Joel Schumacher

Musical prodigy, Sparkle (Jordin Sparks) struggles to become a star while overcoming issues that are tearing her family apart. From an affluent Detroit area and daughter to a single mother (Whitney Houston), she tries to balance a new romance with music manager, Stix (Derek Luke) while dealing with the unexpected challenges her new life will bring as she and her two sisters (Carmen Ejogo and Tika Sumpter) strive to become a dynamic singing group during the Motown-era.

Bounty killers compete for body count, fame and a fat stack of cash. They're ending the plague of corporate greed and providing the survivors of the apocalypse with retribution. This is the age of the BOUNTY KILLER. It's been 20 years since the corporations took over the world's governments. Their thirst for power and profits led to the corporate wars, a fierce global battle that laid waste to society as we know it. Born from the ash, the Council of Nine rose as a new law and order for this dark age. To avenge the corporations' reckless destruction, the Council issues death warrants for all white collar criminals. Their hunter's - the BOUNTY KILLER. From amateur savage to graceful assassin, the BOUNTY KILLERS now compete for body count, fame and a fat stack of cash. They're ending the plague of corporate greed by exterminating the self serving CEO and providing the survivors of the apocalypse with retribution. These are the new heroes. This is the age of the BOUNTY KILLER. —PR It's been 10 years since the corporations took over the world's governments. Their thirst for power and profits led to the Corporate Wars, a fierce global battle that laid waste to society as we know it. Born from the ash, the Council of Nine rose as a new law and order for this dark age. To avenge the corporations' reckless destruction, the Council issues death warrants for all white collar criminals. Their hunters -- the bounty killer. From amateur savage to graceful assassin, the bounty killers now compete for body count, fame and a fat stack of cash. They're ending the plague of corporate greed by exterminating the self serving CEO and providing the survivors of the apocalypse with retribution. These are the new heroes. This is the age of the BOUNTY KILLER. —balicollie In a post-apocalyptic world destroyed by the corporation's war, the Bounty Killers are very popular, hunting down former executives and receiving large amounts as reward. Mary Death and her mentor, Drifter, are the most popular bounty killers. Drifter hires the gun caddy Jack LeMans and soon he learns that he is wanted by the Council of Nine. He decides to travel to see the council to clarify the death warrant and teams-up with Jack, Mary Death and his acquaintance Jimbo in a dangerous journey to learn what has happened with the Nine Council. —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The 1999 film features Robert De Niro as Walter Koontz, a homophobic New York security guard who suffers a stroke that leaves him partially paralyzed with a severe speech impairment. His doctor recommends singing lessons to help him improve the clarity of his speech. Too ashamed by his impairment to seek out a professional voice coach, he turns for help to his neighbor (portrayed by Philip Seymour Hoffman), a flamboyant pre-operative transsexual who is also a drag performer. In the course of their interactions, they discover that although they are each deeply prejudiced against one another, they also have a great deal in common. The film begins with Walt Koontz (Robert De Niro) playing squash with a group of people in the local court when somebody sneaks up to an enclosed area beneath the court where there are people who are perhaps dealing drugs. A guy comes and steals all the money that is spread across the table while the men are away and escapes, only for the group of men to return and instantly realize that the money has been taken and they quickly leave and start to chase him. Walt finishes his game of squash and leaves the court where he then walks into town to his apartment, where he meets a group of drag queens whilst waiting for the elevator, they look over his shoulder and mimic about something he is holding. Walt gets fed up and decides to take the stairs while they crowd into the elevator. While this is happening, the two men are still chasing the guy who stole the money from their hidden den under the squash court. Walt walks up to his apartment and talks briefly to the next door neighbor, when inside he shouts out the window abusively to his neighbor, Rusty Zimmerman and friends opposite to turn their music down in a very impolite way using homophobic slurs. Walt closes his window and at this point Rusty Zimmerman and friends decide to sing even louder at their window. The two men have lost sight of the guy who stole the money and swear whilst in a little side alley where he is hiding and holding his breath; they then walk away back onto the main street. Walt then gets ready to go out whilst at the same time you see Rusty Zimmerman getting ready to perform and making-up his face. Moments later, the two of them again bump into each other in the elevator. Walt opens the door to the elevator and when Rusty blows him a kiss, Walt again decides to take the stairs. Rusty Zimmerman (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) talks to the apartment manager Leonard Wilcox (portrayed by Barry Miller) about how he saw a rat in the room and it ran across the rug and that someone should check the apartment tomorrow, although as far as we know this is just an excuse as we see two people running up the stairs; one of them being the guy who stole the money at the beginning of the film and the other being Amber (portrayed by link=nm0037410]). Leonard has a suspicious look on his face and immediately picks up the phone and you hear the dial tone. A girl named Cristal (portrayed by Penny Balfour) is waiting at the top of the stairs and makes Amber and the guys she is with run up the stairs even faster, as they enter the room opposite to hers. Once in the room, Amber puts the chain on immediately, whilst he pants heavily. Walt has walked from the apartment to a nearby restaurant where he walks in whilst smoking a cigar to the sound of soft jazz music playing on the piano inside, he is greeted when he enters the door and continues up the stairs. He walks past a couple dancing and looks around the room before someone introduces him to his dance partner Sally. Walt walks across the room towards two women who are sitting down and then walks over to the dance floor with one of them when he then begins to dance along slowly to the jazz music on the dance floor and the other people in the room all watch. We then see people get out of a cab and it drives off while they enter Femmes Fatale where a drag queen who goes by the name of Butsy Rutsy and is described on the poster outside as "the hostess with the mostest," is on stage this evening. Butsy Rutsy invites a guy from the audience on to the stage where they have banter and the audience whoops and giggles, as Butsy Rutsy then asks him to kiss her ass and then to go and sit back down. Butsy Rutsy then invites her Big Ol Number- Amazing Grace (portrayed by Nashom Wooden) onto the stage and she comes on whilst the piano is playing and begins to sing. Back in the restaurant, a lady comes up to him while he waits for his dance partner (Karen) to return and she questions why Walt didn't ask her to dance instead. The conversation ends before Karen returns and Walt takes her arm in his. Whilst at the apartment, Walt's dance partner discusses how she is running short on her rent again. Walt glances at Karen, then gets out his wallet and walks over to her handing her some money for her rent that she takes and leans in for a kiss. Karen says to Walt how she will see him next week, he leaves the room and Karen begins to count the money again. Two men open the foyer doors at the block of apartments, whilst another guy walks through and gives Leonard money in his hands. Leonard looks rather scared and breathes quite worryingly whilst looking out into the distance. Upstairs Cristal and the guy she is with sit smoking in their room, the men come up the stairs, whilst one of them burns out the candle in the hallway, the other climbs out the window and