Lois Smith

After discovering that she has only a short time to live, a successful woman becomes mean and turns on everyone, but the aftermath of her actions might cost her a lifelong desire.

Professional Brooklyn hitman Jimmy Conlon is more commonly known as The Gravedigger. Jimmy was a mob hit-man, who was best friends with his boss Sean Maguire. But when Jimmy`s son, Michael, is marked for death by the mob, Jimmy must go up against Sean to protect Michael at all costs. Together, he and Michael must avoid corrupt cops, contract killers and the mob to survive the night.

A detective examines the mysterious death of George Reeves, the star of the television series Adventures of Superman (1952). Struggling private investigator Louis Simo treats his work more as a means to make a living than a want to do right by what few clients he has. Through connections with the investigation firm for which he used to work, Simo is hired by Helen Bessolo to investigate the death of her son, actor George Reeves. Reeves was best known for his title role in Adventures of Superman (1952), a role which he always despised, in part since it typecast him as a "cartoon", despite it bringing him a certain fame. His June 16, 1959 death by a single gunshot wound while in his bedroom in his Los Angeles home was ruled a suicide by the police, the death which occurred when the house was filled with people. Reeves' story is told in part in flashback as Simo, who is trying to make a name for himself with this case, talks to or tries to talk to some of the players involved, most specifically the wife of MGM General Manager E.J. Mannix, Toni Mannix, with whom Reeves was having a relatively open and gift-lucrative affair (she bought him that house), and Reeves' fiancée at the time of his death, Lenore Lemmon, an aspiring actress who some felt didn't love Reeves (or vice versa). As Simo proceeds with his high-profile investigation, he learns that someone doesn't want him snooping around. Through the process, Simo evaluates his own professional and personal life, the latter of which includes a somewhat strained relationship with his wife and son.

In June 1969, a family that includes a five-year-old girl called Jo seeks shelter in a storm cellar as a powerful tornado strikes. The storm is so strong that the locks on the cellar door fail, and Jo's father is caught up in the storm and killed. Jo and her mother emerge from the cellar the next morning to find a devastated landscape. Their home is utterly destroyed. 27 years later, Jo (Helen Hunt), who is now a meteorologist leading a team of storm chasers. Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite track the tornado activity across the nation. GOES satellites are a collaborative program between NASA and NOAA that provide data and imagery on atmospheric conditions and solar activity. Jo manages her own equipment to track tornadoes on the ground, however she is running out of grant money. Her crew includes Dusty (Philip Seymour Hoffman), Rabbit (Alan Ruck), Joey (Joey Slotnick) and others. Jo is reunited with her estranged husband, Bill Harding (Bill Paxton), who is a former weather researcher and storm chaser who has since become a weather reporter. He is planning to marry sex therapist Melissa Reeves (Jami Gertz) and arrives at Jo's field station for her signature for the final divorce papers. Jo is excited about the weather, with NSSL predicting the biggest series of storms lined up one after the other. Bill realizes that Jo has not signed one page of the papers. Jo shows Bill the realized "Dorothy", a device containing hundreds of small weather sensors that he conceptualized. Dorothy could revolutionize tornado research and potentially provide an earlier storm-warning system, but the device must be deployed dangerously close to a tornado to work. Dorothy is designed to take measurements from inside a tornado funnel and provide insights into how a tornado works. Jo's team rushes off to chase a developing storm with her failing to sign the papers, forcing Bill and Melissa to follow. The team encounters Dr. Jonas Miller (Cary Elwes), a smug and sponsored