Jesse Bradford

Portrays various strata of "managed" housing in America, from individual homes to prisons, mixing accounts of the planners' rationales for their designs with residents' testimonies concerning the quality of life within these structures.

As three US servicemen - Marine Private First Class Ira Hayes, Private First-Class Rene Gagnon, and Navy Corpsman John "Doc" Bradley are feted as heroes in a war bond drive, they reflect on their experiences via flashback. After training at Camp Tarawa in Hawaii, the 28th Marine Regiment 5th Marine Division sails to the small island of Iwo Jima as part of an invading armada. Tough Japanese resistance is expected, and the Navy bombards suspected Japanese positions for three days. Sergeant Mike Strank is put in charge of Second Platoon. The next day, February 19, 1945, the Marines land in Higgins boats. The beaches are silent and Private First Class Ralph "Iggy" Ignatowski wonders if the defenders are all dead, before Japanese heavy artillery and machine guns open fire on the advancing Marines and the Navy ships. Casualties are heavy but the beaches are secured. Two days later the Marines attack Mount Suribachi under a rain of Japanese artillery and machine gun fire, as the Navy bombards the mountain. Doc saves the lives of several Marines under fire, which later earns him the Navy Cross. Finally, the mountain is secured. On February 23, the platoon under command of Sergeant Hank Hansen is ordered to climb Mount Suribachi. They reach the top and hoist the United States flag atop the mountain to cheers from the beaches and the ships. Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal, who witnesses the flag raising as he lands on the beach, requests the flag for himself. Colonel Chandler Johnson decides his 2nd Battalion deserves the flag more. Rene is sent up with Second Platoon to replace the first flag with a second one for Forrestal to take. Mike, Doc, Rene and three other marines (Corporal Harlon Block, Private First-Class Franklin Sousley and Private First Class Ira Hayes), are photographed by Joe Rosenthal as they raise the second flag. On March 1, Second Platoon are ambushed from a Japanese machine gun nest. During the fight over the nest Mike is hit by a U.S. Navy shell and dies from his wounds. Later that day Hank is shot in the chest and dies almost instantly, and Harlon is killed by machine gun fire. Two nights later while Doc is helping a wounded Marine, Iggy is abducted by Japanese troops and dragged into a tunnel. Doc finds his viciously mangled body a few days later. On March 21 Franklin is killed by machine gun fire and dies in Ira's arms. Of the eight men in the squad only three are left: Doc, Ira and Rene. A few days after Franklin's death, Doc is wounded by artillery fire while trying to save a fellow corpsman. He survives and is sent back home. On March 26, the battle ends and the U.S. Marines are victorious. After the battle the press gets hold of Rosenthal's photograph. It is a huge morale booster, and newspapers all over the country ask for prints. Rene is asked to name the six men in the photo: he identifies himself, Mike, Doc and Franklin, but misidentifies Harlon as Hank. Rene believes that Ira is the sixth man in the photograph; when he tells Ira this, Ira furiously denies it, insisting that it was Harlon in the photograph, not him. Rene pleads with Ira that as flag raisers they will both be sent home, but Ira reacts by holding a bayonet to Rene's throat, telling Rene he will kill him if he names Ira as the man in the photograph. Rene initially refuses to identify the sixth man but when he is threatened with being sent back to the fighting, he names Ira. Doc, Ira and Rene are sent home as part of the seventh bond tour drive to raise money for the war effort. When they arrive to a hero's welcome in Washington, Doc notices that Hank's mother is on the list of mothers of the dead flag raisers. Ira angrily denounces the bond drive as a farce. The men are reprimanded by Bud Gerber of the Treasury Department, who tells them that the country cannot afford the war and if the bond drive fails the U.S. will abandon the Pacific and their sacrifices will be for nothing. The three agree not to tell anyone that Hank was not in the photograph. As the three are sent around the country to raise money and make speeches, Ira is guilt-ridden, facing discrimination as a Native American and haunted by memories of the battle. He descends into alcoholism and throws up one night in front of General Alexander Vandegrift, commandant of the Marine Corps. A furious Vandegrift orders to have Ira sent back to his unit and the bond drive continues without him. After the war, the three survivors return to their homes. Ira still struggles with alcoholism and is never able to escape his unwanted fame. One day after being released from jail, he hitchhikes over 1,300 miles to Texas to see Harlon Block's family. He tells Harlon's father that his son was indeed at the base of the flag in the famous photograph. In 1954, the USMC War Memorial is dedicated and the three flag raisers see each other one last time. In 1955 Ira dies of exposure after a night of drinking. That same year Doc drives to the town where Iggy's mother lives to tell her how Iggy died, though it is implied that he does not tell her the truth. Rene attempts a business career but finds that the opportunities and offers he received during the bond drive are rescinded. He spends the rest of his life as a janitor. Doc, by contrast, is successful. He buys a funeral home and runs it for the rest of his life. In 1994, on his deathbed, he tells his story to his son James and in a final flashback to 1945, the men swim in the ocean after raising the flags.

