Jerry Fielding

Based on a true story, the film portrays the fascinating account of the only three men ever to escape from the infamous maximum security prison at Alcatraz.

The film continues the story from the original movie's conclusion. The Poseidon is still afloat, and the six survivors of Reverend Scott's team have been rescued. After sailing through rough seas, a tugboat captain, Mike Turner (Michael Caine), discovers the capsized wreck of the ship. Accompanied by second mate Wilbur (Karl Malden) and passenger Celeste Whitman (Sally Field), he heads out to claim salvage rights on it, as the tugboat 'S.S. Jenny' lost her cargo in the same storm that capsized it. They are soon followed by Dr. Stefan Svevo (Telly Savalas) and his crew; Kurt (Paul Picerni), Doyle (Patrick Culliton), and Castrop (Dean Raphael Ferrandini) who claim to be Greek Orthodox medics who received the ship's SOS. The seven of them board the doomed vessel and soon become trapped after the corridor entrance to the cut-out hole collapses. The group with Turner also encounters more survivors; the ship's nurse, Gina Rowe (Shirley Jones), a wealthy passenger named Suzanne Constantine (Veronica Hamel), and war veteran Frank Mezzetti (Peter Boyle) who is searching for his missing teenage daughter Theresa (Angela Cartwright), which they soon find along with the elevator operator Larry Simpson (Mark Harmon) and as well as a brash "billionaire" named "Tex" (Slim Pickens). Later they find two more surviving passengers; the blind retiree Harold Meredith (Jack Warden) and his wife Hannah (Shirley Knight), who were waiting for rescue. Water continues to submerge more decks and more explosions occur. Turner and his group find the purser's office, where Svevo decides that he and his men will continue their search for other survivors. Turner agrees and Svevo and his men leave in another direction. Another explosion causes the safe in the purser's office to fall through the floor and open, revealing gold coins (each one worth 100 times its weight in gold) as well as cash and diamonds. Turner and Wilbur excitedly gather it and start looking for another way out of the ship. Unknown to Turner and the survivors, Suzanne was actually working with Svevo and sneaked a list containing information about a cargo of crates from the purser's office. She gives it to Svevo, but decides that she doesn't want to go through with his plan anymore. Svevo apologizes and orders Doyle to kill Suzanne. He shoots her, but she strikes him with an axe before she dies. After climbing up a few decks, Turner and his group find Svevo and his men gathering a cargo of plutonium. Svevo reveals that his real intention of boarding the Poseidon was to retrieve his lost shipment of plutonium to sell on the black market, adding that he can't let Turner and his group go now. However, before they can kill Turner and his group, another explosion occurs, allowing them to escape through another cargo room full of cars, where Frank and another one of Svevo's men is killed during the shootout. Water floods the deck as Turner's group proceed to up to the next deck through a flooding elevator shaft, but Hannah falls into the rising water and drowns, while Turner loses his salvaged diamonds. Svevo and his one remaining henchman head back up to the ship's stern and make it out, where the rest of Svevo's team aboard his salvage boat cut another hole in the Poseidon's hull and attempt raise the plutonium crates from the cargo hold using a crane up to the hull of the ship, which is still above water but is slowly sinking. In another section of the ship, Turner and the survivors exit the ship through an underwater side door, but due to shortage of scuba tanks, Wilbur (unknown to Turner and his group) sacrifices himself by swimming underwater and disappearing. Turner and Celeste swim to the tugboat Jenny and move it closer to the Poseidon as the remaining survivors swim towards it. Svevo's men see them and open fire and kill Tex, who willingly holds onto a bottle of champagne as he goes down. Turner's group makes it to his boat and they sail away. Water continues to flood the Poseidon and cause the on-board boilers to explode, which causes the cargo of plutonium to also do so. The Poseidon completely explodes, killing Svevo and his men. On board Turner's boat, Turner accepts that his tugboat S.S. Jenny will be taken from him when they get to port, but Celeste reveals a diamond that she salvaged from the Poseidon. Celeste asks Turner, "Are you going to kiss me now?" and Turner replies, "I was going to kiss you anyway." They kiss and the tugboat Jenny sails away into the sunset with the survivors Gina, Theresa, Larry, and Harold.

