Michael Apted

When a rare disease begins decimating humanity, a group of scientists embark on a mission in search of a cure.

After running away fails, a terrified woman empowers herself in order to battle her abusive husband. Local waitress Slim Miller discovers that the dream man she married isn't who she thought he was. Slim and her young daughter try to escape (aided by her previous boyfriend), but the now villainous husband pursues her relentlessly. Fearing also for the safety of her daughter, Slim decides that there's only one way out of the marriage: kill him. —Jess <jess.2000@ic24.net>

In Bilbao, MI6 agent James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) meets a Swiss banker to retrieve money for Sir Robert King (David Calder), a British oil tycoon and friend of M (Dame Judi Dench). Bond interrogates the banker as to the identity of someone who killed an MI6 agent (from whom the money was stolen in the first place. The money was paid by King in exchange for a report that King thought identified terrorists trying to destroy his oil pipeline. But the report turns out to be from the Russian nuclear commission, but the banker is killed and Bond forced to escape. Some unknown assassin helps him escape with the money before he can learn. At the MI6 headquarters in London, the money is revealed to be laced with explosives that kills King (explosive is triggered by a lapel on King's coat). Bond chases the assassin by boat on the Thames to the Millennium Dome, where she attempts to escape via hot air balloon. Bond offers her protection in exchange for the name of the real person behind King's murder, but she refuses and blows up the balloon at the cost of her life. Basically Bond delivered the explosives right to King. Bond has a dislocated collar bone due to the incident, a secret which was known to select people in MI6. Bond traces the recovered money to Renard (Robert Carlyle), a former KGB agent turned high-tech terrorist. Years ago, Renard kidnapped Elektra King (Sophie Marceau) in exchange for a massive ransom demand. The ordeal resulted in a failed assassination attempt by MI6 after M advised King not to pay the ransom, and left Renard with a bullet lodged in his brain which renders him impervious to pain as well as slowly killing off his other senses. Before the events of the film, he was spotted operating in some very politically dangerous countries in the world including but most likely not limited to Afghanistan, Moscow, Russia, Bosnia, Iraq, Iran, Beirut, Cambodia and Pyongyang to start funding his anarchist terrorist operation. Renard now seeks revenge on both the King family and MI6 for his death sentence, as the bullet will kill him when it reaches the center of his brain, a KGB agent-turned-terrorist. The amount recovered by Bond was exactly the amount of the ransom demand by Renard for Elektra. M assigns Bond to protect King's daughter, Elektra King; Bond flies to Azerbaijan, where Elektra is overseeing the construction of an oil pipeline. During a tour of the pipeline's proposed route in the mountains, Bond and Elektra are attacked by a hit squad in armed, para-glider-equipped snowmobiles. Q (Desmond Llewelyn): MI6's "quartermaster" (Last appearance). R (John Cleese): Q's assistant and appointed successor. A humorous James Bond refers to him as "R": "If you're Q....does that make him R?" Bill Tanner (Michael Kitchen): M's Chief of Staff. Miss Moneypenny (Samantha Bond): M's secretary. Bond visits Valentin Zukovsky (Robbie Coltrane) at a casino (where Elektra loses $1MM to Zukovsky in a card game) to acquire information about Elektra's attackers from whom Bond had recovered a parachute branded with Russian Atomic Center, Anti-terrorism Unit. After losing, Elektra says "There is no point in living, if you can feel alive." After seducing Electra, Bond discovers that Elektra's head of security, Sasha Davidov (Ulrich Thomsen), is secretly in league with Renard. Bond kills Davidov and boards a plane bound for a Russian ICBM base in Kazakhstan. Posing as a Russian nuclear scientist, Bond meets American nuclear physicist Christmas Jones (Denise Richards). Jones is at the base removing weapons-grade plutonium from bombs and helps defusing them. Bond is taken underground to inspect the work done so far, to certify it. He finds Renard working in the underground chambers. When confronted Renard tells Bond that he spared Bond's life at the banker's office since Bond was delivering the money on Renard's behalf. Renard distracts Bond with the threat of killing Elektra, and utters the same words that Elektra said to Bond at the Casino. Renard escapes when Jones identifies Bond as a fraud and is attacked by the Russian forces protecting the base. Renard also knew exactly where Bond's shoulder was unhealed. Renard removes the GPS locator card and weapons-grade plutonium from a nuclear bomb. Renard steals the bomb and flees, leaving everyone to die. Bond and Jones escape the exploding silo with the locator card. Back in Azerbaijan, Elektra has called M to take charge when Renard strikes her pipeline. Bond discloses to M that Elektra may not be as innocent as she seems. He suggests that Elektra was the insider who switched the pins on her own father, and hands her the locator card as proof of the theft: an alarm sounds, revealing that the stolen bomb from Kazakhstan is attached to an inspection rig heading towards the oil terminal. The inference being Renard is detonating the nuke in Elektra's pipeline at the behest of the Russians, who have three competing pipelines and would be happy to see her's go away. Bond and Jones enter the pipeline to deactivate the bomb, and Jones discovers that half of the plutonium is missing. They both jump clear of the rig and a large section of the pipe is destroyed. Bond and Jones are presumed killed. Back at the command center, Elektra reveals that she killed her father as revenge for using her as bait for Renard. She abducts M, whom she resents for advising her father not to pay the ransom money. Bond accosts Zukovsky at his caviar factory in the Caspian Sea as he wants to know what did Elektra pay him for at the casino, and they are attacked by Elektra's helicopters. Zukovsky's henchman Bull was secretly working for Elektra and alerts her. Zukovsky reveals his arrangement with Elektra was in exchange for the use of a submarine captained by Zukovsky's nephew, Nikolai. The group goes to Istanbul, where Jones realizes that if Renard were to insert the stolen plutonium into the submarine's nuclear reactor, the resulting nuclear meltdown would destroy Istanbul, sabotaging the Russians' oil pipeline in the Bosphorus. Elektra's pipeline is planned to go around Istanbul, dramatically increasing the value of her own oil. Bond gets a signal from the locator card (which he had given to M) from the Maiden's Tower - just before Zukovsky's henchman Bull (Goldie) blows up the command center. Zukovsky is knocked unconscious, and Bond and Jones are captured by Elektra's henchmen. Jones is taken aboard the submarine, which was seized by Renard's men. Bond is taken to the tower, where Elektra tortures him with a garrote device. Elektra reveals that when her father refused to pay ransom, she seduced Renard and turned him to work for her. Zukovsky and his men seize the tower, but Zukovsky is shot by Elektra. The dying Zukovsky uses his cane gun to free Bond. Bond frees M and kills Elektra. Bond dives after the submarine, boards it and frees Jones. He wants to surface the submarine, but Renard attacks and destroys the controls and the submarine sinks instead. The submarine's hull ruptures as it bottoms in the Bosphorus. Bond fights Renard and kills him. Bond and Jones escape from the submarine, leaving the flooded reactor to detonate underwater. Later, Bond and Jones share a romantic evening in Istanbul and end up in bed together which is being monitored by MI6 satellites.

