Lee Van Cleef

In a voice-over we learn that the story is set in a dystopian 1997. World War III is nearing an end, both the United States and the still-existing Soviet Union suffered greatly in the conflict and both are looking for a peaceful resolution. The island of Manhattan has been turned into a maximum security prison in 1988 because of a nationwide crime increase of 400% in the United States due to a gas attack by the Soviets at the start of the war in which New York was worst hit. Surrounded by a 50-foot (15 m) containment wall, all inmates are sentenced to life imprisonment, and have formed gangs which rule over the crumbling, garbage-strewn city. The opening scene shows the dark skyline of Manhattan as two men in a makeshift raft attempt to paddle away from the island when the raft they are in is blown to pieces by a hovering helicopter gunship. The chopper returns to its base on Liberty Island where the overland entrance to the prison is located and the command center of the US police force surrounding the island. Traveling to a three-way summit between the United States, the Soviet Union and China, Air Force One, the plane of the President of the United States, is hijacked by a sole member of a revolutionary organization opposed to the government; a woman impersonating a stewardess (Nancy Stephens) kills the pilots and takes control of the plane. The nameless militant female anarchist crashes the plane in a suicide mission into a Manhattan skyscraper but the unnamed President (Donald Pleasence) is safely sealed in an escape pod and survives. The United States Police Force Commissioner Bob Hauk (Lee Van Cleef) arrives at the Liberty Island command center where he and the chief of security Remy (Tom Atkins) witness the crash on monitors in their control center. Hauk assembles a platoon of soldiers and they travel to the crash site in a fleet of helicopters. When they arrive, they find the escape pod empty, indicating that the President has been taken hostage. An emissary of the inmates, named Romero (Frank Doubleday), appears and tells Hauk and the soldiers that they have the President and if they do not leave the island in 30 seconds, the President will be killed. Romero offers them one of the President's severed fingers as evidence. With no other choice, Hauk orders his men to return to the helicopters and they fly back to Liberty Island. In his office, Hauk meets with the recently arrived Secretary of State (Charles Cypress) who puts him in telephone contact with the Vice President in Washington DC where Hauk asks for authorization of a rescue attempt and accepts it. In his office, Hauk offers a deal to a newly arrived prisoner, a scruffy, one-eyed, famous special-forces-soldier-turned-armed-robber named S.D. "Snake" Plissken (Kurt Russell). Plissken prefers to be called "Snake", growling his demand whenever Hauk refers to him by his surname. If Snake rescues the President, and retrieves a cassette tape that contains important information on nuclear fusion, Hauk will give him a full pardon. However, Snake Plissken must complete his mission before the international summit that the President was due to attend, which begins in 24 hours. After Snake Plissken reluctantly agrees to the rescue plan, Hauk secretly has him injected with microscopic explosives that will blow open his carotid arteries in 24 hours. The explosives cannot be defused until the last 15 minutes before they go off, as a way of ensuring that Snake does not abandon his mission and escape, nor find another way to remove them. If he returns with the President and the tape in time for the summit, Hauk will save him by having the charges in his neck neutralized with X-rays. A furious Snake gruffly promises to kill Hauk when he returns. Snake covertly lands atop the World Trade Center in a Gulfire glider similar to the one he piloted in a daring covert operations action over Leningrad, USSR, and then locates the hijacked plane wreckage and the escape pod, but the President is gone. Snake tracks the President's life-monitor bracelet signal to the basement of an abandoned theater, only to find it on the wrist of an incoherent old coot (George "Buck" Flower). At the theater, Snake meets a friendly inmate nicknamed "Cabbie" (Ernest Borgnine), who offers to help. After wandering the dark streets, Snake is accosted by the 'Crazies', a subterranean gang that hunts the streets at night. Snake first seeks refuge in an abandoned Chock Full O' Nuts diner where he meets a seductive young woman (Season Hubley), who asks to take her away to freedom. But the Crazies soon attack the diner, and Snake is forced to run, leaving the nameless young woman to her fate at the hands of the Crazies. After a chase down a back alley, Cabbie shows up in his taxi and rescues Snake, fighting the Crazies off with a Molotov cocktail. Snake demands Cabbie tell him