the last pulls out a gun. Two of them break open the door to Amber's room and storm in pointing the gun at the two of them in bed and the third man joins them after appearing from the window in the room. They are after him because he stole the money and start talking in Spanish asking him to give them the money, he doesn't act straight away, so they shoot him and lots of shouting is going on. Walt hears the loud noises, grabs his gun from his bedside table and heads out to find out what all the loud noise is about. Amber screams, they shoot her and Walt is on his way to the scene, when he feels dizzy and slowly collapses on the stairwell. Walt groans and someone rolls down the stairs past him and there is a lot of movement and flashing lights, which might be reflecting how Walt is feeling or what he is seeing at this moment in time. The police appear at the scene and start talking to Walt, but he does not respond. Walt is driven to the hospital and put on a heart monitor machine and Doctor Nirmala (portrayed by Madhur Jaffrey) lets him know he has had a stroke. Rusty Zimmerman was a friend of Amber and goes to identify the body, whilst the men are still in the apartment searching for the money; they have had no luck finding anything. Leonard comes into the room and the men insist on looking in Cristal's room that is in the apartment across the hall. Cristal hears them and takes the opportunity to pack some things into her bag and escape out of the window. Rusty sits on the subway on the way home holding a small square postal package. Back at the hospital, Walt is assisted whilst putting his jacket on and Doctor Nirmala says to him that a volunteer will drive him home and he says he will go home alone. Walt turns up at the apartment doors and some people see him struggling and ask if he needs any help. Whilst in his room, Walt gets frustrated trying to do things on his own and smashes something and starts crying. He continues to cry and points a gun at his head and sits in the chair miserably and soon enough puts the gun down. Rusty arrives home to find the house in a state and as soon as the door closes, one of the guys grabs hold of him and the other points a gun. The package he was holding on the metro home; we find contains Ambers ashes when one of the guys rips it open hoping to find the stash of money. Once they have left, Rusty puts the ashes in a small little trinket box. Doctor Nirmala knocks on the door at Walt's apartment and Amber's friend hears the knocking and looks out the window to see Walt sitting in his chair. Doctor Nirmala has come to see him because he did not turn up at the hospital for his therapy and wants his situation to improve, so suggests somebody coming to see him instead of him having to go out. The men break into Cristal's room and comment on the smell and how she has their money. Walt is downstairs doing his laundry when Rusty starts a conversation with him; he looks over, but does not comment. Rusty then offers to help Walt with Walt's washing, but Walt does not want help, so he pushes Rusty away and falls over in the process. Rusty and friends are walking to the gay and lesbian center to sign up for a contest, when another group of people walk in and start arguing and fighting over who is going to win the contest. They then get help to have them kicked out. A policeman named Tommy Walsh (portrayed by Skipp Sudduth) knocks on Walt's door wanting to see Walt and his physical therapist (Le Shaun Williams) answers the door on his behalf. Tommy seems to be a good friend of Walt and says he is a hero and goes on to tell Le Shaun how he saved him, another guard named Joe and 14 hostages in 1998. Tommy hears the music and singing from the group of queens opposite Walt's window, so he decides to shout out the window and tells them impolitely to shut up. Tommy is on his way out, when he tells Walt that Amber and her boyfriend stole off of Mr. Z. Once Tommy has gone, Le Shaun talks to Walt and discusses how he has had success with stroke patients improving their speech by having singing lessons because it relaxes you and recommends Lady Uptown, as he has one of her cards in his bag. Walt finally leaves the house and calls a taxi immediately, the taxi pulls up and Walt slips on the ice. Someone comes running out the foyer to help and the taxi driver also gets out the cab to assist. Walt knocks on Rusty's door and asks if he could pay for singing lessons, but this doesn't go down too well seeing how badly Walt has spoken to his neighbors previously. As Walt walks away, Rusty opens the door and asks if Walt can pay cash, Walt doesn't respond, so instead Rusty offers to call from the window when Rusty is ready to give Walt the first lesson. Cristal stands smoking in the road with a group of her friends when Mr. Z's entourage spot her; she runs away and slips over where they catch her and ask her for Mr. Z's money. Walt turns up at Rusty's house for his singing lesson. After being greeted with some humor, Walt sits down ready for his lesson and starts by reciting the four musical scales. After trying this, Walt says he has had enough when he struggles to pronounce the fa note; he pays his money and walks towards the door. On the way out they have a small dispute, shouting horrible things at each other. Rusty feels bad and decides to go downstairs and knock on Walt's door until he answers. They have some more words and sooner or later they are back having singing lessons. Rusty's friends storm in the door during the singing lesson and Rusty asks them to be as quick as they can politely and they head off for some pizza. Walt goes home and hears the arguing and shouting from Rusty's apartment, peaks out the door and quickly closes it. Mr. Pogo (portrayed by Rory Cochrane) pays Leonard cash for his stay and also asks about paying for parking a motorcycle; he and his girlfriend Tasha then go out. The next day, Walt goes back for another singing lesson and brings up the shouting he heard from Rusty's apartment last night. Rusty gets a phone call and not long after says to Walt that the singing lessons need to end. Mr. Z's entourage arrives in the foyer and Leonard lets them now that Mr. Pogo has returned. They walk towards the back of the building where he has parked his motorcycle and asks Mr. Pogo where he got his money. He is pushed to the ground and beaten; they then smash the lights on his new bike and hurt Tasha too. He tells them that he has been dealing drugs and Tasha knew nothing about this, so Pogo takes off his motorcycle jacket and chucks it at him storming off. Walt opens his door to see what all the noise was about; it is Rusty staggering up the stairs. Walt walks out to the stairs to see if Rusty is OK. Walt goes to Rusty and gives comfort while they are chatting over a drink. Rusty's ex-boyfriend, Sonny (portrayed by John Enos III) turns up asking for money while Walt is still with Rusty, and they walk into the other room and lock themselves in. Walt was invited to Vinnies, but they knew he wouldn't come, so they turned up at his Walt's apartment to play some cards. Tia (portrayed by Daphne Rubin-Vega) knocks on the door and Tommy answers it for Walt; she brings him flowers and a cassette of his favorite tango songs. Tia makes Walt put down his stick and takes his hand to dance and leans in for a kiss. Walt finds it strange that Tia is there and he has no money, so he questions her and this results in her leaving sooner than she probably planned to. Walt goes back to Rusty's for another signing lesson and Rusty congratulates him for graduating his singing classes and has made him a tape to practice on his own. Rusty tells him to come back tomorrow at 5pm. Leonard turns up at his mother's house and Mr. Z grabs hold of him. Mr. Zs entourage has taken his mother while he deals with Leonard. Walt turns up at Rusty's and they have hosted him a graduation party. The pizza guy (Carmine) from downstairs appears with pizza and he joins in with the party until his father comes looking for him. Once the party is over, Walt and Rusty have a serious conversation. Seeing as they are sharing their confessions, Rusty tells Walt that Mr. Z's money was spent on a new outfit. They begin arguing again and end on a bad note. Back at the motel, Leonard leaves the room to open a letter privately