Ned Beatty

Rango is a chameleon who accidentally ends up in the town of Dirt, an outpost that is in desperate need of a new sheriff.

A Harvard professor is lured back into the courtroom after twenty-five years to take the case of a young black man condemned to death for the horrific murder of a child. Bobby Earl (Blair Underwood) is facing the electric chair for the murder of a young girl. Eight years after the crime, he calls in Paul Armstrong (Sir Sean Connery), a professor of law, to help prove his innocence. Armstrong quickly uncovers some overlooked evidence to present to the local police, but they aren't interested, Bobby was their killer. —Rob Hartill The year is 1986. In Ochopee, Florida, eleven-year-old Joanie Shriver (Barbara Jean Kane) is kidnapped, raped, and murdered. Bobby Earl Ferguson (Blair Underwood) is arrested by officers Tanny Brown (Laurence Fishburne) and J. T. Wilcox (Christopher Murray), who proceed to beat Bobby into confessing to the murder. Bobby is placed on trial, where Bobby's defense attorney McNair (Ned Beatty) puts up a lousy defense for Bobby, and Bobby is sentenced to be executed. Now, eight years later, Bobby hands a letter to his grandmother Evangeline (Ruby Dee) and asks Evangeline to go to Cambridge, Massachusetts, to hire Harvard law professor Paul Armstrong (Sir Sean Connery) to clear Bobby's name. At Harvard, Paul is attacking capital punishment in a campus debate, when Evangeline arrives and hands the letter to Paul. Paul goes home, where his wife Laurie (Kate Capshaw) is throwing a birthday party for their young daughter Katie (Scarlett Johansson). Laurie reads the letter and she encourages Paul to take the case, even though he hasn't practiced law in twenty-five years. Paul, Laurie, and Katie head to Florida, where Paul meets Bobby in the prison. Bobby tells Paul his side of the story and what Tanny and Wilcox did. Paul begins to believe that Bobby was railroaded. Bobby tells Paul to speak to Blair Sullivan (Ed Harris), a man who is also on death row. Blair gives Paul some clues that could prove Bobby's innocence, and Blair's own guilt. But in the process of trying to clear Bobby, Paul learns some disturbing truths about Bobby, putting Paul and his family in a fight for their lives. —Todd Baldridge

A series of mysterious crimes threatens the existence of a new radio network. In 1939, WBN, a fourth radio network, is about to take to America's airwaves. As if the confusion of the premiere night wasn't enough, Penny Henderson, the owner's secretary, must deal with an unhappy sponsor, an overbearing boss and a soon-to-be ex-husband who desperately wants her back. As the broadcast begins, a mysterious voice breaks the broadcast and suddenly members of the cast turn up dead. It's up to her husband Roger, to find out whodunit as the police chase him through the halls of WBN. —Kevin <Kibble@vm.temple.edu> On one fateful evening in 1939, WBN, a fourth radio network, is making its nationwide debut--and is engulfed in chaos. Penny Henderson, the station owner's secretary, has her hands full coping with a disgruntled sponsor, a tyrannical boss, an incompetent director, temperamental stars, unpaid writers on the verge of mutiny and, worst of all, her soon-to-be ex-husband Roger, who's determined to win Penny back. As the curtain rises on the opening act, a mysterious voice interrupts the program and menacing events begin to unfold--leading the WBN team to realize that dead air is the least of their worries! As cast members turn up dead, it is up to Roger to find out whodunnit as the police chase him through the halls of WBN. —Anonymous

Daniel Eugene "Rudy" Ruettiger grows up in Joliet, Illinois dreaming of playing college football at the University of Notre Dame. Though he is achieving some success with his local high school team (Joliet Catholic), he lacks the grades and money necessary to attend Notre Dame, as well as the talent and physical stature to play football for a major intercollegiate program. Ruettiger takes a job at a local steel mill like his father Daniel Sr., who is also a Notre Dame fan. He prepares to settle down, but when his best friend Pete is killed in an explosion at the mill, Rudy decides to follow his dream of attending Notre Dame and playing for the Fighting Irish. He resolves to do everything he can to get into the football powerhouse. He travels to South Bend, Indiana to the campus but fails to get admitted to Notre Dame. With the help and sponsorship of a local priest, Rudy enrolls at Holy Cross College, a nearby junior college, hoping to get good enough grades to qualify for a transfer. In keeping with his football dream, he approaches a Notre Dame stadium groundskeeper named Fortune and volunteers to work for free. Rudy sneaks in and out of Fortune's office at night through a window and sleeps on a cot, having no place to live of his own. At first, Fortune is indifferent toward Rudy but gradually sees his sincerity and later provides Rudy with a key of his own to the office. Rudy learns that Fortune has never seen a Notre Dame football game, despite having worked at the stadium for years. Rudy befriends D-Bob, a graduate student at Notre Dame and a teaching assistant at Rudy's junior college. The socially awkward D-Bob offers to tutor Rudy in exchange for help in meeting girls. Suspecting an underlying cause to Ruettiger's previous academic problems, D-Bob has him tested and Rudy finds out that he has dyslexia. Rudy learns how to overcome his disability and becomes a better student. Meanwhile, Rudy's efforts at setting up D-Bob with attractive girls at Holy Cross prove fruitless, until one girl offers to set D-Bob up with Elsa, a shy co-ed. At Christmas vacation, Rudy returns home to his family's appreciation of his report card but is still mocked for his attempts at playing football and loses his fiance to one of his brothers. After numerous rejections, Rudy is finally admitted to Notre Dame during his final semester of transfer eligibility. He rushes home to tell his family, with his father announcing the news to his steel mill workers over the loudspeaker. Rudy persuades Fortune to promise to come see his first game if Rudy is permitted to suit up. After "walking on" as a non-scholarship player for the football team, Ruettiger convinces coach Ara Parseghian to give him a spot on the practice squad. An assistant coach warns the players that 35 "scholarship" players will not even make the "dress roster" of players who take the field during the games but notices that Ruettiger exhibits more drive than many of his scholarship teammates. Rudy is part of the practice team & puts in a lot of effort every day on the field & even earns the disrespect of the regular team members for "making them look bad". But the coaches notice Rudy's effort & dedication. Coach Parseghian agrees to Rudy's request to suit up for one home game in his senior year so his family and friends can see him as a member of the team. Rudy has accepted that he will never be a regular member of the Notre Dame team & is happy to get a chance to dress up. However, Parseghian steps down as coach following the 1974 season and is replaced by former NFL coach Dan Devine. D-Bob announces he is leaving for law school in Miami with Elsa, now his fiance. Coach Devine keeps Rudy on the team but refuses to list him on the active playing roster. When Rudy sees that he is not on the dress list for the team's next-to-last game, he becomes angry and quits the team. Fortune sees Rudy at the stadium and asks why he is not at practice, then chastises Rudy for giving up. Rudy learns for the first time that Fortune has seen his share of Notre Dame games because he was once on the team but has never seen one from the stands. Fortune had quit the team because he felt he was not playing due to his skin color. Fortune reminds Rudy that he has nothing to prove to anyone but himself, and that not a day will go by when he will not regret quitting. With that, Rudy returns to the team. Led by team captain and All-American Roland Steele, the other seniors rise to Rudy's defense and lay their jerseys on Devine's desk, each requesting that Rudy be allowed to dress in his place for the season's final game. In response, Devine lets Ruettiger suit up for the game against Georgia Tech. Steele invites Ruettiger to lead the team out of the tunnel onto the playing field. Fortune is there to see it, as promised. As the game nears its end with Notre Dame up 27-3, Devine sends all the seniors onto the field but not Rudy, despite urging from Steele and the assistant coaches. As a "Rudy!" chant begins in the stadium, the offensive team, led by tailback Jamie O'Hare, overrules Devine's call for victory formation and scores another touchdown instead, providing defensive player Ruettiger with one more chance to get into a game and thus be entered onto the official roster of Notre Dame football players. Devine finally lets Rudy play on the final kickoff, to the joy of his family. Rudy stays in for the final play of the game, sacks the Georgia Tech quarterback, and to cheers from the stadium, is carried off the field on his teammates' shoulders.