A bar in which an Irish-sounding band called The Drovers (Sean C. Cleland, Craig Winston Damon, Michael Kirkpatrick & David Callahan) are playing music. A group of executive dudes is creating a bit of a mess. One of them gets cocky and tells the rest of his beer-drinking buds that he's is going to know that girl sexually, and he points to the young woman who's playing the fiddler. The rest of the men bet him twenty dollars that he won't be able to seduce the woman. The cocky man gets up and dances duck-style in front of the female player, who looks so lost in her music, that she doesn't even realise he's there. The cocky man grows wilder and wilder and he makes a full striptease in front of everybody, trying to impress her, reaching to the point when he shows her his ass... to no avail. Another female patron (Caryn Cheever) of the bar gets excited and starts throwing money to the cocky man, as though that were a strip nightclub and he were performing for her. The camera lens approaches the fiddler player, who is called Emma Brody (Madeleine Stower) and the audience can see that there's a kind of shroud over her blue eyes: she is blind, and that's why she didn't take any notice of the cocky man at all. The concert finishes and everybody is happy because the public had the best time of their lives. Her friend Candice (Laurie Metcalf) congratulates the band while they are packing their things into their van, especially Emma who drove everybody wild, but she says that her biggest fan is her dog Ralphie (Louie). On the underground train, we can see Ralphie on his harness, as a leading dog. A passenger (Kevin Mathews) pets Ralphie on his head saying "nice dog". Emma arrives to his flat in a bulding called "Flat Iron Building". She knows that the clerk, Mr Cuchetto (Mario Tanzi) is in the main lobby, although he tries to hide and doesn't say anything until she has acknowledged him. She sits in front of the TV while muching something and giving some to Ralphie. Doctor Ryan Pierce (Peter Friedman) phones her to tell her that they've finally found a doctor for her although it's Saturday night. The organs of the donor can't wait anymore. Things move fast as Emma is going to have her corneas implanted. Pierce fills up the form for her as it looks like the nurse (Renee Lockett-Lawson) is not very helpful. A man wakes up alongside a woman (Kate Buddeke) he doesn't seem to quite recapture. He dresses and leaves, steals the newspaper and a young boy (Dallas J. Crawford) asks him whether he's the new "Mr Whitney", to which he answers he's Santa Claus. To give rid of the child, he gives him some bucks. Emma has had surgery on only one eye. Nurse Bobby (Sam Sanders) and Emma crack a few jokes before taking her bandage off. She is nervous, and wants to be alone with the surgeon. Emma cries when she sees Pierce's face, although in a dizzy and distorted way. Light blinds her, but Emma can look at herself in the mirror, although her face feels distorted as well. Now, her left eye looks brown, but her right eye is still of that light veiled blue colour. Somebody knocks at her door, opens it but leaves without answering to her questions of who it was. Dr Pierce says that Emma can see, but that she isn't able to recognise what she sees quite well. Emma tells come in to Candice, but who enters is Dr Pierce. When she describes her lady visitor, Dr Pierce tells her that that was Candice, but that she brought the bunch of flowers the day before. Dr Pierce thinks that she may have a perceptual delay in recognition. Soon, Emma has her right eye performed surgery on. Soon, she is well enough to call on her family, with whom Ralphie has stayed all the time during Emma's hospital stay. There, a reporter, (Lia D. Mortensen) interviews her. Emma asks the reporter if she is pretty, and she answers that her boyfriend tells her she is. Emma seems to have low self-esteem. Emma comes back home with Ralphie, but as soon as she arrives to the stairs she lets him go free, and she goes afterwards on her own. She falls down because of her blurry eyesight. One neighbour, Valerie Wheaton (Joy Gregory) of her appears and tells her that she has slid a letter for her which got delievered to her home. Emma does the rest of the climbing up on her own. Back home, Ralphie stares at Emma's drunk behaviour: she throws a glass to her reflection and a slipper to the tv set. Emma goes to the door and sees a shadow which she thinks it must be the clerk. Somebody whispers "Emma, it's alright" and leaves. The following morning, Emma wakes up in half a stupor. She sees that the door to her apartment is open and goes to close it, when she sees a dangerous staring at her. She feels surprised and turns around, seeing the man staring back at her in her apartment. She leaves out a soft cry, but immediately she only sees the blurry images of the courtains and Ralphie barking at her. Emma bangs on Valerie's door, but nor she neither Mr Cuchetto open up their doors. Emma heads for the main door of her building. Even the face of an old bump (Les Podewell) looks scary. The police station is noisy and nobody has the time to sit and talk to her ordeal. So she decides to talk to Detective John Hallstrom (Aidan Quinn), who is munching on a doghnout. Aidan seems to be laughing at her, so she gets impatient and asks if cops do something or just sit around and drink coffee. John asks her if she drank something last night, and when she admits that she had drunk a lot of wine, he gets rid of her because she couldn't read a funny poster saying "Detectives do it under cover". She says she asked for him because of his voice. Leuetenant Mitchell (Brudce A. Young) arrives, and tells John to clean up his office space, but John leaves the task to Thomas Ridgely (James Remar), who was the cop which didn't have the time to listen to Emma first. On her following revision, Emma complains to Pierce that she feels like an idiot and that she looks like her mother. Pierce tells her that she is pretty. The bloody body of Valerie Wheaton appears on her bathtub. She was raped and strangled. The forensic doctor (Darryl Rocky Davis) feels disgusted at John's humour, questioning the dead boty about what happened. John knocks at Emma's door and they recognise each other immediately. Valerie used to have a lover whom she would call "baby". The man who said "Emma, it's alright", was not Mr Cachutto, as he had a different voice. The conversation ends with Emma asking him if he likes roses, because she can smell the scent. All the interrogation takes place at the light of some candles, so that Emma's eyes can't hurt her. John talks to Mitchell now that he has started to believe her. When Emma returns to her apartment, a cop opens the door for her. At the stairs, she confuses another cop with Valerie jumping in front of her with her toungue out. She also remembers herself as a child (Heather Schwartz), applying some lipstick when her mother (Marilyn Dodds Frank) appears and knocks her face in the mirror. Candice and Emma go see a basketball match in which Michael Jordan (Himself) is playing. They have a sexy conversation in which Emma says that, when she is having sex with a man, she can picture anyone she pleases in her mind. Meanwhile, the police focus on Valerie's necklace, a Greek-looking Catholic cross. All the cops give Hallstrom a hard time about the case and Emma. The Dovers - with Emma - play at the Metro, a huge venue which stays sold out. Emma has trouble playing because the images she sees confuse her, but tries to concentrate. At one point, she thinks she sees the man at her doorstep among the audience. She stops playing and tells Candice to call Hallstrom. She tries to identify the attacant among a series of suspects; at first, she thinks she has identified number 4, but then her sight clears and the man (Ed Clay) is nothing like the man she saw. Hallstrom is angry because she had said that her sight was better. He asks about her mother, but she refuses to comment on that. They have a conversation while having some coffee. Soon afterwards, Pierce can testify that Emma can now see and read. While walking down a corridor, Emma thinks she can recognise a man there, but then, there is nobody in the corridor. Emma leaves the hospital with Ralphie. Ralph acts weirdly, stopping, pulling from Emma backwards, and then running to a small pool of.. may be blood? Ralph barks, maybe at the underground train, maybe at a man who is in the parking lot. Ralph runs after him, barking, but the man runs away and another car drives over poor Ralphie. She tells the cops that Ralph could smell the man. Ralph is badly-hurt but alive. Now it's Mitchell who thinks that Emma is a dead-end for the case. John emphasizes that she saw him, so he visits her afterwards. Even a small lamp can hurt her eyes, and she admits that she saw Valerie and her father after they were dead. Emma goes mad and breaks every lightbulb to pieces. John pushes her against the wall, and it looks like there is some attraction between them. The parade of Saint Patrick's day. A cop, (Kevin D. Swerdlow), mentions to