and leaves the building putting the letter in the inside pocket of his jacket. Walt appears back at the Jazz restaurant where he spent a lot of his time at the beginning of the film, before his stroke. He turns up with some flowers, the tango music starts and he asks Rita to dance. Rusty and friends are at the Flawless contest and the other drag queens get annoyed that they did not win. The same people who started the fighting at the gay and lesbian center earlier on in the film. When Walt returns back to the motel, Leonard tells Walt to not take any notice of anything he hears or sees that night. Rusty returns from the contest and Mr. Z has broken into Rusty's apartment with his entourage. Mr. Z asks Rusty where the money is and he pulls out a letter and says that the $25,000 deposit and more says differently. Here we find out the letter Leonard opened earlier was a letter addressed to Rusty regarding her operation. Mr. Z punches Rusty around the face and Rusty crashes to the floor. Going against what Leonard said earlier, Walt slowly tries to get up out of bed and looks out of his window to see Mr. Z and his entourage beating Rusty. Walt slowly walks to Rusty's door and opens the door quietly and points the gun in and shoots. They fire back and shoot Walt; Rusty kicks the entourage and runs over to Walt and one of guys chases. Rusty runs out the room and down the stairs; the guy chasing grabs Rusty's leg and pulls Rusty back down the stairs. Rusty grabs a high heel and whacks him around the head. Mr. Z asks Walt where the money is and he tells him it's in the bedroom where he then locks himself in as he knows from previous experience that the steel door will keep him safe. Mr. Z and one of the guys try to break into the bedroom. Rusty comes back up to the apartment to find them at the bedroom door, and shouts for them to stop. In the pouring rain, Rusty uses the fire escape and climbs along the walls and stairs to try and get to the rear window of the apartment bedroom where Walt is laying down worriedly as the battering noises are getting louder and he knows that the lock will not hold forever. Rusty makes quite an entrance by falling through the window. Mr. Z finds a stash of money and Walt pulls out a gun, Mr. Z demands for Walt to put it down otherwise he will shoot. Rusty reaches for a nail file and stabs Mr. Z in the leg, while he screams in agony, Walt takes the opportunity to shoot him. Walt is taken to the hospital in the back of an ambulance and Rusty goes with him.

Criminal kingpins The Riddler and Two-Face present a threat to Gotham that only the dynamic duo Batman and Robin can stop.

A disturbed man (Michael Douglas) whose true identity is unknown. Stuck in L.A. traffic in summer, he abandons his vehicle. D-Fens, as he is credited in the film (based on his vanity license plate), begins walking west, trying to reach his estranged wife Beth (Barbara Hershey) and daughter Adele (Joey Hope Singer). It's the girl's birthday, and he wants to be with her. Detective Prendergast (Robert Duvall) of the LAPD is on his last day before taking an early retirement. He comes upon D-Fens's abandoned car on his way to work and helps push it out of traffic. A few years back, his pushy wife made him take a safe desk job. D-Fens wants to call his wife, but short on coins, he enters a Korean convenience store. He respects the "no change without purchase" policy and tries to buy a can of Coke. He gets angry at the 85 cents asked for the soda. He fights with the Korean owner and, after grabbing a sawed-off baseball bat from the owner, and begins wrecking the store. Heading for Venice, California, D-Fens climbs a hill in "gangland,". Two young Mexican gang-members accost him. When D-Fens fails to hand over any money, they threaten him with a knife, and he counters with the bat. He injures one assailant's arm and drives the other off. he drops the bat & takes the knife. The Latino gang members vow revenge, and a carload hunting for D-Fens. D-Fens calls his ex-wife from a pay phone, threatening to show up at his daughter's birthday party. The gangsters attempt a drive-by shooting but miss D-Fens and crash their car. They open fire, hitting several surrounding bystanders, but not D-Fens. The driver crashes. D-Fens picks up a gun, shoots the one surviving gang member in the leg, and then leaves with their bag of weapons. D-Fens encounters a panhandler who harasses him for change. D-Fens finally gives him the briefcase, which only contains his lunch. D-Fens stops by Whammy Burger, only to be told that breakfast stopped being served five minutes earlier. Not a wise thing to tell the psychotic D-Fens, as he soon pulls out a sub-machine gun, threatening everyone and deciding to have lunch instead. After berating the staff for serving him a hamburger that looks nothing like the advertising posters, he leaves. He leaves and tries to place a call from a phone booth, then shoots the booth to pieces after being hassled by someone who was waiting to use the phone. Prendergast is starting to notice a pattern and believes that all incidents are tied to the same person. The Korean store owner came in to complain, and the detective heard about the bold daylight shooting attempt. He looks on an L.A. map and sees that the mysterious man in a white shirt and a tie is walking towards the ocean. Prendergast is not taken seriously. D-Fens's ex calls the police to gain protection from him, but they don't believe he's much of a threat and leave. D-Fens passes a bank where an African American man is protesting after being rejected for a loan. The man exchanges a glance with D-Fens and says, "Don't forget me," as he is escorted away by police. The increasingly disturbed D-Fens goes into an Army-Navy surplus store run by a homophobic neo-Nazi to buy more durable footwear for his trek, as his shoe sole is half rotten. While he's being fitted, police detective Torres (Rachel Ticotin) comes in asking about him. The Nazi owner stalls her and, after she leaves, tells D-Fens he knows all about his activities. The Nazi assumes D-Fens is a racist who is attacking non-whites. After being corrected about this, and as D-Fens expresses disgust at the Nazi's bigotry, the irate skinhead attempts to handcuff D-Fens to turn him over to the police. He is instead knifed and ultimately killed. D-Fens clothes himself in military-style garb and sets out with a rocket launcher. He cuts through a nearby golf course and is accosted by two elderly golfers. After berating them for wasting such lovely green space on a silly game, he shoots up their golf cart, causing one to have a heart attack and die. D-Fens encounters a road repair crew who are not working and accuses them of doing unnecessary repairs to justify their budget. He pulls out the rocket launcher but struggles to use it, until a boy explains how it works. D-Fens accidentally fires the launcher, blowing up the construction site. D-Fens eventually reaches his former home, but his ex-wife leaves just in time. Prendergast, who has put the whole puzzle together by finally figuring out that the guy causing the mayhem is the one with the license plate D-FENS, he finds the address & reaches his mother. They find that D-Fens real name is William Foster & he was recently fired from the defense plant & is divorced from his wife who won't let him see his daughter as he has a bit of temper. Pendergast rushes to the wife's address with his friend, Detective Torres. Having turned in his weapon (it's his last day before retirement), Prendergast is unarmed. D-Fens shoots Torres, wounding her slightly, and the older detective grabs her weapon and chases D-Fens onto a fishing pier. Prendergast has a final confrontation with D-Fens where he correctly concludes that William planned to shoot his ex-wife & daughter & then turn the gun on himself and kill himself. Adele is happy to see him, but Beth wants him to leave. Prendergast arrives and distracts Foster long enough for Beth to throw his gun into the ocean. Prendergast holds Foster at gunpoint and urges him to surrender, acknowledging his complaints about social inequalities but not accepting them as an excuse for his rampage. With nothing left for him, Foster tricks Prendergast into shooting him dead. Having asserted himself, Prendergast decides to hold off retirement.