where the President is being held. Cabbie tells him that Brain (Harry Dean Stanton), a savvy and well-educated inmate, knows. Cabbie takes Snake to the New York Public Library where Brain lives, a place he's turned into a veritable fortress. It is here that Snake identifies Brain as a former accomplice of his named Harold Helman, from some heists they did in the past. Forced at gunpoint, Brain tells Snake that a powerful gang leader, the self-proclaimed "Duke of New York" (Isaac Hayes), and the leader of the Gypsies, the largest and most powerful gang in the city, has the President and plans to lead a mass escape across the mined and heavily guarded 69th Street Bridge (the real Queensboro Bridge is the 59th Street Bridge), using the President as a human shield and hostage. When the Duke unexpectedly arrives with a large convoy of henchmen to get a diagram of the bridge's land mines, Snake forces Brain and his girlfriend Maggie (Adrienne Barbeau) to lead him back to The Duke's compound. After stealing a car from one of the Duke's henchmen, Snake, Brain, and Maggie drive through Skulls gang territory along Broadway, barely escaping. Snake finds the President who is being held in an abandoned railroad car in what was the Grand Central Train Station, but his rescue fails and he is captured after Brain betrays Snake. The next day, Snake is forced to fight with a giant power-house brute (Ox Baker). At the same time, Brain and Maggie trick Romero and the Duke's men into letting them have access to the President. After killing Romero and the guards, they free the President and flee to Snake's glider hoping to escape with the President. Meanwhile, Snake defeats his huge opponent, impressing the crowd. When the Duke learns the President has escaped with Brain, he is furious, and he rounds up his gang to chase them down. In the confusion, Snake slips away and manages to catch up with Brain, Maggie and the President at the glider, but during their attempted getaway, a gang of inmates, the Indians, push it off the building. Snake and the others soon find Cabbie, and Snake takes the wheel of his cab, heading for the bridge. When Cabbie reveals that he has the nuclear fusion tape (traded to him from Romero who guarded the President), the President demands it, but Snake takes it for insurance. With the Duke chasing them in his Cadillac, Snake and the others drive over the mine-strewn bridge. After the cab hits a land mine, the cab is destroyed and Cabbie is killed. As the others flee on foot, Brain is killed by a mine and Maggie refuses to leave him. She attempts to hold off the Duke's car by firing at him with a handgun, and she succeeds in forcing Duke's car (a distinctive vehicle with ornate chandeliers mounted on either side of the car's hood) to crash, but he crashes into her, killing her, and he continues his pursuit on foot. Snake and the President reach the containment wall, and the guards raise the President on a cable and harness. The Duke then attacks Snake, but the President shoots the Duke with a sub-machine gun, killing him out of revenge for torturing him during his confinement. Snake is then lifted to safety, and the mini-explosives implanted in his neck are deactivated with X-rays with seconds to spare. At Liberty Island, as the President prepares for a televised speech, he distractedly thanks Snake for saving him. Snake asks him how he feels about the numerous men and women who died saving his life, but the President only offers half-hearted regret that visibly disgusts Snake as he sees the President, a trembling and helpless captive, revert back to his self-assured personality. After Snake is pardoned, he decides he will not kill Hauk at this time and leaves the prison. Hauk thanks him for the rescue, and offers the incredulous anti-hero a job of working for the government in other top secret missions. Snake, alienated with the nation he once served with honor, refuses. Hauk tells Snake to think about the offer and notes: "We make quite a team! Huh, Snake?" In complete contrast to Snake earlier and frequently reminding Hauk to call him by his first name, Snake angrily rebuffs Hauk by replying: "The name's Plissken!" The President's speech commences and he offers the content of the cassette to the summit. To the President's embarrassment, the tape has been switched for a cassette of the swing song "Bandstand Boogie" (the theme from American Bandstand), Cabbie's favorite song. Snake had apparently switched tapes during the chase across the bridge. In the distance unnoticed just outside the Liberty Island prison gate, Snake is seen casually unwinding and tearing apart the all-important nuclear fusion cassette tape (the only thing to save mankind from nuclear war) and smiling while puffing on a cigarette as he walks off alone into the night. On that cynical note, 'Escape from New York' comes to a close.