John that she plays the violin. He goers to listen to her at a bar, and somehow looks enraptured by her violin solo. Candice thinks that Hallstrom is good-looking, but he has to follow Emma going out with Frank. However, she kisses outside and then comes into her apartment alone. She realises that he's following her. John Hallstrom goes up to Emma's apartment, and they make love. A cop called Officer Crowe (Matt Roth) is waiting outside Emma's reading a newspaper in order to keep her safe and there's an ackward moment with Hallstrom. Still naked, Emma smells the roses. John and Emma attend a baseball match and end up making love again. Cut to Margaret Tattersall (Lucy Childs) talking endlessly on the phone, while her dog is barking outside. A man approaches from her back and attacks her, with a necklace similar to Valerie's held in his hands. Meanwhile, John and Emma are having breakfast and making love again, but a call interrupts them. John takes Emma to the police station, but Ridgeley asks him what she's doing there. John insists that she saw the murderer. Lt Mitchell reminds him that he can't discuss the case with anybody, and John says that he should take him out of the case. John goes to the Tattersalls' home, and there, the angry son Mark (Blake Whealy) is playing basketball because nobody wants to state clearly to him that his mother is dead. John finds a bunch of red roses in the floor, which was going to be a present from Mr Tattersall (Tim Monsion) to his wife. The widower points to a photograph of the family, and in the back, a priest (Don Forston) walks out. John sits in his car nervously biting his nails. Emma goes back to her apartment on her own. She opens up her wardrobe and there are two eyes painted on the full-length mirror. John shows a photograph of that to Ridgely. Emma and John argue, and she ends up punching him in the face. In the ensuing fight, a mirror gets broken to pieces so that Emma hurts one of her hands. She gets very angry and she tells him to "get the fuck away" and storms off. She goes to pick the underground train, but the station is empty. John runs after her but it's too late. Ridgely shouts to him that he's put her into danger and has jeopardized all the case. At the platform, Emma sees the shadow of a man approaching. She moves backwards, terrified. She jumps onto her train, but the man has jumped onto it as well. She starts to run in a panic. She cries "help" to several other female passengers, but nobody moves. It looks like this time it's really the man she saw. Emma stops when she says a girl with her face bloodied. The conductor (Jackie Samuel) approaches Emma, who has fainted. The man following her was Ridgely, because John had told him that Emma might be taking the underground. Emma goes to another check-out with Dr Pierce, who gives an ackward feeling to me washing his hands like crazy. Emma goes to the police station to talk to John, but Mitchell tells her that he's not there. Emma is about to leave, but she finally decides to talk to Lt Mitchell, stating that the murderer washes his hands as a surgeon would do. Meanwhile, John goes to the hospital and talks to the nurse who keeps the records (Mary Seibel) and gets the name of Leslie Davison, the blood donor for Emma's surgery. He got the clue from reading Emma's mail, after understanding that there was a mishap with Emma and Valerie's addresses. He tells the rest of cops that Leslie Davison's organs were to different people, and that Mrs Tattersall was one of them, Emma was another, and that Valerie was killed by mistake. Pierce insists to Emma that the donor's family wants to see her, because her father wants to know if the organs of Leslie changed the receptor's life. Emma kinda holds her violin, not wanting to listen to him. Dr Pierce can't even enter her apartment, as the watching cop is still outside. When Pierce is about to disappear, Emma opens the door. Mrs. Davison (Mary Ann Thebus) lets John check Leslie's belongings, kept in a cartonbox. Hallstrom sees that, among them belongings, there is a Catholic cross necklace, similar to the one found on Valerie's body. Crowe takes Emma to Mrs. Davison's and he waits outside, putting the car onto a car wash. Emma tries to visit Mrs Davison, but she is not home. She leaves, and tells Crowe, who accompanied her but waited outside, not to go away, because she wanted to go home. However, the man Emma had seen is inside the police car, having killed Crowe. Emma tries to run away, but he takes her, closing the rail door. Hallstrom and Ridgely are talking to two nurses (Valerie Spencer and Kathryn Miller) who are able to describe the man who came looking for the child who received a donation. One of the nurses recognises the name of Neal Booker (Paul Dillon), who used to be very angry and upset. The guy looks at Emma in her eyes and talks to her as if she were Leslie, commenting that her eyes look different, but that eyes are the windows of the soul. Emma talks to him, trying to appease him: she is trapped inside the enclosed parking space. She picks Crowe's gun from him and shoots - however, her eyes had misguided her once again, as she has shot to the place where Booker used to stand, but is not standing in anymore. Neal Booker laughs, and talks to her while moving continuously. He tells her that he's closer than she thinks, and that she wouldn't even notice him if he were standing by her side, but Emma can guide herself by the voice and by what little she sees inside the garage, and can shoot quite close to him. She shoots the lights, so that he will be at a disadvantage, not her, and Neal Booker starts to whistle. Emma moves out of her cover while the police siren's long weil is approaching. Neal attacks her from behind, and Emma shouts "I'm here" and hides under a car, but with all the racket of cars and police people approaching, nobody seems to listen to her cries for help. The alarm of a car goes off when Emma pushes Neal against a car during their fight. The sound can be heard outside, but nobody listens to it. Hallstrom and Ridgely get into Neal Booker's flat, in which there are still pictures and drawings of Leslie Davison. As nobody is there, both cops leave the place. Outside, dumb Hallstrom makes a comment "somebody stop that noise", about the alarm car. The next thing they hear, Emma is shooting Neal Booker, who was approaching her menathingly, telling her that she was not good enough. Emma has killed Neal. The cops enter, and the alarm of the car suddenly shuts itself off! Another cop takes her out of the place. Mitchell looks at Emma with something similar to admiration. She leaves after having given her declaration out at the police station. Ridgely offers to take her home, but when she is about to get in, she notices dirty John with Ralph. Ridgely looks jealous when she leaves with them. John and Emma kiss. Cut to Emma playing with the Drovers. End credits. ---written by KrystelClaire

A young mixed-blood FBI agent is assigned to work with a cynical veteran investigator on a murder on a poverty-stricken Sioux reservation. An FBI man with Sioux background is sent to a reservation to help with a murder investigation, where he has to come to terms with his heritage. Slowly he rejects the intimidating tactics of his fellow FBI agents, who are not so interested in solving the crime as covering up an incriminating situation with the locals, and as he becomes more tuned to his heritage, the locals begin trusting him. Based on actual Reservation occurrences of the '70s. —Ed Sutton <esutton@mindspring.com> Young hotshot FBI agent Ray Lavoy (Val Kilmer) reluctantly accepts an assignment to solve a series of homicides committed on tribal land in South Dakota. Chosen because of his part Native American heritage, Lavoy is teamed up with a grizzled old agent (Sam Shepard) and finds himself in a dilemma beyond the straight forward crime fighting he is used to. A dedicated agent, Lavoy learns the history and culture of the Lakota people in the process, inspite of his staunchly Western mindset. Will he stick to standard FBI procedure as his partner urges or adopt unconventional means necessary to get answers as to the motives behind the killings? There has been a series of mysterious homicides on a Sioux Indian reservation in the Badlands of South Dakota. The investigation of homicides on Native American territory is within Federal jurisdiction, but the FBI is finding it difficult to gather information from the native Sioux. Ray Levoi, a promising but inexperienced field agent who happens to be one-quarter Sioux, is called in to assist in the investigation. As he probes deeper into the events on the reservation, he is torn between his duty to the FBI and his awakening sense of duty to the Sioux nation. —Cal Lott <cal.lott@gsb.uchicago.edu>

The story of Dian Fossey, a scientist who came to Africa to study the vanishing mountain gorillas, and later fought to protect them. Sigourney Weaver stars as Dian Fossey, in this true story about Fossey's study of gorillas, and her efforts to stop the decimation of the endangered apes.

