubled back to help Gant and drives the mob off. As they take on supplies from Mr. Gant, Billy works with Sarah. He has been cool toward her until finally she sets him straight. Zack only wanted to talk, she says, and if he had taken her back to the trailer to cheat on Ladonna, as most men shes known has, the events would have played out differently. Billy realizes Zack did nothing wrong and gains a new understanding of his father. Meanwhile Gant helps Zack plan his trip to the Tennessee border, suggesting a rougher route which will take them away from a bog where Buelton suspects he may be headed. The tank slips a track as they detour through some rough country, and Zack and Billy work on it together. Billy mans the tank to move it forward when his dad gives the word to Sarah, but Zack mumbles to himself while readying the tank to reset the track, Sarah mishears him as giving the okay and signals Billy to move the tank. The tank jerks and Zack takes a blow from a crowbar to the torso, causing immediate pain. He says his ribs are broken, and later he starts coughing up blood. It becomes apparent that he has internal bleeding, and they need to reach the state line and help soon. Billy says he can handle the tank, as he helped build it. When Zack protests that Billy doesnt have to prove anything like Johnny used to, Billy says he is not like his brother, but more practical like his mother. He realizes his dad took the blame for something that was not his fault. Billy decides to go flat out toward the border rather than moving only by night, to get them out of danger faster. Ladonna talks to Billy and Zack via the military radio and apologizes to her husband for what she said to him. Then she goes to the governor of Tennessee for help, but at first he refuses to see her. She talks to the television news reporter, asking the wives watching to call the governor if they support her cause and ask that he give her five minutes of his time. A helicopter carrying a newsman hovers over the tank while broadcasting on live television, and he interviews Billy through the tanks radio. Billy tells the people that he loves and respects his dad and has no intention of giving Zack over to Buelton. Watching the show is a gang of bikers at a bar who admire Billy and his old man. With the public's outcry, the governor finally gives in and talks to Ladonna in his office. If Zack can cross the state line, she wants the governors promise that a fair trial can be held there instead of in Buelton's jurisdiction. The governor has issues because one of the fugitives is an alleged prostitute, and Ladonna says that it is her own husband and son with the alleged 20-year-old prostitute, and he should have no problem with the matter if she doesn't. She then mentions that she has reporters and his own voters outside waiting for her to deliver his answer, suggesting that he should consider if he will be perceived as a man who wants to see justice done, or as an asshole. He asks if she is threatening him with blackmail, and she brazenly says she is. He agrees to help Zack if the tank arrives, promising in a television interview that there will be a hearing in his state before any extradition is considered. Buelton gets his own supporters together to force the tank, with the aid of roadblocks, to detour into a recessed open field by the side of the only road leading to the state line. The plan is to stall the tank there with mud, and water tanker trucks begin hosing down the dirt in the field as the semis to block the highway are put in place. He has a man named Avery (Don Young) set up a bazooka to fire rounds at the tank when it arrives to ensure it is disabled. At the crossroad on the other side of the border, hundreds of Zack's supporters, who have watched the story play out on television, come to help in any way they can, along with television crews and helicopters. The bikers have also set up to await their arrival. Ladonna gets on the radio to the tank and tells her family and Sarah that they have won. Buelton and his crew hide at the edge of the road with their guns. As the tank approaches the border and he sees the way blocked, Billy steers the tank off the road as expected and starts across the muddy field. Avery fires the bazooka but misses, since he hasn't used the weapon since his own military days, but his second shot hits the tank, and it shuts down. Buelton announces that they can all wait while the climbing temperatures take their toll on the tank's occupants. The general arrives by military helicopter to join Ladonna. When he says the tank has slipped a track and will only move if it is pulled out, the bikers confer on what to do, then they start to unload supplies off a parked truck. When the driver asks what they're doing, they openly reply, "Stealing," to no objection; everybody pitches in to build what turns out to be a ramp. Billy finally goes over the PA to ask about how his father will be treated if they surrender, as Zack is feeling worse due to his injuries. Buelton gives his word that Zack will go to the hospital immediately. Then a biker rides out on the completed ramp, sailing through the air on his motorcycle carrying a rope to be attached to a tow cable that can help pull the tank out of the mud. Billy exits the tank from the bottom hatch and helps attach the cable while Sarah holds Buelton's gunmen at bay with the machine gun. Everybody, with Hubik and the Tennessee Governor on hand, begins to pull on the cable. Buelton tries to instruct his aides to shoot into the crowd, but the armed troopers on the Tennessee side take aim and warn that there will be another Little Big Horn if they do that, so they run into the field and pull from the rear of the tank, which isn't budging. Buelton jumps onto the tank to demand Zack come out, but Sarah turns the turret to knock the sheriff to the ground. The crowd spots a bulldozer that can handle the cable. It is put into use, and along with pulling supporters against the meager crew on Buelton's side, the tank is slowly pulled up the incline, over the Georgia state line and into Tennessee. The sheriff and Euclid are left in the mud. Ladonna embraces Zack and Billy as they exit the tank, and Billy kisses Sarah as the crowd cheers.