Forced by personal circumstances, Marshal Chris Adams recruits a writer and five prisoners to help him eliminate a gang of Mexican bandits. After his last adventure in the Guns of the Magnificent Seven (1969), the former leader of the Seven and now a married U.S. Marshall, Chris Adams, declines his old friend Jim McKay's invitation to stop the outlaw De Toro and his marauding gang of bandits from attacking the Mexican border town of Magdalena. Filled with guilt, Chris decides to visit the town--now inhabited by widows--before the tough band's imminent return, having no other choice but to recruit a brand-new team of unlikely defenders. As always, the odds are against them. Can the new Magnificent Seven and the town's defenceless women put an end to De Toro's reign of terror? —Nick Riganas Marshal Chris Adams turns down a friend's request to help stop the depredations of a gang of Mexican bandits. When his wife is killed by bank robbers and his friend is killed capturing the last thief, Chris feels obligated to take up his friend's cause and recruits a writer and five prisoners to destroy the desperadoes. —David Bassler

A rancher, a judge and a saloon keeper hire a gunman to do their dirty work and then discover they can't control him.

A young gunfighter bent on killing the four bandits who raped and murdered his family crosses paths with a former outlaw, who hopes to extort the same men in revenge for getting him jailed. Before his very eyes, a young boy watches the cutthroats of a small gang raid his humble home, rape and slaughter his whole family. Fifteen years later, Bill Meceita, the once-helpless boy and the sole survivor of the massacre, has now become a cool and skilful sharpshooter, seeking revenge against the band of unknown killers. In the meantime, the seasoned gunslinger and freshly out of prison, Ryan, has already embarked on a journey of sweet retribution, unaware that before long, he will cross paths with Bill, sharing the same desire for justice. But what could possibly unite the two unlikely companions? —Nick Riganas The gunmen who killed five defenseless people made one big mistake. They should have killed six! John Phillip Law lives for one purpose - to avenge the massacre of his family by the four bandits who occupy positions of authority in the new "civilised" West. Now, fifteen years later, he learns that one of the gang (Lee Van Cleef) is being released from prison and is seeking the men who framed him. Together they form an unholy alliance - a dynamic duo combining raw, untamed youth and the experience only a master gun-fighter can offer in the Wild West. —Yocke

Three men are on a mission to find a fortune that is buried in a remote cemetery. In the pursuit of the wealth, the two of them join hands with each other and team against the third only to eventually split-up and go on their own ways.