meteorologist and storm chaser. Miller is a rival storm chaser and former colleague with corporate funding, has stolen his idea for his own Dorothy-like device, Dot3, with plans to deploy it first and claim credit for its design. Enraged, Bill agrees to accompany Jo and the team for one day to launch Dorothy. Tensions rise between Jo and Bill when they have several dangerous encounters with tornadoes as the team tries unsuccessfully to deploy the new device. As the team pursues a developing tornado, Bill drives Jo's truck into a ditch, attempting to get in front of the damage path. However, the tornado strengthens into an F2, and after destroying a barn, it corners the truck in front of a bridge. Jo and Bill shelter under the bridge as the tornado destroys the vehicle and one of the four Dorothy prototypes. They continue chasing in Bill's truck, with Melissa in the back. They find a second tornado and head off on a back-road when it shifts its track. They soon find themselves driving through heavy rain and before long the same storm drops satellite tornadoes onto a lake. The team follows the F2 now with a group of waterspouts on Kaw Lake, and one of them develops another vortex, which spins the truck around before disappearing. Jo and Bill are elated by the thrill, but Melissa becomes traumatized in the process. They have lunch with Jo's aunt Meg (Lois Smith) at Wakita, Oklahoma. Dusty, a member of Jo's team, tells stories about Bill's crazy past career as a storm chaser to Melissa, but Bill claims that he had killed his old personality. The chasers take off to chase yet another storm. As they track the storm, they learn the tornado is on the ground, but they have trouble finding it. Approaching a hill, they run into a hailstorm, and Jo drives ahead of the chasers to intercept the oncoming tornado. Jo and Bill intercept an F3 with unpredictable movements, and it soon knocks over power-lines that crush Dorothy II. With the truck damaged, Bill forces them to retreat, but Jo undergoes an emotional breakdown over the failure, and unloads about her motivations and her father's death. Bill admits his feelings for Jo, unaware that Melissa is overhearing them through the CB radio. The team overnights in Fairview to repair their vehicles, while Jo signs the papers. A nocturnal F4 wedge tornado unexpectedly appears, and it forces the team and others into a garage pit near a drive-in theater for protection. The tornado destroys the garage and two team vehicles as the result of tossed debris and injures several people before proceeding toward Wakita. Melissa, frightened by the dangers of storm chasing and recognizing the unresolved feelings between Jo and Bill, leaves. The tornado moves on and hits Wakita, devastating the community and injuring Meg. Bill and Jo rescue Meg from her collapsing house. The National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) forecasts that a potentially record-breaking tornado will form the next day. Inspired by Aunt Meg's wind-vane sculptures, Bill and Jo add aluminum "wings" to the last two Dorothy prototype sensors, making them more aerodynamic. True to the forecast, a mile-wide F5 tornado forms the next day, and the team pursues it. Bill and Jo attempt to place Dorothy III in its path; however, the device is knocked over and destroyed by an airborne tree. Meanwhile, Jonas attempts to deploy Dot3, ignoring Bill and Jo's warnings that the tornado is changing direction and headed straight at them. The tornado sweeps Jonas's truck away, killing him and his driver. With the last remaining Dorothy affixed to the truck bed, Bill and Jo drive directly at the tornado, then jump out, sacrificing Bill's truck to ensure that Dorothy IV can release its probes into the wedge. The gamble is successful, as Dorothy IV's probes provide immediate scientific data, but without their truck, Jo and Bill are forced to run as the tornado shifts toward them. Inside a nearby pump-house, they strap themselves to deep pipes. As the building rips away, the F5's core passes over them. After the tornado dissipates, the team celebrate their success and Jo and Bill reconcile.