A hard but mediocre cop is assigned to escort a prostitute into custody from Las Vegas to Phoenix, so that she can testify in a mob trial. But a lot of people are literally betting that they won't make it into town alive. In Phoenix, Arizona, alcoholic and mediocre Detective Ben Shockley (Clint Eastwood) is assigned by Chief Commissioner Blakelock (William Prince) to bring witness Gus Mally (Sondra Locke) from Las Vegas, Nevada for a minor trial. Shockley travels to Las Vegas and finds that Gus Mally is an aggressive and intelligent prostitute with a college degree and she tells him that the odds are against her showing up in court. Shockley learns that she will actually testify against a powerful mobster, and the mafia is chasing them, trying to kill them both. He calls Blakelock and requests a Police escort from Phoenix to protect them. But soon, he discovers that someone is betraying him in the Police Department. Now, Shockley and Malley hijack a bus and Shockley welds thick steel plates and transforms the cabin in an armored bus trying to reach the Forum. But they will need to drive through a gauntlet of Police Officers armed with heavy weapons.

Morris Buttermaker (Walter Matthau), an alcoholic and former minor-league baseball player, is recruited by a city councilman and attorney who filed a lawsuit against an ultra-competitive Southern California Little League which excluded the least skilled athletes (including his son) from playing. In order to settle the lawsuit, the league agrees to add an additional team - the Bears - which is composed of the worst players in the whole Little League. Buttermaker becomes the coach of the unlikely team, which includes (among others) a near-sighted pitcher, an overweight catcher, a foul-mouthed shortstop with a Napoleon complex, an outfielder who dreams of emulating his idol Hank Aaron, and a motley collection of other "talent". Shunned by the more competitive teams (and competitive parents), the Bears are the outsiders. They play their opening game, and do not even record an out, with the score at 26 to 0 before Buttermaker forfeits the game. Realizing the team is nearly hopeless, he recruits a couple of unlikely prospects: First up, is sharp-tongued Amanda Whurlizer (Tatum O'Neal), a skilled pitcher (trained by Buttermaker when she was younger) who is the 12-year-old daughter of one of Buttermaker's ex-girlfriends. At first, she tries to convince Buttermaker that she has given up baseball, but then she reveals that she had been practicing "on the sly". Before agreeing to join the team, Amanda makes a number of outlandish demands (such as imported jeans, modeling school, ballet lessons, etc.) as conditions for joining. Upon hearing her demands, Buttermaker asks, "Who do you think you are, Catfish Hunter?" Amanda responds by asking, "Who's he?" Rounding out the team, Buttermaker recruits the "best athlete in the area," who also happens to be the local cigarette-smoking, loan-sharking, Harley-Davidson-riding troublemaker, Kelly Leak (Jackie Earle Haley). With Whurlizer and Leak on board, the team starts gaining more confidence, and the Bears start winning games. Eventually, the unlikely Bears make it to the championship game opposite the top-notch Yankees, who are coached by aggressive, competitive Roy Turner (Vic Morrow). As the game progresses, tensions are ratcheted up as Buttermaker and Turner engage in shouting matches, directing their players to become increasingly more ruthless and competitive against each other, going as far as fighting, spiking on slide, or the batter getting hit on purpose. The turnaround point of the game comes after a heated exchange between Turner's son (and Yankees pitcher) Joey (Brandon Cruz) and the Bears at-bat catcher Engelberg (Gary Lee Cavagnaro). Turner orders his son to walk Engelberg, the only Bears hitter he cannot overcome, despite Joey's wish to give it a try. In response, Joey intentionally throws a wild beanball nearly striking Engelberg in the head. Horrified, Turner goes to the mound and slaps his son. On the next pitch, Engelberg hits a routine ground ball back to Joey who exacts revenge against his father by holding the ball until Engelberg has an inside the park home run. Joey then leaves the game dropping the ball at his father's feet. Buttermaker - realizing that he has become as competitive as Turner - puts the benchwarmers on the field, thus giving everyone a chance to play. In spite of this, the finish-up brings up the best team-play from the Bears. After loading the bases with smart tactics (two walks and a bunt) they nearly recover a four run difference, with the last runner getting taken out at the last moment. Having narrowly lost the game at 7 to 6, Buttermaker gives the team free rein of his beer cooler. Although they did not win the championship, they have the satisfaction of having come a long way. The condescending Yankees congratulate the Bears (in a sarcastic tone implying that they really not mean it) telling them that although they are still not that good, they have "guts." Tanner, the shortstop, replies by telling the Yankees where they can put their trophy. The Bears cheer and Lupus overcomes his chronic shyness enough to yell "Wait 'til next year!", then they spray their beers all over each other. The movie ends with a field celebration by the Bears that makes it look as if they won the game.