In New York City, real estate investor Kevin Lenahan (Richard Pryor) has a hair-brained scheme to buy a 32-screen movie theater complex in which each theater only has eighteen seats. When banks deny his loan request, he approaches a loan shark named Palazzi (Joseph Ragno), who is actually a gangster. Police raid Palazzi's office while Kevin is making his loan request and arrest him in the process. Kevin's lawyer works out a plea deal by which Kevin will only do one year in prison, but Palazzi, who has vowed revenge, will be in the same prison, serving a ten-year sentence. In the courtroom, Kevin pretends to be insane to avoid going to prison. The court sends him to Empire General Hospital for evaluation. When psychiatrists determine he is faking his mental condition, hospital administrator Arthur Chambers (Joe Mantegna) plans to send Kevin back to jail in the morning. Meanwhile, a storm named Hurricane Sam approaches New York City. Since Empire General is located on a small island in New York harbor, Maggie (Sylvia Miles), the head nurse, requests some of her nurses remain overnight in case there are problems, but Chambers refuses the overtime request. He tells his administrative assistant, Rachel Atwood (Rachel Ticotin), that a fill-in emergency room doctor, Edward Slattery, will arrive shortly to help out. When Kevin starts a ruckus in the psychiatric wing, Chambers tells guards to lock him in a private room for the night. When the other psych patients protest Kevin's punishment, Chambers threatens to have them all transferred to a hospital for the criminally insane. Just then, the hurricane knocks out the electricity. The patients take this opportunity to escape, locking Chambers and the guards in the psych ward. Kevin goes to Chambers' office to look at his file as Rachel Atwood finds him there when she goes to the office to consult the disaster preparedness manual. She assumes Kevin is the missing Dr. Edward "Eddie" Slattery and tells him to go to the emergency room (ER) right away. Kevin puts on a white coat and finds chaos in the ER. Dr. Foster (Bob Dishy), a longtime physician at Empire General, refuses to treat any patients and recommends they not admit anyone since dealing with patients during a blackout is a "malpractice time bomb." Kevin spies the exit door, rushes out, gets in an ambulance and drives away. However, the rainstorm is so intense, he cannot see well and drives off the causeway connecting the island hospital to the mainland. He escapes before the ambulance sinks into the water. The hospital's back-up generator comes on briefly, but soon goes out again. First-year intern, Dr. Joffe (Bob Saget), suggests they connect the generator to the ambulance batteries. When Kevin returns to the ER, nurse Maggie gives him files on a half dozen patients needing treatment. Kevin acts authoritative and gives the responsibility to other ER staff, saying he will trust their recommendations. When people obey his orders, Kevin realizes it is easier to pass himself off as a doctor than a lunatic. However, Louis (Ruben Blades), an orderly, recognizes him from the psych ward, but decides not to say anything and enjoy the fun. Kevin goes to the waiting room, advising patients that exercise is good for them and recommending they treat each other. Young Dr. Joffe comes to him with questions, but Kevin suggests he trust his own gut instincts. Worried about malpractice lawsuits, Dr. Foster has concerns about Kevin's methods, calling him a "gypsy doctor." Meanwhile, in the psych ward, the patients have Arthur Chambers tied up. They start a list of changes they want implemented before they agree to release him. Chambers refuses to sign their list of demands and tells them Kevin was an undercover agent from the board of health, but they do not believe him. A pipe bursts, flooding the basement and orderlies say it will be morning before they can possibly get the generators working again. Kevin suggests they move a generator from the helicopter landing pad to power the ER. Rachel Atwood goes to the drug detoxification unit to get help moving the generator, but none of the patients are willing to help. Kevin goes to the detox unit promising to give the patients their methadone pills if they will help move it, and they all pitch in. Soon the ER has power again, but the rest of the building does not. Since the upper floors have no air circulation, Kevin suggests moving the helicopter into the building and placing it beside the elevator shaft to get air moving to the upper floors. Kevin and Rachel go to the kitchen to fix sandwiches for the patients and develop a bond while discussing how to help the patients. Kevin visits Tommy Pinto, a patient who fell off the hospital roof and has no feeling in his legs. Tommy requires immediate surgery or he will be crippled for life. A make-shift operating room is set up in the ER and Kevin persuades Dr. Foster to do the surgery. In the psych ward, Chambers finally signs the list of demands and the patients contact Rachel via walkie-talkie to get her to implement the demands before they will release Chambers. When Rachel is resistant, Box (Randall 'Tex' Cobb), the hulking leader of the psychiatric patients, demands to deal with Kevin Lenahan. Rachel does not know anyone named Kevin, but when they describe him, she realizes they are talking about the man she knows as Edward Slattery. Rachel confronts Kevin over his charade, fearful she will get in trouble for all the things she authorized at his recommendation. Kevin assures her they dealt successfully with a crisis and refuses to help get Chambers released if they intend to send him back to jail once the crisis is over. He makes his own list, demanding to be set free and also demanding none of the other psych patients be sent to the institute for criminally insane. Rachel agrees. Kevin gives the word to free Chambers, and Rachel gives him the keys to a speed boat docked at the pier. Chambers is upset to see what has happened to the hospital and lashes out at Foster and Rachel. However, Dr. Joffe insists they did what had to be done under the circumstances. Nonetheless, Chambers fires Rachel. Kevin speeds off in the boat, but as he glances back at the hospital, he sees plumes of smoke from a fire set by a patient. Kevin rushes back and orders the hospital evacuated. He uses a hose to put out the fire, but when Chambers makes threats against him, Kevin turns the hose on him. The patients and staff defend Kevin, saying he saved the hospital. Kevin lambastes Chambers for criticizing his staff rather than empowering them. If Chambers had done proper maintenance, many of the problems would not have occurred. He suggests the press will be interested in covering this story. Meanwhile, Stucky (Joe Dallesandro), the patient who set the fire, takes Rachel hostage. Seeing that Stucky has a walkie-talkie, Kevin pretends to be several people talking on the device to confuse Stucky. Kevin and Stucky fight and Kevin knocks him out. Grateful, Chambers tells Kevin to leave, suggesting that his file was likely destroyed in the fire. As Kevin gets into the speedboat, Rachel follows him, asking why he could not have been the real Dr. Slattery. Kevin invites her to dinner and she accepts. The two speed off toward New York City.

Documents the preparation and rehearsals for Sting's first solo concert, as well as his supporting band's opinions on their leader and his controversial efforts. A documentary about the making of the first Sting album. Not only is some time spent in the studio (much of was recorded in an interesting mansion), but there is also some interesting information about what was going on in the lives of the members of his band during that time, including Sting's child being born. —<sboone@osiris.ac.hmc.edu>_<Scott_Boone>>>

Moscow, USSR. In the opening scene, three young people are seen ice skating on the frozen pond in Gorky Park. Three days later, Soviet militsiya officer Arkady Renko (William Hurt) investigates the discovery of their bodies a short distance from the skating rink. All have been shot in the chest and mouth; their faces and fingerprints have been completely removed with surgical instruments. Renko is left anxious and paranoid when the KGB refuse to take over the investigation. Renko enlists the help of Professor Andreev (Ian McDiarmid) to reconstruct their faces. During his investigation, Renko crosses paths with William Kirwill (Brian Dennehy), a New York police detective who is in the Soviet Union investigating the disappearance of his brother James. At a weekend getaway at the dacha of Chief Prosecutor Iamskoy (Ian Bannen), Renko also makes the acquaintance of the American sable importer Jack Osborne (Lee Marvin) and his girlfriend Irina Asanova (Joanna Pacua). Renko is eventually able to piece together the victims' identities: James Kirwill, and two young Russians who were friends of Irina. He discovers that the three were busy constructing a chest for Osborne. Renko's suspicion of Osborne mounts over time, during their polite but tense conversations in social settings. When Irina is attacked by a KGB officer who attempts to inject her with a fatal overdose of drugs, Renko saves her. Nursing her back to health in his apartment, they begin an affair. Kirwill finally locates the barn where the three victims were building Osborne's chest. It was designed to smuggle six sables out of the country and to break the Soviet monopoly on their fur, potentially earning Osborne millions of dollars. Irina stubbornly continues to believe that her two friends are alive. Osborne had promised to smuggle them out of Soviet Union in return for their work; he tells Irina that they were successfully freed. Renko confronts her with Prof. Andreev's reconstructed head of one of her friends, forcing her to realize that they have been murdered by Osborne. She confesses the full details of the plot to him and then runs away. Renko and Kirwill go to Andreev's to retrieve the second reconstructed head, but a KGB agent emerges with it in a box. They follow him, and Renko is crushed to find they are back at Iamskoy's dacha. They watch from a distance as Osborne and Iamskoy supervise the destruction of the head by the KGB agent. To Kirwill's horror, it is his brother's head. Renko confronts Iamskoy in a bath house. Iamskoy cordially admits that he kept Renko on the case because Osborne was unwilling to pay a high enough price to smuggle out the sables. Renko's investigation was intended to frighten Osborne into paying more. He offers to cut Renko in on Osborne's kickback. Renko reveals that he has recorded the conversation, and Iamskoy jumps up and wrestles Renko for the gun. In the ensuing struggle, Renko's gun goes off and kills Iamskoy. Osborne flees to Stockholm, Sweden. The KGB allows Renko to travel there to supervise an exchange. He is to receive the sables from Osborne, whereupon everyone will be allowed to walk away. Renko is shown into a bedroom where Irina is waiting for him. She confesses that she fled to Osborne, who has worked her freedom into the deal for the sables. She promises Renko that his freedom can also be part of the deal. Disgusted by her treachery, Renko tells Irina she has blood on her hands. He meets with Kirwill and the two assume that as soon as the exchange is complete, the KGB will kill Irina, Renko and Osborne all at once. The next morning, at a remote farm, Renko and the KGB agents approach Osborne. They come across the corpse of Kirwill; tied to a tree with his intestines hanging out. Renko is devastated; Osborne then loudly announces that he gutted Kirwill after he killed his dogs. Osborne throws six dead sables onto the field and asks the men to lower their weapons. Renko realizes that neither side will let the other live. When Osborne shoots a man, Renko grabs Irina and runs for cover in the woods. Pribluda then kills the other man before Osborne kills Pribluda in a stand off. Osborne tries to shoot Renko in the woods. Renko finds more live sables in their cages. Irina emerges from the woods and Osborne threatens to kill her if Renko does not surrender. When Renko emerges to give up, Irina shoots Osborne. Renko, too, shoots Osborne before Irina fires multiple rounds, killing him. She asks Renko to go away with her, but Renko reveals he agreed to do the hit on Osborne in return for Irina's safety and freedom from Soviet Union, and that she'd be hunted down and killed if Renko did not return to Moscow. As Irina runs off to freedom in Sweden, Renko frees all of the sables, which run off into the woods as we hear Irina's voice repeat Renko's promise that they will meet again one day.