Two couples go to a mutual friend's wedding and end up swapping partners. Legal secretary Maria is married to car salesman Tom. Dance teacher Larry is married to the striking Tish. Larry's uncle is marrying Maria's mother. Tom and Tish meet at the wedding and waste no time taking more than a test drive in his BMW. So when Maria and Larry become acquainted later in the day they already have a common interest. But more than that, they find they like each other. A lot.

Following the divorce of their parents, Micheal (Jason Patric) and Sam Emerson (Corey Haim), along with their mother Lucy (Dianne Wiest), move to Santa Carla, California to live with their mother's father, a peculiar old man (Barnard Hughes). Known as the murder capital of the world, Santa Carla boasts a local boardwalk where a number of young people hang out. Most notable is a group of young men and their leader named David (Kiefer Sutherland). When the Emersons go out to the boardwalk for the first time, Lucy finds a video store run by a genial man named Max (Edward Herrmann (as Ed Herrmann)). They have a pleasant conversation, and Lucy is soon hired by him. Sam finds a comic shop near the boardwalk, overseen by the Frog Brothers, Edgar (Corey Feldman) and Alan (Jamison Newlander). The two give Sam a comic about vampires, which Sam reluctantly takes. Meanwhile, Michael becomes enthralled by the mysterious and beautiful Star (Jami Gertz), who happens to be the girlfriend of David. David and his gang take Michael to their hideout, which is the remnants of an old hotel that collapsed during an earthquake. While there, Michael inadvertently drinks David's blood, thinking it is wine. Michael starts to develop some side effects - including sensitivity to sounds, a lack of reflection, and even flying. At one point, Michael almost attacks Sam but is stopped by the family dog named Nanook. When Sam notices Michael's faded reflection in a mirror and him being able to fly, he realizes his brother's a vampire, and in a panic calls their Mom, who is having dinner with Max. Michael manages to calm Sam down, to the point that when their Mom arrives, Sam claims a comic book freaked him out. Needless to say, Lucy is upset at having her evening ruined. After these events, Michael returns to David's hideout, where he confronts Star. She admits that the bottle he drank from did contain David's blood, and his suspicions are true. The next day, Sam accompanies his Mom to Max's place to drop off some wine. However, they are both terrified when Max's dog Thorn attempts to attack Lucy! Feeling the attack seemed similar to something in the comic he was given, Sam tells the Frog Brothers. In regards to Michael, the brothers claim Sam has to stake Michael to kill him, but Sam refuses, confident that his brother is only a half-vampire, and that he can be saved if the head vampire is killed. After the way Thorn acted and not having seen Max in the daylight, Sam is convinced that Max is the head vampire. Lucy invites Max over to dinner a few days later. Michael leaves when Max arrives, but not before per Max's request, he invites him in. Sam has brought the Frog Brothers over for the dinner, and they attempt to expose him. However none of their plans work, and they conclude that Max is not the head vampire. Finally, Michael decides to take Star, along with a little half-vampire boy named Laddie Thompson (Chance Michael Corbitt), from David's clutches and brings Sam and the Frog Brothers with him to kill David and his gang while Michael grabs Star and Laddie. The inexperienced Frog Brothers manage to kill one vampire before waking the bunch and fleeing into the daylight. David smiles as the group escapes saying "Tonight." Sam, Michael, and the Frog Brothers prepare for the night ahead. They prepare a bathtub full of garlic. They fill squirt guns with holy water. They prepare wooden stakes. Night falls and David and the remainder of his crowd come to Sam and Michael's house to seek vengeance. Sam and Michael take out one of the vampires by electricity and the Frog Brothers are saved by Sam & Michael's dog when the dog knocks a vampire into the bathtub with garlic. Finally, David and Michael face off. Michael kills David by pushing him onto some antlers. The only problem is that Michael doesn't go back to being human, meaning David is not the head vampire. Just then Lucy comes home with Max from a date. Unseen by Max, Michael and Star hide in the shadows as Max approaches the deceased David. Max appears to be upset by the death. It's then that it is revealed that Max is the head vampire and that David and his gang were Max's "children" of sorts. Max wanted David to make Michael and Sam part of the "family" so that Lucy would agree to be with Max knowing what he is. Max wanted Lucy because his boys were in need of a mother. Even though his boys are dead he still wants Lucy. Max takes hold of Sam, telling Lucy that Sam will die if she doesn't come to him. Just then Lucy's father busts into the house in his car equipped with wooden stakes. Max is killed and the day is saved. As Lucy makes sure her boys are okay, the grandfather goes to the kitchen, pops open a root beer, and says "There's one thing about living in Santa Carla...I never could stomach - all the damn vampires."