In New York City, Douglas Breen (Michael Biehn), a record store salesman, types a fan letter to actress Sally Ross (Lauren Bacall). However, Douglas is upset when Sally's secretary, Belle Goldman (Maureen Stapleton), answers the letter and encloses a picture of Sally he already has. In his next letter to "Miss Ross," he chastises her secretary for signing Sally's reply, and ends his note with "All my love." Belle writes to Douglas, apologizing for sending a photograph he already has. Douglas writes back to Sally that her secretary is "snide" and should be punished. Belle reads the letter aloud, but Sally is preoccupied and does not listen. Sally is celebrating her 50th birthday and nervous about starting rehearsals for her first musical. On Sally's birthday, she joins her former husband, director Jake Berman (James Garner), for lunch and learns he has moved back to New York City while working on his new film. Sally asks about his young girl friend, Heidi (Lesley Rogers), and Jake admits they are engaged. Meanwhile, Douglas sets out a romantic dinner for two in his apartment. He is angry when his sister (Kaiulani Lee) arrives and interrupts his dinner with a "famous star." She is worried about his fantasizing, but Douglas shuts the door on her and returns to his make-believe dinner with Sally. Douglas sends another letter, inquiring if Sally has scolded her secretary. He also follows Sally to the rehearsal studio for her new play. His next letter is more personal, containing the salutation "Dear Sally" and the assertion that he and Sally will soon be lovers. Douglas is increasingly irritated with a female co-worker and plans to complain to the record store manager. However, the manager berates Douglas for his work. Douglas writes to Sally that he finally confronted his boss and can now devote all of his time to her. Belle writes back that she will not show his letters to Sally, and if he writes again, she will contact the police. Infuriated, Douglas plans to deliver his next letter personally. He writes that he no longer needs to include his name or address because Sally knows where to find him. He arrives at the rehearsal hall after Sally has left for a break. A production assistant promises to deliver the letter to Sally, and hands it to Belle. Later, Belle shows the letter to Sally and worries that Douglas Breen might be dangerous. Sally insists he is harmless and throws away the letter. That evening, Sally and her friend, David Branum (Kurt Johnson), go to a party that Jake Berman and his fiancee are also attending. Meanwhile, as Belle heads home on the subway, Douglas attacks her while she is walking through the deserted station and slashes her face. Later, Jake joins Sally at the hospital and they wonder why Belle was attacked. As Belle recovers, Sally receives an unsigned love letter from Douglas. He believes Sally is longing for him and admits that he attacked Belle so Sally could answer his letters. Sally and Jake meet with police detective Raphael Andrews (Hector Elizondo), who asks to see the previous correspondence. Sally admits they did not keep the prior letters, and the current note does not include a name or address. Detective Andrews visits Belle in the hospital and reveals that Sally's psychotic fan was her attacker. Belle can only remember that his first name is Douglas. By the time she realized he was not a normal fan, he had already stopped signing his name. Later, Douglas watches Sally leave the rehearsal studio with David Branum, who kisses her goodbye. Douglas follows David to the YMCA swimming pool. As David swims laps, Douglas dives into the pool, slices David with a knife and swims away. He writes to Sally about the incident, and warns he is losing patience with her sadistic refusal to write him. Andrews provides 24 hour police protection for Sally, noting that Douglas will now come after her directly. Douglas continues his stalking and notices Sally's police protection. Soon, the rehearsals move from the studio to the theater. Jake Berman visits Sally in her dressing room and asks why she has not called him recently. She does not want to interfere with his relationship with Heidi, and also does not want to depend on him. Sally cooks dinner for Raphael Andrews and he wants her understudy to do the preview performances, but Sally insists on appearing in them. The next day, the maid is alone in Sally's apartment when Douglas sneaks in and brutally kills her with a straight razor. He leaves a letter for Sally that starts with "Dear Bitch," and threatens to kill her. Andrews asks if Sally wants to call Jake for company, but she refuses. That night, Douglas telephones Sally and says he wants to make love to her. He