Kevin Bacon

A horrible toxic accident transforms downtrodden janitor Winston Gooze into a new evolution of hero: The Toxic Avenger.

A family returns from a Grand Canyon vacation with a supernatural presence in tow.

When two rebellious young boys stumble across an abandoned cop car hidden in a secluded glade they decide to take it for a joyride. When the small town sheriff (Kevin Bacon) goes looking for his missing car, the boys find themselves in the center of a deadly game of cat and mouse and the only way out is to go as fast as their cop car can take them.

Black Mass tells the story of James `Whitey` Bulger, a violent criminal from South Boston who later turned into an informant for the FBI. But behind this deal, was his own selfish motive. He wanted to eradicate the Italian Mafia stepping on his turf. But what happened next changed a lot of things. And that is what this film captures.

Jeff Bridges and Ryan Reynolds headline the 3D supernatural action-adventure R.I.P.D. as two cops dispatched by the otherworldly Rest In Peace Department to protect and serve the living from an increasingly destructive array of creatures who refuse to move peacefully into the afterlife.

A forty-something, straight-laced Cal Weaver (Steve Carell) is living a dream-good job, nice house, great kids and marriage to his high school sweetheart until he learns that his wife, Emily (Julianne Moore), has cheated on him and wants a divorce and he sees his ``perfect`` life come tumbling down. Worse, in today`s single world, Cal, who hasn`t dated in decades, stands out as the epitome of un-smooth.

Childhood friends Dave, Sean and Jimmy are forced to confront their past when a seemingly senseless murder reawakens the buried trauma of a crime that occurred 25 years ago.

A brilliant scientist`s discovery renders him invisible, but transforms him into an omnipotent, dangerous megalomaniac.

Tom Witzky (Kevin Bacon) is a phone lineman living in a working-class neighborhood in Chicago with his pregnant wife Maggie (Kathryn Erbe) and his son Jake (Zachary David Cope), who possesses the ability to commune with the dead. At a party one evening, Tom challenges Maggie's sister Lisa (Illeana Douglas), a believer in paranormal activity and psychic telepathy, to hypnotize him. After putting him under, Lisa plants a post-hypnotic suggestion in Tom urging him to "be more open-minded." Tom then begins experiencing visions of a violent scuffle involving a girl who he later learns is Samantha Kozac (Jennifer Morrison), a 17 year-old that disappeared from the neighborhood six months prior. While Tom and Maggie attend a high school football game, Jake is overheard by his babysitter, Debbie Kozac (Liza Weil), as he speaks with Samantha. Debbie gets upset and snatches Jake, running off with him in the night. Meanwhile, Tom senses Jake is in danger and rushes home but finds him gone. Tom then sees strange flashes of red light that eventually leads him to the 'L' station where Debbie is speaking with her mother about Jake. When Tom and Maggie confront her, Debbie angrily questions them about her sister Samantha, explaining that she had an intellectual disability: having the mental capacity of an 8 year-old and thus, a child's tendency to trust strangers. Tom denies knowing her to Debbie, but admits to Maggie that she's the girl in his visions. Tom becomes obsessed with Samantha and begins probing members of the community about her disappearance. This attracts the attention of his landlord Harry Damon (Conor O'Farrell), Tom's friend, Frank McCarthy (Kevin Dunn) and their respective sons Kurt Damon (Steve Rifkin) and Adam McCarthy (Chalon Williams), who all dismiss Samantha as a runaway teen. During an afternoon walk, Jake and Maggie encounter a funeral where Chicago policemen are saluting in a ceremony; here a policeman named Neil (Eddie Bo Smith Jr.) immediately recognizes Jake's unique talent and invites Tom to a private gathering of like-minded people to learn more about what is happening to his son. Maggie withholds her conversation with Neil from Tom and goes to the meeting herself where Neil tells her the spirit that contacted Tom has asked for something and will continue to get upset if it doesn't get done. As predicted, Samantha begins plaguing Tom, eventually leading to his insomnia. He goes back to Lisa demanding she undo what she did, but when she hypnotizes him he's told by the spirit to dig. Tom complies and begins digging holes in the backyard and eventually tears up the house in a desperate attempt to appease Samantha. While Maggie and Jake attend her grandmother's wake at a relative's house, Tom inadvertently knocks down a shoddy brick wall in the basement and discovers Samantha's decomposed remains wrapped in a plastic sheet. He receives a vision showing him that before his family moved in, Adam and Kurt lured Samantha into the house to rape her. When she resisted, they unintentionally suffocated her and hid her body. Tom brings Frank back to the basement to disclose to him the crime and Frank breaks down and admits that Adam and Kurt had already confided their secret to him and Harry. Frank pulls out a gun and demands to be alone. As Tom leaves the basement, he hears a single shot and assumes that Frank committed suicide. Harry and Kurt suddenly show up and Harry, in his capacity as landlord, voices displeasure with the torn up house. They corner Tom with the intention of killing him to silence him, but Maggie arrives back home and Harry takes her hostage. Frank suddenly emerges from the basement and fatally shoots both Kurt and Harry in order to save Tom and Maggie. Tom then notices Samantha's spirit putting on her glasses and coat, smiling as she walks down the road and disappears. Afterwards, the family packs up a U-Haul and moves out of the house. Meanwhile, Samantha's mother and sister are finally able to give her a proper funeral and burial. Tom and Maggie smile happily as they drive away but Jake, however, tries to cover his ears to drown out the sound of the overlapping voices in his head.