Four months after their college graduation, Wendy Beamish (Mare Winningham) and William "Billy" Hicks (Rob Lowe) are in an automobile accident, and their friends, Alec Newberry (Judd Nelson), Kirby "Kirbo" Kegger (Emilio Estevez), Kevin Dolenz (Andrew McCarthy), Leslie Hunter (Ally Sheedy), and Jules (Demi Moore), rush to the hospital. The victims suffer only minor injuries after Billy crashed Wendy's new car while drunk. Jules chastises Wendy for paying Billy's medical fees after he destroyed the car her father gave her as a graduation gift. Billy is arrested for the incident. At the hospital, Kirby sees Dale Bieberman (Andie MacDowell), a beautiful doctor he recognizes from college, and his former crush is reignited. Jules posts Billy's bail, and the friends gather at St. Elmo's Bar, where Kirby works. Leslie and Jules question Wendy for accepting Billy's careless behavior. However, Wendy's low self-esteem and romantic interest in Billy prevent her from cutting him out of her life. Meanwhile, Billy telephones his estranged wife, and mother of his child, then flirts with several girls at the bar. Alec is angry when he learns Billy lost the job in a senator's office that he helped get for Billy. The friends quickly resolve their arguments, however, and happily dance and drink together. Sometime later, Alec discusses his political aspirations with his girl friend Leslie, and suggests they get married. Leslie believes they are not yet ready for marriage. The couple get a late-night visit from Jules, who needs a place to sleep for the night. Elsewhere, roommates Kevin and Kirby talk about Kirby's intense infatuation with Dale Bieberman, and Billy arrives to spend the night. Sometime later, Alec helps Billy obtain another job. Kevin visits Jules's new apartment and wonders how she can afford such an expensive place. Jules asks why nothing sexual ever happened between them, and accuses him of being homosexual and in love with Alec. Kevin denies the accusations, and quickly leaves. Kirby invites Dale Bieberman to an expensive restaurant to impress her, however, the busy doctor has to leave when she is called for an emergency. Leslie cooks dinner for Kevin, who tells her he gave up on love after a girl broke his heart. When Alec returns with a gift of lingerie for Leslie, he confides to Kevin that he cheated on Leslie with the sales girl. He vows he would be faithful if Leslie would agree to marry him, but Kevin is doubtful. Later, Jules gets high while snorting cocaine and telephones Alec to rescue her from a group of strange men. He arrives and accuses her of "crying wolf." Billy visits Wendy at the welfare office where she works, and admits that he lost his new job. Wendy brings him home to have dinner with her wealthy family, and borrows money from her father to give to Billy, who shocks her uptight family by climbing onto the roof. Wendy finds his antics charming, and reveals to him that she is still a virgin. Billy makes a clumsy pass at her, and embarrasses her by making fun of her undergarments. Wendy gives him the rent money he needs, then says she no longer wants to see him. On Halloween, the friends gather at St. Elmo's Bar, where Billy plays saxophone with his band. Alec asks Kevin if he can use his apartment to have sex with the lingerie sales girl, and Wendy arrives with a nerdy date named Howie Krantz (Jon Cutler). Jules continues her wild behavior, and jumps onstage. Billy kisses her while Wendy watches. Billy's wife, Felicia (Jenny Wright), arrives with her own date, and the friends worry how he will react. Billy stops the show to yell at Felicia from stage, then jumps down and punches her date. The fight continues outside the bar, and Billy curses at his wife. Moments later, Billy and Felicia kiss passionately. In time, when Wendy and Leslie have an intervention with Jules over her affair with her married boss, she dismisses their concern. Wendy hesitantly asks Leslie about Billy. Kirby's obsession with Dale Bieberman continues. He follows her to a private party, and admits his feelings to her. She attempts to dash his hopes by listing her many flaws, but Kirby mistakenly believes she is not interested in him because he lacks money, and makes it his mission to become wealthy. Meanwhile, Felicia asks Billy for an annulment, but he denies her, and vows to become a better husband and father to their daughter, Melody. Kirby takes a job as attaché to a wealthy businessman, and throws a party at the man's estate to impress Dale. Wendy's father buys her another car as a bribe to marry Howie, but she remains unenthusiastic. The friends arrive at Kirby's party, but Dale Bieberman fails to attend. Wendy introduces Howie to Billy, and Billy tells her that things are going well between him and Felicia. He apologizes to Wendy for hurting her, then crassly asks if she is still a virgin. Billy takes drugs with Jules, and Alec announces a false wedding date to the crowd, in an attempt to get Leslie to commit. They argue in private, and Leslie accuses him of having an affair. Alec blames Kevin for revealing his secret, then lunges at him. Leslie stops the fight saying it was only a hunch, but Alec's response has proven his guilt. Alec shocks Leslie by demanding she move out of their apartment. Jules drives Billy home and he kisses her. Billy becomes aggressive, and Jules fights him off, saying she only needed a friend to talk to. She accuses him of letting everyone down, and Felicia opens the front door to see her drunken husband in the driveway with Jules. Elsewhere, Kirby learns that Dale Bieberman has gone to a cabin for the weekend, and he follows her. He is embarrassed to discover that she is there with her boyfriend. He attempts to leave, but his car gets stuck in the snow. Dale and her date invite him to spend the night in their cabin. Meanwhile, Leslie stays at Kevin's apartment and discovers that he has been secretly in love with her for years. She and Kevin have sex, and in the morning, Alec arrives to apologize to Kevin, unaware that Leslie is there. When Leslie comes out from the bedroom, Alec is stunned. Kirby gets his car unstuck from the snow, and Dale Bieberman kindly says goodbye. Kirby passionately kisses Dale, leaving her speechless, then drives away laughing. Sometime later, Wendy tells her father that she does not care for Howie, and that it is Billy she loves. Leslie returns to her apartment with Alec to pack her belongings, and tells him that she has moved in with Jules. They argue over her involvement with Kevin, and Alec secretly longs to win her back. Leslie witnesses Jules's drug use, and worries about her friend. Kevin asks Leslie to move in and asserts his love for her, but she tells him it was "just sex" to her, and asks him to leave. Sometime later, Leslie visits Alec at his work and asks for help with Jules, who has locked herself in their apartment after all of her belongings were repossessed. Leslie confronted her after discovering that Jules secretly lost her job three weeks before. Kevin and Kirby meet Alec and Leslie at Jules's apartment, and the men climb the fire escape to look inside. They find Jules sitting on the floor with all the windows open, nearly freezing to death. Kirby leaves to get Billy's help to cut the window bars, and Alec takes out his anger on Kevin, dangling him over the fire escape. Leslie begs him to release Kevin. Billy arrives and convinces Jules to open the door. She tells him she has been visiting her comatose, much-hated former stepmother, and talking to her about why her father hates her. Billy tells Jules that her worries are an illusion, like the story of "St. Elmo's Fire,"--flashes of light in the sky that sailors used to guide their voyages. However, the sailors only imagined them to keep motivated on their journeys. Billy comforts Jules, and admits that they all feel lost, and soon they begin laughing. Later, Billy visits Wendy at her new apartment, tells her what happened with Jules, and shares that Felicia is about to remarry. He pays back some of the money he owes Wendy, and they discuss his upcoming move to New York City. Billy asks Wendy if she is still a virgin, and gently asks her for a going away present. Billy makes love to Wendy. Afterward, she walks him to the bus station, where the rest of their friends await to see Billy off. Billy tells Alec not to lose Leslie, then promises to keep in touch with Wendy. Leslie tells Kevin and Alec that she loves them both, but chooses to be on her own for a while, and they all agree to remain friends. The group plans to meet later for breakfast, but decide to find a new place, not St. Elmo's Bar. Jules jokes about her plans to bury her stepmother in a large cat suit to save on funeral costs.