Eastwood (marketed as the Man with No Name) and Van Cleef (as Colonel Douglas Mortimer and marketed as the "Man in Black") portray two bounty hunters in pursuit of "El Indio" (Gian Maria Volonte), one of the most wanted fugitives in the western territories, and his gang (one of whom is played by Kinski). Indio is a ruthless, intelligent man. He has a musical pocket watch that he plays before engaging in gun duels. "When the chimes finish, begin," he says. Flashbacks reveal that the watch originates from a young woman (Rosemary Dexter), who killed herself while being sexually assaulted by Indio after he had found her with her lover (in Joe Millard's novelization of the film, the young man is her newly-wed husband) and killed him. The watch bears a photo of the woman and was presented as a gift by the young man before being killed. The film begins with Colonel Mortimer (Cleef) illegally stopping a train in Tucumcari, and soon after collecting a bounty of $1,000 on Guy Calloway (Jose Terron). Mortimer's gun-slinging skill is displayed as he easily kills him from long distance. After collecting the bounty, he inquiries about Red "Baby" Cavanagh (José Marco), who has a $2,000 bounty, and was last seen in White Rocks. Mortimer is told that Cavanagh has already been targeted by Eastwood's character, who is referred to as "Manco" (meaning one-armed in Spanish see below for an explanation). We see Manco ride into town and track down Cavanagh at a saloon playing five-card draw poker. Manco kills him and his men and takes the bounty. Eventually, the two bounty hunters, after learning about each other from different sources, meet in El Paso and, after butting heads, decide to team up to take down Indio and his gang. Indio's primary goal is to rob the Bank of El Paso and its disguised safe containing "almost a million dollars." Mortimer persuades a reluctant Manco to join Indio's gang during the robbery in order to "get him between two fires." Manco is offered membership in the gang after rescuing one of Indio's friends from prison. When Indio robs the bank, he brings the gang and the money to the small border town of Agua Caliente, where Mortimer reunites with Manco. The hunchback Wild (Klaus Kinski) recognizes the Colonel from a previous encounter in which the Colonel had deliberately insulted him and forces a showdown in which he is killed by the Colonel. The Colonel then proves his worth to Indio by cracking open the safe without using explosives, but Indio states his intention to wait a month if necessary to allow the furor over the bank robbery to die down and locks the money away in a chest in the treasure room. Manco and the Colonel meet in the treasure room and plan to steal the bank money from Indio. The Colonel had already taken the money out of the chest earlier and now locks it again with his special ability to open and lock locks without keys. When they leave the treasure room by roof (because the door is locked) they realize that the bandits are outside waiting for them, knowing that Monco is actually a bounty killer, and that the Colonel is his cooperator. Just before Manco jumps down, he throws the bag with the money in a tree unnoticed. When Manco and the Colonel have climbed down, Indio's band severely beat them. Afterwards, Indio finds out that chest is still locked, which makes him believe that Monco and the Colonel never stole the money. Later that night, Indio's right-hand man Nino (Mario Brega), on orders from Indio, kills the guard of Monco and the Colonel and releases them. Indio informs his gang that they "got away," and sends them after the escaped bounty hunters. He intends to kill off his gang with the bounty killers while he and Nino take all the loot for themselves. However, the smarter Groggy (Luigi Pistilli) figures out what Indio is up to and kills Nino. Before he can kill Indio, he finds that the Colonel has already removed the stolen money from the chest. Indio convinces Groggy to join forces with him to trap the bounty-killers. The next morning, Manco and Mortimer shoot down the gang, one by one, in the streets of the town. Standing alone, Mortimer shoots Groggy when the outlaw tries to run for it, but then has his gun shot out of his hand by Indio, who then takes out his pocket watch and begins playing it. As the chimes nears the end, Manco suddenly appears with an identical pocket watch, playing the same tune as Indio's, which Mortimer realizes had been taken from him earlier. As this happens, Manco holds a Henry rifle on Indio and gives his gun belt and pistol to Mortimer, evening the odds. "Now we start," Manco announces and sits while Mortimer and Indio face off. During the standoff, Manco looks down at the pocket watch and sees the same picture of the woman Indio had sexually assaulted. The music finishes, and Mortimer outdraws and guns down Indio. At this juncture, Mortimer takes Indio's pocket watch. Manco gives him back the other watch and remarks on a family resemblance; the Colonel replies, "Naturally, between brother and sister," indicating that the young woman's portrait was that of Mortimer's sister. His revenge complete, he decides to take no part of the bounty. As Manco tosses the last of the bodies into a wagon and counts them by the reward for each one, he realizes he is short of the $27,000 total, and spins around to gun down Groggy who had survived and waited in ambush. As he leaves, he takes the bag with the bank money out of the tree, though it is not clear whether he intends to return it. He then rides off into the distance with his horse towing the wagon full of the lifeless bodies of the entire gang.