In the upscale Miami suburb of Blue Bay, wealthy student Kelly Van Ryan (Denise Richards) accuses her high school guidance counselor, Sam Lombardo (Matt Dillon), of sexually assaulting her. It was a Friday and Lombardo had just returned from a yacht class, late in the evening, while Kelly had completed her cheer-leading training. Kelly offers to wash Lombardo's car as part of the senior car wash program. Kelly arrives at Lombardo's place on Sunday with her friend Nicole (Toi Svane Stepp). Lombardo loves to take his air-boat to explore the Florida Everglades alone. Lombardo had been gone all Saturday and on Sunday the car was nice and dirty for the girls. Lombardo was dating Barbara (Jennifer Taylor). After the wash, Kelly asks Nicole to leave, and enters Lombardo's home. Barbara was already at the club. A short while later, Kelly exits the home looking livid. Kelly misses school on Monday and her mother Sandra talks to her, where she admits to Lombadro assaulting her. Sandra immediately lodges a complaint with the police. Kelly gives her testimony to the police and says that Lombardo did not ejaculate inside her. Detective Gloria Perez (Daphne Rubin-Vega) believes that Kelly is acting, but cannot get her to take a lie detector test as in Blue Bay Sandra is too powerful. Following the accusation, her outcast classmate Suzie Toller (Neve Campbell), who comes from a poor family in the Everglades, makes a similar accusation. Sam hires attorney Kenneth Bowden (Bill Murray) to defend him. Based on Suzie's testimony, specifically when she utters a phrase that apparently Lombardo said to her, which matched exactly to Kelly's testimony, Lombardo is arrested. Bowden is the only attorney in the Bay area who would go up against the Van Ryans. Barbara breaks up with Lombardo and he is expelled from the local club. At trial, Suzie succumbs to pressure during cross-examination and admits that she and Kelly concocted the false allegations to get revenge on Sam. Suzie was seeking revenge for Sam's failure to bail her out of jail on a minor drug charge, and Kelly was seeking revenge for Sam's affair with her mother, real estate heiress Sandra Van Ryan (Theresa Russell). Sam and Kenneth negotiate an $8.5 million settlement for defamation, which Sandra pays out using funds from a trust Kelly would receive only upon Sandra's death. After the payout, it is revealed that Sam and the two girls were accomplices, using the trial to extort money from Sandra. It is revealed that the three had been working and sleeping together and planned to split the money. Police detective Ray Duquette suspects the trio is working on a scam. Against the wishes of the district attorney's office, he continues investigating Sam. Ray (Kevin Bacon) tells both Kelly and Suzie that Lombardo transferred the money to an offshore account. Suzie starts to panic and goes to Kelly for help. Kelly assures Suzie that they can trust each other but separately tells Lombardo over the phone that they may have to get rid of her. Suzie overhears this and attacks Kelly in the pool. Both girls fight but eventually end up having sex in the pool. A few nights later, Kelly and Lombardo take an intoxicated Suzie to the beach. Lombardo is seen raising a bottle, and then Suzie is heard screaming. After wrapping the body in plastic, they throw it in the trunk of the car and drive out to the swamp, where Lombardo disposes of it. Suzie is reported missing by her family the next day and Duquette and his partner, Gloria (Daphne Rubin-Vega), are called in. Suzie's blood and teeth are later found on the beach and her car is found at the bus terminal. After seeing his continued investigation, his superior insists that he drop the case. Sam shows Gloria his files from the school on Kelly, which suggests she is troubled and violent. Regardless, he goes to Kelly's house to confront her. When he arrives, Kelly tries to seduce him and then she appears to attack him, shooting him in the arm, leaving him no choice but to kill her in self-defense. No charges are filed against Duquette, but he is fired and loses his pension. Later, it is revealed that Lombardo and Duquette had been working together the entire time. Although Lombardo is not pleased that Duquette killed Kelly instead of framing her as originally planned, Duquette insists that it leaves fewer loose ends. The two agree to go fishing on Lombardo's sailboat the following day. Once they are at sea, Lombardo knocks Duquette overboard, but he is able to climb back aboard and attack Lombardo. However, he is shot in the leg with a spear by Suzie, who is still alive. She shoots and kills Duquette as revenge for killing her friend, Davie, years before. Suzie then poisons Lombardo with a drink she poured for him and knocks him overboard, leaving him to drown. It is then revealed that Suzie had planned the whole thing in order to get all the money and revenge on both Lombardo and Duquette: Lombardo for leaving her in jail for a minor crime of possession for which she was imprisoned for 6 months, and Duquette for killing her friend Davie. Upon finding that Sam and Kelly were in a sexual relationship, Suzie blackmailed Sam with photographs of the two using drugs during sex, convincing him to help with her scheme. Suzie subsequently orchestrated the meeting between Sam and Ray at a local bar. During her staged murder on the beach, Suzie pulled out her own teeth with pliers to make her death appear legitimate. Ray shot Kelly first before shooting himself in the shoulder to pretend he killed her in self-defense. As for Kelly's death, she had not attacked Duquette as he had claimed. In reality, when she tried to escape the guest house when he entered, he punched her to incapacitate her then broke into the gun case and shot her twice with his gun. He then used her hand to shoot himself in the shoulder with her gun. Finally, with Kelly, Ray, and Sam all dead, Suzie is met by Kenneth, who gives her a briefcase full of cash that he describes as "just walking around money" and a check for millions of dollars. As she leaves, he tells her to "be good" before taking her drink.