The film opens outside of a grocery store, where a man is giving out samples of a new canned cheese product called "Cheese Tease", which nobody seems to enjoy eating. Pat Kramer (Lily Tomlin) emerges from the store with her two young children, Jeff (Justin Dana) and Beth (Shelby Balik), along with their maid, Concepcion (Maria Smith). The man forces a sample of Cheese Tease on Pat, and on the way home a can of air freshener explodes inside the car, fogging everybody and making them gag. Once home, Pat greets her neighbor, Judith Beasley (also played by Lily Tomlin), a busybody type who is in charge of the neighborhood council. Judith makes Pat listen to her sales pitch for a line of female beauty products, and she leaves Pat with some samples. Pat's husband, Vance (Charles Grodin), is returning that night from a business trip. He works for an advertising agency that pushes all sorts of products. He gives Pat a new perfume, accidentally spilling it on her dress, and tells her that they need to come up with a name for the new product. Pat suggests "Sexpot", which Vance seems to like. That night, Pat's dress begins smoking, which Pat and Vance are unaware, and the next day it is missing. At a meeting, Vance pitches the idea of calling the perfume "Sexpot" at a meeting with the perfume's makers. His boss, Dan (Ned Beatty), thinks the idea is genius, and he hints that Vance could be up for a promotion. He gives Vance a new product to christen, a new glue. At home that night, Pat is hosting the neighborhood council meeting, at which Judith berates other neighbors for petty misbehavior. Concepcion accidentally drops a vase, and Vance uses the new glue to repair it. Chaos erupts, though, when Pat gets some of the glue on her fingers and ends up glued to other people and objects in the house. By this time, Pat and Vance have both noticed that Pat is smaller than she used to be. When she visits a doctor, she finds that she's two inches shorter than she normally is. As the days pass, the phenomenon continues, but Pat insists that she not be treated any differently than she ever was. She stands on things to reach the kitchen countertop, and goes about her daily routine, which seems to be preparing meals and buying products. Eventually she's referred to doctors at the "Kleinman Institute", particularly Dr. Eugene Nortz (Henry Gibson) and Dr. Ruth Ruth (Elizabeth Wilson), who tell her that the reason she is shrinking has to do with the various chemicals she's been exposed to through her household products. They tell her to go home and wait for them to come up with an antidote, which she does, but secretly they are part of an secret company called "The Organization for World Management". They intend to somehow make a "shrink serum" from her blood and use it in a plot to shrink the entire world into subservient miniatures. Meanwhile, Pat's celebrity begins to increase the more she shrinks. Judith convinces her to leave the house on a grocery store run, and she sits on the edge of the shopping cart like a child. When she starts feeling self conscious about the gawkers she attracts, Judith smuggles her out of the store in a shopping bag. Eager to tell her story about how household chemicals caused her to shrink, she accepts an invitation to appear on the Mike Douglas Show, a daytime talk show, but Dan convinces Vance that she shouldn't reveal the cause of her plight, lest they risk losing clients in the agency. Pat begrudgingly obeys and claims she doesn't know why she's shrinking. Eventually Pat's size has decreased so much that she moves into a doll house that her family gives her for Christmas, along with a wardrobe of doll-sized clothing. She begins to lose control of her life due to her size; she can't control the kids anymore, her sex life with Vance disappears, and she has a hard time doing the household chores that she used to do, like cooking family meals. The evil doctors enlist Dan to help them lure the unsuspecting Pat into a position where they can exploit her, and at one point they make her a lucrative offer to be a spokesperson for more household products, but Pat refuses on principle. Finally they decide to kidnap Pat, and they get their chance the next morning when a freak mishap occurs. As she helps Concepcion prepare breakfast, Pat has an argument with Vance and the kids. Desperate after they leave, she loses her footing while standing on the kitchen counter and falls into the sink, landing in the garbage disposal. Concepcion comes back to the kitchen and starts cleaning up, shoving food into the garbage disposal and nearly drowning Pat with it. She almost turns on the disposal, but is interrupted by the doorbell, a distraction that the kidnappers use to gain entrance to the house through the back door. Pat manages to climb out of the garbage disposal and leaves one of her doll shoes behind. After the goons from The Organization for World Management kidnap her, Concepcion returns to the kitchen, only seeing Pat's shoe in the sink after she turns on the garbage disposal. Everyone assumes Pat is dead, and they hold a funeral service for her in the back yard, where they bury her shoe in a matchbox. In reality, Pat has been taken to a secret underground lab, where she is kept in a rat cage while the doctors study her. She shares space in the lab with a caged gorilla named Sidney (Rick Baker), who is extremely intelligent and seems to understand both spoken English and sign language. A lab assistant named Rob (Mark Blankfield) tells Pat that the doctors have told him that she's really just a clone of the real Pat Kramer, who they say is dead. Pat tries to tell him this isn't true, but he doesn't believe her. With Sidney's help, she does manage to gain access to a file folder on the table near her cage, where she reads all about her case and discovers the nefarious plans to shrink the world. Pat maneuvers her way to a telephone, again with Sidney's help, and manages to make a frantic phone call to Vance. Vance becomes hysterical upon learning that Pat has been kidnapped, but the doctors cut the phone call short when Dan tips them off that Pat has made communciation with the outside world Rob enters the lab and sees Pat making the call, but she manages to convince Rob that her story is true by showing him the top secret plans she found in the file folder. Rob bolts from the lab, but Pat and Sidney hear gunshots and fear Rob is dead. Pat is now trapped underneath a funnel, while Vance goes on national television and tells the world that Pat is alive and has been kidnapped. Pat and Sidney are overjoyed when Rob returns, still alive, and helps them escape. After a lengthy chase where numerous armed guards pursue them and fire at them, they manage to make it to the surface and exit the lab, which happens to be located underneath the very shopping center Pat used to patronize. The guards give chase, and the disruption causes shoppers to collide, resulting in a large puddle of laundry detergent and other household liquids. The guards back off when Rob gets the attention of the police, stomping on their feet so they will arrest him. Sidney deposits Pat on a table near the Cheese Tease man's microphone, where she gets everyone's attention over a loudspeaker. Judith is there too, holding a demonstration outside the supermarket, and everyone is stunned to see Pat still alive. She gives a brief speech where she says she felt like she had to warn everyone about the threat from corporations and products, but she says "You don't really need me to tell you what's wrong with the world." She tells Rob to make sure the secret plans get into the hands of the authorities. Already only a few inches tall, Pat begins to shrink away to nothing, and Vance and the children arrive just in time for her to say goodbye to them before she seems to vanish, the tiny garment she wore blows away in the breeze, landing in the puddle of liquids near the table. The onlookers are mortified, especially Pat's family and friends. Unseen by anybody, the puddle begins to swirl, seemingly on its own. Later that night, in a tribute to Pat, countries around the world simultaneously salute her with church bells, the news programs giving coverage and linking via satellite. Outside the Kramer residence, a police car discreetly pulls up and an officer comes to the front door, saying "This lady says she belongs here." A normal-sized Pat bursts inside, ecstatic to be home. The family is shocked and elated, and Concepcion screams and collapses. Sidney is at the house, too, and the kids tell her Vance said it would be alright if he lived with them. Pat babbles that the puddle seems to have reversed the shrinking process, returning her to her normal size. Vance tries to put her wedding ring back on, but it won't fit, and as she contemplates this, the shoe she is wearing suddenly bursts as her foot seems to enlarge all on its own. Pat gives a cryptic smile--apparently she's not done growing.