A bounty hunter escorts a killer to be tried for murder, with the killer's brother after them. A wanted murderer, Billy John (James Best), is captured by Ben Brigade (Randolph Scott), a bounty hunter, who intends to take him to Santa Cruz to be hanged. Brigade stops at a staging post, where he saves the manager's wife (Karen Steele) from an Indian attack, and enlists the help of two outlaws (Pernell Roberts, James Coburn) to continue his journey more safely. However, the Indian attacks persist, the outlaws plan to take Billy for themselves, tempted by the offer of amnesty for his captor, and Billy's brother Frank (Lee Van Cleef) is in hot pursuit to rescue him. But Brigade has plans of his own.. —David Levene <D.S.Levene@durham.ac.uk>

Aging gunslinger Jacob Wade hopes to settle down with his estranged son, but his old enemies have other plans for him. Gunslinger Jacob Wade finds his long-abandoned son Riley, now a young man who hates his father but has nowhere else to go. Hoping to settle down, Jacob finds no town will have him. They end at Monolith, the ranch of Jacob's former girlfriend Ada, to whom he had no intention of returning. A mustang hunt finds Riley himself attracted to the shapely Ada...and Jacob having trouble with his eyesight. And his visions of a quiet life are doomed by the re-appearance of enemies from his past... —Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>

A cynical former sheriff turned bounty hunter helps a young, recently appointed acting sheriff with his advice, his experience and his gun. Veteran bounty-hunter Morg Hickman rides into a town in danger. The sheriff has been killed, and young inexperienced Ben Owens named a temporary replacement until a permanent can be found. Ben wants to be that permanent replacement, so needs to impress the townspeople with his skill. When he finds that Morg was a sheriff for a long time before he became a bounty-hunter, he asks the older man to teach him. Morg thinks that being a sheriff is a foolish goal, but agrees to instruct Ben in handling people, more important to a sheriff than handling a gun. —Ken Yousten <kyousten@bev.net> Despite the townsfolk's disdain towards him, veteran bounty hunter and ex-lawman Morgan Hickman rides into a small town to collect the $500 reward claim after delivering the dead body of a wanted outlaw. Instead, money-oriented Hickman spends the night in the unwelcoming town and finds himself stuck with Ben Owens, the community's temporary novice sheriff. In the meantime, trigger-happy local bully Bart Bogardus terrorises the town, and no one can stop him. Now, Owens' life is hanging by a thread. As Hickman picks sides, determined to prevent the inevitable, the inexperienced law officer finds a mentor. However, how can Owens learn the tricks of the trade in just a few days and summon the courage to survive the murderous mob? —Nick Riganas When the experienced bounty-hunter and former sheriff Morg Hickman arrives in a town to claim his bounty for killing a wanted outlaw, he meets the rookie temporary sheriff Ben Owens. Hickman befriends the boy Kip (Michel Ray) and is lodged by his widow mother Nona Mayfield at home. Meanwhile Ben asks Hickman to teach him to be a sheriff since he wants to be assigned by the residents to the position. Ben faces problem with the scum troublemaker Bart Bogardus and when a prominent dweller is murdered by two criminals, Bogardus organizes a posse to hunt them down. But Ben has decided to capture the killers alive and give a fair trial to them. —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Morgan Hickman is a bounty hunter bringing a dead man into a town of people who, as usual, hold him in contempt. He's steeled to the cold reception though, saying in that inimitable Fonda manner, "I don't mind the chill: I'm after money." Ben Owen - the town's young, temporary sheriff - desperately needs the confidence that can only come from knowledge and experience, and though he tries to treat Morgan Hickman with the same disdain as the townspeople, he sees that Hickman - bounty hunter or not - KNOWS how to act, how to handle dangerous situations, how to be the kind of man that Ben wishes to be. When Ben chides Hickman with, "I wouldn't expect no bounty hunter to appreciate this badge," Hickman answers sharply, "I wore one a lot longer than you ever will." At this, Ben's face shows shock, then hope. He suddenly sees Hickman as the man who can teach him to be a sheriff. The rest of the movie offers us a veritable graduate course in Western frontier law enforcement. In teaching the younger man, Hickman is inevitably reminded of why he once wore that Tin Star, and - in so doing - he rediscovers himself. [Cf: "The Outlaw Josey Wales"] —John Withrow <withrow@withrow-software.com>