Lorenzo "Shakes" Carcaterra (Jason Patric), Thomas "Tommy" Marcano (Billy Crudup), Michael Sullivan (Brad Pitt), and John Reilly (Ron Eldard) are four childhood friends who grew up in Hell's Kitchen, New York City in the mid-1960s. Hell's kitchen was an immigrant neighborhood and life was tough. Domestic violence was a daily occurrence, but the Kitchen also protected its own from outside criminals. During this time, the local priest, Father Bobby Carillo (Robert De Niro), plays a very important part in their lives and keeps an eye on them. They served as altar boys at the church. However, early on they start running small errands for a local gangster, King Benny (Vittorio Gassman). The boys also had a competition going on who could play the boldest prank. Mostly it was innocent stuff like sitting in the priest's chamber of the confession booth, or poking holes into walls to ogle at naked women changing clothes in the change rooms. On a summer day in 1967, their lives take a sharp turn when they almost kill a man after pulling a prank on a hot dog vendor. They accidentally roll the cart down a set of subway stairs, severely injuring an elderly man. As punishment, they are all sentenced to serve time at the Wilkinson Home for Boys in Upstate New York. Shakes is given six-to-twelve months, while the others are given 12-to-18 months. The juvenile center is full of hard-core offenders, with no method for rehabilitation. There, the boys are systematically beaten, abused, and sexually assaulted by guards Sean Nokes (Kevin Bacon), Henry Addison (Jeffrey Donovan), Adam Styler (Lennie Loftin), and Ralph Ferguson (Terry Kinney). These traumatic events change the boys and their friendship forever. Father Bobby visited the boys regularly, but Nokes warned them not to say anything else the reprisals would be severe. Father Bobby gives Shakes the strength to keep going. Mr. Carlson (John Slattery) is the English teacher at the facility and appreciates the interest that Shakes shows in the subject. Guard Marlboro (James Pickens Jr.) is the only one who tries to protect the boys a little bit from the brutality of the predators. When at the facility, the boys participate in Wilkinson's annual football game between the guards and inmates. Michael convinces inmate Rizzo Robinson (Eugene Byrd) to help win the game. Humiliated, the guards move the boys to solitary confinement for weeks, where they are systematically beaten. Rizzo does not survive, and his family is told he had died of pneumonia. In spring 1968, shortly before Shakes's release from Wilkinson, he suggests the boys publicly report the abuse. The others refuse, with Michael asserting that no one would believe them or care, and they vow to never speak of it again. The night before Shakes is released, Nokes and the other guards arrange a "farewell party", in which the four boys are brutally sexually assaulted worse than they have been before. Fourteen years later in 1981, John and Tommy, now gangsters, find Sean Nokes in a Hell's Kitchen pub. When John and Tommy confront him, he dismisses the abuse he put them through. They both shoot him dead in front of several witnesses. Mike, now an assistant District Attorney, arranges to be assigned to the case, secretly intending to botch the prosecution to use it as a means of getting revenge. Moreover, he and Shakes begin forging a plan to get their revenge on all the guards who abused them. Together with many of their lifelong friends, especially Carol (Minnie Driver), a social worker, and King Benny, they manage to carry out their revenge using information on all the Wilkinson guards compiled by Mike previously. Benny spreads the word not to touch Mike and forbids any hits on Mike for taking the case against John and Tommy. Mike says that all Juvenile records are destroyed after 7 years, so there is no link between them and the guards anymore. They hire Danny Snyder (Dustin Hoffman), a washed-up, alcoholic lawyer, to defend John and Tommy to make it seem as if the case is hopeless, allowing them to carry out their plan without being watched. Benny gets involved and 2 of the 4 witnessed change their minds about testifying against John and Tommy. Mike provides all the research to Danny to prove that one of the witnesses who testifies to have seen both John and Tommy walk out of the pub, was drunk at the time of the shooting. However, to clinch the case they need a key witness who can give John and Tommy an alibi. Shakes has a long talk with Father Bobby and tells him about the abuse they suffered at Wilkinson. Mike calls Ralph Ferguson as a character witness in court. Again, Danny has been provided a detailed list of questions to expose Ferguson and Nokes as serial abusers of kids at the juvenile facility. Ferguson breaks down under the strain of the questions and his oath and admits to all accusations against him and Nokes. After a few days of soul-searching, Father Bobby agrees to lie on the stand about where John and Tommy were on the night of the shooting; the priest swears under oath that they were with him at Madison Square Garden at a New York Knicks basketball game. As a result, they are acquitted. The remaining guards are also punished for their crimes: one, Henry Addison, is killed by the drug gang run by the older brother of Rizzo (who was informed by Benny about Addison's crimes against Rizzo), a boy killed years before in the Wilkinson Home; the other, Adam Styler, a corrupt policeman accused of extorting and killing a drug dealer, is exposed, and arrested. Mike and Shakes had provided all the evidence against Adam to a detective, who was Benny's cousin. After the case is over, Mike quits his job as an attorney and moves to the English countryside where he becomes a carpenter; John drinks himself to death and Tommy is eventually murdered, both within a few years of the acquittal.

