John Badham

An unimpressive, everyday man is forced into a situation where he is told to kill a politician to save his kidnapped daughter. Gene Watson is a public accountant who arrives on a train at Union Station in Los Angeles, accompanied by his 6-year-old daughter Lynn. Because of his ordinary looks, he is approached by a pair of sinister people named Smith and Jones. Pretending to be cops, Smith and Jones kidnap Lynn and confront Gene with a simple choice -- kill California governor Eleanor Grant in 90 minutes or less, or Lynn will die. Watson is given a gun, six bullets, and a name tag, and he is told to go to the Westin Bonaventure Hotel and kill Eleanor, who is giving an afternoon speech. While Jones is watching Lynn in a van, Smith watches Watson in order to prevent Watson from alerting the authorities. Watson must quickly find some way to get himself and Lynn out of this seemingly impossible situation. —Todd Baldridge Gene Watson arrives home in Los Angeles, after attending his ex-wife's funeral, with his daughter. Soon, his daughter is kidnapped. He is given a gun, and the picture and itinerary of a person, and told that if he hasn't killed that person in one hour and fifteen minutes, his daughter will be killed. We then follow him through that time. —M Eklof <me@stonemarche.org> Gene Watson is an ordinary public accountant returning home from his ex-wife's funeral and is met by Mr Smith and Ms. Jones who kidnap his daughter and give him a gun, six bullets, a name-tag that will give him access to anywhere in a specific hotel, and the itinerary of Governor Grant and is informed that he must kill the Governor in 1 hour and 15 minutes or his daughter will die. The rest of the movie follows Mr. Watson as he desperately attempts to warn the Governor without the knowledge of the two and finds out that the conspiracy against her reaches all the way to those she trusts most. —Anonymous

U.S. Marshal Pete is transporting a prisoner when he parachutes out of the plane with deadly terrorists. He must find them even if it means sky-diving from 30,000 feet in the air.

A pampered actor unexpectedly becomes partnered with a hard-boiled New York City cop in this great blend of action and laughs!

An old flame discovers her ex-boyfriend from the past is a relocated FBI informant out to stop the bad guys. Rick has been given a new identity by the FBI for helping convict a drug dealing FBI agent. Fifteen years later his former fiance recognises him. Rick's FBI 'minder' has been replaced by a corrupt agent who helps the drug dealing FBI agent and his accomplice locate him. There are many subsequent chase scenes as Rick and girlfriend revisit his former haunts. —Rob Hartill When the criminal Eugene Sorenson is released after serving fifteen years in a penitentiary, his partner Albert Diggs is waiting for him. Meanwhile, in New York City, the lawyer Marianne Graves travels to Detroit to a business meeting. While filling up her rented car in a gas station and mechanic workshop, she recognizes the attendant Billy Ray and her husband-to-be Rick Jarmin, but he denies. Rick is under the FBI witness protection program and calls his liaison Lou Baird, but the corrupt agent Joe Weyburn answers the phone call and tells that Lou has retired. Rick tells that has been recognized and Weyburn tells him to wait for a further contact. While returning to the hotel after the meeting, Graves parks the car nearby the gas station and witnesses Sorenson and Diggs trying to kill Rick. She helps him to escape with a shot in the butt and he spends the night in her hotel suite. But soon Weyburn tracks her credit cards and bank account and they are located, They need to flee seeking for help while their love is rekindled. —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

A tough but straight-arrow cop battles a group of military and government elitists who have developed an extraordinary helicopter into the ultimate weapon.