Police detective Roy Hargis falls for night club singer Ilona Vance, but his partner Sgt. Lackey is convinced she fatally shot mob lawyer Frank Hobart. Hargis has his doubts, until he learns that Ilona once owned the murder weapon. After gangland lawyer Frank Hobart is murdered there are two suspects - Ilona Vance , beautiful nightclub singer, and a hood named Stan, who had been hired by underworld boss Chad Bayliss to kill Hobart. Attracted to Ilona, Lt. Detective Roy Hargis tries to protect her in spite of the growing evidence against her and the pressure put on him by his assistant, Sergeant Lackey. Hargis thinks the case has broken when a dance hall girl, Sandra Lamoreaux, who saw Stan at the scene of the murder, tries to use this information to blackmail him, and is badly beaten. She manages to talk to Hargis, and her story brings about Stan's capture and conviction for murder. But he didn't do it. It is now up to Hargis to either clear or convict Ilona. —Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>

A gunfighter's main hope lies in the trust of a beautiful woman who hides him out when he is wrongly suspected of a stagecoach massacre. A gunfighter, stranded in the desert, comes across the aftermath of a stage robbery, in which all the passengers were killed. He takes one of the horses to ride to town to report the massacre, but finds himself accused of it. He also finds himself accused of the murder of the local banker, and winds up hiding in the basement of a house where the local sheriff, who is very sick, lives with his daughter. —frankfob2@yahoo.com

The opening title is against a waterspout and the credits over a kelp forest and other underwater scenes. Narration tells us, "This is operation experiment, a secret base far north of the Arctic Circle. Experiment was the code name for this top priority scientific expedition." Two radar operators (Alvin Greenman) and Charlie (James Best) spot the plane on radar and reports its location. Prof. Tom Nesbitt (Paul Christian/Hubschmid) and the military liaison officer Col. Jack Evans (Kenneth Tobey) observe the explosion of a Hydrogen Bomb. Charlie calls Col. Evans to report a very large object spotted on radar, but by the time Evans arrives it's gone. They chalk it up to something being tossed in front of the radar antenna. Nesbitt and Evans are reviewing their test results. George Ritchie (Ross Elliott) states, "You know, every time one of these things go off, I feel as if were helping to write the first chapter of a new Genesis." They depart to collect radiation results from forward observation posts. Ice blocks their path by tractor, so they go on foot the final distance. At Post 16 they take a radiation reading and decide it's too high. They decide they should split up; one visit Post 17 and the other Post 18 to limit their radiation exposure. They agree to meet back at Post 16. The weather gets worse. Ritchie spots a large dinosaur and hears its roar. He shouts out to his colleague, but Tom Nesbitt can't hear him. He explores a little further and distracted by the beast falls into a crevice, breaking his leg in the process. Nesbitt completes his task and returns to Post 16 and waits. Ritchie shoots a gun into the air, hoping its loud report will bring help. Nesbitt hears it and responds. Following his tracks left in the snow he finds his colleague. He tries to move him alone, but decides he needs more help. Ritchie tries to warn Nesbitt about "a prehistoric monster." Nesbitt attributes his rambling to the cold, pain, and shock. Then Nesbitt hears and sees Ritchie's "hallucination" himself. The creature's proximity and weight creates an avalanche that buries Ritchie and nearly kills Nesbitt. Nesbitt is brought back to base, barely alive from shock and exposure. The doctor tells Col. Evans to get him to a hospital in the states immediately. Nesbitt comes to and begins to ramble about Ritchie and a monster. He is flown to New York's Hartley Hospital. After a two week