Matthew Poncelet (Sean Penn), who was sentenced to death for the murder of a teenage couple, has been on death row at the Louisiana State Penitentiary for six years. He committed his crimes with Carl Vitello (Michael Cullen), who was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. As his scheduled execution date approaches, Poncelet asks Sister Helen Prejean (Susan Sarandon), with whom he has corresponded, to help him with a final appeal. Poncelet had written several letters to Helen, and finally Helen agrees to respond to him, and they start a correspondence. Poncelet claims that Jesus visited in his cell. Sister Helen decides to visit Poncelet, who is arrogant, sexist (calls the mother of his own child a bitch) and racist (hates niggers) and does not even pretend to feel remorse. Chaplain Farlely (Scott Wilson) is the prison priest & very orthodox. He does not support Helen's visits to Poncelet as he thinks Poncelet is guilty and is only trying to take advantage of Helen. Poncelet protests his innocence and insists Vitello killed the two teenagers and that he was only doing what he was told under the influence of booze and drugs. Poncelet also shows Helen the pic of his baby girl, whom he has only met once. He says that in 6 yrs, he has learned the law and has even written his own motion of appeal, he just needs a lawyer to file it with the court. Poncelet is convicted for the kidnapping, sexual assault and murder of Walter Delacroix (Peter Sarsgaard) & Hope Percy (Missy Yager). Helen argues that both Vitello and Poncelet were there and yet Vitello got life, and Poncelet got death. Poncelet is scheduled for execution by the state's new lethal injection machine (1st shot paralyzes you, the 2nd shot explodes the lungs and the 3rd shot stops the heart). Convincing an experienced attorney Hilton Barber (Robert Prosky) to take on Poncelet's case pro Bono, Sister Helen tries to have his sentence commuted to life imprisonment. Hilton coaches Poncelet for the upcoming pardon board hearing. He says if Poncelet appears to be "human", it will be difficult to kill him. He argues for Poncelet's mother Lucille & his brother Craig Poncelet (Jack Black) to be at the hearing. At the pardon hearing, Hilton argues that Poncelet didn't have money to hire a proper lawyer and was assigned one by the state. He was a tax attorney, who never tried a capital case ever. The Trial lasted 5 days, and the jury took 4 hours to decide. The lawyer raised one objection during the entire trial. The Prosecution argues that Poncelet killed 2 people and their families are suffering too. Poncelet is proven guilty in court in trial, appeals and so on. He is not a good boy. Sister Helen's application for commutation is refused. The board rules to deny clemency and execution is on for 1 week later. After many visits, she establishes a relationship with him. At the same time, she gets to know Poncelet's mother, Lucille (Roberta Maxwell), and the families of the two victims. The victims' families (Earl Delacroix (Raymond J. Barry), Clyde Percy (R. Lee Ermey), Mary Beth Percy (Celia Weston)) do not understand Sister Helen's efforts to help Poncelet and claim that she is "taking his side". They desire "absolute justice" i.e. his life for those of their children. IN course of her support, Helen attracts vilification from her own family, and the wider society, who condemn her actions. Poncelet asks Sister Helen to be his spiritual adviser through his execution, and she agrees. Helen meets Earl who tells him about his memories of his son. Mary tells Helen about how Hope was going to join the air force within a week before she was sexually assaulted and killed. She wanted to serve overseas. That day, she had a date with Walter. Hope didn't return that night and the Percy's called the Delacroixs and learn that Walter didn't return home either. They thought the kids ran away and got married. The bodies were found 6 days later. Hope was nude, and her vagina was torn up. She was stabbed 17 times with the class pin she was wearing. Clyde remembers Poncelet being snug, arrogant and unrepentant at the trial. He even mocked Clyde. Helen starts spending more time with Poncelet as his time nears. She gets him to realize that even white people can be lazy and not just niggers. Poncelet gives interviews on TV praising Hitler and his Aryan supremacy work. He also says that he would like to come back as a terrorist and bomb govt buildings. Helen is livid and tells Poncelet that he is making it very easy for people to kill him. Meanwhile she tries to get Poncelet to realize that parents of the kids who died are also hurting for their loss. Earl's wife files for divorce as she blames Earl for not doing enough. Poncelet is moved to an isolated facility in prep for the execution. Helen is now able to visit him for longer hours in a day. Poncelet is also taken away for measurement (weight, height etc), as part of the official procedures. Helen meets guards and medical staff who will be part of the execution process. Helen encourages him to read the bible as seek redemption in the truth. Poncelet offers to take a lie detector test, but the results are inconclusive as he was feeling stressed about the execution. Governor Benedict (Kevin Cooney) rejects the clemency request as Poncelet is already publicly vilified. Poncelet meets his family the day before the execution. It was a normal meeting, with family exchanging stories about what's going on. Eventually, the family is asked to leave. Helen gets to spend the whole night with Poncelet, the night before the morning of the execution. Helen tells Poncelet to stop blaming, niggers, govt, the world for what happening to him and to start taking some responsibility. Sister Helen tells Poncelet that his redemption is possible only if he takes responsibility for what he did. Just before he is taken from his cell, Poncelet tearfully admits to Sister Helen that he had killed the boy and sexually assaulted the girl, before Vitello killed her. Helen tells Poncelet that the truth has set him free. As he is prepared for execution, he appeals to the boy's father for forgiveness and tells the girl's parents that he hopes his death brings them peace. Poncelet is executed by lethal injection and given a proper burial. The murdered boy's father attends the funeral ceremony; although he is still filled with hate, he soon begins to pray with Sister Helen.