asks her to speak to him because he does not want to kill her, but Sally hangs up the telephone. She calls Jake, but Heidi picks up the telephone and she does not leave a message. The next morning, the policewoman protecting Sally awakens to find the actress gone, and she realizes Sally drugged her tea the previous evening. As Sally hides at her beach house, television news reports on her disappearance. Douglas goes to a nightclub and picks up a man who resembles him. He offers to have sex with the man, lures him to a secluded spot and murders him. Douglas douses the body with gasoline and sets it on fire. He writes another letter to Sally, claiming he must atone for the pain he caused her, and he tapes the "suicide" note to a wall near the burnt corpse. Later, Jake arrives at Sally's beach house with news of Douglas's death, and they reminisce about their 15 years together. Back in New York City, Belle returns to work as Sally prepares for opening night. Jake brings flowers to Sally's dressing room, and announces he ended his relationship with Heidi and would like to try again with Sally. She accepts his proposal, and then goes on with the show. Douglas slips into the audience during the play, but leaves during the standing ovation after the final curtain. After the show, Jake leaves for the opening night party, but promises to return to pick up Sally after she changes. Almost everyone has left the theater when Douglas slips backstage. He murders Sally's costumer, then kills the stage manager and locks the theater door. Douglas surprises Sally in her dressing room and follows as she runs to the stage to escape him. He catches Sally and finally kisses her. When she struggles to get away, he wants to know why she never answered him. She insists she does not even know him, and when he tries to kiss her again, she calls him "pathetic." He demands she stop angering him and threatens her with a knife. When she continues to berate Douglas, he hugs her and begs her to love him. Sally grabs his knife and stabs her "fan" to death.

In 1857, con man Quincy Drew and his black friend Jason O'Rourke swindle slave owners into buying Jason, who's a free man, and later share the profits when Jason escapes captivity. Quincy Drew and his black friend Jason O'Rourke have pulled off every dodge known for conning a well-heeled sucker, but it wasn't until they hit on the old skin game that they started to clean up. The game is simple. Jason, though born a free man in New Jersey, poses as Quincy's slave as the pair ride through Missouri and Kansas in 1857. Quincy picks a likely mark in each town, sells Jason to him for top money and rides out of town. Then Quincy and Jason get back together on the road to another town, because if Jason can't just run off after dark, Quincy finds a way to spring him loose. —Anonymous

Con artist Latigo Smith is on board a train travelling across frontier-era Colorado, with his would-be fiancée, a rich and powerful woman named Goldie. Looking for a way to escape this situation, he manages to slip off the train at a jerkwater stop, and finds himself in Purgatory, a small town wherein two rival companies of miners, led by Taylor Barton and Colonel Ames, are in a frantic round-the-clock race to find "the motherlode" of gold buried somewhere under the town. After consulting the town doctor about getting an embarrassing Goldie-related tattoo removed, Latigo succumbs to a gambling compulsion and loses all his money at roulette. After hearing a rumor that an infamous gunslinger named "Swiftie" Morgan is in town, Latigo concocts a scam, using the amiable ne'er-do-well Jug May to impersonate the man. In the process of this, the new arrival attracts the attention of Patience "The Sidewinder" Barton, the hot-tempered daughter of Taylor, who wants nothing more than to escape the town and become a woman of refinement in New York City. When Latigo and the fake Swiftie side with the Bartons, Ames sends a telegram to the real gunslinger, informing him of the impostor. Swiftie soon arrives in town, and confronts Latigo, who has replaced Jug for the climatic gunfight. The show-down ends with Swiftie shooting himself when he is startled by one of the massive mining blasts that regularly rock the town. Latigo accidentally finds the motherlode for the Bartons by setting off a load of dynamite with which he was attempting to bluff the gunfighter. The blast also cures his tattoo problem. Latigo's gambling compulsion finally pays off when, financially backed by the Bartons, he wins big at roulette. Now almost as rich as Patience, he marries her, she gets to send her numerous daughters to school in New York, and Jug goes on to "star in spaghetti westerns."