physical recovery he is started on "Psychiatric Interrogation for Traumatic Hallucinations." He is introduced to Dr. Ingersoll (King Donovan) who tells him that shock and trauma are the reason behind his dinosaur sighting. Col. Evans arrives to tell him that they found no trace of Ritchie or the beast. His primary care physician, Dr. Morton (Frank Ferguson) insists he rest. The fishing ketch, Fortune, is out in a storm in the North Atlantic. The captain enters the wheelhouse, his first mate Jacob Bowman (Jack Pennick) is at the wheel. Bowman spots something outside and calls for the Captain, abandoning the wheel as he recoils in fear. They hear a roar and see a huge black shape rise up from the ocean. It destroys their vessel and sinks it off the Grand Banks. The next morning Nesbitt is having his breakfast in his hospital room and spots the story in the newspaper. Bowman was the lone survivor of the disaster. Nesbitt dresses and visits the Paleontology Department of a local University. He talks to the department dean, Prof. Thurgood Elson (Cecil Kellaway) and his assistant Miss Lee Hunter (Paula Raymond). Elson is sympathetic but does not believe his story. Nesbitt asks if it is possible that the H-Bomb thawed the 100 million year old ice and freed the dinosaur. Elson does not think it possible a creature frozen for that length of time could survive. Lee Hunter interrupts to mention that a herd of Mastadon were thawed in Siberia after thousands of years, "yet their fur intact and the meat still edible." Nesbitt leaves dejected. Dr. Morton examines Nesbitt and tells him he can leave the hospital anytime. The radio is playing in his room and a broadcaster announces a second sea serpent sighting, this time from Marquette, Canada. Capt. George LeMay's ship was destroyed. Nesbitt returns to work at the Atomic Energy Commission, New York Regional Office. His secretary, Miss Ryan, is glad to have him back. She tells him that Lee Hunter is waiting to see him. She brings the newspaper with the LeMay story and tells him it is worth investigating. She's gathered sketches of the known species of dinosaurs and tells him if he can identify the creature that would be proof. That evening they meet at her apartment to look at the sketches. He narrows in on a few likely candidates, and she helps him identify the one he picks as the Rhedosaurus. She tells him if Capt. LeMay can identify the same sketch that would be proof. He calls Canada to talk to the Captain. LeMay (Leo Mostovoy) answers but can only speak French. Nesbitt asks him about the serpent, and the captain promptly hangs up the phone. The operator tells Nesbitt that he won't talk to him further. Nesbitt makes a personal visit but misses him. He speaks to the newspaper editor. He decides to visit Jacob Bowman in the hospital. He convinces Bowman to return to New York and identify the creature. Elson is packing for a vacation; Lee is helping him. He notes that Lee is developing a budding romance with Nesbitt. Nesbitt arrives with Bowman in tow. Bowman reviews the sketches and picks the same creature--the Rhedosaurus. Elson is now convinced, and speaks to Col. Evans on the phone. Evans tells Elson he will check with a friend in the Coast Guard if anything unusual is reported. A lighthouse on the coast of Maine contains a keeper and his assistant. One plays a concertina while the other wipes down the equipment. The creature comes ashore and climbs up the lighthouse, drawn to the beacon. They see it and try to escape down the spiral staircase, but the creature destroys it before they can safely exit. Col. Evans pays a visit to Capt. Philip Jackson (Donald Woods) at his U.S. Coast Guard office. He tells him the story Nesbitt and Elson told him. He asks about any unusual occurrences. That evening at the ballet, Nesbitt and Lee are on a date when Nesbitt is handed a message. They quickly depart and meet with Elson and Evans at Jacksons USCG office. Jackson explains that in addition to the lighthouse, there was shore wreckage in Massachusetts reported. Elson looks at the chart and sees a pattern. It is following the Arctic Current southward. He concludes the beast is heading for New York, its ancestral home. Elson wants to see it before he can formulate a plan to capture the creature alive. He makes arrangements with Jackson for the use of a diving bell. On the ship Elson boards a diving