In 1955 Florida, a Korean vet has a breakdown and is incarcerated in a "maximum security" mental health prison, where patients are abused. An American war hero attempts suicide and ends up in Chattahoochee State Mental Hospital. But he realizes that the doctors in the hospital are humiliating patients, and staff are murdering them. —Harun Mehmedinovic <Pkojovic@concentric.net> Emmet Foley, a decorated but troubled Korean War vet suffering from PTSS and impotence, has a breakdown and goes on a shooting spree in his neighborhood, subliminally hoping to commit "suicide by cop." Failing that, he shoots himself in the chest but survives to be sentenced to a "maximum security" mental health facility in 1955 Florida. While recovering, he begins to feel a sense of rage over the mistreatment and open abuse of his fellow inmates, whose needs are ignored in an atmosphere of neglect and filth. With the help of another inmate and his faithful sister, he begins a campaign against the entrenched bureaucracy to improve conditions for his fellow patients. —duke1029

A corrupt lieutenant in the homicide division is threatened by the righteous DA while trying to solve a string of mysterious murders. Set in New Orleans. Remy McSwain, lieutenant in Homicide finds that he has two problems, the first of a series of gang killings and Ann Osborne, a beautiful attorney from the D.A.'s police corruption task force in his office. He begins a relationship with her as the killings continue only to have charges filed against him for accepting bribes as he stumbles on a police corruption Sting. While this is happening, the criminals insist that none of the crime gangs are behind the killings. —John Vogel <jlvogel@comcast.net> McSwain reckons he's an honest cop, though he's happy to go along with the kickbacks from the precinct 'Widows and Orphans Fund'. When it comes to murder he's definitely on the right side and is irritated to find his latest investigation being followed by Anne Osborne from the D.A.'s office. Out of work they hit it off pretty quickly, making it difficult for Anne to handle when his more questionable activities come to light and she has to prosecute him. In turn McSwain starts to suspect that he's investigating something more than mob slayings. —J-26

Jack Brown (Richard Pryor) is an unemployed newspaper reporter living in Baton Rouge, Louisiana who is in danger of losing his house to the bank since he and his wife, Angela (Annazette Chase), cannot make their mortgage. After numerous unsuccessful attempts to get a job working for the local paper, The Bugle, he becomes so desperate that he ends up taking a job as a "cleaning lady" for U.S. Bates (Jackie Gleason), an uptight and ruthless businessman who owns the paper and many other businesses in Louisiana. Jack is humiliated as he clumsily attempts to serve food at a luncheon. He is fired, but quickly lands a part-time job as a janitor in a department store owned by Bates. The following evening, "Master" Eric Bates (Scott Schwartz), the 10-year-old, spoiled-and-rotten, brat son of the boss, arrives home from the military academy where he attends and his father sends him to the store and he is told that he "can have anything he wants in the store". Amused at seeing Jack goof around in the store's toy section, Eric informs his father's long-suffering right-hand man, Sydney Morehouse (Ned Beatty), that what he wants is Jack Brown himself. Morehouse fails to convince Eric that human beings cannot be owned. Jack is literally "boxed up" and taken to the large Bates mansion that sits on the outskirts of the city. At first, Jack refuses to have any interaction with the brat Eric, but Bates offers him a deal: in exchange for a generous financial settlement, Jack reluctantly agrees to be Eric's live-in friend during Eric's one-week spring break from military school. Emotionally estranged from his father, Eric takes a liking to Jack but still manages to humiliate him with numerous pranks during the first day and night. After a particularly humiliating incident in the mansion incited by Bates' ditsy and floozy, much younger trophy wife Fancy (Teresa Ganzel), who literally introduces him at a dinner party as Eric's new "toy," Jack grows tired of the situation and leaves. The next day, Jack agrees to return only when U.S. Bates (with Morehouse as his proxy) offers Jack so much money to be Eric's live-in friend for one week, that Jack will not only pay back the bank and numerous bill collectors, but Jack will be able to pay back the entire mortgage on his house as well. Jack returns to the Bates estate, determined to teach Eric how a friend is supposed to be treated. Over the next several days, they slowly bond while participating in mini-cart racing, video games, and even fishing in a stream filled with piranha. Both Jack and Eric begin to open up to one another with stories about their personal lives. Jack tells Eric about him growing up poor and having to look out for oneself. Eric tells Jack about his mother's death when he was very young which his grumpy father tries to forget about by putting all his time in work and leaving no time for anything else while marrying again and again. Over time, Jack sees that Eric isn't the "bad seed" that he puts out to people, but just a mistreated and neglected boy who wants attention and whom is spoiled by his father. Used to getting things his way since all his father ever does is give him gifts and money (calling it love and affection) Eric throws fits when things do not go his way. Eric is so spoiled and hyper-competitive that he enjoys beating Jack at video games, mini-cart racing and board games a little too much. One day, when Jack begins winning at a two-person basketball game, Eric, seeing that he is losing, refuses to play anymore and walks off the court. When Jack scolds Eric for quitting because he is losing asks if he would like to tell Eric's father that he is a quitter as well as a sore loser. Eric replies with the most touching and dramatic line in the movie: "my father doesn't care what I am... as long as I stay out of his way." Another day later, Jack and Eric decide to start a newspaper of their own for fun. After witnessing multiple examples of Bates' cruelty to his housekeeping staff and workers, they dig up dirt on him, such as a story of how he won his elderly and long-suffering butler, Barkley (Wilfrid Hyde-White), in a game of billiards. Jack and Eric then break into Bates newspaper office after-hours as well as the factory to print their paper, but get discovered by the police. At a police station, Eric manages to create a diversion by setting off some firecrackers creating confusion and panic in which Jack and Eric quietly walk out of their jail cell, and out of the front door. Afterwards, Jack and Eric publish their paper, titled 'The Toy' and distribute free copies of it throughout the city. Morehouse finds a copy and, being the ever loyal toady that he is, shows it to Bates and he is outraged. Bates quickly calls Jack and Eric to his office to confront them both, but he keeps his anger in check. Bates orders Jack and Eric to shut down their paper which he sees as humiliating to him and the Bates dynasty. However, Eric is unapologetic and wants to continue the paper. To prove to his son that money can buy anything (including loyalty), Bates offers Jack a reporting job with his newspaper at the end of the week... which is what Jack wanted all along. When Jack accepts, Eric becomes upset and runs out of the office. Outside, Eric scolds Jack for selling out as all of the people that Bates does business with. Jack tells the boy that most men (especially disenfranchised African-American men such as himself) need jobs, just as his priority is to support himself and his wife. At the climax, an swanky outdoor party is held at the Bates estate, attended by prominent citizens who are supporters of a senator (Ray Spruell). They are unaware that members of the KKK are also in attendance. Jack's wife, Angela, tries to bring attention to this with her anti-Klan group that are camped on the Bates mansion in a protest demonstration, but Jack convinces her to leave. He learns the true reason for the party is to get the KKK Grand Wizard (Orwin Harvey) and Senator Newcomb together in a picture, which Bates would then use to blackmail the senator. Senator Newcomb's daughter Honey Russell (Linda McCann) is also in attendance at the party and is accompanied by her husband (Stocker Fontelieu) who is a local district attorney investing Bates for shady business deals and corruption, in which Bates is also hoping to get D.A. Russell a photo op with the Grand Wizard to blackmail him too to stop his investigation of his business activities. Jack and Eric team up one last time to disrupt the party and they crash the events on their mini go-carts where Jack announces to everyone about the Grand Wizard's identity. Jack embarrasses the Grand Wizard by causing him to fall into a bowl of chocolate fudge. The Grand Wizard throws a pie at Jack, but hits a policeman instead, leading to his arrest. Chaos ensues which leads to Jack and Eric driving their mini-carts around the party, knocking down tents, ruining displays, and people jumping out of the path of Jack and Eric's mini-carts into various desert trays which leads to a huge pie-throwing fight among the guests. Bates chases after Jack in a golf cart but ends up crashing into the pool. Jack saves him from drowning since Bates cannot swim, and it seems all is forgiven. That evening with the week up, Jack packs up and returns to his neighborhood to his wife, riding away on a bicycle while Eric sadly waves goodbye. The next day, while riding with Eric in a limousine to the airport to return to military school, Bates tries desperately to have a heart-to-heart talk with his son, but he is not very good at it. All Eric talks about is Jack and that he misses him. Bates tells Eric to forget about Jack. While on the runway to board Bates' private jet, Eric runs off, making his way to Jack's house. Jack refuses to let Eric live with him and gently admonishes Eric to give his father a chance. Bates shows up and offers the newspaper job to Jack again and promises Eric that next year for spring break he can spend one week with him and one with Jack, much to Eric's joy. After they leave, the senator's daughter, Honey Russell, shows up in another limo informing Jack that Fancy has recommended him to look after her son, Eugene, for a few weeks who is home from his own military academy on spring break. Eugene (Davis Hotard) peeks out from the top window and shoots Jack in the forehead with a toy dart... revealing that he is MORE spoiled and obnoxious then Eric. A crazed Jack runs away down the road in fear over this 'here-we-go-again' situation as the end credits roll.