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

Dan has a tryst with the seductive Alex while his wife is away and later shrugs it off as a mistake. But Alex won`t be ignored. Not even if it means destroying Dan`s family to keep him.

Edna McCauley buys her husband a new car for his birthday. While the two are out driving, they have a terrible accident. Both are killed, but Edna, after seeing a great white light and a mysterious group of people, wakes up in a hospital. Apparently, she died, but has come back to life. She's also suffered permanent spinal damage and must walk with braces and crutches. Devastated, Edna goes home to Texas to recuperate, reuniting with her beloved grandmother Pearl and her hard, loveless father, John Harper. While at a family barbecue, Edna touches a little girl who has a serious nosebleed, seeming to stop the ordinarily serious bleeding with her touch. Edna actually feels the heat in her own hand. Grandmother Pearl tells her of a woman she once knew who, after a similar back from death experience, returned with the power to heal. Edna touches her own crippled legs, gradually able to walk without braces or crutches. With her abilities becoming known, townsfolk bring Cal Carpenter, an attractive young man stabbed in a barfight, for Edna's healing touch. She saves his life. Later, they become lovers. It isn't long before Edna's healing people daily. But some feel apprehensive about her power, since it doesn't necessarily involve preaching the gospel. Cal's father, a zealot, even suggests her powers are satanic. Cal begins to fear her power, and he eventually walks out on her after an argument. Edna's father John, accuses her of being a whore for sleeping with Cal, ordering her off his property. Edna goes to a university, where two scientists want to study her abilities. She dazzles them with the strength of her gift, strong enough that she's able to bend a beam of laser light. She also enables a severely crippled woman to walk again, taking the woman's weaknesses into herself, then dispelling it - a dazzling display that nonetheless frightens Cal, who's now so fearful of Edna's gift it has rendered him impotent. When Edna senses that her father John is dying, she goes home, standing at the dying man's bedside. She wonders aloud what made him so incapable of love, reminding him of the abortion he ordered on her when she was a young girl. It left her sterile forever. She tells him she loves him nonetheless, and he dies after claiming to see the same bright light. Once again, Cal fears her, thinking that she's Jesus returned. Edna assures him that she's not, but Cal, increasingly disturbed, takes a rifle, shooting at Edna as she talks to some followers in the country. He wounds her. After Cal is jailed, Edna decides to take off for parts unknown, saying farewell to Grandma Pearl, who understands that the power of love is Edna's only true gift. The years go by and Edna ends up a recluse, running a tiny gas station in the desert. A young couple pass through in their R.V. with a boy, Bobby, who's dying of cancer. Edna talks to the boy, laying her healing hands on his cancerous body. Although they don't know it yet, she has healed the child. The boy thanks her, but it is Edna, all too happy to express her gift, who thanks the child who has allowed her to heal him...

Set in 1917, during World War I, in the central California coastal town of Salinas. Cal "Cain" Trask (James Dean) and Aron "Abel" Trask (Richard Davalos) are the young adult sons of a modestly successful farmer and wartime draft board chairman named Adam Trask (Raymond Massey). The loner Cal is moody and embittered by his belief that his father favors Aron. The Trask family has a farm in the fertile Salinas valley. Although both Cal and Aron had long been led to believe that their mother had died "and gone to heaven," the opening scene reveals that Cal has apparently come to realize that his mother is still alive, owning and running a successful brothel in nearby town of Monterey. After the father's idealistic plans for a long-haul vegetable shipping business venture end in a loss of thousands of dollars, Cal decides to enter the bean-growing business, as a way of recouping the money his father lost in the vegetable shipping venture. He knows that if the United States enters the war, the price of beans will skyrocket. Cal hopes this will finally earn him the love and respect of his father. He goes to his mother Kate (aka: Eve) (Jo Van Fleet) to ask to borrow the capital he needs. She reluctantly lends him $5,000. Meanwhile, Aron's girlfriend Abra (Julie Harris) gradually finds herself attracted to Cal, who seems to reciprocate her feelings despite her being involved with his younger brother. Cal's business goes quite well, and he decides to give the money to Adam at a surprise birthday party for his father, which he and Abra plan together. As the party gets underway, Aron suddenly announces that he and Abra are engaged. While Adam is openly pleased with the news, both Abra and Cal are uneasy, having recently discovered a mutual attraction for one another is emerging, despite their suppressed feelings. Cal makes a surprise birthday present of the money to his father; however, Adam refuses to accept any money earned by what he regards as war profiteering. Cal does not understand, and sees his father's refusal to accept the gift as just another emotional rejection. When the distraught Cal leaves the room, Abra goes after him, to console him as best she can. Aron follows and orders Cal to stay away from her. In anger, Cal takes his brother to see their mother, then returns home alone. When his father demands to know where his brother is, Cal tells him. The shock drives Aron to get drunk and board a troop train to enlist in the army. When Sam "Seth" Barrows (Burl Ives), the local sheriff, brings the news, Adam rushes to the train station in a futile attempt to dissuade him, he fails and can only watch helplessly as his son steams away from him with his head out the rail car window, maniacally laughing at him to take him to a miliary base. Adam suffers a stroke because of the incredible strain, leaving him paralyzed and unable to communicate. Most of the townspeople, including Sam, blame Cal for what has happened. Sheriff Sam persuades Cal to leave town and quotes a Bible verse relating the event to the conflict of Cain and Abel in the land east of Eden. After everyone leaves, Cal tries to talk to Adam, but gets no response and leaves the bedroom. Abra enters the room alone and pleads with Adam to show Cal some affection before it is too late. She persuades Cal to go back into the room. When Cal makes his last bid for acceptance before leaving town, his father manages to speak. He tells his son to get rid of the annoying nurse and not to get anyone else, but to stay and take care of him himself. The film ends with Cal and Abra sitting by Adam's bedside, the emotional chasm between the father and son apparently closed.