Chicago Sun-Times newspaper reporter Ernie Souchak (John Belushi) investigates a crooked alderman named Yablonowitz (Val Avery) in Chicago, Illinois. Souchak's informant, Hellinger (Bruce Jarchow), brings his son to their meeting in an alley and the boy wants to climb a fire escape, but Hellinger is afraid of heights. Later, when Souchak's column exposes Yablonowitz's dubious metro contract, Yablonowitz orders his men to find the informant. That night, Souchak is hospitalized after a savage beating by two of Yablonowitz's men. His editor, Howard (Allen Goorwitz), wants Souchak to leave town for a few weeks in order to lay low, and Howard's wife, Sylvia (Carlin Glynn), convinces a reluctant Souchak to write a piece on Nell Porter (Blair Brown), an ornithologist studying eagles in the Rocky Mountains. In Wyoming, a mountain guide, Deke (Liam Russell), leads Souchak on the long trek into the mountains. It is an arduous climb for the overweight Souchak and he is even more upset when bears steal his cigarettes. From afar, Deke and Souchak watch a wild mountain man, Possum, hunt elk and fish. Deke learns that Souchak's visit is unexpected and warns that Nell hates reporters. Nell's cabin is locked and empty when they arrive and Deke leaves Souchak on her doorstop, promising to return in two weeks. When evening descends, Souchak breaks into the cabin, builds a fire and sleeps. Later, Nell returns and, assuming Souchak is a lost hiker, lets him stay. The next morning, she learns he is a reporter and orders him to leave, but Souchak claims he will die in the wilderness and must stay until Deke returns. Nell agrees, but insists he cannot write about her. The next day, Souchak struggles to keep up with Nell as she observes and photographs eagles. The following morning, Souchak shivers outside while inside, Nell bathes in the open shower stall. He decides to stay at the cabin to build a makeshift shower door. The following day, on a trek, Souchak and Nell hear gunshots, and Nell descends upon two hunters. Destroying their rifles, Nell declares that she is a federal agent and it is a felony to shoot bald eagles. She orders the hunters to surrender at the sheriff's office within three days, warning that the FBI will go after them. That night, Souchak tries to kiss Nell and is rebuffed, but she decides he can write an article about her. The next day, when Souchak asks about her background, Nell admits she does not like to talk about herself and asks about his life instead. After dinner, Souchak tries to kiss Nell again and is rejected a second time. Nell informs Souchak that she must work alone the following day. In the morning, however, Souchak follows her and is surprised to see Nell and Possum making love. The next morning, Nell is surprised that Souchak does not want to go to the eagle's nest. Instead, he attempts to chop wood and, when Nell leaves, a jealous Possum attacks Souchak. Nell returns for her forgotten walking stick, sees the men fighting, and orders Possum to stop. She introduces the men to each other and Souchak is awestruck to learn that Possum is actually Max Birnbaum, a former football player who walked away from a successful career. Max is equally impressed to meet the famed reporter. Later, Nell amicably ends her relationship with Max, who realizes that she is attracted to Souchak. The next day, Nell and Souchak journey to observe eagles higher in the mountains. While camping in a tent that night, Souchak kisses Nell, but she will not make love to him. They reach the eagles' nest the next morning and are excited to see that baby eagles born in the spring are thriving. Later, in their tent, Nell gives Souchak an eagle feather, claiming it is a sign of strength and courage. As they descend over icy terrain, Souchak falls down the rocky mountainside, injuring his back. Nell fashions a sled out of rope and ice, straps Souchak onto it, and journeys back to her cabin. Days later, Souchak has recuperated enough to move around with a walking stick and Nell returns to her work. While she is gone, Souchak leaves the cabin door open and a mountain lion attacks. Later, Nell returns home, sees Souchak's shredded hat outside and runs inside to find her companion bloody but alive. Nell bandages Souchak's wounds, kisses him, and they make love. Souchak returns to Chicago but he misses Nell and cannot write. Howard orders him to resume investigating Yablonowitz, but Souchack is not interested. He writes a sappy travel piece about the mountains that Howard considers unprintable. Howard leaves the article on his desk and takes Souchak out for a drink. While they are at the bar, a clerk notices Souchak's article on Howard's desk and prints it in the newspaper. At a newsstand, bystanders scoff at his article, but Souchak ignores them as he reads that Hellinger fell to his death from a fire escape. Remembering that Hellinger had a fear of heights, Souchak realizes that his informant was murdered and is inspired to write multiple articles revealing Yablonowitz's misdeeds. Souchak's apartment is blown up, but he is undeterred. When he links Yablonowitz to Hellinger's death, the alderman flees the country. As Souchak celebrates with Howard, he learns that Nell is lecturing at a conference in Chicago. Souchak attends the lecture and the lovers reconnect, but still face the problem that her life is in the mountains and his life is in Chicago. Feeling it is too difficult to say goodbye, Nell does not wait for Souchak to escort her to the train station and goes alone. However, he rushes to the train and finds her as the final boarding call is announced. Souchak decides to ride to the next stop and they make love in her train compartment. He does not get off at the next station and they continue to make love all the way to the final stop in Victor, Wyoming. The return train to Chicago leaves in half an hour and, while saying their bittersweet farewells, the couple decides they can make their unconventional relationship work. They get married just before Souchak jumps on the return train, promising to see his new wife in the summer.