The film opens outside of a grocery store, where a man is giving out samples of a new canned cheese product called "Cheese Tease", which nobody seems to enjoy eating. Pat Kramer (Lily Tomlin) emerges from the store with her two young children, Jeff (Justin Dana) and Beth (Shelby Balik), along with their maid, Concepcion (Maria Smith). The man forces a sample of Cheese Tease on Pat, and on the way home a can of air freshener explodes inside the car, fogging everybody and making them gag. Once home, Pat greets her neighbor, Judith Beasley (also played by Lily Tomlin), a busybody type who is in charge of the neighborhood council. Judith makes Pat listen to her sales pitch for a line of female beauty products, and she leaves Pat with some samples. Pat's husband, Vance (Charles Grodin), is returning that night from a business trip. He works for an advertising agency that pushes all sorts of products. He gives Pat a new perfume, accidentally spilling it on her dress, and tells her that they need to come up with a name for the new product. Pat suggests "Sexpot", which Vance seems to like. That night, Pat's dress begins smoking, which Pat and Vance are unaware, and the next day it is missing. At a meeting, Vance pitches the idea of calling the perfume "Sexpot" at a meeting with the perfume's makers. His boss, Dan (Ned Beatty), thinks the idea is genius, and he hints that Vance could be up for a promotion. He gives Vance a new product to christen, a new glue. At home that night, Pat is hosting the neighborhood council meeting, at which Judith berates other neighbors for petty misbehavior. Concepcion accidentally drops a vase, and Vance uses the new glue to repair it. Chaos erupts, though, when Pat gets some of the glue on her fingers and ends up glued to other people and objects in the house. By this time, Pat and Vance have both noticed that Pat is smaller than she used to be. When she visits a doctor, she finds that she's two inches shorter than she normally is. As the days pass, the phenomenon continues, but Pat insists that she not be treated any differently than she ever was. She stands on things to reach the kitchen countertop, and goes about her daily routine, which seems to be preparing meals and buying products. Eventually she's referred to doctors at the "Kleinman Institute", particularly Dr. Eugene Nortz (Henry Gibson) and Dr. Ruth Ruth (Elizabeth Wilson), who tell her that the reason she is shrinking has to do with the various chemicals she's been exposed to through her household products. They tell her to go home and wait for them to come up with an antidote, which she does, but secretly they are part of an secret company called "The Organization for World Management". They intend to somehow make a "shrink serum" from her blood and use it in a plot to shrink the entire world into subservient miniatures. Meanwhile, Pat's celebrity begins to increase the more she shrinks. Judith convinces her to leave the house on a grocery store run, and she sits on the edge of the shopping cart like a child. When she starts feeling self conscious about the gawkers she attracts, Judith smuggles her out of the store in a shopping bag. Eager to tell her story about how household chemicals caused her to shrink, she accepts an invitation to appear on the Mike Douglas Show, a daytime talk show, but Dan convinces Vance that she shouldn't reveal the cause of her plight, lest they risk losing clients in the agency. Pat begrudgingly obeys and claims she doesn't know why she's shrinking. Eventually Pat's size has decreased so much that she moves into a doll house that her family gives her for Christmas, along with a wardrobe of doll-sized clothing. She begins to lose control of her life due to her size; she can't control the kids anymore, her sex life with Vance disappears, and she has a hard time doing the household chores that she used to do, like cooking family meals. The evil doctors enlist Dan to help them lure the unsuspecting Pat into a position where they can exploit her, and at one point they make her a lucrative offer to be a spokesperson for more household products, but Pat refuses on principle. Finally they decide to kidnap Pat, and they get their chance the next morning when a freak mishap occurs. As she helps Concepcion prepare breakfast, Pat has an argument with Vance and the kids. Desperate after they leave, she loses her footing while standing on the kitchen counter and falls into the sink, landing in the garbage disposal. Concepcion comes back to the kitchen and starts cleaning up, shoving food into the garbage disposal and nearly drowning Pat with it. She almost turns on the disposal, but is interrupted by the doorbell, a distraction that the kidnappers use to gain entrance to the house through the back door. Pat manages to climb out of the garbage disposal and leaves one of her doll shoes behind. After the goons from The Organization for World Management kidnap her, Concepcion returns to the kitchen, only seeing Pat's shoe in the sink after she turns on the garbage disposal. Everyone assumes Pat is dead, and they hold a funeral service for her in the back yard, where they bury her shoe in a matchbox. In reality, Pat has been taken to a secret underground lab, where she is kept in a rat cage while the doctors study her. She shares space in the lab with a caged gorilla named Sidney (Rick Baker), who is extremely intelligent and seems to understand both spoken English and sign language. A lab assistant named Rob (Mark Blankfield) tells Pat that the doctors have told him that she's really just a clone of the real Pat Kramer, who they say is dead. Pat tries to tell him this isn't true, but he doesn't believe her. With Sidney's help, she does manage to gain access to a file folder on the table near her cage, where she reads all about her case and discovers the nefarious plans to shrink the world. Pat maneuvers her way to a telephone, again with Sidney's help, and manages to make a frantic phone call to Vance. Vance becomes hysterical upon learning that Pat has been kidnapped, but the doctors cut the phone call short when Dan tips them off that Pat has made communciation with the outside world Rob enters the lab and sees Pat making the call, but she manages to convince Rob that her story is true by showing him the top secret plans she found in the file folder. Rob bolts from the lab, but Pat and Sidney hear gunshots and fear Rob is dead. Pat is now trapped underneath a funnel, while Vance goes on national television and tells the world that Pat is alive and has been kidnapped. Pat and Sidney are overjoyed when Rob returns, still alive, and helps them escape. After a lengthy chase where numerous armed guards pursue them and fire at them, they manage to make it to the surface and exit the lab, which happens to be located underneath the very shopping center Pat used to patronize. The guards give chase, and the disruption causes shoppers to collide, resulting in a large puddle of laundry detergent and other household liquids. The guards back off when Rob gets the attention of the police, stomping on their feet so they will arrest him. Sidney deposits Pat on a table near the Cheese Tease man's microphone, where she gets everyone's attention over a loudspeaker. Judith is there too, holding a demonstration outside the supermarket, and everyone is stunned to see Pat still alive. She gives a brief speech where she says she felt like she had to warn everyone about the threat from corporations and products, but she says "You don't really need me to tell you what's wrong with the world." She tells Rob to make sure the secret plans get into the hands of the authorities. Already only a few inches tall, Pat begins to shrink away to nothing, and Vance and the children arrive just in time for her to say goodbye to them before she seems to vanish, the tiny garment she wore blows away in the breeze, landing in the puddle of liquids near the table. The onlookers are mortified, especially Pat's family and friends. Unseen by anybody, the puddle begins to swirl, seemingly on its own. Later that night, in a tribute to Pat, countries around the world simultaneously salute her with church bells, the news programs giving coverage and linking via satellite. Outside the Kramer residence, a police car discreetly pulls up and an officer comes to the front door, saying "This lady says she belongs here." A normal-sized Pat bursts inside, ecstatic to be home. The family is shocked and elated, and Concepcion screams and collapses. Sidney is at the house, too, and the kids tell her Vance said it would be alright if he lived with them. Pat babbles that the puddle seems to have reversed the shrinking process, returning her to her normal size. Vance tries to put her wedding ring back on, but it won't fit, and as she contemplates this, the shoe she is wearing suddenly bursts as her foot seems to enlarge all on its own. Pat gives a cryptic smile--apparently she's not done growing.