A frontier town in the Old West springs up almost literally overnight when the rather klutzy and hotheaded Prudy Perkins discovers gold in a grave during a funeral. Her father Olly becomes mayor of the new settlement. He and the other members of the town council bemoan the twin facts that the place has become a drunken round-the-clock free-for-all, and that in order to ship out all the gold they are mining, they must pay a hefty fee to the Danbys, a family of ranchers/bandits who control the only route out of town. Most people are too busy digging to take time out to be sheriff, and those who are willing to put down their shovel quickly die. This all changes with the arrival in town of Jason McCullough, a calm and hyper-competent man from "back East" who is passing through town "on his way to Australia." While in the town saloon, he sees young Joe Danby gun a man down, essentially for fun. Needing money after discovering the town's ruinious rate of inflation, McCullough demonstrates his uncanny firearms ability to the mayor and town council, and becomes the new sheriff. He breaks up a street brawl and while at the Perkins house meets Prudy under (for her) mortifyingly embarrassing circumstances. McCullough then arrests Joe and tosses him in the town jail, which has everything a sheriff needs - except iron bars for the cell doors and windows. McCullough keeps the none-too-bright Joe "imprisoned" through the use of a chalk line, some dribbles of red paint, and applied psychology. In the process of all this, McCullough acquires a semi-willing deputy in the form of the extremely scruffy Jake, who was previously nothing more than the "town character." The arrest ignites the wrath of the patriarch of the Danby family; while the rest of the town immediately quiets down under McCullough's reign, "Pa" mounts various efforts to get Joe out of jail. None of them work and he then brings in a string of hired guns, who are equally unsuccessful. Meanwhile, Prudy spars romantically with McCullough, McCullough and Jake go on an unsuccessful search for gold, and, much to Joe's relief, bars are finally installed in the jail. The climax of the film sees Pa Danby summoning scores of his relatives to launch an all-out assault. The sheriff's first impulse is to just leave town and resume his trip to Australia, but when Prudy expresses her sincere approval of this sensible idea, he announces that it sounds cowardly and decides to stay. The rest of the townfolk announce their disapproval of his new plan, and officially vote to not help in any way. Thus the Danby mob rides in faced only by McCullough, Jake and Prudy. After a lengthy gunfight, McCullough bluffs his way to victory using hostage Joe and the cannon mounted in the center of town. As the Danbys are all marched off to jail, the cannon fires, smashing the town brothel and scattering the resident prostitutes and visting civic leaders. McCullough makes his peace with the townfolk, he and Prudy get engaged, and he carries her home. In a closing monologue, Jake directly informs the audience that they get married and McCullough goes on to become governor of the state, while he, Jake, becomes sheriff and then "one of the most beloved characters in western folklore."