Literature professor Axel Freed is a gambling addict. When he has lost his money, he borrows from his girlfriend Billie, then his mother Naomi, and finally some criminals that chase him. Despite all of this, he cannot stop gambling. Successful college professor Axel Freed is addicted to gambling; he wins big but loses it all just as quickly. He borrows from his girlfriend then from his wealthy mother, and finally from a loan shark. It just gets worse and worse for him because he just cannot stop. But when his girlfriend decides to leave him, his mom decides to disown him, and the mob wants to kill him, he decides to make a big score to win big and pay off everyone so he can stay alive, keep his dignity, and come out ahead. —Wesley Benton Axel Freed is an English professor at New York College. He is also a gambling addict. Although he likes to win, it is only secondary to the excitement he feels in the possibility of losing. Within this mentality, he ends up $44,000.00 in the hole in one fell swoop. He does not have it, and those to whom he owes would not take kindly at all to delayed payment without some sort of retribution. He gets an up-close-and-personal view of the nasty things that can be done as a consequence as he tries to come up with the money through legitimate and not so legitimate sources. The former includes from his wealthy businessman grandfather, A.R. Lowenthal, who has had his fair share of dealings with the wrong side of the law himself, and from his physician mother, Naomi Freed; both could still be affected by his actions whether they can or can't, or will or won't, help him. Even if he can get the money, the feeling of his addiction may not allow him just to pay back the money as that, in his mind, is not winning, regardless of the consequence of being potentially deeper in with those he owes. The other person involved is his girlfriend Billie, who loves him but didn't sign up for this kind of excitement. —Huggo Axel Freed is a college professor who is constantly in debt and must rely on his former friends and associates to bail him out. As his habit becomes an incurable disease, Axel finds that the only people who will have anything to do with him are those to whom he owes money--particularly the polite but deadly loan-shark Carmine.

During the Cold War, the CIA orders free-lance operative Scorpio to assassinate his former CIA mentor Cross and a deadly cat-and-mouse game ensues. Cross is a CIA field agent, most of his tasks as an assassin. He has just returned to Washington DC from working on a case in Paris, he accompanied by Jean Laurier, code name Scorpio, a Frenchman who has long been mentored by Cross and who works as a freelance assassin. Scorpio pulled the actual trigger on the target in the just completed Paris case, and because of the nature of their work, Cross and Scorpio part company at Dulles Airport, neither having ever seen the other if questioned. Scorpio currently also lives part-time in DC with his girlfriend Susan and his flight attendant sister Anne. Cross' superior McLeod is surprised to see both Cross and Scorpio return to DC as the agency, through McLeod, had unofficially contracted Scorpio to eliminate Cross in Paris as it is well known within the agency that Cross plans on quitting, the threat that he could sell out to the Communists with the amount of knowledge he has too great a risk for the agency to take. Scorpio was seemingly the best man for the job in knowing Cross better than anyone else professionally. Scorpio is able to absolve himself in not carrying out that Paris mission on Cross on a loophole, he further able to renegotiate the contract to meet his goals more fully, namely to take over Cross' position within the agency. Cross discovers not only about there being a contract hit on him, but also that Scorpio is the hired gun. With a wide, loyal and diverse network both domestically and internationally, Cross is at least able to make it out of the country, he using that network to set up somewhere undetected and hopefully to bring his wife Sarah by his side once his new life is established. In the process, Cross will discover just how loyal his network is to him, with some former adversaries in his work, such as now Vienna-based Sergei Zharkov a former Soviet Communist agent, or if some are not who they purport to be in having a separate agenda. If it gets to that point, another question is whether Cross or Scorpio can pull the trigger on the other, each who may see the other as a mirror image of himself. —Huggo Cross is an old hand at the CIA, in charge of assassinating high-ranking foreign personalities who are an obstacle to the policies of the USA. He often teams up with Frenchman Jean Laurier, alias "Scorpio", a gifted free-lance operative. One day, the CIA orders Scorpio to eliminate Cross -- and leaves him no choice but to obey. Scorpio is cold-blooded and very systematic; however, as a veteran agent, Cross knows many tricks. He can also rely upon a network of unusual personal contacts, some dating back to the troubled years preceding WWII. A lethal game of hide-and-seek is programmed, but what are the true motives of every single player? —Eduardo Casais <casaise@acm.org>