Apollo 13 tells the story of the 1970`s ill-fated moon voyage. When a fuel leak threatens three astronauts, the ground crew and mission team must struggle to avert catastrophe.

In New York City, an elderly woman and her granddaughter are walking through Central Park, looking for a memorial statue. As they seat themselves for a rest, the grandmother recounts a story about Nome, Alaska. In 1925, a wolfdog named Balto (Kevin Bacon of Footloose) lives on the outskirts of Nome with his adoptive father, a Russian snow goose named Boris, and two polar bears, Muk and Luk. Balto is ridiculed by dogs and humans alike for his half-breed heritage. His only friends in town are a young girl named Rosy and her red husky Jenna whom Balto has a crush on. He is challenged by the town's favorite sled dog Steele, a fierce and arrogant Alaskan Malamute, and his teammates, Nikki, Kaltag, and Star. That night, Rosy and all the children in Nome are stricken with diphtheria. Severe winter weather conditions prevent medicine from being brought by air or sea from Anchorage, and the closest rail line ends in Nenana. After authorization to transport the antitoxin by rail is given by the Governor of Alaska in Juneau, a dog race is held to determine the best-fit dogs for a sled dog team to get the medicine. Balto enters and wins, but is disqualified after Steele exposes his wolf-dog heritage. The team departs that night with Steele in the lead and picks up the medicine successfully. On return, deteriorating conditions leave the disoriented team stranded at the base of a steep slope with the musher knocked unconscious. When the news reaches Nome, Balto sets out in search of them with Boris, Muk, and Luk. On the way, a huge grizzly bear attacks them, but Jenna, who followed their tracks, intervenes. The bear pursues Balto out onto a frozen lake, where it falls through the ice and drowns. Muk and Luk save Balto from a similar fate but Jenna is injured and cannot continue. Balto instructs Boris and the polar bears to take her back home while he continues alone. Balto eventually finds the team, but Steele refuses his help and attacks him until he loses his balance and falls off a cliff. Balto takes charge of the team, but they lose their way again since Steele had sabotaged the trail by creating false markers. Balto falls while attempting to save the medicine from falling down a cliff. Back in Nome, Jenna explains Balto's mission to the other dogs as Steele returns, lying that the team including Balto, is dead. Jenna sees through his deception and she assures Balto will return with the medicine. Using a trick Balto showed her earlier, Jenna places broken colored glass bottles on the outskirts of town and shines a lantern on them to simulate the lights of an aurora, hoping it will help guide Balto home. When Balto regains consciousness, he is ready to lose hope, until a large white wolf appears. Noticing the intact medicine crate nearby, he realizes that his part-wolf heritage is a strength and not a weakness, and drags the medicine back up the cliff to the waiting team. Balto's advanced senses filter out the false markers Steele had created. After encountering further challenges through an ice bridge, an avalanche, and an ice cavern, and losing only one vial, Balto and the sled team finally return to Nome. A pity-playing Steele is abandoned by the other dogs who realize the truth about him. Reunited with Jenna and his friends, Balto earns respect from both the dogs and the humans. He visits a cured Rosy, who thanks him for saving her. Back in the present, the elderly woman and her granddaughter finally find the statue of Balto and she explains that the Iditarod trail covers the same path that Balto and his team took from Nenana to Nome. The woman, who is actually Rosy, repeats the same line "Thank you, Balto. I would have been lost without you". She walks off to join her granddaughter and her Siberian Husky Blaze. The Balto statue stands proudly in the sunlight.

A Boston couple, Gail (Meryl Streep) and Tom (David Strathairn) are having marital problems. Gail, a rafting expert, decides to take their child Roarke (Joseph Mazzello) on a holiday rafting down the Salmon River in Idaho, along with their pet dog. At the last minute Tom joins them. As they are setting off they meet a couple of other rafters, Wade (Kevin Bacon) and Terry (John C. Reilly), who appear to be friendly. After a day's rafting the family make camp for the night, but Tom continues to work on his laptop computer rather than enter fully into the experience. The family are joined by Wade and Terry who help to celebrate Roarke's birthday. Gail flirts with Wade. However, after a while Wade begins acting suspiciously and Gail decides it would be best to part ways. During the morning's rafting Wade reveals to Roarke that they have a gun with them. As they raft down the river the parents discuss an exit strategy that will allow them to leave the two men behind, and at lunch they attempt to leave on their raft and get away before Wade and Terry realize what is going on. Their attempt fails and Wade pulls the gun on them and assaults Tom. Gail then realizes that an armed robbery she had heard about was actually carried out by Wade and Terry, and their rafting trip is actually a way for them to get away. The family are forced to raft at gunpoint down the rest of the river before they all set up camp for the night. During the night Tom attempts to steal the gun off the sleeping Terry but is heard and has to run into the bushes and to the river. Wade gives chase and believes he has shot him when he hears a loud splash into the water. It's revealed that Wade and Terry, in order to aid their escape, want to go on down the river to a set of rapids where in recent years one person was killed and another was left paralyzed. Consequently, rafting is no longer allowed. Wade and Terry force the rafters down through the rapids despite Gail's repeated attempts to flip the raft and so force Wade and Terry out of the river. Meanwhile a park ranger (Benjamin Bratt), who knows Gail, is white water canoeing down the river. He bumps into the group; but Wade holds the gun to Gail's back and pretends that everything is OK. Later, he appears again but this time Wade shoots him and he falls dying into the river. Tom reappears and manages to flip the raft. Gail and Roarke, who have been tied to the raft by Wade, remain in the raft and to get hold of the gun, which had fallen into the water. whilst Tom is fighting Terry. The struggle ends when Gail throws the bag of money into the water and shoots Wade whose dead body floats off down river. The film ends with the family and Terry (who has been arrested) being helicoptered out.