December 13, 1941. One week after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and on a beach in northern California, a young woman, part of a 'Polar Bear' swim club, goes for a swim in the ocean alone and naked to only to find a Japanese submarine surfacing under her. She holds on to the periscope as it rises. The submarine is the I-19, and the sub commander Akiro Mitamura (Toshiro Mifune) with some of his crew arrive out on deck to survey the coastline. Accompanying them is a hard-line German naval captain named Wolfgang von Kleinschmidt (Christopher Lee). Commander Mitamura tells Von Kleinschmidt that he has crossed the Pacific Ocean with the intent to destroy something honorable on the U.S. West Coast since missing the other activities the Japanese Navy has done in the past week. The bickering German officer agrees and suggests that they travel south along the coast to a place called Hollywood located on their chart map and hope to evade detection. As the submarine prepares to submerge, a Japanese crew member looks up at the naked girl clinging to the periscope, and yells: "Hollywood! Hollywood!" At this point, the submarine crew realizes they have arrived where they intended to be, and the vessel submerges once again while the girl swims to safety. Meanwhile in Los Angeles, dishwasher Wally Stephens (Bobby Di Cicco) tells his co-worker Dennis Desoto (Perry Lang) about his plans to enter a dance contest with his ex-girlfriend Betty Douglas (Dianne Kay), against her father's wishes. Tank crew chief Sgt. Frank Tree (Dan Aykroyd), along with his crew Private Foley (John Candy), Private Reese (Mickey Rourke), Private Hinshaw (Walter Olkewicz), and Corporal Sitarski (Treat Williams) are also at Wally's restaurant having breakfast. Sitarski takes an instant dislike to Wally after they meet when Wally serves him some coffee and a scuffle breaks out as Sitarski used to be a police officer before he was drafted and recognizes Wally who served time in a juvenile hall for auto theft. The fight is broken up by Sgt. Tree who takes his men out of the diner. Wally tries to persuade his boss to let them have the night off, but when his boss refuses and Willy keeps badgering him for the night off, both Wally and Dennis get fired from their jobs. Across town, Betty Douglas, along with her friend Maxine (Wendie Jo Sperber) are in training as taxi girl dancer for an upcoming USO show at the local nightclub that has been taken over under the tutelage of USO liaison Mrs. Fitzroy. Wally and Dennis go to a local department store where Wally tries on a zoot suit to wear and seeing that he doesn't have the money to pay for it, he has Dennis sound an air raid siren in the store. In the resulting panic, Wally walks out of the department store wearing the zoot suit, while Dennis has a run-in with two attractive looking twin ladies whom he pretends to help them out. Meanwhile somewhere in Death Valley California at 12 noon, Captain Wild Bill Kelso (John Belushi), a manic US Army Air Force officer lands his stolen Curtis P-40 fighter to refuel at a local gas station where he claims to the gas matron and the patrons that he's tracking a Japanese air squadron. But when he takes off after his plane is re-fulled, he accidentally blows up the gasoline station when he drops his lighted cigar. Back in Los Angeles, the stuffy Major General Joseph Stilwell (Robert Stack) attempts to bring order to the hysteria and insanity gripping the region, while the general's new secretary Donna Stratten (Nancy Allen) as well as his assistant Captain Loomis Birkhead (Tim Matheson) have other ideas. Birkhead takes an instant liking to Donna and after learning from a colleague that Donna will only respond when she is aboard an airborne plane. At a nearby airbase, while General Stilwell gives a press conference about the impossibility of the Japanese bombing Los Angeles, Birkhead approaches Donna and takes her into the cockpit of a nearby B-17 bomber where he attempts to seduce her by simulating the plane taking off and flying. But Donna stops him by saying that it's not the same thing as being airborne and will only respond to his sexual advances in a real airborne plane. When Birkhead refuses to back away from her, she punches him, he falls back and accidentally releases a bomb door lever in which a large bomb drops out and rolls towards General Stilwell and the press conference and a panic ensues when the rolling bomb hits the stand and detonates. But all the people run to safety before it explodes. At the Douglas family home on the coast, Wally arrives to meet with Betty in his newly stolen zoot suit to ask her out, but she tells him that the club has been taken over by the USO and is accessible only to servicemen. Wally is confronted by Mr. Douglas (Ned Beatty) and his wife Joan (Lorraine Gary), where it's revealed that they are still angry at Wally since he stole and previously destroyed their car during a date he had over one year ago with Betty which landed him in jail. Betty and Maxine fall into a pit which was dug by Mr. Douglas three obnoxious and bratty younger sons whom have also gotten caught up in the war hysteria. Soon after, Sgt. Tree and the tank crew arrive to deliver a large AA gun to the Douglas property, where Corporal Sitarski also spots Betty and takes a liking to her as well. However, Maxine also spots Sitarski and takes a liking to him too, which he declines the overweight lady's offer to attend the USO show with her. When Wally attempts to persuade Betty to accompany him to the dance anyway, Sitarski and the tank crew beat up Wally and throw him in the back of a passing garbage truck. Nearby, at the home of Mr. Douglas neighbor Angelo Scioli (Lionel Stander), he has built an armored car against the protest of his nagging wife. Angelo, a former serviceman having joined the Civil Defense Force, persuades his friend Claude Crumn (Murray Hamilton) to take his friend Herbie (Eddie Deezen) to perch themselves atop a Ferris wheel at a local Santa Monica pier that Angelo owns to be air raid spotters. With rifles in hand as well as binoculars, and a telephone, Angelo puts them in on one of the Ferris wheel carts and moves the wheel to the top where Claude and Herbie will spend all day to look for approaching Japanese planes. Claude and Herbie do not get along at all because of Herbie's nagging and eccentricity, which makes matters worse when Herbie brings along a ventriquilist dummy with them where he also talks though the obnoxious and ratting dummy. Meanwhile, Japanese submarine becomes lost trying to find Los Angeles when the ship's compass is broken. Commander Mitamura sends a landing party ashore where they capture a local timber merchant, Hollis "Holly" Wood (Slim Pickens). Despite the language barrier, since none of the Japanese crew, nor Von Kleinschmidt speak any English, Hollis knows that he's a prisoner, but he also slow to understand of their destination. Upon a search of his belongings, one Japanese crewman discovers a small compass in a box of Cracker Jacks that he has. But Wood grabs and swallows the small compass rather than let it fall into the hands of the Japanese. The Japanese spend several hours torturing him by forcing him to drink prune juice to make him defecate the compass. But Wood manages to turn the tables on his captors where he manages to escape and swim ashore. In Los Angeles at nightfall, Wally arrives at the nightclub where he and several Latino zoot suit members are kept out of the nightclub by the military guards posted there. Just then, Sitarski arrives with Betty as his date and forces the guards to keep Wally and the rest of the zoot suits out. When Wally sees Dennis dressed as a sailor with the twin ladies at his side going into the USO club, he gets an idea. Wally knocks out a Shoreman Patrol officer, steals his uniform, and gains access to the nightclub where he tries to get Betty's attention by bringing her onto the dance floor. But a while dancing up a storm with Betty, gaining the attention of the MC as well as a Hollywood talent agent, a huge brawl erupts when Sitarski begins a fight with Wally, and the underwear clad Shore Patrol officer arrives which leads to a huge riot out on the streets. When Captain Birkhead learns from General Stilwell about the renegade Colonel "Madman" Maddox (Warren Oates) isolating himself at the Barstow Air Force base and having airplanes, he gets the idea of going there with Donna and stealing a plane to fly and to seduce Donna. While Stilwell goes to the local theater to watch the feature film 'Dumbo', Birkhead and Donna drive to the Barstow airbase where they nearly get shot by the lunatic Maddox's solders whom he has told that every person approaching the base is a Japanese. But both Birkhead and Donna are disappointed when Colonel Maddox tells them that he has no bombers or fighter planes at the base, only an old C-47 transport plane, which Birkhead is happy to take on the ruse that he intends to fly over Los Angeles to spot any Japanese airplanes. But when Birkhead and Donna manage to take off, they realize that the plane they are flying in does not have a radio and they have no way of contacting anyone on the ground. Shortly afterwards, Wild Bill arrives with his P-40 to refuel and learns from the insane Maddox about spoting Japanese planes all over the place. As Wild Bill prepares to take off again, Maddox asks him to fire the guns from his plane just to listen to the gunfire. Wild Bill does, and in so doing, shoots up part of the airbase's buildings, and also cutting the telephone lines, which now means that Maddox and his men have no way of contacting Civil Defense in Los Angeles to inform them about Birkhead and Donna's airborne plane, or of Wild Bill's plane as well. Back in Los Angeles, the riot between the Army soldiers, Marines, sailors, and zoot suit guys is getting worse when Sgt Tree arrives in his tank with his crew, along with the latest addition, the Negro Private Ogden Johnson Jones (Frank McRae) to disrupt the riot and he gives a speech to the rioters about them turning against each other in this time of war. Just then, Los Angeles goes to Red Alert when the Civil Defense radar stations spot an "unknown aircraft" in the air. As Birkhead and Donna fly over Los Angeles just as he finally begins to seduce her, civil defense AA batteries open fire at their plane. The chaos continues as Wild Bill flies in and joins in the chase. Wild Bill manages to hit Birkhead and Donna's plane which crash lands into the La Brea Tar Pits area. Meanwhile, Ward Douglas spots the Japanese submarine lurking off shore near his home and decides to use the AA gun left behind by Sgt. Tree to fire at it. On top of the Ferris wheel, Claude and Herbie also spot the submarine, but they accidentally drop their telephone to the ground and have no way to contact anyone. So they open fire on it with their rifles, keeping the Japanese crewmen pinned down and creating some panic for them. But Claude and Herbie accidentally shoot at Wild Bill's plane that flies overhead after mistaking it for a Japanese Zero fighter. Wild Bill's plane comes crashing to the ground at Hollywood Boulevard where he gets out and tells everyone about spotting a Japanese submarine off shore. Wally hears this and when Sgt. Tree accidentally hits his head, Wally, with Betty in tow, commandeers the tank and rides off to where Wild Bill told them about the sub's location. Left behind, Sitarski and Maxine hitch a ride with Wild Bill riding on a motorcycle and a chase through the streets begins with Wally riding the tank over a few cars and even shooting up a policeman's car after recognizing the officer as the man who arrested him. The tank crashes though a paint factory and then a turpentine factory. Meanwhile, Ward Douglas begins firing at the Japanese submarine, but destroys his house in the progress with his bad aim. When Angelo sends one of Ward's sons to the pier to rescue Claude and Herbie stuck in the Ferris wheel, the brat accidentally turns on the entire lights for the amusement park..... illuminating it for the I-19 Japanese submarine. "Fire at the industrial structure!" yells Mitamuro. The I-19 begins shelling the amusement park, not realizing its little-use potential. The Ferris wheel is hit which rolls down the pier and into the water. Claude and Herbie (as well as the dummy) manage to swim ashore. But the nervous and bickering Captain von Kleinschmidt has had enough and wants to submerge, and he draws a gun on Mitamuro. But Mitamuro overpowers the German officer and throws him overboard. Kleinschmidt manages to swim ashore where he is later captured by Hollis Wood himself (the only U.S. "victory" of the movie). When Wally and the tank crew arrive at the amusement park and drive onto the pier to open fire on the I-19. The Japanese sub turns toward the shore and fires a torpedo at the pier, destroying it and sending the tank and all its occupants into the water. Wild Bill drives his stolen motorbike onto the pier just as it collapses into the water. Deranged to the last, Wild Bill swims to the submarine and boards where he is captured by the crew. Commander Mitamuro, believing that his honorable mission has been accomplished, orders his crew to submerge and return home with their prisoner of war Wild Bill, who undaunted, he declares, "Turn this tub around! You're takin' me to Tokyo!" The following morning on Sunday December 14, General Stilwell arrives at the devastated Douglas home where he is informed by Sgt. Tree, Wally, Betty, Claude, Herbie, Dennis, plus the entire tank crew about their harrowing experiences the night before. Also in custody with Stilwell's men is Birkhead and Donna, as well as Sitarski and Maxine, as well as the captive Captain von Kleinschmidt with his former captive-turned-captor Hollis Wood, and Colonel Maddox in a straightjacket on his way to the local funny farm. Ward delivers a short and inspirational speech to those present, vowing that Christmas will not be ruined; to punctuate his point, he nails a wreath to his front door, jarring the unstable house so that it collapses and slides into the ocean. The amused Stilwell mutters, "It's gonna be a long war," and walks away as everyone begins arguing and fighting in front of the foundations of the destroyed Douglas home.