Photographer Grif, wife Jenny, and son Davey travel to Paris. Jenny inadvertently rents a French lawyer's home. Grif and Jenny face romantic temptations while navigating the awkward living situation, testing their commitment to each other. Photographer Grif Henderson is assigned a photo shoot in Paris. He decides to take his wife Jenny and his hippie son Davey with him on the shoot. Jenny unknowingly rents a house that belongs to a French lawyer. She must fend off his charms and stay true to Grif, while he likewise tries to stay true to her on the shoot.

Marshal Wyatt Earp kills a couple of men of the Clanton gang in a fight. In revenge, Clanton's thugs kill the Marshal's brother. Thus, Wyatt starts to chase the killers together with his friend Doc Holliday.

Drivers are introduced with their back stories at the starting grid of the Monaco Grand Prix. They're off!. Jean-Pierre Sarti (Yves Montand) leads Scott Stoddard (Brian Bedford), Pete Aron (James Garner) third. Pat Stoddard (Jessica Walter)gets out of bed hungoverand looks down at the racing cars from her high balcony. Hugo, an older gentleman friend arrives to escort her to the winner's circle. Pat had partied hard with two Greeks and ouzo while her huband Scott had gone to bed early. Stoddard pushes and passes Sarti for the lead leaving the others behind as they begin to lap the backmarkers. Nino Barlini (Antonio Sabato) passes Aron for 3rd. Pete Aron in the 11 car Jordan-BRM is having problems with his gearbox and gestures to his pits. He slips to 5th and pits. Team owner/Manager Jeff Jordan (JaCK Watson) angrily tells him to get back out despite a faulty transmission. Aron exits the pits in front of his teammate Scott Stoddard in the 12 car. Despite being a lap down and with a wonky car Pete doesn't pull out of the way, Jordan is livid as he sees the cars pass the pits. Aron ignores the blue flag order. Coming to the chicane Aron's car slips a gear, he raises his arm but too late, the 12 car rams him from behind. Stoddard is sent into the runoff haybales while Aron is pushed into the harbour. Stoddard is badly hurt and Arons swims to safety. Jordan is furious and calls Aron a liar and a coward. In the hospital Stoddard is bandaged from head to foot. Jordan peevishly tells Pat she got what she wanted, Stoddard is finished as a driver. Meanwhile Sarti wins the race. In a hotel room after the celebrations a weary Sarti has a chat with Aron, Pete tries to explain what happened. At night the 11 car is hoisted from the harbour. Pat sits by her unconscious husband, she gently kisses the sleeping man and tells him softly she knows he will drive again somehow, but she has had enough. She leaves quietly as Stoddard stirs. Aron then comes to the room and sees Scott crying. In a posh reception area Hugo greets American journalist Louise Frederickson (Eva Marie Saint). Sarti arrives wearing a tuxedo and is introduced to Louise. Jean-Pierre charms the woman and the two go outside for a quiet talk. Louise is doing a story for a fashion magazine. Sarti recalls Louise had written an article about his wife Monique, who is from an auto company family but never comes to races. The two browse in an old car museum, Louise admits she has never seen a race before. Sarti invites her to another party that night. At a disco young people shake their booties to pop music. Nino Barlini arrives on a motorcycle and spots the bored but gorgeous, leggy blonde Lisa (Francoise Hardy). Nino goes to chat her up. Pete visits the Ferrari factory in Modena to talk to Agostini Manetta, asking to drive for them again. Manetta refuses partly because of how Aron left the team three years earlier, he also says Aron is reckless and not a winner. Stoddard is transferred by ambulance back to the UK, reporters crowd around him on the gurney. A reporter asks about a rumoured divorce but Jeff says it's not true. In the hospital Scott tells Jeff he wants her back. Pat is a fashion model doing a shoot at the Ferrari garage. Louise is there too and greets Jean-Pierre. The two Ferrari cars come out onto a city street to cheering onlookers. At the French Grand Prix Pete is now in a burgandy blazer as a TV commentator. In the pits Lisa is now an enthusiastic pit babe hanging close to Nino. The drivers kibbitz with Pete. The famous Japanese industrialist Izo Yamura (Toshiro Mifune) arrives by limo. Pete introduces himself to the Japanese car owner, but can't arrange an