A young Navy lawyer, Daniel Kaffee risks his career to uncover the truth during a military trial where two Marines are accused of murdering a member of their platoon.

The tumultuous relationship between the co-hosts of a morning news segment is explored from the point of view of both the man and the woman. Dan and Lorie are journalists working in the same office. More often than not they have opposing view of the issue in question. Deciding that this is hot stuff, a television producer gives them their own program (called "He Said, She Said") where they can give their opposing views on various issues. As they work together and get to know one another, the events that occur in their lives are replayed in the film twice; once from each's perspective. —Murray Chapman <muzzle@cs.uq.oz.au> The wolf journalist Dan Hanson is disputing a column in the newspaper Baltimore with his colleague Lorie Bryer. The editors decide to divide the column between them increasing their rivalry. They are invited by the television producer Wally Thurman to have their own show called "He Said, She Said", where they present opposing opinions in different subjects. Meanwhile they fall in love for each other and decide to live together. Three years later, Lorie wishes to marry Dan that refuses and they have a discussion and Lorie throws her cup on his forehead. When they tell their story to their friends, each one tells it in a different perspective. —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil The wolf journalist Dan Hanson is disputing a column in the newspaper Baltimore with his colleague Lorie Bryer. The editors decide to divide the column between them increasing their rivalry. They are invited by the television producer Wally Thurman to have their own show called "He Said, She Said", where they present opposing opinions in different subjects. Meanwhile they fall in love for each other and decide to live together. Three years later, Lorie wishes to marry Dan that refuses and they have a discussion and Lorie throws her mug on his forehead. When they tell their story to their friends, each one tells it in a different perspective. —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Womanising, right-wing Dan Hanson and quiet, liberal Lorie Bryer work for the Baltimore Sun. Rivals for the job of new writer of a vacant column, the paper ends up instead printing their very different opinions alongside each other, which leads to a similarly combative local TV show. At the same time their initial indifference to each other looks like it may evolve into something more romantic. If only they can agree. —Jeremy Perkins {J-26}

Natives of a small isolated town defend themselves against strange underground creatures which are killing them one by one. A small town gradually becomes aware of a strange creature which picks off people one by one. But what is this creature, and where is it? At the same time, a seismologist is working in the area, she detects _tremors_. The creature lives underground, and can 'pop up' without warning. Trapped in their town, the town-folk have no escape. —Rob Hartill A group of people in a small peaceful town named "Perfection" located in Nevada. The peace becomes hysteria once people are being killed underground in mysterious ways. The town then investigates, and will do anything to protect their town and their selves. —ksnyder19 Trying to escape their dead-end life in the desert town of Perfection, Nevada, Valentine "Val" McKee and Earl Bassett find themselves sidetracked when corpses mysteriously start piling up around them. When Val and Earl have a run-in with some creepy tentacled creatures that have made lunch out of a road crew, they retreat back to the town to spread the news. Although these monsters are not exactly intellectuals, their mental powers are still mind-boggling. Detecting a human hiding in a car, they dig under the vehicle, causing it to sink into the earth. Val and Earl get help from several townspeople. With the help of Rhonda, Val and Earl kill one of the monsters. But there are three of them left, and they are each about 30 feet long. Walter starts calling the monsters graboids. When the survivors think they have outwitted the graboids by taking refuge atop the roofs of buildings, the graboids merely destroy the buildings' foundations, killing two people. The graboids are quick learners when it comes to stalking their prey, and the humans must continually be on their toes if they are to stay alive while they try to find a way to defeat the graboids. —Todd Baldridge

Film school grad Nick Chapman thought his career was made after his award winning short film, but discovered Hollywood wasn't as easy as it seems. Nick Chapman graduates from film school, and his short film wins a special prize. This gives him a high enough profile that he can get Hollywood to back the film he has long dreamed of making. Studio exec Allen Habel is interested. But Nick soon is seduced by Hollywood and makes one concession after another until his original movie is lost altogether. Worse, Nick is lost, too, turning on girlfriend Susan and old buddy Emmet. Will he come to his sense before everything is lost? —Reid Gagle Nick Chapman is a graduate film student. His best friend, Emmet Sumner, is an aspiring cinematographer, the two who hope to make films together. Nick is supported in his pursuits by his girlfriend, aspiring architect Susan Rawlings. Nick's prospects look good when he wins the student film award presented by the National Film Institute. He has a clear idea for his next film, and hopes to get it made with the assistance of those in the movie business who court him, including agent Neil Sussman, and movie studio exec Allen Habel. Sussman and Habel's visions for Nick's movie are vastly different than Nick's original concept. Habel's manoeuvrings include getting Nick to cast a vapid aspiring actress named Gretchen in one of the lead roles. Nick gets caught up more with the process of making the big Hollywood movie than with keeping true to his artistic vision. In the process, he also loses sight of the important personal aspects of his life, such as his friendship to Emmet and Susan. Nick also learns that the fast lane in Hollywood is laden with the potential for serious and irreparable crashes. —Huggo