A Navy Captain uses his experimental Snark to reach a nuclear submarine stuck on an ocean ledge. The USS Neptune, a nuclear submarine, is sunk off the coast of Connecticut after a collision with a Norwegian cargo ship. The navy must attempt a potentially dangerous rescue in the hope of saving the lives of the crew. —Robbie Smith <robsmith@u.washington.edu>

In 1938, a planet in deep outer space known as "Krypton" is the home world of the "Kryptonians"; a highly-evolved powerful extraterrestrial race of humanoids (resembling humans) and bearing a unique molecular density and structure, a result of the planet's gravitational strength (it is mostly made of crystals) and the radiation of its adjacent red sun. The planet is ruled by a Council of Elders, each representing a particular "clan" and bearing a crest of that particular House. The planet's greatest leading scientist, Jor-El, bears an S-shaped crest symbol, the House of El. He is supervising the trial of three criminals caught attempting to overthrow the planet's government. Using evidence provided by scientist Jor-El (Marlon Brando), the Ruling Council sentences three attempted insurrectionists; General Zod (Terence Stamp) the planet's former defense chief, Ursa (Sarah Douglas) a woman determined to exterminate men other than the man she loves (Zod), and Non (Jack O'Halloran) a hulking killer unable to speak, to "eternal living death" in the Phantom Zone. The vast dome of the planet's capital city opens to the night, and a small extra-dimensional prison - the Phantom Zone - tumbles out of the sky and pulls the three criminals out of the trial room and into an eternity in dimensional limbo through space. While a frightened Ursa begs for forgiveness, Zod defiantly swears that he will have his vengeance on the House of El, no matter how long it takes. Despite his eminence, Jor-El is unable to convince the arrogant Council of his belief that Krypton will soon explode, as his latest studies have found, due to its closeness to the sun causing it to overheat and quake. Jor-El's more pressing concern lies in the orbital shift of Krypton; this shift is putting the planet into the fatal gravitational pull of its central star, a fact blithely ignored by the Council Of Elders. The leader of the Council forbids Jor-El from warning the larger populace or he will be imprisoned in the Phantom Zone himself. Jor-El promises to be silent and that he and his wife Lara-El will not attempt to leave the planet. To save his only infant son Kal-El, Jor-El launches a spacecraft (made of Kryptonian minerals) containing the child towards the planet called Earth, a distant planet with a suitable atmosphere, and where Kal-El's dense molecular structure will give him advanced non-human superpowers. Jor-El and Lara bid their child goodbye before Joe-El installs a green crystal into the ship, a device containing the very essence of himself and Lara as well as the knowledge of the entire universe. He then completes the assembly of the star-ship. The star-ship is programmed to take the child through a trans-galactic warp to a planet populated by primitive humans whose technological development is Millennia behind Krypton, a planet that orbits a yellow sun. Shortly after the launch, Krypton's sun explodes in a supernova, destroying the planet just as Jor-El predicted. The tiny star-ship passes the Phantom Zone before accelerating on its journey to the planet Earth, with the voice of Jor-El providing the infant, who is aging as the ship proceeds, with knowledge. The ship finally reaches Earth in the year 1951 A.D. and plunges like a meteor into a vast wheat field near Smallville, Kansas. Its landing causes a farmyard pickup truck driver, Jonathan Kent and his wife, Martha, to swerve off the road. The couple approach the downed spacecraft and find the young Kal crawling naked out of the crater, unharmed. While John changes the tire on the truck, Martha tells her husband they should adopt the child to raise as their own. As he works under the truck, the jack slips and the truck falls, stopping short of crushing John. The two are astonished to see that the boy has saved John's life, effortlessly holding up the truck's rear and smiling. Fifteen years pass and Clark Joseph Kent, renamed for Martha's maiden name, now lives at the Kent farm is a student at Smallville High School. He is a water boy on the school's football team, and friends with cheerleader Lana Lang (Diane Sherry), but is frequently bulled by Lana's jock boyfriend, Brad Wilson. Clark knows of the vast power he possesses but is forbidden by his father from showing it - although, alone on a football field, he kicks a ball into orbit, then runs home by outrunning a speeding passenger train (even to delightedly jumping across its nose). He is seen by a young girl who tries to tell her parents; her mother (a cameo by Noel Neill, who played Lois Lane in the original Superman serial), however, scolds young "Lois Lane" about telling tall tales. Jonathan, however, reassures Clark that he is on Earth for a reason and that he should not let others bother him. Clark thus feels better, but as he starts to play with the family dog, Jonathan suddenly stops, having lost feeling in his left arm. He then falls to the ground, victim of a fatal heart attack. At Jonathan's burial, Clark mourns his father saying that he should have used his powers to save his father. At age 18, soon after the death of Jonathan, Clark hears a psychic "call" coming from the family barn. Clark enters the barn and finds the remains of the spacecraft that brought him to Earth, and with it the now-activated green crystal of Jor-El. It compels him to travel to the Arctic Northern Pole, where Clark throws the green crystal into the Arctic ice and it expands. The crystal forms the Fortress of Solitude; a palace-like base resembling the architecture of Krypton. Inside, Clark finds a matrix table of crystals; placing one into an aperture, he activates a dimensional communicator that reveals the preserved consciousness of Jor-El, his true father. Through both spiritual vision contact and recorded messages, Jor-El provides the youth with his true identity of Kal-El and takes his son on a journey through time and space to complete his maturation, educating him on the universe and on his purpose in life, as well as training him to use his powers to become a warrior. When the journey ends, Kal-El has aged twelve years to the age of 30, although in the time-twisting of inter-dimensional travel the Earth has aged 22 years to the year 1978 A.D. After 12 years, with his powers fully developed, Clark leaves the Fortress with a colorful blue and red skintight warrior costume, and becomes disguised as a "mild-mannered" reporter at the Daily Planet news company in the capitol city of Metropolis, USA. He meets and develops a romantic attraction to his coworker, ace reporter Lois Lane (Margot Kidder), but she sees him as awkward and unsophisticated. Clark and Lois work for Perry White (Jackie Cooper) their hot-tempered boss at the Daily Planet. Photographer James "Jimmy" Olsen works with Lois (who despite this status has a problem with spelling, frequently being corrected for misspelled words). Lois is initially puzzled by the Clark's shyness and mild social clumsiness, and is particularly struck when the two of them are held up in a back alley by a gunman. Clark faints when the thug opens fire on Lois (the fainting is cover so Clark can catch the bullet in his bare hand, prompting the gunman to run), and in defending himself to Lois rattles off a listing of all the items in her purse. A man named Otis is tailed by Harry and Armis, two undercover cops. Otis is the bumbling sidekick of criminal genius mastermind Dr Alexander Joseph "Lex" Luthor, and he is on his way to Luthor's secret hideout lair underground. The cops tail him to Metropolis Grand Central Station, where Harry sends Armis to get backup while he tails Otis onto subway Track 22 leading out of the station. Otis eventually finds an indentation in the underground tunnel and waits for a train to arrive. A doorway opens under the cover of the passing train, and after it is gone Harry goes to the doorway to try and figure out how to open it. Monitoring the scene from hidden security cameras is Luthor himself, who activates the doorway and violently pushes Harry into the path of the next train. Luthor tells his moll Eve Tessmacher, that his father (Lionel Luthor; a cruel man who disowned Lex as a child), once told him that even if governments and economies collapse, people will still need land and will do anything to get it, a mantra that has guided his criminal career ever since. When Otis arrives in their underground lair, he is reminded of his clumsiness in allowing himself to be