A shy, twenty-four-year-old school teacher named Dorothy (Diana Ross) prepares a holiday supper at the New York City apartment of her adoptive parents, Aunt Em (Theresa Merrett) and Uncle Henry (Stanley Greene). While her family enjoys the festivities, Dorothy wonders why she is unable to share their happiness. Later, Aunt Em encourages Dorothy to accept a new job and venture out of Harlem, but Dorothy is afraid to leave home. Just then, her dog, Toto, runs outside into a snowstorm. Dorothy chases after Toto, and the two are swept up in a magic tornado, created by Glinda, "The Good," (Lena Horne) a sorceress who lives in the mystical Land of Oz. When the storm subsides, Dorothy finds herself a sandbox at a dark playground, where children are embedded in the concrete of city walls. Peeling themselves free, the youths show Dorothy that her arrival in Oz killed Evermean, the Wicked Witch of the East. Her surviving sister, Evillene (Mabel King), is the Wicked Witch of the West. Evermean was the city parks commissioner, and she turned the young "munchkins" into graffiti when she saw them painting on the playground walls. As Dorothy is praised for liberating the youngsters, a shopping bag-toting sorceress named "Miss One" (Thelma Carpenter) arrives and magically transfers Evermean's silver shoes onto Dorothy's feet. The young woman is terrified and wants to go home, so Miss One advises her to keep Evermean's slippers on her feet and seek help from the miraculous "Wiz," who lives in Emerald City. She tells Dorothy to follow the yellow brick road, but she does not know where it begins. Miss One and the children disappear, leaving Dorothy and Toto alone. As the sun rises, Dorothy discovers a Scarecrow (Michael Jackson) near a burned out housing project. Ridiculed by four crows, the Scarecrow begs to be released from his perch and laments that he does not have a brain. Dorothy shoos the birds aside, helps the Scarecrow down, and invites him to the Emerald City so he can ask the Wiz for a brain. When the Scarecrow discovers the beginning of the yellow brick road, the friends follow the avenue to an abandoned amusement park resembling Coney Island. There, a Tinman (Nipsey Russell) calls for help, explaining that he is rusted and cannot move. As Dorothy and the Scarecrow carefully move his joints, the Tinman regrets he is unable to feel. They encourage him to ask the Wiz for a heart, and the three continue along the yellow brick road. At the deserted facade of the New York Public Library, a stone statue Lion (Ted Ross) breaks free and terrifies the companions, but he sobs when Toto nips his ankle. The Lion explains he is not brave, after all, and the friends persuade him to ask the Wiz for courage. In a subway train station, the foursome is followed by an eerie peddler and pursued by various monsters made up of support columns, but the Lion chases them away. Continuing along the road, the friends come to the "red light district" of Oz, where "Poppy Love Perfume" is pumped into an alleyway of half-dressed women. The Scarecrow realizes they have fallen into a trap, but Dorothy and the Lion are drugged by the poppy scent and become unconscious, whereas the Scarecrow and Tinman (who do not have internal organs, such as lungs to inhale the scent, are immune). Believing his friends to be dead, the Tinman cries, but his tears drip onto their faces and awaken them. Just then, the sun rises in the shape of an apple and the Emerald City appears in the distance as the skyline of New York City. The four cross the yellow brick road along the Brooklyn Bridge, only to find a heavily guarded vault door entrance to the city. A doorman refers them to the service entrance but notices Dorothy's silver slippers and quickly lets the travelers in. There, a cluster of enormous jewels are illuminated in green light between the twin towers of the World Trade Center. As finely dressed citizens carouse in the jade glow, the Wiz makes an announcement over a loudspeaker, declaring that Emerald City's color has been changed to red. When the city takes on a scarlet hue, the Wiz changes his mind again, and announces that yellow is the new fashion. The courtyard turns gold. The Wiz demands to see Dorothy, but she refuses to meet him without her friends. Taking an elevator to the top of the building, the companions see an enormous, fire-breathing mask. Terrified, they ask the Wiz for a brain, a heart, courage, and a way home, but the Wiz wants Dorothy's silver slippers in return. When she protests, he orders the team to kill Evillene, the Wicked Witch of the West. Outside the gates of Emerald City, the guards lead the companions to a sewer where Evillene runs a "sweat shop" and rules her slaves from a bejeweled toilet. She summons her foul-smelling flying monkeys to capture Dorothy and her friends, and the creatures go after them on motorcycles. When they are brought back to Evillene's warehouse, the witch demands the return of her dead sister's slippers. Dorothy refuses and the Scarecrow is cut in half by a power saw. Meanwhile, the Tinman is flattened by a steam press and the Lion is hung from the rafters by his tail. When Evillene threatens to throw Toto into a furnace, Dorothy agrees to surrender the shoes. As she sits to remove them, the Scarecrow nods toward a fire extinguisher. Dorothy sets off the overhead sprinklers and the warehouse is showered with water. Evillene is sucked down her toilet bowl throne. The witch's servants repair Dorothy's mangled friends, celebrate their freedom, and peel off their sweatshop costumes to discover human bodies beneath. The flying monkeys drive Dorothy and friends back to the Emerald City, and leave them at the "back door." Inside, they find the Wiz's mask head toppled over and realize they were manipulated by a false prophet. Apologizing, the Wiz (Richard Pryor) explains he was never powerful, but rather a failed politician named "Herman Smith" from Atlantic City, New Jersey. As part of a campaign to be elected Dog Catcher, he hovered above the city in a hot air balloon to distribute fliers. However, he was swept away by a storm and landed in Oz many years earlier. The residents of Emerald City had never seen an aircraft and proclaimed him "the Wiz." He has lived in solitude ever since, fearing his true identity would be revealed. Dorothy's friends lament they will never have a brain, a heart, or courage, but she reminds them that they had these qualities all along. Just then, Glinda, "the Good," appears in a starry sky. She tells Dorothy that home is not just a place. It is the understanding of one's own mind, heart, and courage. Glinda promises the girl that she can be at home anywhere in the world as long as she believes in herself. When Dorothy learns she can return to Harlem by clicking the heels of her silver slippers three times, the Wiz asks for help getting home. She advises him to go on his own journey of self-discovery. Dorothy bids her friends farewell, clicks her heels, and returns to the snowy street outside her apartment building.