The NSA-funded QT (Quantum Tech) Corporation has slated a project to develop Hypertime, a technology which allows the user's molecules to speed up to the point where the world appears to be standing still. After realizing that such technology, contained within a wristwatch frame, could also be used against the USA, the NSA orders the project stopped. NSA head Moore (Ken Jenkins) ends the project due to the risk of the technology being acquired by hostile powers. However, the research is farther along than the NSA expected and QT's leader Henry Gates (Michael Biehn) plans on using the technology to usurp the leader of the NSA and dominate the world. The NSA has given him only a weekend before they collect his equipment, his lead scientist Earl Dopler cannot fix a glitch which causes subjects in Hypertime to age rapidly. Gates uses the prototype to stretch the weekend in order to give the brilliant lead scientist Earl Dopler (French Stewart) time to fix the remaining glitch in the technology after his henchmen Richard (Jason Winston George) and Jay (Linda Kim) prevent Earl's incognito departure at the airport. However, the disadvantage of Earl being in Hypertime for too long was him aging rapidly in real time, as his molecular age continued at the same rate despite time slowing down. Initially unknown to Gates, Dopler had sent a prototype to his former teacher named Dr. George Gibbs (Robin Thomas). Gibbs' daughter Kelly (Lindze Letherman) accidentally knocks the watch into a box of his son Zak's things. George is away at a convention on applied science, having turned down Zak's appeals to go car shopping with him. Zak repeatedly bombs out with Francesca, the hot new girl at school, first with a condescending offer to show her around and then, after she allows him to help her rake leaves, by bringing a live opossum into her house. Gibbs' son Zak (Jesse Bradford) discovers the watch accidentally and initially uses it for fun, much to the amusement of Francesca (Paula Garces). Francesca is impressed when he shows her the power of the watch, which they use to pull pranks around town, and later help Zak's friend Meeker (Garikayi Mutambirwa) wins a battle of the DJs contest. At the end of the date, Francesca gives Zak a goodnight kiss. Once Gates finds out about the leaked prototype, he attempts to retrieve it. He sends his henchmen after Zak who break into his house and search for evidence. Upon learning about the ulterior motive of QT Corporation, Zak sets out to warn his father of the danger he could be in. While fleeing from them, Zak discovers Dopler tied up in their van and frees him. A chase ensues, with Zak crashing the van into a river, thus disabling the watch. He wakes up in hospital with a broken watch and only by a stroke of luck manages to avoid Jay and Richard again. He then goes in search of somewhere safe to hide in the meantime after he had been accused to stealing a van by the police. He gets the watch working just long enough to steal a policeman's uniform, allowing him to evade both the police and Gates's henchmen. In a bid to retrieve the watch, QT Corporation enlists the help of national security agencies and portray Zak and his father as fugitives wanted by the law. Zak goes on the run with his girlfriend, locating the hotel that Dr. Gibbs was staying at in a bid to warn him. Dopler is also looking for Dr. Gibbs to ask for help and also to warn him. However, Gates, Jay, and Richard reach Zak's father before him and kidnaps Dr. Gibbs from his hotel room. Unable to reach his father in time, Zak and Francesca wander the streets aimlessly before being forcibly picked up by Earl Dopler, who wants the watch back. Francesca knocks Dopler out, and she and Zak interrogate Dopler. The teens take Dopler hostage and force him to do as they request. As Dopler feels that Dr. Gibbs has been kind to him, he agrees reluctantly to helping save Dr. Gibbs. Using components that the three of them steal from the science convention, Dopler mends the broken watch and builds their own set of nitrogen guns. Nitrogen guns can take someone out of Hypertime and back into normal time. The guns are loaded with paint-balls filled with frozen nitrogen, and the low temperature 'freezes' a hit person back into normal time. Dopler helps the kids break in but decides not to go as well. They get caught by Henry Gates, Richard, and Jay. Zak and Francesca are thrown in a cell with Zak's dad. Zak accelerates while in Hypertime and becomes "light" (Einstein's theory is seemingly correct, anything faster than "light", becomes "light"). They then