followed again. Thus, he is given the non-glamorous and dangerous task of feeding "the babies", a group of unidentified unseen creatures in a vast pit used to dispatch intruders. Luthor's concern lies in a story in the Daily Planet that two nuclear cruise-type missiles with hyper-sonic speed are to be tested using live multi-megaton warheads soon. Luthor intends to use the missile test to fulfill the greatest real estate swindle in history. Lois Lane is scheduled to fly via Planet helicopter to Metropolis International Airport to greet Air Force One, but on the Planet's helipad she boards the chopper and when the chopper begins takeoff, a light cable breaks free of its bracket and in the updraft caused by the chopper snags its landing skids, breaks, and plunges the chopper out of control through the helipad's control shed and crashing onto the ledge. As police hustle panicking bystanders on the streets below to safety, Lois tries to crawl out of the chopper, but the ledge begins to crack and the chopper sags violently toward the street and Lois falls through, hanging on by a seat belt in the air. Clark Kent emerges from the Planet and notices a yellow rain hat on the sidewalk, recognising it as one Lois was wearing. He sees the stricken chopper, and while those around him run for safety, Clark keeps his head and finds a suitable hiding place to change his clothes into his Kal-El suit. Running to another building down the street, Clark opens his shirt to reveal his emblem and then whirls through a revolving door at super speed to become effectively invisible and changes into Superman - to the awe and confusion of a nearby pimp. Superman takes off, just as Lois loses her grip on the seat belt and plunges towards the street below. Superman safely catches her and carries her upward. The chopper now breaks off the ledge and falls, but Superman safely snags it out of the air with one hand and carries it back to the Planet's helipad to the astonishment of the crowd below. When the awe-struck Lois asks who the stranger is, he merely replies, "A friend" and flies off. She faints from pure exhaustion and disbelief. The rescue of Air Force One and other good deeds make the mysterious "caped wonder" a celebrity, as he begins moonlighting as a vigilante. Perry White, for his part, makes discovering the red-and-blue stranger the #1 priority of the Planet and sends his entire staff scurrying to find any scrap of information about "this flying whatchamacallit." Lois, however, scoops everyone when she gets an anonymous note requesting a dinner date at her penthouse from "a friend." The hero visits Lois at home, takes her for a flight over the city, and allows her to interview him for an article in which she nicknames him "Superman." Lois quietly dubs him a true Superman - and uses the term to identify the stranger in her subsequent front-page story. Luthor reads it and sees his arrival as a natural challenge, considering that Superman would surely have the inclination and the power to interfere with his scheme. Lex remembers a scientific theory; Superman's home world would be of a molecular construction that would be affected by the unique radiation of a yellow sun, and that meteors from Krypton upon landing on Earth would be affected to the point of emitting a radiation that would affect only Kryptonians. Such a meteorite was found in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Miss Tessmacher is skeptical, as even with "the rock", Superman could see them coming from miles away. But the interview hints at another weakness: Superman has difficulty seeing through lead. With their plan in place, they plan a trip to Ethiopia. The next morning, Superman returns to the Fortress of Solitude and consults the spirit of Jor-El to convey the emotions he felt upon making his full power known. Jor-El urges him to be circumspect in his power and praises him for what he has learned so far. Lex puts his plan into motion. Halting the transport of one of the nuclear missiles by staging a car crash involving Eve, Otis sneaks up to the missile and hacks into it, changing its flight coordinates; however he faults them, earning a beating and a black eye from Lex. Blocking the path of the second rocket with a semi-truck, Lex has Eve work the coordinates for that missile and the subterfuge is successful. The Planet learns that an unknown figure is buying up hundreds of acres of seemingly worthless desert in the southwest. Suspecting land fraud, Perry sends Lois and Jimmy to investigate. As Perry shares a story about a "worthless meteorite" being stolen from an Ethiopian museum, Clark is struck by a piercing signal, a high-pitched hum followed by the sound of every dog in Metropolis barking at once - it is Lex Luthor on a radio frequency only Superman (and the dogs) can hear. Luthor warns Superman that a poison gas pellet containing propane lithium compound is to be released into the air and kill the city's population unless Superman confronts him alone. Feigning a migraine, Clark sneaks away from his co-workers and jumps out a window (nobody notices; leaving the chief confused), where he changes into Superman mid-flight and traces Luthor's signal to the street. He spins himself around and manages to drill through the ground and storms into Luthor's hideout through the sewers, where he is attacked by the hideout's automated defense system - a wall of machine guns, then a wall of fire, finally a wall of liquid nitrogen that freezes the area. Due to him being virtually invulnerable, none has any effect on Superman other than halting him for mere moments and he emerges unharmed. Once inside the hideout, Superman demands knowledge of Luthor's gas pellet. Luthor lets the truth be known that it is a hoax, it was the only way to gain an audience with him. Luthor reveals his true plans for the stolen missiles; the first will destroy the San Andreas Fault, which will collapse the Western coastline of the US (namely California and its major cites) into the ocean and thus make the seemingly worthless desert of the west into multi-billion-dollar windfalls, which he plans to build his own cities over. The second missile is designed to be a cover. Luthor boasts that nobody, not even Superman, can bring down both of them. Lex boasts that he can stop them both with a detonator he has hidden. Superman notices a box made of lead which he assumes hides Luthor's detonator. But when he opens it, he is struck by a massive weakness, for the box contains the Ethiopian meteorite - radioactive Green Kryptonite, fitted to a chain necklace that Luthor drapes around him. Beginning to feel weak and already losing his powers, Lex drops him into his lair's swimming pool and leaves. As Superman weakens, Luthor taunts him by revealing that the first missile is headed to Hackensack, New Jersey, in the opposite direction, knowing that Superman cannot stop both impacts. Miss Teschmacher is horrified because her mother lives in Hackensack, but Luthor does not care and leaves Superman to a slow death. Teschmacher rescues Superman on the condition that he will deal with the New Jersey missile first. Before removing the kryptonite, she kisses him. When he asks why, she says simply that she did not think he would let her before she saved him. Superman flies off to deal with the Hackensack missile and redirects it into space but runs out of time to stop the second impact, causing a massive earthquake which he battles to correct. He stops a flood threatening a small valley down village after the Hoover Dam bursts; he uses his body to repair a railroad track that has broken with a train on the way and he flies down into the collapsing fault itself and is able to stabilise it subterraneously, stopping the quake. While Superman is busy saving others (such as those crossing the collapsing Golden Gate Bridge, and Jimmy Olsen), a fissure opens up and swallows Lois's car in an aftershock. It quickly fills with dirt and debris and the fissure begins to close again crushing her vehicle, suffocating her to death. Superman finds her but he is too late. Distraught and heartbroken at being unable to save Lois, Superman lets out a primordial scream of pain and flies miles above the Earth where he is confronted by an image of Jor-El, warning him not to interfere with human history; preferring to remember Jonathan Kent's advice that he "must be on Earth for a reason". Superman flies in circles around the Earth at super speeds and reverses its rotation, causing time to alternate. The effect reverses Luthor's plan and Lois is saved. Superman later finds Luthor and Otis and delivers them to a penitentiary via the president directly. He flies off above the Earth and into space; smiling with relief but triumph as he knows his adventure has only begun.