interview. Scott watches dismally as Pat is being interviewed on TV, she denies any marriage problems. Pete chides her off camera for the obvious lies. The others discuss the Stoddards' not exactly fairy tale marriage. Sarti and Louise have lunch together. Pete then sees Pat sitting alone on the bleachers and goes to apologize but still manages to insult her. At a quiet stream, Jean-Pierre gives Louise fly-fishing lessons. Sarti talks about his marriage. Nino and Lisa are in a pedal boat nearby. Louise is not married as she likes to be free and independent. The cars whiz by the French fans, Louise is in the crowd and excited by the spectacle. Sarti in the #6 Ferrari cruises to a win. Pat sits with Pete in a bar as they hear the French anthem. Pat tries to break the ice between them and asks for a lift. In a Mustang Aron drives quickly as Pat admits she has left Scott and why she did so. On a hillside viewpoint Jean-Pierre and Louise look a the scenery, Sarti tries to encourage her to stay in Europe for a while longer. He invites her to join him at a place near Monza. At the hotel Pete leaves Pat at her room, he then finds a letter slipped under his door. Pete goes to the Yamura garage with the invitation. He is greeted by Yamura, who explains his racing philosophy, and is anxious for his first win. He offers Aron a job as a driver in a third car on his team, Pete accepts. Pete and Pat stroll down a quiet city street. Pat announces she is divorcing Scott. The two are more friendly, and later Pat comes to his hotel room. At an exlusive resort Jean-Pierre shows Louise around his large Ferrari-decorated suite. They make love and discuss the future over champagne. Yamura shows Pete around his racing car shop, there are many chassis and bodies being worked on. Pete sits in a car then the two men have tea outside a luxurious estate. Yamura tells Aron he was a fighter pilot in the war, shooting down 17 Americans. The two men seem to hit it off. At the Stoddard manse, filled with trophies and racing art, Scott returns, now hobbling on crutches escorted by Jeff Jordan. The house is a shrine to Scott's older, dead brother Roger. Scott uses the mementos as motivation to exceed. At a meeting with all the other drivers Sarti presses for a union to push for better safety. Scott arrives and is greeted warmly by the other drivers. Pete and Pat are living together in a suite upstairs, Scott comes to talk and asks Aron to leave them for a moment. Scott has missed her but Pat refuses to reconcile. Sarti has pole position for the Belgian GP at Spa. The cars tear around the long circuit. It starts to rain heavily and Aron in the #24 Yamura begins to cut through traffic. Sarti pushes hard at the front and comes up to the backmarkers. Suddenly his right front wheel breaks off and the Ferrari crashes through a fence. Sarti is helped out. His leg gashed, he looks back at two spectators who were killed in the crash. Aron wins! Stoddard and Jordan look on glumly. The father of one of the dead men attacks Sarti as Aron receives his flowers and the American anthem plays. Intermission At Stoddard's farm they wheel out Roger's old front engine green racer from a barn. Scott squeezes into the car and takes it out for a spin. At Zandvoort for the Dutch Grand Prix Scott is back racing, he celebrates a hot record lap, Aron and Yamura look concerned. In the race Barlini spins out but continues. Sarti retires at the back of the circuit. Scott charges and rubs his leg whenever he can, he wins! The Jordan team are joyous. Later Scott injects his leg with a painkiller. In the US he wins again at Watkins Glen. After Mexico Yamura and Aron review movies of the #32 Yamura spinning out. Aron acknowledges he is making mistakes, Stoddard has won yet again. At Brands Hatch the cars arrange on the grid. The track announcer states Aron has already won at Belgium and Germany. The British Grand Prix is underway! After 15 laps Stoddard begins to slow, he starts thinking of the drugs and Pat. He pits and is lifted almost unconcious from the car. Barlini, Sarti and Aron battle for the lead on the last lap. Aron's car begins to leak fuel. It catches fire but Aron continues onto 2nd place as the car erupts in a fireball. Aron is OK! Sarti seems shaken and blasts the photographers. Lisa joins an ecstatic Nino on the podium. Scott is relaxing in a dark room as Pat comes to see him, concerned. At a pub all the drivers celebrate Nino's win. Sarti