Young newlyweds find out just how unprepared they are for their future together. Jake and Kristy Briggs are newlyweds. Being young, they are perhaps a bit unprepared for the full reality of marriage and all that it (and their parents) expect from them. Do they want babies? Their parents certainly want them to. Is married life all that there is? Things certainly aren't helped by Jake's friend Davis, who always seems to turn up just in time to put a spanner in the works. —Murray Chapman <muzzle@cs.uq.oz.au>

A Boston defense attorney gets his wealthy client off for murder, then suspects him of killing again. A rising young attorney successfully defends a man accused of murder, only to have the same type of murder then happen again. Right away the previously defended man hires the attorney again, and although the attorney is quite certain that he is the killer, he agrees to again defend him... much to the consternation of his friends. However, he explains that by being his attorney he will be better able to catch the man in a mistake... and on this the rest of the film develops, with the killer playing a cat and mouse game with the attorney until, at last, they both must recognize that they are not all that different. —BOB STEBBINS <stebinsbob@aol.com>

When the closure of a railway is announced, employees commandeer a locomotive to get to corporate headquarters and confront the president. 2 workers from a railway company realize that the company want to close the railroad track where they work. They steal an engine and travel through America to the company's headquarters to protest the closing. While traveling they have a lot of adventurous moments. —Kornel Osvart <kornelo@alphanet.hu>

An older and more mature and confident Alan narrates the story. Alan's parents want him to do something worthwhile with his summer, and camp counselor Vic is trying to encourage him to go on a camping adventure with several other boys. Alan, who is smart and kind of a nerd who hates the idea of an outdoor adventure, does not want to go, but his parents manage to persuade him. The other boys are Mitch, George and Chris. Mitch and Alan are the same age and George and Chris are older, in addition to being belligerent and bullying, especially toward Alan. One of the boys buys a Penthouse magazine at their last stop to buy supplies before arriving at their destination, and the boys enjoy looking at that occasionally. On the trail, Alan and Mitch listen on a radio to a broadcast of a New York Mets game when Vic emphatically tells them to turn the radio off. Vic has staunch principles about the hike being free of any urban influence. Alan reluctantly puts the radio away. At their first campsite, Alan is assigned to go get the water. While doing that he uses a knife to carve his initials in a tree. George pops out from a hiding place, scaring Alan and causing him to drop the bucket he was carrying. Vic discovers Alan's damage to the tree and takes away his knife for disturbing nature. When they reach the river, Vic wants one of the boys to go with him and help paddle the canoe, while the others carry their supplies and equipment along a trail. Alan is chosen to go with Vic, but being inexperienced loses his paddle. The hike to their next campsite requires crossing a rickety and scary rope bridge several hundred feet above a gorge. Alan lingers behind, afraid to cross but he eventually crosses, celebrating when he reaches the other side. However he forgets to bring the poles for one of the tents. Vic sends Alan back over his protests that it's too dark. Alan tries to cross and nearly slips off the bridge when one of the support ropes snaps. Too afraid to continue, Alan returns saying it is too dark and he couldn't find the poles, though he has lost his glasses. Vic appears with the poles and curtly tells Alan to get something to eat. The next morning Vic finds a quiet spot in the woods to do tai chi exercises and is interrupted when Alan turns his radio on nearby to listen to music. Vic harshly admonishes him again for using the radio and also tells Alan that he'd seen him the night before when he was scared on the bridge and further tells Alan that he can lie to his guide. The group goes to an island and Vic teaches the boys how to catch fish with their bare hands. Alan is much more creative, building a trap. Infuriated, Vic punishes him by throwing back the fish he caught and tells Alan to clean the fish the others caught while the rest of the group returns to their campsite. When he has cleaned the fish, Alan is to signal that he is ready to be picked up. After a cold and rainy night, Vic orders the other boys to take the canoe and find Alan. Alan has rebelliously refused to clean the fish and had even thrown them back in the river. When the boys return to the campsite, Vic is missing and the boys don't know what to do, but somehow they make it through another rainy night, arguing with each other over where to take shelter after the one tent they have has blown away in a high wind. George has a breakdown, fearing they'll all be stranded and will die. Eventually, Vic reappears, congratulating them all for surviving the night on their own, but Alan isn't very enthused to see him. The final adventure involves rock climbing, and Vic demands the boys behave and work together because what they are doing is very dangerous. Each of them get a turn at a technique where they will "pendulum" to another cliff. Vic rigs a climbing rope and shows them all how to swing. Alan and Mitch are both terrified but Mitch follows the others and, overjoyed, encourages Alan to try it. Alan hooks himself to the rope but doesn't kick hard enough off the ledge and ends up hanging and even more frightened. Vic tries to instruct and encourage him but Alan is too scared, begging Vic to pull him in. After a few minutes, Vic tells Alan to find his own way out of his predicament and orders everyone else to follow the trail. Alan eventually is able to get a handhold on the rock face, climb back to the ledge and kicks off properly, swinging successfully to the other ledge. Further down the trail, the boys argue with Vic and decide that Vic's abandonment of Alan crossed a line. Alan appears and immediately tells Vic he plans to find his own way off the trail and back home. Vic tries to reason with Alan, saying that he'd shown more of a sense of responsibility but Alan refuses to listen. They leave Vic behind and strike out. With Alan mostly leading the way, the eventually find their way back to their base camp. Vic tries to talk them out of leaving, becoming ever more forceful until Chris and the others beat him with the canoe paddles. Vic tries to run and is hit in the head with a rock thrown by Chris and falls off a short cliff, breaking his leg. Alan leads the others in rigging a contraption to hoist Vic back up the cliff. The others want to go for help and just leave Vic, but Alan says someone needs to stay with Vic. As Vic's condition gets worse, Alan realizes he has to try to get Vic medical help, and he figures out how to move Vic to the canoe. With Vic's help, Alan is successful in getting the canoe far enough down the river. However, the rapids further down the river are quite challenging and dangerous and they eventually capsize. Vic is caught in a whirlpool and Alan goes in after him. Safe onshore, Vic praises Alan for his ingenuity and bravery. A helicopter appears and picks them up. The movie ends with the older Alan revealing what happened to Mitch, George and Christ: they'd found their way down river to a ranger's station and were able have help sent for Vic and Alan. Alan also says he's lived near the woods since the adventure, which actually turns out to be Central Park in New York City.