Four years after young Regan was possessed by a demon, she is still recovering. But the protegee of the priest who exorcised her believes the demon has not finished with her yet.

Two Washington Post reporters` investigation of a minor hotel room break-in uncovers the greatest political scandal in US history and leads to the downfall of President Nixon.

A nuclear-powered bus driving cross-country from New York City to Colorado is destined for disaster because of the machinations of a mysterious group allied with the oil lobby. The ultimate disaster movie parody: A nuclear-powered bus is going non-stop from New York City, New York to Denver, Colorado, and is plagued by disasters because of the machinations of a mysterious group allied with the oil lobby. When the driver is injured, a washed-up, down-on-his-luck-but-used-to-be-great type who used to be engaged to the inventor's daughter is brought in to drive the giant bus, which includes a one-lane swimming pool and a one-lane bowling alley. —John Vogel <jlvogel@comcast.net>

The overarching plot takes place over five days leading up to a political rally for Replacement Party candidate Hal Phillip Walker, who is never seen throughout the entire movie. The story follows 24 characters roaming around Nashville, in search of some sort of goal through their own (often overlapping) story arcs. Day One The film opens with a campaign van for presidential candidate Hal Phillip Walker driving around Nashville as an external loudspeaker blares Walker's folksy political aphorisms and vaguely anti-establishment populism. This is juxtaposed with country superstar Haven Hamilton (Henry Gibson) recording an overblown patriotic song ("200 Years") intended to commemorate the upcoming Bicentennial, and growing irritated with the accompanying musicians in the studio. A young Englishwoman named Opal (Geraldine Chaplin), who claims to be working on a radio documentary for the BBC, appears in the studio but is told to leave by Haven. Down the hall from Haven's session is Linnea Reese (Lily Tomlin), a white gospel singer recording a song with a black choir. Later that day, the beloved country singer Barbara Jean (Ronee Blakley) is returning to Nashville, having recovered from a burn accident, and the elite of Nashville's music scene, including Haven Hamilton and his companion Lady Pearl (Barbara Baxley), have converged on Berry Field to greet her plane as it arrives. Also present are Pfc. Glenn Kelly (Scott Glenn) and the folk/rock trio "Bill, Mary, and Tom" whose catchy hit song "It Don't Worry Me" seems to be on everybody's lips. They are in town to record their second album. Bill (Allan F. Nicholls) and Mary (Cristina Raines) are married, but largely unhappy, partly due to the fact that Mary is in love with womanizing Tom (Keith Carradine). Meanwhile, Mr. Green (Keenan Wynn) arrives at the airport to pick up his niece, Martha (Shelley Duvall), who has renamed herself "L.A. Joan", a teenage groupie who has come to Nashville ostensibly to visit her aunt Esther Green who is sick in the hospital. However, Martha repeatedly puts off visiting her aunt in favor of chasing after musicians or pretty much any male she comes across, including the oddball motorcyclist known as "Tricycle Man," (Jeff Goldblum). Working at the airport restaurant are African-American cook Wade Cooley (Robert DoQui), and his pretty waitress friend, Sueleen Gay (Gwen Welles), an aspiring country singer who refuses to recognize that she can't carry a tune. After greeting the crowds on the tarmac, Barbara Jean faints due to the heat, and her handlers, headed by her domineering husband-manager Barnett (Allen Garfield), rush her to the hospital. Barbara Jean's appearance having been cut short, those in attendance depart the airport in a rush, and wind up stranded on the highway after a pile-up occurs. During the commotion, Winifred (Barbara Harris), an aspiring country singer who has chosen the stage name "Albuquerque," runs away from her husband, Star (Bert Remsen), after he refuses to take her to the Grand Ole Opry. Star gives a ride to Kenny Frasier (David Hayward), a nondescript, bespectacled young man who has just arrived in town carrying a violin case. Opal takes advantage of the traffic jam to interview first Linnea and then Tommy Brown (Timothy Brown), an African-American country singer who is performing at the Opry. Tommy and his entourage later go to Lady Pearl's nightclub, but Wade, who is drinking and trying to pick up white girls at the bar, insults Tommy for acting too "white" and starts a fight. Linnea's husband, Del Reese (Ned Beatty) is working with political organizer John Triplette (Michael Murphy) to plan a small fundraiser and a large outdoor concert gala for the Walker campaign. Sueleen appears at a local club's open mike night in a provocative outfit, and despite her lack of singing ability, club manager Trout (Merle Kilgore) recommends her to Triplette for the fundraiser based on her appearance. Winifred shows up at Trout's club trying to recruit musicians to record a demo with her, but Star sees her and chases her out. Del invites Triplette for a family dinner with Linnea and their two deaf children. Linnea and Del are having communications problems and she focuses on the children rather than on him. In the middle of dinner, Tom calls trying to make a date with Linnea, but she puts him off, so he takes Opal back to his room instead. Pfc. Kelly sneaks into Barbara Jean's hospital room and sits in the chair by her bed all night, watching her sleep. Day Two Tom calls Linnea again but, with Del listening on the other line, Linnea yells at Tom and tells him not to call her any more. Kenny rents a room from Mr. Green. Haven Hamilton throws a pre-show party at his house before the evening's Grand Ole Opry performance. At the party, Opal talks to Haven's son Bud (Dave Peel) who tells her, unconvincingly, that he is happy to act as his father's business manager and has no musical ambitions of his own. Under Opal's prodding, Bud starts to sing her a song he wrote, a tender love ballad, but Opal departs in a rush when she spots a movie star among the guests. Lady Pearl talks about her love for John and Bobby Kennedy, the only politicians she ever admired. Triplette tries to persuade Haven to perform at the Walker gala by telling him that if Walker is elected, Walker would back Haven for Governor of Tennessee. Haven says he'll give Triplette his decision after the Opry show that night. At Opryland USA, the Grand Ole Opry broadcast begins with Tommy Brown ("Bluebird") and Haven Hamilton ("For the Sake of the Children", "Keep a-Goin"). Haven then introduces Connie White (Karen Black) as a substitute for the hospitalized Barbara Jean. Connie sings "Memphis" and "I Don't Know If I Found It in You" while Barbara Jean and Barnett listen morosely on the radio in her hospital room. Winifred tries unsuccessfully to get backstage. Barbara Jean and Barnett have an argument because he is going to the after-show gathering to thank Connie for substituting at the last minute. Barbara Jean doesn't want him to go, and he suggests in an accusatory tone that she may be headed for another nervous breakdown. Barnett finally calms down Barbara Jean and goes to the after-party at a nightclub, but Connie doesn't seem happy to see him. Connie takes the stage ("Rolling Stone") but the disgruntled Barnett criticizes her performance. Lady Pearl regales Opal with stories about the Kennedy brothers, rendering Opal for once speechless. Haven tells Triplette that Barbara Jean and Connie never appear on the same stage, and that he (Haven) will appear anyplace Barbara Jean also appears. Bill gets upset when his wife Mary doesn't show up all evening, and he confesses to chauffeur Norman (David Arkin), that he suspects her of having an affair. Mary, in bed with Tom, keeps whispering "I Love You," but Tom doesn't respond. Day Three It is Sunday morning and the characters are shown attending various local church services. A Roman Catholic service includes Lady Pearl, Wade and