It is about October of 1947. Thirteen year old Loretta Webb and her younger brother Herman are riding on a mule and sled down to the mining camp in Van Lear, Kentucky to pick up the yearly gifts at the company store. Her father, Ted Webb, a hardworking coal miner, tells them they're "giving the company their money back". A young man in a soldier uniform newly discharged from the Army is placing bets on driving his jeep up a heap of coal slag. His name is Doolittle Lynn. He and Loretta exchange brief glimpses and flirts with each other. Doolittle wins the bet and gets his jeep to the top. Ted and his family arrive home with the gifts and we get a glimpse of mountain life with this poor, but decent and happy family of nine living in a log cabin in near abject poverty. All the kids receive new shoes, but Loretta gets an extra gift of a nice dress with her father declaring she's about to become a woman and should have nice things. Meanwhile, Doolittle is visiting with his old friend and moonshiner, Lee Dollarhide, who is trying to convince him to come into business with him, but Doo is reluctant, even though there are no other choices for him except to work in the coal mines or move away. A short time later, Lee Dollarhide is shot to death attempting to steal moonshine from another distributor. The Webb family witness Doolittle, his father, and an undertaker taking Lee's body A seemingly morose Doolittle is now working in the mines shoveling coal and working in a horrible environment of dust, claustrophobia, and danger of it caving in. At the local one room schoolhouse, there is a musical chairs dance and pie auction. Doolittle attends, volunteers to auction the pies, and buys Loretta's last one for $5, more than a days wages for a coal miner back then. He and Loretta sit down together, he tries a slice of the pie, and it turns out she put salt instead of sugar in it. He and Loretta leave early, walk through the woods to her house, see a glimpse of the mine in town, and exchange their likeness for each other. Doolittle declares he wants to get out of the community and how the war changed him for the better on how he can live a more fulfilling life. Loretta doesn't seem to understand, with her very limited view of the world and probably never having been more than a few hours away from her home in her lifetime. Doolittle kisses her goodnight and says he will bring his jeep the next day to pick her up The next day, Doolittle brings his jeep up to the Webb household and Loretta gets in and rides with him, without her mother's consent. Doolittle speeds through creeks, hills, and downtown Paintsville, then they stop, kiss, and have an intimate embrace for the first time. After hours of being gone, her father whips her with a tree branch or a "switch" in front of the family and her mother tells her to stay away from Doolittle or she'll give her an even worse punishment. Sometime later, near Christmastime while pickaxing coal for heating at a shallow mine, Loretta's father Ted pleads with her to stop seeing Doolittle and that she's too young to be associating with a grown man and does not need to throw away her young years In January 1948, soon after Christmas and New Years, Loretta is sitting in the family room on a Saturday night depressed and lovesick. Her father tries to lighten things up with the Grand Ole Opry on their radio with Bill Monroe's "Blue Moon of Kentucky" playing. Doolittle enters the house and immediately the family leaves the room so Loretta and Doolittle can be alone. Doolittle proposes to her and asks permission from her parents, but both of them won't answer and tell him to ask the other parent. Doolittle explains to them while they're in bed that night he wants to marry their daughter, despite her age, and that he'll do whatever it takes and break his back to make her happy. Ted tells him to never hit her or take her far away from home and Doolittle promises. The next day, in an almost empty church, Loretta and Doolittle exchange vows with her father attending very briefly and giving her away. There are no wedding rings exchanged. Loretta and Doolittle spend their honeymoon at a roadside motel somewhere near town. She's supposedly cold and standing near the radiator in her room, but in actuality is scared half to death of the approaching intimacy and sex she knows nothing about. Doolittle forces himself on her, tears off her nightgown, and she cries and pleads with him to stop. The next morning, Doolittle brings her breakfast in bed (probably her first time eating restaurant food) and even though the food is cold, she refuses to go into the restaurant and embarrassed that people will know what they've done. Doolittle slaps her in the face for her outburst, already having broken one promise, he angrily apologizes, then she throws the food on him. Sometime later, Doolittle pulls his jeep up into the company home in town they live in. Loretta tries to be the nice devoted wife and ask about getting a radio, but Doolittle gives her a book called "Sex For Newlyweds" to read. She's offended by the pictures in it, but also a functional illiterate and can't read many of the words. Doolittle is frustrated by her bad cooking, lack of housekeeping, and reluctance to want sex and intimacy with him. He throws her out of the house. Loretta goes back to her parents cabin in Butcher Holler on a rainy/snowy day and her family is all happy to have her back. Her dad notices her weight gain and her mother is worried she's already pregnant. Loretta goes to Doc Turner's office in Paintsville and it turns out she is pregnant. Doolittle just happens to be in town and flirting with a local girl, but Loretta calls her a sow chases her away. Doolittle announces he's leaving Kentucky telling her how the coal mines will kill him young if he doesn't get out soon and that she can come up and join him as soon as he gets the money. This is the second promise broken. Loretta announces she's going to have a baby. Around April of 1948, Loretta and her father bid their farewells at the Van Lear train station with Ted declaring he'll see her again, but "never see his little girl again". It's about January 1959 (should be about 1956, due to the age of the kids) The Lynn family is living in a run-down, but comfortable home in rural Washington with her children Betty Sue, Jack Benny, Ernest Ray, and Cissy, all of them between 4 and 8 years old. Loretta is now a mature woman keeping house and competent cook, making up jars of apple butter and managing her kids. Doolittle is working as a logger. The family all sits down to dinner and they discuss their day. Their neighbor tells them Loretta's mother wishes them happy anniversary (supposedly their 11th one) and wants them to get a telephone, but Doolittle refuses and says he "don't like telephones". Loretta sings "The Great Titanic" to her kids to sleep. She asks Doolittle for a wedding rings as an anniversary gift, but Doolittle says "bullshit", then her son Jack Benny says the same word Doolittle drives to the local pawn shop that morning looking at rings, but ends up getting Loretta a guitar. Loretta is offended that he would buy her something she does not know how to play. But she learns how and sings to her kids while on the porch or doing household chores After a few days of learning the guitar, she and Doolittle drive out to Grange Hall in Custer. She feels he is up to something and it turns out Doolittle wants her to audition to sing on stage the next Saturday. Loretta is scared half to death of doing such a thing, but Doolittle won't take no for an answer. The next Saturday, Loretta sings Patsy Cline's "There He Goes" and ends up loving what she did on stage and does another one. The Lynn family drives to a recording studio in Bellingham and Loretta records a song she's written called "Honky Tonk Girl". After a few flubs, she has now cut her first record. Doolittle takes a picture of Loretta in their home using a bedspread as a backdrop and an aluminum pot top as a flash. Then Doolittle stays up all night typing letters and sending copies of her records to recording studios. The next morning, on February 22, 1959, Loretta is cooking breakfast for her kids. She hears her name being called outside and thinks her father is approaching, but in actuality, it's her neighbor informing them of a family emergency. Her father has just died. The family drives all the way back to Kentucky for the wake at the family home. Doolittle and several other men are outside the cabin drinking moonshine and standing around a burning barrel. At her father's burial, Loretta declares to Doolittle she wants to be a singer. They begin their months long tour all over the south visiting the disk jockeys of the places Doolittle sent records to. The first station they visit is from a dj claiming he played her record and liked it, but she found it in the pile and reprimanded him for lying. After months on the road of sleeping in their car and subsisting on bologna sandwiches, crackers, and Cokes, they meet with record promoter, Hugh Cherry. Loretta says the word "horny" on the radio and did not know that was considered dirty and the manager declares he will never play another record of hers. However, Hugh finds out just now she is #14 on the country charts and it will be played. Loretta and Doolittle travel all night, pull over to the side of the road, and make out. The next morning, she wakes up with their car parked in front of the Grand Ole Opry and excited. Sometime in 1960, Loretta plays on The Grand Ole Opry for the first time. She is introduced by country singer Ernest Tubb (as himself). Country legends Roy Acuff and Minnie Pearl are also on stage greeting her. She feels out of place and that she has not done enough to earn the spot, but does perform. Her husband Doolittle hangs out at a bar with a patron teasing him that he doesn't do or need to do anything and she'll be bringing home all the money now. Doolittle punches him. Loretta leaves that night About September of 1961, Loretta is at the Ernest Tubb music shop singing Patsy Cline's "I Fall to Pieces" as a tribute to her. By this time, Loretta has