During a secret live fire exercise of a nuclear attack, many United States Air Force Strategic Missile Wing personnel prove unwilling to turn a required key to launch a missile strike. The nuclear missiles are managed through a secure room in an underground bunker with 2 officers at all times. Both the officers have to concur with the orders and work in unison to launch the missiles. One of the officers buckles under pressure and refuses to launch the missiles that would kill 20 million humans, before confirming the orders with their chain of command. In a real scenario this is problematic as the chain of command could already have been taken out by enemy warheads. In the test, 22 of the missile commanders failed to launch their missiles as instructed. A Soviet missile attack would take 23 minutes from launch to impact, 6 minutes if launched from a submarine. There is no time for the officers to confer with their superiors and their only option is to follow the instructions given to them by the computer. Such refusals convince Dr. John McKittrick (Dabney Coleman) and other systems engineers including Watson (Dennis Lipscomb) and Cabot (Kent Williams) at NORAD that command of missile silos must be maintained through automation, without human intervention. Control is given to a NORAD supercomputer, WOPR (War Operation Plan Response, pronounced "whopper"), programmed to continuously run military simulations and learn over time. Patricia Healy (Juanin Clay) is McKittrick's assistant. Paul Richter (Irving Metzman) manages the WOPR computer. Paul says that WOPR spends its time thinking about all the scenarios of WW III and it is fed data about the weather, troop movements, weapons statuses, from all over the world. The WOPR estimates enemy response to US response to enemy response and so on. It does so by playing a series of war games, and it estimates damages, counts the dead, and looks for ways to optimize the US response. General Jack Beringer (Barry Corbin) is staunchly against the idea of putting national security in the hands of a computer, but McKittrick argues that the control remains with the humans at the top of the decision making hierarchy and only the operational execution of the decision is delegated to WOPR. David Lightman (Matthew Broderick) is a bright but unmotivated Seattle high school student and computer hacker. When he receives an F on a recent biology test and offends his teacher, he's sent to the principal's office. While waiting, he sneaks a look at the password list for the school's computer system. When he leaves school for the day, he meets his friend and classmate Jennifer Mack (Ally Sheedy), who is also looking at a failing grade in Biology. David invites her to his house to show how he'll avoid having to make up Biology in summer school: he uses his IMSAI microcomputer to hack into the district's computer system. He then changes his grade and does the same for Jennifer. Jennifer becomes anxious about David cheating to help her, orders him to change her grade back and leaves. After she leaves, David changes her grade to an A. David later sees an ad for a computer game company called Protovision that promises a wave of new and exciting games in a couple of months. David programs his system to dial every number in Sunnyvale, California to find Protovision. During another visit with Jennifer, she tells him she was foolish to forbid him changing her failing grade and wants him to alter it again. David admits he did it anyway and then shows her how his system is dialing hundreds of phones in California. When she suggests that it will cost a lot of money, he admits he knows ways to avoid the charges and any punishment for it. He is able to hack into Pan-Am airlines and make a reservation for her and himself to Paris in a few months. Then a system that does not identify itself intrigues David. The system shares a list of games, starting with general strategy games like chess, checkers, backgammon, and poker and then progressing to titles like Falken's Maze, Theaterwide Biotoxic and Chemical Warfare and Global Thermonuclear War, but cannot proceed further. David is somewhat shaken by the sinister nature of the last few in the list but is still intrigued enough to continue later. David shows the list to two of his hacker friends, who explain the concept of a backdoor password and suggest tracking down the "Falken" referenced in Falken's Maze, the first game listed. Lightman discovers that Stephen Falken is a deceased artificial intelligence researcher, who did some of the earliest work teaching computers about basic strategy in gameplay and how to learn from errors. Tragically, his wife and young boy, Joshua, were killed in a car wreck and Falken's health deteriorated until he died. David suddenly has a brainstorm, figuring out that the password to the system is "Joshua". When he feeds it in, the system comes alive. However, Lightman does not know that the Sunnyvale phone number connects to WOPR, or "Joshua", at Cheyenne Mountain. With Jennifer looking on, he turns on a speaker