Sueleen; Haven Hamilton sings in the choir at a Protestant service; and Linnea is seen in the choir at a black Protestant church as a baptism is taking place, with Tommy Brown in the pews. At the hospital chapel, Barbara Jean sings a hymn from her wheelchair while Mr. Green and Pfc. Kelly, among others, watch. Mr. Green tells Kelly how he and his wife lost their son in WWII. Opal wanders alone through a huge auto scrap yard making free-form poetic speeches about the cars into her tape recorder. Haven, Tommy Brown and their families attend the stock car races, where Winifred attempts to sing on a small stage but cannot be heard over the cars. Bill and Mary argue in their hotel room and are interrupted by Triplette, who wants to recruit them for the Walker concert gala. Tom tries to get Norman to score him some pills. Day Four Opal walks alone through a large school bus parking lot trying to spin a commentary linking the buses to racism in the South, but has trouble hitting the right note. Barbara Jean is discharged from the hospital at the same time Mr. Green shows up to visit his sick wife. Barbara Jean asks after Mrs. Green and sends her regards. After Barbara Jean and her entourage have left, a nurse tells Mr. Green his wife died earlier that morning. Pfc. Kelly tells Mr. Green why he has been following Barbara Jean around; his mother saved Barbara Jean's life in the fire and loved her more than anything. She asked her son to go see Barbara Jean on his leave from Vietnam service. Back at Mr. Green's house, Kenny gets upset when Martha tries to look at his violin case. Barbara Jean performs a matinee at Opryland USA. Triplette and Del attend and try to convince Barnett to have Barbara Jean play the Walker concert gala at the Parthenon the next day, but he refuses. Kenny and Pfc. Kelly are both in the audience and watch raptly as Barbara Jean sings, although Opal annoyingly tries to interview Kelly about Vietnam during a song. Barbara Jean gets through the first couple of songs ("Tapedeck in his Tractor", "Dues") all right, but then begins to tell rambling stories about her childhood instead of starting the next song. After several false starts, Barnett escorts her from the stage and tells the disappointed audience that they can come to the Parthenon tomorrow and see Barbara Jean perform for free, thus committing her to the Walker concert. Tom calls Linnea and invites her to meet him that night at a club called the Exit Inn. Linnea arrives but sits by herself because Martha is trying to pick up Tom. Mary and Bill are also there, and Opal sits with them and mentions that she slept with Tom, causing Mary to look away in humiliation. Wade tries unsuccessfully to pick up Linnea, while Norman tries equally unsuccessfully to pick up Opal. Tom is introduced as a surprise guest artist. He casually mentions that he "used to be in a trio," but then invites Bill and Mary up to the stage, where the three perform an uncomfortable rendition of "Since You're Gone". Again alone on the stage, Tom introduces his new solo number, "I'm Easy," which he dedicates to someone special in the audience. Mary, Opal, and Martha all hope that they are the one, but Tom only has eyes for Linnea. She goes to his room where they make love. When Linnea says she has to go, Tom begs her to stay another hour, and is visibly miffed when she refuses. Without even waiting for her to get dressed and leave, Tom grabs the phone and calls a girlfriend in New York, inviting her to fly down and join him. Sueleen appears at the all-male Walker fundraiser, but is booed off the stage when she sings poorly and doesn't take off her clothes. Del and Triplette explain to her that the men expect her to strip and that if she does so, they will let her sing the next day at the Parthenon with Barbara Jean. Sueleen is humiliated, but strips anyway. Winifred shows up at the fundraiser hoping to get a chance to sing, but after she sees what is going on, she stays hidden behind a curtain. Del drives Sueleen home and drunkenly comes on to her, but she is rescued by Wade. After he hears what happened, Wade tells Sueleen the truth, that she can't sing, and asks her to go back to Detroit with him the next day. Sueleen refuses because she is determined to sing at the Parthenon with Barbara Jean. Day Five The performers, audience and Walker and his entourage arrive for the Parthenon concert; Walker will wait in his limousine until his speech after the musical performances. In the performing lineup are Haven, Barbara Jean, Linnea and her choir, Bill, Mary and Tom, and Sueleen. Winifred has shown up again hoping for a chance to sing. Barnett gets upset because Barbara Jean will have to perform in front of a large Walker advertisement, but has to go along with it because his wife's career will be harmed if he pulls her out of another show. Mr. Green and Kenny attend Esther Green's burial service and Mr. Green leaves angrily, vowing to find Martha (who is not at the service) and make her show some respect to her aunt. Mr. Green and Kenny go to the Parthenon to look for Martha. The Walker gala starts and Haven and Barbara Jean perform a song together ("One, I Love You"), then Barbara Jean sings a very personal solo song about her childhood ("My Idaho Home"). As the song ends, gunshots are heard. Kenny has pulled a gun from his violin case and fired at the performers, grazing Haven and seriously wounding Barbara Jean. Pfc. Kelly disarms Kenny as chaos breaks out. Barbara Jean is carried bleeding and unconscious from the stage. Haven tries to calm the crowd by exhorting them to sing, asserting that "This isn't Dallas, this is Nashville" in reference to the JFK assassination. As he is led from the stage for treatment of his wounds, Haven hands the microphone off to Winifred, who tentatively begins to sing "It Don't Worry Me." As she is joined by Linnea's gospel choir, Winifred's confidence grows until all eyes are upon her. The film ends with the audience clapping and dancing as Winifred belts out the chorus, "You may say that I'm not free, but it don't worry me." She has finally gotten her big break.

A prisoner is released from custody on the condition that he becomes a stool pigeon for the FBI to help them incriminate a corrupt sheriff. Good ol' Southern boy Gator McKlusky has served four years of his five-year prison sentence for moonshining, up to this point a model prisoner. When he learns that his younger brother, college student and activist Donny McKlusky, was murdered, his bound dead body found in a Bogan County Lake, he is able to convince the authorities to release him early in return for him finding evidence against the suspected culprit, Bogan County Sheriff J.C. Connors, not for the murder of which they have no idea of the McKluskys' suspicions against Connors, but concerning an active but somewhat cold IRS file, namely yet unproven but well-known unreported lucrative profits in bilking moonshiners. They also know that the sheriff is crooked in other ways, but the IRS only has the jurisdiction on the tax evasion issue. They provide Gator with a souped-up car fit for moonshine runs that would be able to outrun almost any on road vehicle, and a contact in Bogan County: Dude Watson, a mechanic who has no option but to cooperate despite his own fears about Connors, in he being a con on probation, the conditions which they know he has broken. In turn, Dude is able to set Gator up with moonshiner Roy Boone to infiltrate the business in the county as one of his runners. The IRS's goal, which has its inherent risks for Gator in him needing to provide names of moonshiners, is secondary for Gator, who just wants to avenge Donny's murder. But Gator could have bigger problems if the Sheriff gets wind that the Feds are after him via Gator and/or Dude, they or anyone connected to them possibly ending up like Donny if he has his way. —Huggo

Four city men on a canoe trip pit their nerve against the churning waters of a wild Georgia river, which soon becomes a fight for survival against nature and the brutality of man.