slips out quietly and Louise joins him. Jean Pierre is getting reflective and begins to question what they all do. Louise tries to reassure him. At Monza Lisa notices a handsome young man at a slot car track. Sarti is upset his car hasn't arrived yet. A narrator describes the dangers of the 6.5 mile high banked race track. Manetta arrives with a guest, it is Sarti's wife Monique. She greets Louise awkwardly and makes small talk with Nino. Then Lisa sees Nino playing around with two Japanese girls and turns away. Manetta challenges Sarti's recent driving and suggests he is ready for retirement, Jean-Pierre is angry. He politely meets his wife behind the pits. Monique tells him divorce is out of the question and Sarti will always be used for marketing her auto company. Scott and Pat prepare to go to a party, this will be his last race. Nino is headed to a room with the two kimono-clad girls. Outside Lisa starts to talk to the handsome guy she noticed earlier. The next morning Jean-Pierre and Louise talk wistfully and express their love. In the pits Nino wonders where Lisa was last night, she tells him she is leaving him to go to Greece with her new American boyfriend. Nino sarcastically tells her off. Scott confidently blips his throttle as Pat looks on smiling. Pete arrives in his Shelby Mustang GT and greets Pat, he wishes her well. On the grid the announcer says Barlini leads the championship with 28 pts, Stoddard and Sarti are tied for 2nd at 27, Aron is 4th with 26. The flag drops, Sarti's car stalls. He manages to restart 30 seconds behind the pack. Barlini leads. The cars speed around the imposing banking at 180 mph. Sarti closes up and passes slower cars. Barlini stretches his lead but Sarti is the fastest car on the track. On lap 22 Sarti makes it to 4th place! An exhaust pipe comes off another car, Sarti hits it, spins off the high banking and crashes in an explosion on the trackside below. Jean-Pierre is fatally injured and taken away by ambulance. Louise is hysterical, Monique is shocked. Manetta black flags Barlini withdrawing his whole team from the race. Everyone is silent in respect. Back on the track Scott and Pete now duel wheel to wheel, passing and re-passing each other using drafting. Around the last corner Pete presses ahead and wins by a wheel. Getting out of his car Yamura indicates Sarti is gone, Aron is silent but takes the winner's laurels and beckons a subdued Scott up to the podium. Later, Pete looks sadly around the empty grandstands and starting grid. He hears the engines roar, has a smoke and strides off down the track.

In Apache territory, a supply Army column heads for the next fort, an ex-scout searches for the killer of his Indian wife, and a housewife abandons her husband in order to rejoin her Apache lover's tribe. Lieutenant McAllister is ordered to transport several ammunition wagons to another fort through Apache territory with only a small troop of rookie soldiers to guard them. Along for the ride is ex-scout Jess Remsberg who is trying to track down Ellen Grange, who, having recently been freed from Apache captivity, has mysteriously run off again to rejoin them. Remsberg frees Ellen again and leaves her with the embattled soldiers as he rides off to the fort, not only for help, but to find the man who killed and scalped his Indian wife. —Doug Sederberg <vornoff@sonic.net>

An introductory WWII newsreel sets the stage. D-Day is fast approaching, but the exact date and designated invasion beaches are closely-held secrets. The British Isles are bulging with troops, ships and equipment. The story begins in London on May 31, 1944. An American army major, Jefferson Pike (James Garner), enters Allied Forces HQ to discuss the ongoing invasion preparations. The top brass aren't convinced that Allied deception efforts have fooled the Germans. While poring over a wall map of German troop dispositions in France, Pike inadvertently slides his finger along the edge of the map, incurring a nasty paper cut. To hedge their bets, the High Command sends Pike to Lisbon to meet with a German double agent and see what he knows. Pike expresses concerns that if captured and tortured, he might reveal exact invasion details. His superiors feel that the risk is justified. As Pike flies out of London in civilian garb, a German spy sees him boarding the plane and reports it to her handlers. Another German spy enters his vacant hotel room and gathers personal