manage to break out as the NSA Agents arrive. The NSA deadline expires, so Gates puts the whole facility into Hypertime to stop the approaching NSA agents. Using his concealed watch while in Hypertime causes Zak's particles to accelerate to the point of instability, allowing him to pass through the walls of their cell and divert Gates and his henchmen long enough for George to rig a bomb which destroys the machine generating Hypertime. Gates is not defeated and knocks Francesca out of hyper-time and prepares to do the same to Zak and his dad. Suddenly he's shot with a paintball by Dopler who returned to help and Dopler shoots Gates until he reverts to normal time, defeating him. The NSA agents take the watches to keep them safe, and arrest Gates and his henchmen. The charges against Zak are dropped. Following the arrest of Gates, Jay, and Richard. Dopler uses the machine he was building to reverse the aging effects of hyper-time that happened to him, but it inadvertently changes him back into a teenager (Miko Hughes), meaning he will have to live with the Gibbs for a few years. The movie ends with Zak and his family happily together, and with Zak finally getting the car he wanted. As Zak speeds off in his car with his girlfriend, sister and teenage Dopler, it is revealed that he has not returned the watch after all, as he goes into Hypertime to have some fun.

In 1988, Dade "Zero Cool" Murphy (age 11)(Max Ligosh) is arrested and charged with crashing 1,507 systems in one day and causing a single-day 7-point drop in the New York Stock Exchange. Upon conviction, he is banned from owning or operating computers or touch-tone telephones until his 18th birthday. Shortly before Dade (Jonny Lee Miller) turns 18, his mother (now divorced) takes a job in New York City. Upon turning 18, Dade calls a local television station, dupes the security guard into giving him the modem's phone number (a tactic known as social engineering), and successfully hacks into the station's computer network, changing the current TV program to an episode of The Outer Limits. However, Dade is "attacked" by a hacker (handle "Acid Burn") on the same network. During the conversation, Dade identifies himself by the new alias, Crash Override. Dade enrolls at Stanton High School, where he meets Kate Libby (Angelina Jolie), who is assigned to take him on a tour of the school. After Dade learns that Kate is "Acid Burn," a feud erupts between them. The real trouble begins when Joey Pardella (Jesse Bradford), the novice hacker of the group, successfully breaks into an Ellingson Mineral Company supercomputer to prove to the rest of the group that he is an elite hacker. To validate this feat, he downloads part of a garbage file. Unfortunately, the company's IT employee Hal (Penn Jillette) detects this unauthorized entry and summons computer security officer Eugene "The Plague" Belford (Fisher Stevens) to deal with the problem. The Plague realizes the file being downloaded can prove that he is stealing from the company via salami slicing. The Plague enlists the U.S. Secret Service to recover the file by claiming that it is the code to Da Vinci, a computer virus that will capsize the company's oil tanker fleet and he needs that code to destroy the virus. Joey is arrested and his computer is searched, but the Secret Service finds nothing, as Joey has hidden the disk containing the files. In response, Dade and Kate decide to settle their disagreements with a hacking duel, with hacks focused on harassing Secret Service Agent Richard Gill (Wendell Pierce), a known enemy of hackers, who was involved in Joey's arrest. Kate and Dade's hacker friends Ramon Sanchez (Renoly Santiago) a.k.a. "The Phantom Phreak," Emmanuel Goldstein (Matthew Lillard) a.k.a. "Cereal Killer," and Paul Cook (Laurence Mason) a.k.a. "Lord Nikon" (so named for his photographic memory) act as judges. After being released on parole, Joey reveals the disk to Phantom Phreak in a public park; but they quickly realize that they are being followed by the Secret Service. The next day, Phreak is arrested. He uses his phone call to inform Kate that he hid the disk in a boy's bathroom at school. That evening, Kate and Cereal Killer ask Dade for his help; but, because of his record, he declines. Kate then asks Dade to copy the disk so that, if anyone else is arrested, they have the disk as evidence. After determining that Dade is not the one who hacked into Ellingson, The Plague attempts to enlist Dade's help to find the one who did. First, he offers Dade a free high-powered laptop. Later, he threatens to have