On a Friday July morning in downtown Los Angeles, a middle aged ex-convict, Lonnie (Ivan Dixon), greets his fellow workers at the Dee-Lux Car Wash, including: Hippo (James Spinks), a large good natured man; Snapper (Clarence Muse), an elderly shoe shiner; Geronimo (Ray Vitte), a thin, African-American with feathers in his hair; Goody (Henry Kingi), a Native American who wears a hat with pig ears; T.C. (Franklyn Ajay), who dons a three piece suit and a large Afro hairstyle; Chuco (Peppe Serna), an Hispanic Casanova; and Scruggs (Jack Kehoe), a cowboy and fuel pump operator. The men change into their orange overalls as Earl (Leonard Jackson), their uptight supervisor, orders them to work when Leon "Mr. 'B" Barrow (Sully Boyer), the owner of the car wash, drives up with his college-aged son, Irwin (Richard Brestoff), who spouts communist philosophy and carries around Mao Zedong's Little Red Book. Marsha (Melanie Mayron), the busty cashier, opens the office. Two of the employees also introduced are Floyd (Darrow Igus) and Lloyd (DeWayne Jessie), they are singing musicians who have an audition for an agent at the end of their shift and spend the entire movie doing their jazz-blues dance moves in front of bewildered customers. Another employees is Charlie (Arthur French), a perpetually sick middle-aged employee. Meanwhile, a prostitute, Marleen (Lauren Jones), sneaks out of a cab to avoid paying the fare and hides in the car wash's ladies room. Earl is furious when worker Duane (Bill Duke) strolls in late. The tall African American refuses to answer why his late for work and also why he didn't show up for work yesterday. Duane tells Earl not to call him anymore by his so-called slave name, "Duane," and insists he be addressed as Abdulla Mohammed Akbar, as he is recent Muslim convert. Lonnie tries to be friendly towards Duane/Abdulla, but the young and angry black Muslim refuses to talk to or confide in Lonnie either about what is bothering him. As the men work, they dance to disco music, but the radio show is interrupted by a news bulletin announcing the threat of a "pop bottle bomber," who fashions soda bottles into bombs and blows up small businesses. Meanwhile, Irwin, who just smoked a marijuana cigarette, informs his father, "Mr. B," that he wants to join his "exploited brothers" washing cars, but Irwin slips, goes through the car wash, and gets a hot wax treatment. When the radio promises concert tickets to the first caller to correctly identify a song, T.C. rushes to the telephone booth, but he does not have a dime to make the call. As he screams in frustration, a Mercedes automobile arrives with a boy vomiting out the window. The mother (Lorraine Gary) tells Chuco to wash the car, as she drags the boy to the ladies' room. She bangs on the locked door until Marleen comes out wearing a new wig. When the woman returns to her spotless Mercedes, she accuses Chuco of shoddy workmanship and withholds her 5¢ tip, but her son vomits all over her and the car's interior as she leaves. Later, Reverend Daddy Rich (Richard Pryor) and the sexy Wilson sisters (The Pointer Sisters) arrive in a gold-painted Cadillac. The workers swarm to hear the Reverend preach the gospel of prosperity. Only Duane/Abdulla refuses to listen to his words despite the Wilson Sisters performing a song in front of him and everyone as Daddy Rich collects donations and leaves in his limo. A little later, when a Doberman Pinscher escapes from a vehicle, Scruggs catches the dog, but not before it excretes in the parking lot, and Earl orders Goody and Chuco to clean up the mess with a discarded donut box. Afterward, Chuco puts on Goody's pig hat, sticks his face against a frosted window and oinks, scaring the cashier Marsha while she is using the ladies' room. When Chuco returns Goody's hat, Marsha mistakenly believes Goody is the culprit and dumps a bucket of cold water over him, but Goody later gets even with Chuco by putting hot chillis in Chuco's sandwich. T. C. takes his lunch break at a café across the street and asks Mona (Tracy Reed), a waitress, for a date. She refuses, claiming she is through with dating men who have no future. Later, "Mr. B" propositions Marsha for sex and she tells him she has to check if she is free. Through most of this, Scruggs talks with his best friend Geronimo about calling Scruggs' wife, Charlene, since Scruggs never came home from work the previous day having spent it with Geronimo at a brothel. The sly and womanizing Geronimo gives Scruggs advice to be patient for Scruggs' wife will welcome him home at the end of the day like any other loyal wife. Meanwhile, Hippo pays Marleen to have sex with him in the storage room. Back on the wash line, Irwin preaches communism to the workers, but Duane cuts the boy off, claiming that when the revolution comes, whites will be working for black men. Lonnie tries to mentor Duane/Abdullah while struggling to raise two young children, who visit the car wash. Lonnie also fends off his parole officer who makes an unannounced visit to check up on him. At the same time, Duane/Abdullah confronts the drag queen employee Lindy (Antonio Fargas) and sharply criticizes his cross-dressing, to which Lindy coolly replies, "I'm more man than you'll ever be and more woman than you'll ever get". Seeing a van parked across the street, Duane leaves to talk to the driver. When Duane returns, Lonnie warns him to stay away from the driver, who is a fellow ex-convict. Employee Justin (Leon Pinkney) clashes with his girlfriend, Loretta (Renn Woods), who wants him to go back to college, but he refuses out of the feeling that a black man like him will not get anywhere in the world with any kind of education. She refuses to get married to him unless he goes back to college. It is also revealed that Snapper is Justin's elderly grandfather and he is a follower of Daddy Rich. As another news report about the "soda pop" bomber is broadcast over the radio, a man (Professor Irwin Corey) fitting the bomber's description drives up, asks Hippo for his soda bottle, and disappears into the men's bathroom. Hippo warns T.C. that the man will blow up the car wash. When the man comes out of the bathroom, T. C. grabs the bottle and runs away screaming. Another customer tackles T.C. and the bottle smashes onto the concrete, revealing a urine sample for the man's liver test. Meanwhile, a handsome man arrives and asks Marsha for a date. She agrees, then tells "Mr. B" she cannot meet him later because she has to visit her sister. Sly (Garrett Morris), a con artist employee and bookie, gets arrested by the police at the car wash for a series of unpaid parking tickets. At the end if the day, "Mr. B" fires Duane over his unexplained absences from work for the past several weeks, and Duane angrily confronts and physically threatens Mr. B. However, Lonnie prevents his friend from assaulting their boss, who storms away. When Lonnie asks "Mr. B" to rehire Duane, and also for a raise, "Mr. B" claims he has no time to talk and Lonnie storms away in frustration. Later, "Mr. B" follows Lonnie to the locker room, promising to continue their conversation the next day. When Scrugg's wife shows up at the car wash, she instead throws him a suitcase containing all his clothes, thus throwing him out of their house for staying out all night and cheating on her. Geronimo makes a hasty retreat, and Scruggs ends his friendship with Geronimo for giving him bad marriage advice. As the car wash closes for the day, T.C. telephones the radio station and finally wins tickets for the concert. After T.C. changes back to his suit, he goes to the diner and asks Mona to accompany him. She agrees to go to the concert. As Justin and his grandfather Snapper wait for the bus to pick them up, Loretta arrives in her car to drive home with Justin, and he agrees to talk about his career choices next week. Earl leaves to discover the donut box of dog excrement on his car, while Geronimo and Goody drive away with Goody yelling "you clean it up!" Scruggs leaves the car wash alone with his suitcase to spend the night someplace else. Lonnie volunteers to close the office so Marsha can keep her date. As he counts the cash, Duane enters with a revolver, demanding the money, but Lonnie refuses, explaining that he will not allow Duane to go to prison for such a small sum. Duane is unable to shoot Lonnie and cries that he is unable to deal with life's pressures. Lonnie embraces his friend and says they will figure out a solution together. In the final shot, Marleen watches the men leave as she waits for her next customer.