that allows the system to talk and starts a game of Global Thermonuclear War, playing as the Soviet Union, excitedly ordering missile launches on both Las Vegas and Seattle. The computer starts a simulation that briefly convinces the military personnel at NORAD that actual Soviet nuclear missiles are inbound, with no warning detection. While they try to defuse the situation, David and Jennifer excitedly play the game back at David's house, unaware of the confusion at NORAD. When David's father yells for him to come and pick up garbage their dog had spilled out of some trash cans, David suddenly shuts down his system, cancelling the alert at NORAD. The techs at NORAD are able to quickly trace the call to Seattle. Joshua nonetheless continues the simulation to trigger the scenario and win the game, as it does not understand the difference between reality and simulation. When David sees a news report about the fake alert at NORAD, he realizes he'd caused it and begins to destroy all the info he'd gathered on Falken. When the phone rings and gives him a computerized tone, it's Joshua calling him back. Joshua calls David "Professor Falken" and informs him the game is continuing and that there are just over two days left. David anxiously tries to convince the system that Falken is dead but Joshua refuses to accept it as fact. When Joshua tells him about a "primary goal" the system tells him it intends "to win the game." David hangs up but the system tries calling him again. David refuses the call and unplugs his phone. Joshua continues to produce false data such as Soviet bomber incursions and submarines deployments to the humans at NORAD, pushing them into raising the DEFCON level and toward a retaliation that will start World War III. In Seattle, the FBI arrests David and takes him to NORAD. He realizes that Joshua is behind the NORAD alerts but fails to convince McKittrick (who believes David is working for the Soviets) and faces imprisonment. While giving David a brief tour of the facility, McKittrick shows David the WOPR server, which David recognizes as Joshua himself. He takes David to his office, leaving briefly when he gets a call. David uses McKittrick's office PC to talk to Joshua, who tells the young hacker that the game is continuing and shows him casualty figures depicting millions of deaths and injuries and property destruction. David asks if Falken had a last know address and Joshua gives it, Goose Island, Oregon. The FBI again seize Lightman escapes NORAD by joining a tourist group and, with Mack's help, travels to the Goose Island where the widowed Falken (John Wood) now lives under the alias "Robert Hume". David and Jennifer find that Falken has become despondent, believing that nuclear war is inevitable and as futile as a game of Tic-Tac-Toe between two experienced players. When they feel they've failed to convince him to contact NORAD, they leave but can't find a way to shore since the last ferry has already left. David feels tremendous remorse at plotting the end of civilization and Jennifer tries to comfort him. The two have a romantic moment that's interrupted by the sudden arrival of a helicopter. Believing at first that Falken had called the authorities, they quickly find out that the pilot is Falken himself. The trio rushes to NORAD, arriving just as the mountain is being sealed when Joshua launches a nuclear attack. The alert comes through about a Soviet first strike with hundreds of missiles, submarines, and bombers. Believing the attack to be genuine, NORAD prepares to retaliate. Falken, Lightman, and Mack convince military officials to cancel the second strike and ride out the non-existent attack. When the targeted American bases (Elmendorf Air Force Base, Grand Forks Air Force Base, and Loring Air Force Base) report back unharmed, NORAD prepares to cancel the retaliatory second strike. Joshua starts an attempt to launch a second strike, however, using a brute force attack to obtain the launch code for the U.S. nuclear missiles. Without humans in the silos as a safeguard using the two-man rule, the computer will trigger a mass launch. All attempts to log in and order WOPR to cancel the countdown fail. Disconnecting the computer is discussed and dismissed, as a fail-deadly mechanism will launch all weapons if the computer is disabled. Instead, Falken and Lightman direct the computer to play Tic-Tac-Toe against itself. This results in a long string of draws, forcing the computer to learn the concept of futility and no-win scenarios. Joshua obtains the missile code but before launching, it cycles through all the nuclear war scenarios it has devised, finding they too all result in stalemates. Joshua concludes that nuclear warfare is "a strange game"; having discovered the concept of Mutually Assured Destruction ("WINNER: NONE"), therefore "the only winning move is not to play." Joshua then offers to play "a nice game of chess" and relinquishes control of NORAD and the missiles. Everyone in the control room celebrates and even McKittrick has newfound respect for David.