Dade's mother incarcerated with a manufactured criminal record. At this, Dade agrees to deliver Kate's copy of the disk. Meanwhile, Kate, Lord Nikon, and Cereal Killer attempt to discern the contents of the disk. Dade joins them; and, after working all night, they learn the truth. It's designed to salami-slice $25 million from Ellingson transactions. Dade reveals that he knows Plague is behind this scheme because he was the one who wanted Kate's copy of the disk. He admits he gave Plague the disk and reveals his history as Zero Cool. Determined to stop the scheme, the assembled hackers plan to hack the Gibson again. Kate and Dade go dumpster-diving for employee memos with passwords; Cereal Killer installs a hidden microphone in the Ellingson offices; and Nikon poses as a delivery boy wandering the Ellingson cubicles, memorizing employee passwords as they enter them. From the memos, they discover the Da Vinci virus is set to capsize the fleet the next day, which would provide the perfect cover to distract from the salami-slicing worm. In need of help, they seek out Razor and Blade, the producers of a hacker-themed pirate TV show, "Hack the Planet." The next morning, they evade the Secret Service and converge on Grand Central station, where they use payphones to begin their assault on the Gibson. At first, their attempts are easily rebuffed by Plague, who calls Dade to warn him to escape before he is arrested. However, Razor and Blade have contacted hackers around the world, who lend their support with virus attacks, distracting Plague long enough for Dade to download the incriminating file to a floppy disk. Shortly after crashing the Gibson, Dade and company are arrested. As they're being led away, Dade surreptitiously informs Cereal Killer, hiding in the crowd, that he's tossed the disk in a trashcan. As Dade and Kate are being interrogated, Razor and Blade jam the local television signals and broadcast live video of Cereal Killer, revealing the plot and Plague's complicity. Plague is arrested when he tries to flee to Japan under the alias "Mr. Babbage" (a reference to Charles Babbage). Their names cleared, Dade and Kate go on a date. Kate even wears a dress. While relaxing in a pool on the roof of a building, their friends show off their latest hack. The lights in several adjacent office buildings spell out "CRASH AND BURN."

St. Louis, Missouri. 1933 At the height of the Great Depression, eighth grade student Aaron Kurlander (Jesse Bradford) presents a writing assignment about his hero, pilot Charles Lindbergh who flew solo across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927. After school, Aaron chastises his younger brother, Sullivan (Cameron Boyd), for attempting to steal another child's dessert. At the fleabag Empire Hotel where they live, Sullivan begs Aaron to teach him how to play marbles, and the older boy reluctantly gives him a few to practice with. Upstairs, the boys return to their room to learn that Sullivan will be sent to stay with their uncle until their father, Eric (Jeroen Krabbé), can get a job selling watches and save enough money to move into an apartment. Back at school, Aaron saves wealthy student Billy Thompson (Chris Samples) from being bullied by challenging the tormentors to a game of marbles. He easily defeats them, and Billy invites Aaron to his house in a gesture of gratitude. There, Billy shows Aaron his collection of canaries and offers him a female to mate with his own bird, Skippy. Reluctant to admit his father's lowly profession, Aaron tells Billy and his mother, Mrs. Thompson, that he flies airplanes for the government. At school, Aaron's teacher, Miss Mathey (Karen Allen), notices that the Kurlander's address is no longer current and asks the boy for his new residence. Again reluctant and embarrassed to tell the truth that his family is homeless and residing in a hotel, Aaron provides a false location and name, claiming that his father works for the government, but Miss Mahey learns the truth when she follows him home. Later, Mrs. Kurlander (Lisa Eichhorn) reveals that she must return to a sanitarium for treatment of her worsening tuberculosis. Over the weekend, Aaron joins his older friend, Lester Silverstone (Adrian Brody), working as a golf caddie, but the job does not go well and Lester tells him to return home. At the hotel, a shy neighbor teenage girl named Ella McShane (Amber Benson) invites Aaron over for food and asks him to dance to some radio music, but she suddenly collapses in an epileptic fit. That evening, with his mother away, Aaron prepares tomato soup