"The Mechanic"is a different twist on the "hit man's last job" movie, presenting Charles Bronson as solitary and stoic as ever, yet forced to realize he's aging and can't do what he once did. Rather than try to retire or get out of the business, he chooses to train someone else to thin his workload. At least that's how it appears on the surface. Arthur Bishop (Charles Bronson) is the best hit man or "mechanic" around. We see his meticulous methods right away, opening the movie with Bishop on the job. After learning his target's daily routine and securing an apartment with a window facing his target's window. He takes pictures of the man's apartment and scrutinizes his information at home for the perfect way to kill him. He breaks into the man's apartment and prepares it for the hit by placing a malleable explosive in a book in the man's bedroom rigging the gas oven to leak and drugging his tea. From the facing apartment, he watches the target drink his tea, and get drowsy, He waits until later that night, before shooting the book in the bedroom with a sniper rifle, causing a big and fatal explosion. Bishop next meets with Harry McKenna, (Keenan Wynn) a longtime friend of his father. Harry explains the the Organization says that Harry broke "the agreement" and won't take his calls any longer. He would like Bishop to talk to them on his behalf. Bishop doesn't see what difference that will make, but Harry explains that the reverence they had for Bishop's father, might make them more agreeable. Over a drink, Harry reminds Bishop of a story about Harry, Bishop's father, and Bishop as a boy on a fishing trip. Bishop had fallen overboard and couldn't swim, which prompted his father to say "he'll learn" not moving a muscle to help him. Harry recalls that he himself had to reach out and pull him back into the boat. Harry: "Your old man, he laughed like hell!" Bishop: "That was a long time ago." Their visit is interrupted by Harry's son Steve (Jan-Michael Vincent) who shows up looking for money. Harry initially gives him a hard time before handing him the $1,000.00 he wants and Steve remarks, "My father gets uptight when I ask him for money he steals from other people." Harry apologizes for his son's manner and asks Bishop to call when he knows something. Bishop gets a delivery which is the contract on Harry. He pins up all of Harry's personal information and plans out the hit. He scouts a remote beach location and tells Harry the Organization has asked him to meet there. When they arrive, Bishop drives up to a hill overlooking Harry on the beach. He takes shots at Harry from his hidden location and then acts as if he's discovered a sniper and is attempting to help Harry get away. Harry runs to the car, exhausted and Bishop approaches him gun in hand revealing his intention. Bishop then suffocates Harry in the car. Bishop visits a girl (Jill Ireland) who role-plays a rather mundane drama with him, playing his neglected girlfriend, including reading a letter she wrote, requiring him to comfort her. After they spend the night together, she announces that the letter was difficult and will cost him another hundred. He agrees, remarking that the letter was a good touch, and recommending something like it for next time. Bishop runs into Steve again at Harry's funeral. Steve isn't too bothered by his father's death, describing his father to Bishop as "Harry McKenna, fixer extraordinaire, pusher, pimp, thief, arsonist..." Bishop asks, "You liked him a lot?" Bishop tells Steve that Harry had worked for his father years ago. Steve realizes that this means Bishop's father was in the Organization and he asks Bishop if he's in himself, surmising that he is although Bishop tries to change the subject, reminding him to pay attention to the funeral. When Bishop remarks on Steve being sure of himself he responds "I live in my mind, Mr. Bishop." Bishop: "Sounds like something I read someplace." Steve: "And so do you." Bishop leaves the service and Steve asks him for a ride home. Bishop agrees and finds that Harry's (now Steve's) house is full of Steve's friends having a party. Wading through the