spent the last year making repeated appearances on the Grand Ole Opry. She receives word from Patsy's husband, Charlie Dick, that Patsy wants to meet her. Patsy has been in the hospital recovering from a near fatal car accident. Loretta at first is intimidated by Patsy's outspoken and brassy personality, but the two become friends almost immediately. For the next several months or so, Loretta and Patsy make tours together on the Grand Ole Opry, at county fairs, and the like. Doolittle is becoming increasingly annoyed with Loretta's more independent nature, fast success, and influence from Patsy, especially trying on makeup for the first time. Loretta catches Doolittle drunk and making out with another woman in a car when their tour bus is about to leave. One day, Loretta and Patsy are out shopping in downtown Nashville, with Doolittle and Charlie dozing in the car while waiting. Doolittle has had enough and demands Loretta remove her makeup and she sasses him again. Doolittle slaps her for it and she breaks his fingers with her purse and they drive away. That night, Loretta is at their home suffering a migraine headache. Doolittle comes home and tells her he needs to get back out and work and do something he's good at, but Loretta assures him that it's because of him that she got where she's at. And he also declares to her there is a price to pay when you get there. Doolittle surprises Loretta with a wedding band she has for the first time after 14 years of marriage. Doolittle gets a job as an auto mechanic. In early March of 1963, Loretta announces to Patsy she's pregnant again and doesn't want to have the child (this was another timeline error, as the twin girls, Peggy and Patsy, were born August 6, 1964, almost a year and a half after Patsy's death). Patsy shows Loretta a box of maternity dresses and Loretta soon leaves. Patsy promises to call her first thing Monday morning after returning home from a benefit concert in Kansas City. On the morning of March 5, 1963, Loretta Lynn and Doolittle are in bed listening to Patsy Cline's "Sweet Dreams" and the disk jockey announces Patsy was killed in a plane crash earlier. Loretta breaks down with Doolittle comforting her and she feels she has nobody to talk to now. Loretta has her twin girls, Peggy and Patsy, but doesn't know which one is which. Over the next 5 years, Loretta is making endless concert tours throughout the country staying in her bus and nights in hotels. Also during this time, she and Doolittle have bought a ranch in Tennessee called Hurricane Mills with Doolittle as caretaker of ranch and raising the twin girls. At her last concert tour, a fan tries to rip her hair out. She is traveling on the bus that night exhausted, unable to sleep, and suffering a migraine. Loretta comes home sometime in 1969 for some rest and relaxation after months on the road. Doolittle points to a car their son Jack Benny wrecked (an error, it was a 1971 or 1972 Ford) She asks Doolittle to start accompanying her to her concerts to be her guardian and caretaker. He reluctantly agrees. Just as they are going to sleep, a phone call is made to their house from a lonely fan wanting to talk to Loretta and Doolittle says she is not home yet, but to quit crying and that he'll give Loretta the message. Loretta and Doolittle are touring together once again, but she's on the edge of burnout, due to her unable to memorize the words of Shel Silverstein's "One's on the Way". At another appearance, Loretta has woke up with her tour bus parked. She has not yet learned the words of the song. She pleads with Doolittle that she can't do the concert, but he feels she should just go out and perform. She comes onstage, but instead of singing, opens up her personal life on stage about how her concert appearances, fame, and all have been overwhelming and exhausting for her, but that she appreciates her fans caring about her. She collapses and has a nervous breakdown and Doolittle carries her out. Months pass by and Loretta spends her life resting away at the ranch. Doolittle takes Loretta out not too far from the ranch one morning and shows her a little house he wants to build. They have an argument about where the window should go and Loretta doesn't like the way he kept the house a secret from her. But they make up After about a year of recovery, and in 1970, Loretta is back on stage once again and sings her signature hit "Coal Miner's Daughter". Coal Miner's Daughter opens with Loretta Webb (Sissy Spacek) riding a mule to the coal mine to meet her Daddy when he completes his shift. As the opening credits continue, the film shows some coal miners deep in a Kentucky coal mine where one yells "fire in the hole," which is followed by an explosion. Then the film switches to Doolittle Lynn (Tommy Lee Jones), who is dressed in his Army uniform, driving a jeep with a blonde girl sitting next to him. Doolittle talks to several of the miners in front of the company store bragging about his beat-up jeep. He cons them into betting he can't climb a heap of red dog (a hill of mining trash) in his jeep. Ted Webb (Levon Helm), Loretty, as he calls her, and Herman, a younger brother, enter the company store where Ted asks the storekeeper if his Sears Roebuck order has arrived. While the storekeeper fetches Ted's order, Doolittle coaxes his jeep up the trash heap and wins the bet. When the Webbs return home to their rundown cabin in Butcher Holler, we meet Loretta's mother, Clary (Phyllis Boyens), and the rest of the Webb brood: eight children who range in age from infancy to age thirteen. Meanwhile Doolittle hikes up the mountain to see his moonshine making friend, Lee Dollarhide (William Sanderson). Doo, as Lee calls him, had worked for Lee selling moonshine to the miners before he went into the Army. Lee admits to the rumors that he steals from the moonshiners over at Greasy Creek when his own supply runs low. He offers to go fifty-fifty if Doo will help him with his moonshine business. Lee reminds his friend that men born in the mountains of eastern Kentucky have three choices: "coal mine, moonshine or movin' on down the line." Back at the Webb cabin, Daddy Webb presents the children with the shoes he had ordered from Sears Roebuck (in the summer they went barefooted, but in the winter they get shoes). On this occasion Loretta receives a dress in addition to shoes; she gets something extra, Ted explains, because she's gettin to be a woman. The first time in the film that Loretta sings she takes her youngest sibling out onto the porch and sings the traditional mountain song, "In the Pines," a cappella. While she's out there, Lee starts another run on Greasy Creek and is shot by one of his moonshine competitors. Soon Doo and his Pa lead Lee's mule with his body draped over it past the Webb home. Doo's Pa is glad his son wasn't working for Lee or he would likely be draped over the mule beside his friend. The scene changes to a community gathering where several of the youngsters are playing musical chairs while a string band plays. After the game there is a pie auction, for which Doo volunteers to be the auctioneer. When it comes time to auction Loretta's chocolate pie, Doo and another young man compete to be the highest bidder. Doo finally wins for $5. While the crowd square dances, Doo tries a bite of Loretta's pie and immediately spits it out. She had put salt instead of sugar in her pie by mistake. Later, he offers her a ride in his jeep, but she won't accept. So, he walks her home. During the walk Doo talks about how much he learned about the outside world while he was in the Army. It made him realize he doesn't want to be a coal miner. When they get to her cabin, he kisses her good night (it was her first kiss). As he's leaving he promises to bring his jeep up to her cabin and take her for a ride, but she doesn't think he can get it up the holler. The next morning, true to his word, Doo drives his jeep up the holler to take Loretta for a ride - a wild ride. When Doo almost plunges the jeep off an embankment, he kisses Loretta. She is breathless partly from the kiss, but also from the wild ride. Doo tells her, "That's the way youre supposed to feel when youre in love." When she returns home after dark, her Daddy whips her like she was a little girl and tells her to stay away from Doo. Later, when Loretta and her father go to a shallow mine for coal for the family to burn, he talks to her about her relationship with Doo; she's not even fourteen and he's a wild grown-up. He begs his "shinin' pride" not to throw her young years away, but she loves Doo and they want to get married. Back at the cabin while the family is listening to the Grand Ole Opry on their battery-powered radio, Ted encourages his wife, Clary, to do her squaw dance. Ted sings along with Bill Monroe's "Blue Moon of Kentucky" while Clary dances. While everybody is watching and listening, Doo knocks on the door, but they don't hear him, so he comes in anyway. Once they realize he's in the cabin, Clary stops dancing and goes into another room and Ted turns off the radio and leaves the cabin. Once Loretta and Doo are alone, he shows her the money he had saved from his Army paychecks. He reminds her that the next day is their anniversary (he doesn't say anniversary of what), so he thinks it would be good time to get married. Loretta likes the idea, but tells him to ask her Daddy, who tells him to ask Clary, who tells him to ask Ted - back and forth. Finally, Doo waits until they are in bed and goes into their bedroom to ask them both at the same time. Ted asks him to promise two things: don't hit her and don't take her far away from home. Doo promises. The next day at their wedding there are two ladies sitting in the pews of the rustic church. Ted finally walks in the back door, stands there long enough to answer "I do" when the preacher asks who gives this woman to be married to this man, and then leaves. They don't have wedding rings to exchange. At the motel on their wedding night, it is freezing. Loretta puts her night gown on over her other clothes, partly because she's so cold but also because she's afraid of sex. Doo forces himself on