for himself and his father using ketchup and hot water. One afternoon, Aaron recruits Lester to help him move his father's illegally parked car before the inquisitive Patrolman Burns (John McConnell) has it ticketed. Once Lester pushes the vehicle, Aaron fails to pump the brakes and it rolls down a steep street, narrowly avoiding a boys' stick-ball game and oncoming traffic. Lester catches up with him when the car finally stops, and the boys return to the hotel. Mr. Kurlander announces he has taken a job as a traveling watch salesman, forcing him to miss Aaron's junior high school graduation the upcoming week. Now completely alone, Aaron is without food and decides to sell his newly-hatched canaries to a pet store. Although he expects to earn $3 per bird, the pet shop owner claims the brood consists of only females, which are deemed worthless because they cannot sing, and only gives him 50 cents. Using his last fifty cents, Aaron buys a kitten for Ella, who is recovering from another seizure. At school, he steals a sandwich from a gluttonous boy, prompting the wealthy Christina Sebastian (Katherine Heigl) to invite him to her graduation dinner after Billy Thompson's party. Upon realizing that his only suit jacket is too small, Lester takes Aaron to the storage room, where they steal items that have been repossessed from former tenants. On the day of the graduation, Aaron dresses in his new suit and Ella kisses him goodbye before her family moves to Illinois so she can get better treatment for her epilepsy. During the ceremony, he is shocked to be the recipient of an award for demonstrating good character. Afterward, at Billy's party, Aaron invents an elaborate excuse for why his parents did not attend graduation, and gossip quickly spreads. Aaron overhears a peer calling him a "charity case" who receives special treatment from the teachers. When Billy confronts him about his lies, Aaron flees the party and returns home to the hotel. At the Empire Hotel, Aaron discovers an eviction notice under the door because his father has failed to pay the rent. Although sympathetic, the hotel owner insists the bank will throw the Kurlanders out within three days. Aaron visits the sanitarium and yells up to his mother in her cell, but is unable to tell her the bad news. On his way home, he spots a former Empire Hotel resident now living in a nearby Hooverville (shanty town). Desperate, he visits his neighbor, Mr. Mungo, offering to sell his cigar band collection. Mr. Mungo understands Aaron's predicament and offers to speak to the hotel owner on his behalf. Later, Aaron forges a letter to his uncle requesting that Sullivan be sent home. The next morning, Aaron awakens to the sounds of a riot as the police raid the impoverished camps set up outside. Lester is arrested, but gives Aaron a prized pocketknife. Aaron rushes back inside before the hotel's malicious bellhop prematurely locks him out of his room. When Mr. Mungo leaves Aaron a note containing a new cigar band for his collection, Aaron attempts to thank him, but notices water and blood oozing from under his neighbor's door. He walks into the apartment and discovers that Mr. Mungo has slit his wrists in a suicide. After finishing the last of his stale dinner rolls, Aaron arranges magazine images of food on a plate and eats them. Later, he becomes ill and hallucinates the traumatizing events of the past few weeks. When he recovers, he curses his father and falls asleep again, only to be awakened by Sullivan knocking at the door. The boys tearfully hug and gorge on Sullivan's food that he brought with him until their father unexpectedly arrives. Overjoyed to see them, he announces that he got a new job as a clerk for the Works Progress Administration, which pays a $65 monthly salary. Mr. Kurlander suggests he avoid paying the outstanding hotel bill of $174 by leaving their belongings behind when they move to their new apartment, but Aaron refuses. He and Sullivan lower their suitcases out the window with a rope, packing everything but the suit Aaron and Lester stole, into their car. Sneaking into the basement storage room, Aaron retrieves a box of watercolor paints to return to the evicted tenant now living in the shanty down. While still in the basement, Aaron also locks all of the padlocks that the bellhop uses to lock deadbeat tenants out of their rooms and throws away the keys, leaving the padlocks useless. In the final scene, after Mr. Kurlander picks up his recovering wife from the sanitarium, the reunited family moves into their spacious new apartment at the Carleton Court.