crowd, Steve tells Bishop, "My father never really liked my friends, and I'm not so sure I do either." Steve gets a phone call from a girlfriend, Louise, threatening to kill herself. He asks Bishop if he'll come along to visit Louise. They find Louise with razor blades, preparing to slit her wrists. Steve makes a show of not caring and Louise cuts one of her wrists to prove she will, still getting no reaction from Steve or Bishop, other than Bishop telling her how long it will take her to die based on her weight. Louise insists that Steve will stop her before she dies, but Steve says "Listen, if you don't care anything about your life, then why should I?" Steve throws her some car keys and tells her she might live if she heads to the Sheriff's station in Malibu right away. Discussing the situation, and the idea of watching someone die, Bishop he tells Steve "It just means you have your own rule book." Steve: "I can dig that." Bishop: "It takes a very special kind of person to pick up the tab for that kind of living. You say you dig it, but you're talking about something you really know nothing about." Steve: "And you do?" Bishop: "Do I?" Bishop attends to his routines including martial arts, and knife throwing as well as talking a lot of pills. Visiting an aquarium he passes out, and wakes up in the hospital. The Doctor at the hospital recommends he see his own doctor, and says it sounds like he's experiencing "Acute Anxiety Reaction" adding that if it isn't that, he may want to try a psychiatrist. He wakes up the next morning to find Steve parked outside his house. Steve is impressed with his place and Bishop explains he inherited a lot. Steve tries to convince him to let him in on his "action." Bishop takes Steve out in a plane, letting go of the controls and forcing Steve to take over, which he quickly does. At a bar later, Bishop explains that his father was a "Judge" who had the final word settling Organization disputes, until someone didn't like a decision and put a contract out on him when Bishop was still in school. Steve shares that his father never let him in on anything, although he wanted to know the business. Bishop lets him witness a karate match which turns pretty brutal. Steve remarks "He practically murdered that guy." and Bishop answers "Murder is only killing without a license and everybody kills, governments, the military, the police." Steve: "Do you think Yamato's a killer?" Bishop: "He's a killer that doesn't kill. It's funny. No, for him, the rules are important." Steve: "That's your expert opinion?" Bishop: "That's my opinion." Steve points out that Bishop is being evasive about giving real answers. Bishop reminds him that he better be sure he wants the answers he's asking for. He asks Steve what he knows about the term "Mechanic" and Steve tells him it can be used as synonymous with hit man. Bishop reveals that's what he is and tells Steve that sometimes he could use a backup. Steve asks, "You do this for money?" Bishop: "Money is paid, but that's not the motive. It has to do with standing outside of it all, on your own." He offers to teach Steve all he can, and confirming he's in, Steve says "You've got a partner Mr. Bishop." Bishop corrects him, "Associate." Steve demonstrates an aptitude for the work and they start training for real. Going through a museum Bishop tells Steve "There are killers and there are killers, to tell you the truth they all have a different book of rules. To get away with it depends on the book of rules you have in your pocket at the time, your own country, somebody else's country, or your own personal book of rules. All this (waves at the museum figures) heroes, half of them are killers. Napoleon was one you know, Pancho Villa, Genghis Khan, and we have our own domestic brand, like Billy the Kid, Jesse James, and John Dillinger. Yeah, they're about as famous as our own honest-to-goodness heroes." Bishop gets an assignment to kill three men, who are in the habit of riding around on dirt-bikes but live behind heavy security with constant guards on watch. Bishop includes Steve in the job, including the surveillance. Bishop surprises Steve by watching one of the men in a conversation via binoculars and reading their lips to discover a "Chicken Licken" truck set to arrive at the guarded compound for a delivery. Bishop finds vats of acid at a plating plant to dump the bodies afterwards. Steve and Bishop take the Chicken Licken truck and enter the compound. The hit is messy though and one of the men escapes forcing Bishop to chase the man on a dirt-bike. Although the man ends up dead, the chase causes quite a commotion running through backyard parties and causing