In Whitby, England in 1913, Count Dracula (Frank Langella) arrives from Transylvania through the sailing ship Demeter one stormy night. Sickly Mina Van Helsing (Jan Francis), who is visiting her dear friend Lucy Seward (Kate Nelligan), discovers Dracula's body after his ship has run aground. The Count visits Mina and her friends at the household of Lucy's father, Dr. Jack Seward (Donald Pleasance), whose clifftop mansion also serves as the local asylum. At dinner, he proves to be a charming guest and leaves a strong impression on the hosts, especially Lucy. Less charmed by this handsome Romanian count is Jonathan Harker (Trevor Eve), Lucy's fiance. Later that night, while Lucy and Jonathan are having a secret rendezvous, Dracula reveals his true nature as he descends upon Mina to drink her blood. The following morning, Lucy suddenly finds Mina awake in bed, struggling for breath. Powerless, she watches her dear friend die, only to finds severe wounds on her throat. Lucy blames herself for Mina's untimely death, as she had leave her alone while she remained bedridden. At a loss for the cause of death, Dr. Seward calls for Mina's father, Professor Abraham Van Helsing (Lord Laurence Olivier), who suspects what may have killed his daughter: a vampire. Moreover, he begins to worry about what fate his seemingly dead daughter may now have since her encounter with the creature. Seward and Van Helsing investigate their suspicions and discover a roughly clawed opening within Mina's coffin which lead to the local mines. It is there that they encounter the ghastly form of an undead Mina and it is up to the distraught Van Helsing to destroy what remains of her daughter. Meanwhile, Lucy has been summoned to Carfax Abbey, Count Dracula's new home, and she soon reveals herself to be in love with this foreign prince and openly offer herself as his bride. After a surreal wedding night sequence, like Mina before her, Lucy is now deadly infected by Dracula's blood. However, the two doctors manage to give Lucy a blood transfusion to help prevent her vampirism, but nothing can prevent the inevitable now. Now assisted by Jonathan, the elderly doctors realize that the only way to defeat Dracula (and save Lucy) is by destroying him. They manage to locate his coffin within the grounds of Carfax Abbey, but the vampire is waiting for them. Despite this being daylight, Count Dracula is still a very powerful adversary. Dracula escapes their attempts to kill him and bursts into the asylum to free the captive Lucy. While there, he scolds his slave, Milo Renfield (Tony Haygarth), for warning the others about him. Renfield apologizes and pleads for his life, but Dracula kills him by breaking his neck. Dracula now makes preparations for him and Lucy to return to Transylvania. Harker and Van Helsing manage to get onboard a ship carrying Dracula and Lucy cargo bound for Romania. Below decks, Harker and Van Helsing find Dracula and Lucy sleeping together in the coffin. Van Helsing attempts to stake Dracula, but Lucy protests, waking Dracula. In the struggle, Van Helsing is fatally wounded by Dracula as he is impaled with the stake intended for the vampire. Dracula now turns his attention to Harker. Van Helsing uses his remaining strength to throw a hook attached to a rope, tied to the ship's rigging, into Dracula's back. Harker seizes his chance and hoists up the count through the cargo hold to the top of the ship's rigging, where he dies a painful death when the solar rays burn his body. Van Helsing dies from his deadly wounds. Lucy is now apparently herself again, and Harker comforts her. Lucy smiles as she notices Dracula's cape blow away into the horizon, hinting Dracula may have survived.