An all too uptight FBI agent must protect a larger than life mobster with a heart of gold, currently under witness protection in the suburbs. The mobster Vincent 'Vinnie' Antonelli is under the witness protection program and the FBI agent Barney Coopersmith is assigned to take Vinnie and his wife Linda to a house in the suburbs. However their wives leave Vinnie and Barney and the agent gets closer to the gangster and befriends him. Vinnie is a bon vivant and a crook and does not keep the necessary low profile. The District Attorney Hannah Stubbs arrests him but Barney releases him from jail since he needs to testify against the Mafia. Soon Barney falls in love with Stubbs, but Vinnie gets into many troubles calling the attention of two hitmen from the Mafia. The police officer Crystal Rybak protects him and they also falls in love with each other. In the end, the good-hearted Vinnie becomes a prominent personality in the suburbs. —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil FBI agent Barney Coopersmith is assigned to protect former Mafia figure turned informant Vincent Antonelli. In the witness protection program one is supposed to keep a low profile, but that is something that Antonelli has trouble doing. Coopersmith certainly has his hands full keeping Antonelli away from the Mafia hitmen who want to stop him testifying, not to mention the nightclubs... —Murray Chapman <muzzle@cs.uq.oz.au> Vinnie is a smooth-talking mobster who is relocated from New York City to a suburb of San Diego by the Federal Witness Protection Program in exchange for testifying against the mob. He must start life over in a quiet town with nothing to keep himself entertained - until he runs across some old friends from the Big Apple and they start up a little business of their own. Vinnie's bad behavior wreaks havoc on the life of Barney Coopersmith, the straitlaced FBI agent assigned to protect him. Barney must struggle with Hannah, the local assistant D.A., to keep Vinnie out of prison and safe from the mob before his testimony. Before long, Vinnie is sweet-talking Hannah into dates with Barney and teaching Barney how to dance, dress, and become a lady killer as they run from Mafia hit men and nearly escape murder in Manhattan. —William

On Christmas Eve, commercial artist Molly Gilmore and architectural engineer Frank Raftis are last-minute Christmas shopping in Manhattan. Frank meets his colleague Ed for drinks; Ed tells Frank he is getting divorced. Molly sees her friend Isabelle, who is married, but plans to spend Christmas with another man; Molly also visits her sick father. Later that day, at the counter in a hectic bookstore, Frank and Molly get their packages mixed up, and on Christmas Day, Molly's husband, Brian, and Frank's wife, Ann, each opens the book that was meant for the other. Three months later, Frank and Molly, who commute into Manhattan from adjacent stops on the Metro-North Hudson Line, run into each other on the morning train. They struggle to place each other, but eventually Frank remembers, and reminds her of the confusion over the books. Later that day, Frank's boss asks him to take a post in Houston. Molly visits her father in hospital. Molly tells Isabelle about Frank; Frank tells Ed about Molly. That evening, Frank waits for Molly at Grand Central Terminal. They talk, and agree to meet on the morning train later that week. Against their better judgement, Frank and Molly grow closer. They see more and more of each other until, one afternoon, Frank takes Molly to Ed's apartment. They begin to make love, but Molly cannot go through with it. They agree that they must stop seeing each other. When Molly returns home that day, Brian gives her the news that her father has died. At the funeral, she has a panic attack. Convalescing, she tells Isabelle that it isn't grief for her father that she is suffering, but the loss of Frank. Meanwhile, Frank agrees to take the job in Houston. He tells Ann about Molly, throwing the future of their marriage into question. On the night he is due to leave, Frank calls Molly at home. Frank asks to see her before he goes, but as Brian stands listening, she ends the call. Unable to resist, she tells Brian she must see Frank one more time, and rushes to her car. Driving fast in the pouring rain, she nearly collides with a train at a crossing, and misses her chance. Meanwhile Frank tries to call her again but her husband answers the phone and says she doesn't want to talk to Frank. Some time later, once more in the run up to Christmas, Frank meets Ed and tells him that he and Ann are now separated. Molly meets Isabelle, and it is clear from their conversation that her marriage to Brian has failed too. Frank makes a stop at the bookstore where he and Molly first met. Molly is there at the same time. They talk but, uncertain how things now stand between them, go their separate ways. Walking away from the store, Frank stops, turns, and runs after her. A short time later on a crowded train out of Grand Central, he finds her again. They embrace.