bell for their first drop into the Hudson submarine canyon system. Elson is in communication with Nesbitt on the surface and provides periodic reports of progress. He spots the Rhedosaurus, only the shoulder and the leg, but confirms it is enormous. Then as he describes it to Lee Hunter in more detail, it attacks and chews off the bell from the cable. The newspaper story the next day confirms Elson's death. Longshoremen are working at a New York port facility when the Rhedosaurus comes ashore. What starts as a few people scattering turns into a mob in full panic. People stuck in buildings look on in horror at the panic in the streets and the beast's destruction of property. People abandon their cars on the street and run. A patrolman shoots it with his service revolver, with little effect other than annoying the beast. As he reloads the dinosaur bends down and latches on to him by the head. He lifts him up and swallows him whole to the shock and horror of a woman witness. As it walks the streets of New York it destroys cars, utility poles and buildings. The police respond with greater numbers and rifles. Many people seek refuge in the subway system. The National Guard is called out and the Wall Street and Lower Manhattan area is turned into a battlefield. A newspaper headline indicates 180 dead and 1500 injured during the first rampage. A bazooka team fires a couple of rounds wounding the beast in the neck. The ER doctor (Michael Fox) has concluded that the beast has some very dangerous virus or bacteria in its blood that is fatal to humans. A patrol of soldiers begins collapsing after exposure to large patches of the creature's blood. Evans and Nesbitt discuss how to eliminate the beast. Anything that will spread the blood particles is out. Just as they think the creature may be dying of its wound, it is announced that the beast is alive and ashore at Manhattan Beach at the amusement area. Nesbitt suggests a radioactive isotope shot directly into the wound. The Army arrives at the amusement park. The Rhedosaurus is at the Roller Coaster. They wait for the isotope to be delivered. Evans selects his best marksman, Corp. Stone (Lee Van Cleef) for the job. He and Nesbitt don radiation suits and take a roller coaster car to the top for a better shot. Nesbitt retrieves the isotope from a lead lined container and Stone fires it into the beast's neck wound. He scores a direct hit and the beast, now in great pain, damages some of the wooden framework and rails. The coaster they were riding gets away from them, crashes, and starts a fire. The two men climb down the burning coaster while the beast goes through its death throes. The Rhedosaurus knocks out a section of burning coaster framework and makes its way to the beach and collapses. We close with Nesbitt and Lee embracing, then turning to view the dead dinosaur.

Joe Rolfe (John Payne) is a ex-con delivering flowers to the local businesses in Kansas City. When disgruntled ex-cop Timothy Foster (Preston S. Foster) cases a local payroll armored car for a holdup he takes into account the schedule of Rolfe and his deliveries as he plans his robbery. Foster contacts three crooks separately to help with the crime while keeping his own identity secret with a mask he blackmails them with past crimes and a guarantee of a $300 thousand-dollar payout for each. Pulling in Peter Harris (Jack Elam), Boyd Kane (Neville Brand), and Tony Romano (Lee Van Cleef), Foster as Mr. Big pulls off the robbery of the armored car right after one of Rolfe's deliveries by using a duplicate flower van. Rolfe is arrested and brutally interrogated by the police. Eventually cleared when the police find the duplicate robbery vehicle Rolfe is determined to clear his name and sets out to find the crew that set him up. He tracks Harris to a gambling joint in Tijuana Mexico and takes on his identity after Harris is killed and travels to a resort town of Barados Mexico to confront the rest of the crooks. Once there he meets Foster's daughter Helen (Coleen Gray) who has come to surprise her father. Rolfe and Helen develop an immediate attraction for each other and Foster attempts to keep them apart, as he knows Joe is an ex-con and is impersonating Harris. As the time for splitting up the money draws near Kane and Tony are aware Rolfe is not Harris and a dangerous confrontation with Mr. Big appears inevitable.