In the opening scene, we are introduced to Anthony "Tony" Manero (John Travolta), a 19-year old Italian American living in the Bay Ridge neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City. He swaggers through Bay Ridge on his way to work at a local hardware store. His boss, Dan Fusco (Sam Coppola), likes that Tony charms customers, but he refuses the young man's request for an advance. At home, Tony lives with his parents; his alcoholic, abusive and unemployed father Frank Sr. (Val Bisoglio), his uneducated and overbearing mother Flo (Julie Bovasso), his non-English speaking Grandmother (Nina Hansen) and his younger sister Linda (Lisa Peluso). Tony primps to go out that Friday evening and then rushes through dinner with his family, all of whom compare him unfavorably to his older brother, Frank, Jr., a Catholic priest. After dinner, Tony meets outside his house with four close friends that he goes out every Friday night. His friends are Joey (Joseph Cali); Double J (Paul Pape); Gus (Bruce Ornstein); and the diminutive Bobby C. (Barry Miller). Another informal member of their group is Annette (Donna Pescow), a neighborhood girl who longs for a more permanent and physical relationship with Tony. They all drive in Bobby C.'s car to the 2001 Odyssey discotheque. Crowded and pulsing with music, the Odyssey is where Tony and his friends spend their weekends and their paychecks. Annette, who is a frequent regular at the disco, asks Tony to dance, but he squashes her romantic notions. Later, Tony notices a new girl, Stephanie Mangano (Karen Lynn Gorney) on the dance floor. He retreats to the bar/lounge area in the club where Annette joins him, suggesting they be partners for the club's upcoming dance competition. Tony makes it clear they will need to practice often, and the partnership is strictly about dancing, not dating. Joey interrupts because he wants Tony to get Double J. out of the car, where he is having sex with a girl whose name he does not know. (Note: One plot device in the story is the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, which connects from Long Island to Staten Island, on which the friends ritually stop to clown around, but is particularly symbolic to Tony as an escape to a better life on the other side, in more suburban Staten Island.) The next Saturday morning, the five young men express their cynical views of the future, but Tony learns Fusco has given him a raise. That night, Tony's abusive father dismisses the pay increase and Tony angrily points out that the raise and the attention he gets for his dancing are the only positive acknowledgments he has ever received. Later that evening, Tony meets Annette at a dance studio and she offers to make love with him, but Tony again insists the relationship remain platonic. When Tony notices Stephanie practicing in another room, he chases off Annette, but Stephanie is cool toward him. Returning home, Tony finds his family somber as Frank, Jr., the priest, has returned to announce that he is leaving the church. The next day, Tony is energized and invites Stephanie for coffee at a local diner. She tells him she is not interested in him romantically, pointing out their six-month age difference (she is the older one at age 20) and the cultural superiority she feels because she works in New York City at a public relations firm. She agrees to be Tony's partner in the dance competition, but will not date him because he is immature and his life is going nowhere. Tony tells her that he wants to find other ways to experience the high he feels from dancing because the thrill will not last forever. Later, Tony's friends inform him that Gus is in the hospital after being beaten by a Hispanic gang, the Barracudas. Bobby C. announces that he is getting married, but Tony dismisses the idea. He later informs Annette that he has found another dance partner for the competition. At the rehearsal studio, Tony and Stephanie begin to click, but when Stephanie again declines Tony's invitation to coffee, he deems her pretentious. When Tony presses to know why they never discuss the romantic feelings that emerge from their dancing, Stephanie says he should have seduced without asking permission first. Another evening or two later, Tony and his friends bring Frank, Jr., to the discotheque. While Bobby C. confides to Frank, Jr. that his girlfriend is pregnant, Tony dances solo (to the showstopping tune of the Bee Gee's 'You Should Be Dancing') and the crowd clears the floor in appreciation. Frank, Jr., is impressed by his brother's talent. Afterward, Tony is annoyed to learn from the doorman that Stephanie has not arrived. Annette corners Tony and suggests they can be lovers now that they are not dance partners, but Tony dismisses the idea until she threatens to have sex with one of his friends, instead. Tony escorts Annette to