Failed stock market whiz kid Jack Casey gets a job on a bike at San Francisco's Quicksilver Speed Delivery, where he befriends entrepreneur Hector Rodriguez and attractive fellow bicycler Terri, then finds an enemy in drug dealer Gypsy. Jack Casey used to be a hot-shot stock market whiz kid. After a disastrous professional decision, his life in the fast lane is over. He loses his nerve and joins a speed delivery firm which relies on bicycles to avoid traffic jams of San Francisco, is attracted to a fellow bicycler, Terri, and befriends Hector, a budding entrepreneur. Can Jack regain his nerve and his self-respect, and rebuild his life on a more sound basis? —Reid Gagle

In the beginning of the opening credits, dancing feet are shown. Ren McCormick is a Chicago native who moves to Beaumont Utah with his mom so he can live with the runs aunt and uncle when he's at church, he meets the Reverend Moore and his wife Vi and their pretty daughter Ariel who goes against her father's strictly religious and his recklessness. Ren becomes friends with another teen boy named Willard and he learns that the school as well as the town has band dancing and rock music because they believe it is sinful and against the Christian Bible. Ren falls for a pretty girl named Ariel, which angers her boyfriend, Chuck. He challenges, Ren to a game of chicken involving tractors and Ren wins the challenge, but this is only because of his shoelace getting caught on the foot pedal. Reverend Moore does not allow Ariel to see Ren anymore, but Ren drives Willard and Ariel and her friend Rusty to a alcoholic bar pass a state line to go dancing. Willard, who doesn't know how to dance, gets jealous and gets into a fight with another man dancing with Rusty. Later on the drive home, Ariel describes how five years earlier, her older brother was killed in a car accident after a night of drinking and dancing. Their father persuaded the town council to have strict anti-liquor laws and anti-drug laws and anti-dancing laws. Ren decides to challenge these laws so the high school can hold a senior prom. Willard gets embarrassed that he can't dance, until Ren teaches him. Chuck then confront Ariel about her feelings to Ren and gets into a physical fight with her before breaking up, Ren helps Aerial hide the physical assault before going home. Later, somebody throws a brick with the words "Burn in Hell" through a window at Ren's house, but his uncle criticize Ren's outspoken behavior, Ethel tells Ren that his actions had cost her the job she had and he should stand up for the way he believes is right. Ariel gives Ren a Christian Bible with segments outlined in it that talk about the positives of dancing. Ren goes to the town council to positively advocate the anti-dancing law. He reads several Bible verses. Stating how the scripture does indeed allow dancing and celebration, although Reverend Moore is moved, the council still votes against Ren. Vi who supports this, tells Reverend Moore that he cannot be everybody's father and then he's not really one, including for Ariel. Reverend Moore does not change his mind on the dancing law, even after Ariel confronts her father in the Christian Church and tells him that she is not a virgin anymore. The next day, he finds members of the congregation burning library books that are considered to be Satanic in the danger of town's youth. He finds that the situation has become uncomfortable, and so he stops the book burning and sends everybody home. The next Sunday, Reverend Moore asks for his congregation to pray for the high school putting on the prom and then it will be held in a grain mail next day. I'm prom night more and we listen to outside the mail and chucking his friends arrive but attack Willard run arrives in time to fight and knocks out Chuck. Ren, Ariel, Willard and Rusty all join at the prom and dance all night long.