her, which frightens and disgusts her. The next morning she won't go into the adjoining restaurant because she's sure people will stare and know what they've been doing. Doo tells her she better get used to it. When she says, "I ain't gonna get used to you gettin' on me and sweatin' like an ol' pig," Doo breaks one of the promises he had made her Daddy; he slaps her. Doo goes to work at the coal mine while Loretta tries to learn how to be a house wife. Doo loses his patience with her lousy cooking, her lack of house cleaning and her innocence about how to love her man, so he gives her a book, "Sex for Newlyweds." In the following scene, Loretta trudges up the holler towards her folks' cabin; Doo has thrown her out. When her Daddy says, "I believe married life's makin' you fat, girl," her mother immediately realizes her daughter is pregnant. Loretta goes to the doctor and sure enough, before her fourteenth birthday, she is pregnant. When she leaves the doctor's office, she sees a girl flirting with Doo so she picks up a stick and runs her off. Doo tells Loretta he's leaving Kentucky. He's going to Washington (state) to find a job; he refuses to be buried alive in the coal mine. He plans to send for her as soon as he saves enough money. She reminds him of his promise not to take her far away from home. Well, he says, she'll just have to choose which is more important: being her Daddy's daughter or his wife. He gives her a ride home and on the way she tells him she's going to have a baby. He laughs and says, "You know, you might have found something that you know how to do." Months later Loretta receives a letter from Doo with enough money for the trip to Washington. The film skips ahead to Loretta's life in Washington. She's now the seventeen-year-old mother of four. Doo, who is now known as "Mooney" because of his moonshine days back in Kentucky, works as a logger. One night Loretta sings the children to sleep with a song about the sinking of the Titanic. Mooney listens intently. Afterwards, he asks what she'd like for her anniversary present. She reminds him she still doesnt have a wedding ring. Mooney goes to the local pawn shop to look for an anniversary present. He comes home late that evening drunk with a guitar for her gift. Even though she can't play it, he bought her a guitar because he likes the way she sings. While she sits on the front porch washing clothes in a decrepit washing machine, she picks out the chords and sings "Have I Told You Lately That I Love You?" As she improves, she makes her kids sit and listen and also sings while Mooney washes the supper dishes. Mooney suggests they get a babysitter and go honky-tonkin'. On Saturday night they go to the local Grange Hall. Mooney seems to have something on his mind and Loretta thinks he must be going to finally give her a ring. Instead, Mooney talks to the bandleader about auditioning Loretta to sing with his band. When she realizes what her husband is doing, she runs to the bathroom. He follows and finally talks her into the audition. The next week Loretta is introduced as the new girl singer of the Westerneers. At first, she sings "There He Goes," a song popularized by Patsy Cline, very timidly, but quickly loses her inhibitions and performs the song so well that the audience applauds lustily. While she is gardening one day, she makes up her first original song, "I'm a Honky Tonk Girl." Mooney wants Loretta to cut a record, so they go to a small local recording studio. After she flubs a take, Mooney places the kids in the studio so she can sing to them like she does at home. After a few bars, the recording engineer stops the session to get more and better pickers because "that little lady sings her hind end off." Back home, Mooney takes a publicity photo with their bedspread as the backdrop. After work, he stays up all night addressing envelopes with Loretta's photo and her record to country DJs. Mooney and Loretta don't have a telephone, so a neighbor comes to tell Loretta she has a long distance emergency phone call - her Daddy has died. Back in Kentucky for the funeral, friends and family sing "Amazing Grace" at the wake. It took Loretta quite a while to recover from her Daddy's death. Mooney finally convinces her if she wants to be a singer they have to see DJs in person to make certain they play her record. Grandma keeps the kids while they travel from station to station in eastern Kentucky. One of them claims to have received her record, played it and it flopped, but they find the envelope they sent unopened. She rants so vociferously, the DJ relents and plays it. On an interview segment a DJ tells her she has to pay her dues before she can sing on the Opry. Despite all the obstacles, "I'm a Honky Tonk Girl" becomes a hit. After an all-night drive, Loretta wakes to find they're parked in front of the Ryman Auditorium, the home of the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. She's in awe. On her first appearance on the Opry, Ernest Tubb (himself) opens the show by singing "Walkin' the Floor Over You." Loretta is scared; she doesn't think she belongs on such a prestigious stage; she hasn't suffered enough to be this far this fast. (The film shows a glimpse of two country music legends, Minnie Pearl and Roy Acuff, in the wings of the theater.) Tubb introduces Loretta who sings "I'm a Honky Tonk Girl." After her performance, Tubb invites her to return the following week. After Loretta appeared on the Opry seventeen straight weeks, she sings "I Fall to Pieces" at Ernest Tubb's Record Shop in downtown Nashville. During an instrumental break, she dedicates the song to Patsy Cline, who made it a hit. She tells the listening audience that Patsy is in the hospital recovering from a car wreck. Afterward, Charlie Dick (Bob Hannah), Patsy's husband, meets them outside and tells Loretta that Patsy (Beverly DAngelo) would like to meet her. Loretta accompanies Charlie to the hospital and she and Patsy become bosom buddies. When Patsy returns to the Opry, she sings "Sweet Dreams" while Loretta watches from the wings. Later on Patsy's tour bus on the way to an appearance at a fair, Patsy sings a little of Kitty Wells' hit "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels." In the pouring rain, Patsy and Loretta sing a duet of "Back in Baby's Arms" while each holds an umbrella. After the show Loretta catches Mooney in the back seat of a car with a carnival floozie. She drags him out and threatens that she better never catch him with trash like that again. Later, on the bus she writes the song "You Ain't Woman Enough (To Take My Man)" about that incident. After a shopping trip with Patsy, Mooney and Loretta fight over her use of makeup (he doesn't like it and never has). Loretta hits his hand with her purse and then drives away with Charlie and Patsy. When Mooney comes home late, his hand is all bandaged. He's decided to get a job (he feels like a kept man and that was a serious male ego problem in the country community if not in the nation at large). She offers to quit if her being the bread winner is going to cause them to split. During their conversation, he finally gives her a wedding ring. Mooney gets a job as a mechanic in a garage where we hear Loretta sing "You Ain't Woman Enough" over the radio. Loretta visits Patsy and tells her she's pregnant again, but she doesn't want this baby. Patsy cheers her up by promising to give her the biggest baby shower in Nashville. Then Patsy gives her a box of her old maternity clothes. Patsy is leaving for a benefit performance in Kansas City, but she promises to call when she returns on Monday and they'll go shopping. Loretta wakes on Monday morning to the sounds of Patsy's voice singing "Sweet Dreams" on the radio. The announcer speaks over her singing and says, "You're listening to a tribute to the late Patsy Cline, tragically killed early this morning in a plane crash near Dyersburg, Tennessee." In the next scene, Loretta has given birth to twin girls that she names Peggy and Patsy (of course, Patsy is named after Patsy Cline). Back on stage at the Opry, Loretta sings "You're Lookin' at Country." As the song continues, she tours, writes songs on her tour bus, and signs autographs. The Opry announcer introduces her as having twenty-one No. 1 records. While she sings "Sweet Dreams," Mooney drives his jeep up to their mansion in Hurricane Hills, Tennessee and later bathes the twins. While she sings "You Ain't Woman Enough" we see her touring again and spending lonely nights in hotel rooms. When the Opry announcer introduces her as the first lady of country music, she sings "Your Squaw Is on the Warpath," while Mooney and the twins watch on TV. Her relentless schedule finally catches up with her. She's having throbbing headaches and medicine doesn't help. She wants Mooney on the road with her to take care of her. Out on the road again, Loretta sings "Lovin' Country Style." Later, she can't remember the lyrics to a new song, "One's on the Way," so one of her band members feeds the lyrics to her, but they soon give up and switch to the more familiar "You Ain't Woman Enough." At her next concert, she doesn't want to go on, but Doo convinces her not to let her fans down. When she goes on stage, she doesn't come in after the band plays the introduction for her first song. Instead, she talks to the audience - her friends and fans and tells them that Patsy told her, "you got to run your own life," but she feels like her life is running her. As she walks off the stage she collapses into her husband's arms (she suffered a nervous breakdown brought on by physical exhaustion and marital stress - her marriage miraculously survived). After her recuperation back at their ranch, she returns to the Opry and sings "Coal Miner's Daughter," which is her very autobiographical song. That song segues into the closing credits which recaps scenes from the film. Further into the closing credits, we hear excerpts from "One's on the Way," "I'm a Honky Tonk Girl," "You Ain't Woman Enough," "You're Lookin' at Country," "Fist City," "Your Squaw Is On the Warpath," and "Don't Come Home A-Drinkin' (With Lovin' on Your Mind)."