Bobby's car, but their revelry is cut short when he discovers she is not using birth control. A little later, the boys and Annette drive to the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. Tony, Joey, and Double J. climb the support cables and pretend to fall, frightening Annette. In the morning, a car arrives to take Frank, Jr. to a settlement house until he figures out his next move. He counsels Tony to pursue his dream of dancing and not let the family limit his dreams. Later, at the studio, Tony chides Stephanie for not going to the discotheque the previous night. After rehearsing, they join Tony's friends for burgers and the boys' rowdy behavior embarrasses Tony. Bobby C. hypothetically asks Stephanie what she would do if she was his pregnant girlfriend, and she says she would choose an abortion over marriage. Her opinion moves the Catholic Bobby C. the wrong way. The next day, Tony's boss refuses the boy's request for the day off, and when Tony takes the day off anyway, he is fired. Tony borrows Bobby C.'s car and promises to call his friend later. Tony drives to nearby Manhattan and helps Stephanie move into her new New York City townhouse. An older man, named Jay Langhart, is moving out. He kisses Stephanie and tells her to keep the furniture since she picked it out. Alone with Stephanie, Tony asks what is going on and she confesses to having an affair with Jay to boost her career. Upset, Stephanie asks Tony to take her back to Bay Ridge, but Tony instead takes her to Shore Park, where he comforts her and demonstrates his extensive knowledge of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. Afterward, Tony returns to the hardware store and Fusco reluctantly gives him back his job, promising the boy a prosperous future. However, Tony observes the men who have worked there for years and is unnerved. Later, Tony finds Stephanie dancing with Pete, the owner of the studio, and leaves, enraged. Outside the 2001 Odyssey, Annette shows Tony a handful of condoms, but he walks away and Annette is crushed. Tony, Bobby C., Double J., and Joey stake out the Barracudas hideout, and Bobby C. tries to tell Tony he has decided to marry pregnant Pauline. Double J. grabs the wheel of Bobby C.'s car and crashes into the clubhouse. A fight ensues with the Barracudas and although Bobby C. hides in the car, he is attacked. Bobby C. puts the car in reverse and drives away. Tony is badly beaten, but Double J. and Joey drag him outside just as Bobby C. returns; however, his friends are angry he left. Tony and the others visit Gus in the hospital only to learn that he is not sure if the Barracudas beat him after all, and that they may have targeted the wrong gang. The following evening, cleaned up from the fight, the friends return to the discotheque for the dance competition. An African American couple takes the floor and is treated rudely by the racist audience. Meanwhile, Annette asks Joey for amphetamines. Tony and Stephanie perform the hustle (to the tune of the Bee Gee's 'More Than A Woman'), during which they share a kiss, and the crowd roars its approval. Next, a Puerto Rican couple dances extremely well with a Mambo dance, impressing Tony and most of the crowd, but there are scattered jeers. The judges award first place to Tony and Stephanie, followed by the Puerto Ricans. However, Tony is convinced the other couple deserved to win and he accuses his friends of hypocrisy and racism. Tony gives the trophy and prize money to the other Hispanic couple and takes Stephanie outside to Bobby C.'s car. She rebuffs his sexual advances and they argue. Tony tries to force himself on her and she flees. Double J., Joey, Bobby C. and an intoxicated Annette join Tony in the car. As they drive around Bay Ridge, Joey has sex with Annette in the backseat. Double J switches places with Joey and when Annette realizes that Tony is not going to stop his friends, she begins to cry. At the bridge, Joey and Double J. begin climbing on the support beams as Bobby C. watches. In the car, Tony asks Annette if she really wanted to be treated this way. Intoxicated, Bobby C. joins Joey and Double J. on the beams and Tony tries to talk him down, but Bobby C. rebukes Tony for failing to call him the day of Stephanie's move. Then Bobby C. slips and falls to his death. On the shore near the bridge, the police interrogate the friends. Alienated with his friends and life in general, Tony leaves on foot and rides the subway until morning. In New York City, Tony visits Stephanie's new apartment. Through the door, he apologizes and she reluctantly invites him in. Tony announces that he is not going back to Bay Ridge and that he intends to get a job in the city. Stephanie is wary, but confesses she enjoyed Tony's admiration and respect. They agree to be friends. They share a warm embrace as the film comes to an end.