items, including photos, letters and hair samples from his brush. In Lisbon, Pike goes to a nightclub to meet his contact but quickly realizes that his drink has been drugged shortly before he passes out. He is soon in German hands, placed in a coffin as a deceased German embassy clerk, and flown to Germany. An American-born German army major, Walter Gerber (Rod Taylor), is a military psychiatrist in charge of an elaborate deception scheme designed to coax the invasion secrets from Major Pike. An entire "American" military convalescent center has been set up deep in a German forest to fool Pike. Major Gerber is given 36 hours to extract the invasion plans from Pike. After that, Pike will be handed over to the SS to gain the information through their usual means. Gerber also understands that the consequences of failure will be catastrophic for his own future. When a groggy, disoriented Pike finally awakens, he is relieved to find himself in Allied hands. Looking in a mirror for the first time, he is shocked to find his dark hair streaked with gray, his skin aged, and his vision blurry. His every move is observed through a two-way mirror. Piece by piece, Pike is sold the idea that it is now May 1950, the war is long over, and he is convalescing at an American military hospital in occupied Germany. Both Major Gerber and pretty nurse Anna Hedler (Eva Marie Saint) are leading actors in the ruse. Pike's room contains familiar photos and Anna is able to provide accurate details about his parents. Rigorous measures are taken to ensure that Pike is surrounded by dozens of role players who are fluent in American speech dialects and customs. No one is allowed to speak German, even out of Pike's hearing. Pike is told that he is suffering from severe amnesia, a side effect from the severe "beating" he supposedly absorbed after the Lisbon incident six years earlier. According to the cover story, Pike was found wandering alone in Lisbon and sent back to the US to recuperate, but continual regressions over the years dictated that he be sent to Major Gerber in Germany for experimental psychological therapy. His nurse tells him that she and Pike have been married for two months, but due to another regression he doesn't remember her. In an unguarded moment with Anna, Pike asks about the war's closing months and mentions something about the invasion sites having been in Normandy. She tries to conceal her shock and reports the sensational disclosure to Major Gerber, who then manages to skillfully extract the most important invasion details from the trusting Pike. The race is on. The date is now June 2. After the session with Gerber, Pike is absent-mindedly rubbing his fingers together when he suddenly irritates the painful paper cut incurred in London two days earlier. Gradually recalling the injury, confusion registers on his face. With his suspicions aroused, Pike takes steps to confirm his worst fears and then violently confronts Anna, who admits to the elaborate plot. She explains that she went along with the ruse in order to buy her way out of a concentration camp. Out of hatred for her captors, she agrees to help Pike. He tells her to run out of his room screaming that he has escaped and that he has known about the plot from the outset. Pike slips out the back way, knowing that he will be caught. Now the Germans must determine whether Pike was telling the truth about Normandy or trying to deceive them. A disappointed Major Gerber asks how and when Pike figured out the scheme and Pike tells him about the paper cut. Gerber explains that Pike was carefully examined for injuries when he arrived, but the cut was obviously concealed in a skin crease. Gerber still thinks Normandy was a truthful answer, but he knows no one will believe him. The SS indeed discounts Pike's accurate story and allows the bulk of the German forces to remain idled near Calais. Gerber explains regretfully that Pike will now be handed over to the tender mercies of the SS. Hating the SS and realizing that he will probably be executed for his costly failure, Major Gerber settles on a daring plan to have his pioneering research on psychological combat trauma live on. He gives his research papers to Pike and Anna, advises them how to get across the border, and helps them escape from their locked room. The race for freedom is now on, with a zealous SS officer trying to capture the pair before they can escape over the Swiss border.