car accidents. Bishop is called to meet with one of the Organization heads. He takes a plane to meet a chauffeured car which brings him to the estate. The man (Frank DeKova (as Frank De Kova)) is paining a leopard which he has tied in the yard. The man comments that the last job was very messy and asks about Harry McKenna's son and how he's involved in things. Bishop takes exception at the thought of having to ask permission. The man reminds him that there are rules in place which ensure the Organization survives, implying that Bishop has broken a rule. He gives Bishop a new assignment saying it has to be done fast. Bishop: "I'll handle it the way I always do." Man: "There may not be time enough for that. The word is he's getting ready to talk to some people. The problem is considerable." Bishop: "I'm not some wild Cleveland shooter. I don't cowboy!" Man: "If he talks, things could get complicated, sloppy. That would disturb a lot of us. It's not really open to discussion, Mr. Bishop. This business of McKenna's son has upset a few of our associates." The man tells him that the target is in Naples, where they have him a room already. Bishop gets home and heads to Steve's place. Finding Steve is out, he looks around and finds that Steve has taken a contract to kill him. He puts the papers back and goes home. When Steve shows up at Bishop's house later, he fills him in on the Naples job, telling him they want it "Cowboyed" He also tells Steve that he is nevertheless going to do it the way he's always done. They head to Naples and start watching the target, discovering that the man is very unpredictable, rarely doing the same thing twice, with the exception of returning to his boat. Bishop shares a local wine with Steve, explaining that it doesn't travel well and they don't export it. He reminds Steve to savor it and the time he has. He also gives Steve advice about planning hits, telling him, "You've got to be dead sure, or dead." Bishop tells Steve he'll pick up some scuba gear and they'll use it to get on the boat undetected to kill the target. They succeed and Bishop plans an explosive before they leave. As they get off the boat, some Organization men show up after them in speedboats. They watch as the men get blown up with the boat. Steve asks who the men are and Bishop explains that they're Organization men, after him because he broke a rule by not asking them to start training him. More men show up soon, leading to a car chase. Bishop blows up a car chasing them and then sends an exploding car into a roadblock set for him, and pushes the last pursuing car off the mountain road with a bulldozer he finds on the side of the road. Back at their room, Steve offers Bishop a glass of the local wine he likes. Steve watches with interest as Bishop has a sip. Bishop insects the glass himself suspiciously before picking up his bag to go, only to double over in pain. Steve says "Brucine! You'll be dead in a few minutes. Listen, you'll really appreciate this. This stuff is absolutely clear when it's in solution. I just coated the inside of the glass with it and let it dry. When the wine hit it it went right back into solution. No trace. Looks just like a heart attack." Bishop keeps struggling on the ground in agony. Steve continues "You said every man has his jelly spot. Yours was you just couldn't cut it alone." Bishop: "Was it because of your father?" Steve: "You killed him? I thought he just died. You see? There you are. They told you who to hit. Kept the whole idea from being what we talked about. You needed a license, their license. I'm gonna pick my own mark, hit when I want. Just like you said, standing outside. See Naples and die." Steve heads to Bishop's place, as if making it his own. He picks up the ball Bishop would squeeze to strengthen his fingers and then gets into his car and finds a note taped to his rear view mirror. We hear Bishop reading it to him " Steve, if you read this it means I didn't make it back. It also means you've broken a filament controlling a thirteen second delay trigger. End of game. Bang, you're dead."

In 1870s New Mexico, a half-breed kills a bigoted sheriff in self-defense but the posse that eventually hunts him finds itself in dangerous territory. After a deadly confrontation with the racist local sheriff in the town's whites-only bar, the half-Apache, Pardon Chato, flees into the unforgiving desert. Hell-bent on making Chato pay, the famed former Confederate officer, Captain Quincey Whitmore, assembles an angry posse of blood-thirsty men; however, who is the hunter, and who is the hunted? Do Whitmore's toughs stand a chance of surviving in Chato's dangerous land? —Nick Riganas