In 1962, college freshmen Lawrence "Larry" Kroger (Tom Hulce) and Kent Dorfman (Stephen Furst) seek to join a fraternity at Faber College. They visit the prestigious Omega Theta Pi House's invitational party, but are not welcomed there. They then try next door at Delta Tau Chi House, the campus' most raucous and undisciplined fraternity, where Kent's brother was once a member, making Kent a "legacy." There they find the slovenly John "Bluto" Blutarsky (John Belushi) urinating outside the fraternity house and a wild party already underway inside. The Deltas "need the dues" so they permit Larry and Kent to pledge. They receive the fraternity names "Pinto" (Larry) and "Flounder" (Kent). Vernon Wormer (John Vernon), dean of Faber College, wants to expel Delta from campus due to repeated conduct violations and low academic standing. Since they are already on probation, he puts the Deltas on something he calls "double secret probation" and orders the clean-cut, smug Omega president Greg Marmalard (James Daughton) to find a way to get rid of the Deltas permanently. Flounder is bullied by Omega member and ROTC cadet commander Doug Neidermeyer (Mark Metcalf), so Bluto and Daniel Simpson "D-Day" Day (Bruce McGill) persuade Flounder to sneak Neidermeyer's horse into Dean Wormer's office late at night. They give him a gun and tell him to shoot it. Unbeknownst to Flounder, the gun is loaded with blanks. Unable to bring himself to kill the horse, he fires into the air but the noise frightens the horse so much that it dies of a heart attack. In the cafeteria the next day, smooth-talking Eric "Otter" Stratton (Tim Matheson) tries to convince the stuck-up Mandy Pepperidge (Mary Louise Weller), with whom he'd had a one-time tryst, to abandon her boyfriend, the uninteresting Marmalard, and date him instead. Bluto provokes Marmalard with his impression of a popping zit by stuffing his mouth with a scoop of mashed potatoes and propelling it at Marmalard and table mates, Chip Diller (Kevin Bacon) and Barbara "Babs" Jansen (Martha Smith). Bluto starts a food fight that engulfs the cafeteria. Bluto and D-Day steal the answers to an upcoming psychology test, but it turns out the Omegas switch the discarded exam mimeograph stencil and the Deltas get every answer wrong. Their grade-point averages drop so low that Wormer needs only one more incident to revoke their charter and kick them out permanently. To cheer themselves up, the Deltas organize a toga party. They go shopping at the local market, using Pinto's thick cardigan sweater to hide loads of food they don't want to pay for. During the party Otis Day and the Knights perform "Shout". The dean's alcoholic, lecherous wife, Marion (Verna Bloom), attends the party at Otter's invitation and has sex with him. Pinto hooks up with Clorette (Sarah Holcomb), a girl he met at the supermarket, and makes out with her only to learn she is the mayor's 13-year-old daughter. He later takes her home in a shopping cart, abandoning her at the front door. Due to the party, Wormer organizes a kangaroo court with the Omegas and revokes Delta's charter and all their belongings are confiscated from their house. To take their minds off their troubles, Otter, Donald "Boon" Schoenstein (Peter Riegert), Flounder and Pinto go on a road trip in a car Flounder borrowed from his brother. Otter picks up some girls from Emily Dickinson College by pretending to be the fiancé of Fawn Liebowitz, a girl who recently died on campus. They stop at a roadhouse because Otis Day and the Knights are performing there, not realizing that it caters to an exclusively black clientele. The hulking patrons intimidate the guys and they flee, damaging Flounder's brother's car and leaving their frightened dates behind. Boon breaks up with his girlfriend Katy (Karen Allen) after discovering her sexual relationship with a professor (Donald Sutherland). Marmalard is told that his girlfriend is having an affair with Otter, so he and other Omegas lure him to a motel and beat him up. The Deltas' midterm grades are so poor that an ecstatic Wormer expels them all. He even notifies their draft boards of their eligibility. In the process, before Bluto attempts to speak to the dean, Wormer orders Flounder to speak, saying "Well? Out with it!", whereupon Flounder vomits on the dean. It seems time for the Deltas to give up, but Bluto, supported by the injured Otter, rouses them with an impassioned, historically inaccurate speech ("Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?!") and they decide to take revenge on Wormer and the Omegas. Stork shoves the drum major out from his position at the head of the marching band and leads them down a one-way alley, trapping them. Hoover attaches one end of a chain to a telephone pole and the back of one of the floats, tearing it apart. Several other Deltas use a makeshift mortar to launch flares onto the street. When Neidermeyer and his ROTC unit chase after the Deltas, Flounder tosses a large jar of marbles in their path, spilling them all to the pavement. Flounder produces a large soda sprayer for Neidermeyer but he's forced to retreat when Neidermeyer loads his marching rifle with a live round, shooting out the soda bottle. Chip Diller, who gradually becomes hysterical, tries to calm the fleeing crowd and is trampled. To top it all off, the Deltas have converted Flounder's brother's Lincoln into a parade float with the words "EAT ME" sculpted on the sides. They cut the flowered portion away to reveal the work they did to make the car demonic -- the "DEATHMOBILE" -- complete with a turret and train whistle, and ram it into the spectator's bleachers, upsetting the Dean, his wife, the mayor and their guests. Hoover approaches the Dean and asks for one more chance. Finally, the futures of many of the main characters are revealed. The last shot of the film is of Bluto driving away in a white convertible with his soon-to-be wife, Mandy Pepperidge.