Rosanna Arquette

Having just served five years in prison for a crime he did not commit, Billy Brown (Gallo)'s first desperate post-incarceration action is to search for somewhere to relieve himself. Oddly enough, the first thing he does is try to go back into the prison he was released from and denied. Then, to impress his dunceish, thoroughly neglectful parents (Ben Gazzara & Anjelica Huston), Billy kidnaps a dance class student named Layla (Ricci) and forces her to pretend to be his wife. Layla allows herself to be kidnapped and it is clear she is romantically attracted to Billy from the start, but Billy all the while is compelled to deal with his own demons, his loneliness and his depression, and it is only at the end that he allows Layla to give him the love and comfort he has been needing all his life. The subplot of Billy seeking revenge on the man indirectly responsible for his imprisonment, Scott Wood, is a reference to a former Buffalo Bills kicker, Scott Norwood, who missed the game-winning field goal in Super Bowl XXV against the New York Giants in 1991.

A mysterious fugitive befriends and protects a widow and her two children from corrupt developers trying to drive her off her land.

During the air war over Vietnam, a U.S. Navy A-6 Intruder bomber pilot schemes with a hardened veteran to make an unauthorized air strike on Hanoi. After his bombardier is killed, Jake "Cool Hand" Grafton (Brad Johnson)', a carrier-based Intruder pilot, questions the purpose of Navy bombing missions. He finds an ally for his cynicism in Virgil Cole, a bombardier on his third tour of duty, and together they ponder the notion of one unsanctioned mission "downtown", to "Sam City" in North Vietnam. —Marg Baskin <marg@asd.raytheon.ca> On September 10, 1972, an American A-6 "Intruder" aircraft, piloted by Lieutenant Jake "Cool Hand" Grafton (Brad Johnson), bombs a non-strategic target in Vietnam. While flying at low altitude to avoid enemy radar, bombardier Lieutenant Morgan "Morg" McPherson (Christopher Rich) is struck by gunfire from an armed peasant. Hoping to save his comrade, Jake returns the plane to the aircraft carrier, Independence, but Morgan is already dead. The next day, Jake writes a letter to Morgan's wife, admitting that her husband's death was needless. Meanwhile, new recruit Lieutenant Junior Grade Jack "Razor" Barlow (Jared Chandler), and Lieutenant Commander Virgil Cole (Willem Dafoe), a veteran on his third tour of duty, join the crew. During a private meeting with Razor, Commander Frank Camparelli (Danny Glover) warns that, despite his African-American appearance, he is "third-generation mafia," and not a man to be trifled with. Aware of Virgil Cole's notoriety among Navy pilots, Camparelli cautions him to be on his best behavior. Elsewhere on the ship, Jake discusses the rumored stockpile of surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) in Hanoi, North Vietnam, with Guffy (Douglas Roberts), who maps bombing targets. While Guffy does not deny the rumor, he reminds Jake that attacks on the enemy capital have been forbidden throughout the history of the war. Later, Virgil, Razor, Jake, and a pilot named Boxman (Tom Sizemore) spend the evening at a naval base in the Philippine Islands. Jake visits the McPherson home to find war widow Callie Joy (Rosanna Arquette) packing the family's possessions. She cynically assumes Jake is making a courtesy call on behalf of his superiors, until he explains his close friendship with Morgan. That evening, the airmen attend a disreputable saloon, where they brawl with a group of belligerent merchant seamen. After evading arrest, Jake meets Callie at the officers' club, where they dance until closing, then retire to her home to make love. Jake spends the following day with Callie and her young daughter before returning to the ship. When Virgil is assigned as Jake's new bombardier, the pilot suggests an unauthorized raid on Hanoi. Virgil appreciates Jake's intentions, but discourages the idea, certain that it would result in a courts martial. However, during their next mission, Boxman is killed by a SAM, and Virgil agrees to Jake's plan. While viewing newsreel footage from Hanoi, they notice a number of SAMs on display in the background. Their research is interrupted by Guffy, the phantom prankster who has been leaving excrement in the executive officers' quarters. In exchange for Jake and Virgil's silence, Guffy reveals the exact location of the missiles. Following their next mission, Jake and Virgil take a detour to Hanoi and destroy the stockpile. The North Vietnamese government issues a false statement, saying the raid destroyed a children's hospital, and Camparelli berates the airmen for compromising peace negotiations. At the ensuing inquiry, Virgil takes a flippant attitude, declaring the war a pointless endeavor. Jake defends his actions, believing he saved American lives, and is ready to accept the consequences. However, when President Richard Nixon orders "unrestricted bombing of all military targets in North Vietnam," charges are dropped against Jake and Virgil. Regardless, Camparelli considers the airmen untrustworthy and confines them to the ship until they can be transferred. The next day, Camparelli is stranded behind enemy lines during a daylight raid. With the executive officer's permission, Jake and Virgil go to their commander's rescue, but they are also stranded after their airplane is shot down. While Jake attends to the injured Camparelli, Virgil is shot by a Vietnamese soldier. Certain that he is dying, Virgil ignites a smoke grenade, signaling the rescue team to strafe and bomb the area. As napalm falls around them, Jake and Camparelli take refuge in a narrow valley, where they are followed by an enemy soldier. After signaling a rescue helicopter, Jake dispatches the soldier, allowing himself and Camparelli to be pulled to safety. Sometime later, as U.S. involvement in the war draws to an end, Jake smiles as he reads a letter from Callie. Camparelli is offered the command of his own ship, and hopes to have Jake as a crew-member.

Roberta Glass (Rosanna Arquette) is disillusioned New Jersey housewife who is stuck in a passionless marriage with Gary (Marl Blum), the owner of a spa and hot tub company. For emotional escape, Roberta follows the relationships of strangers via personal advertisements in the newspaper. One day during an excursion to a beauty salon for her birthday with Gary's sister Leslie (Laurie Metcalf), Roberta sees an advertisement from a man named Jim "desperately seeking" a woman named Susan. Roberta has been following Jim and Susan's relationship through their cryptic ads for a while and finally decides to show up at the specified time and place of their meeting to catch a glimpse of the couple. Meanwhile in Atlantic City, Susan (Madonna) is in a hotel room with Bruce Meeker, a local gangster, Susan sees Jim's message in the newspaper and decides to return to New York City. Before she leaves, she steals two ornate Egyptian earrings from Meeker's jacket pocket. In the hallway, Susan passes another gangster, Wayne Nolan (Will Patton), who makes note of her appearance, including her unique jacket with a gold pyramid on the back. Arriving in New York, Susan stores her suitcase in a locker at the Port Authority bus terminal. She then goes to a seedy nightclub called The Magic Club, where her friend Crystal (Anna Levine) works as the assistant to a magician. Susan asks Crystal if she could crash at her place for a few days. Crystal agrees. The next day, as Susan makes her way to Battery Park, she spots a newspaper headline announcing that Meeker was murdered shortly after she left the hotel. Roberta goes to the park as well, and watches from afar as Susan and Jim (Robert Joy) reunite. Following the two at a distance, Roberta overhears Jim telling Susan that he has to go to Buffalo with his band. When Susan mentions Meeker's murder, Jim gives her the number of his movie projectionist friend, Dez, in case she runs into any trouble. After Jim leaves, Roberta follows Susan through the streets of the city. When Susan sees a pair of boots she likes in a boutique window, Roberta follows her inside. Susan exchanges her jacket for the boots, and after she leaves, Roberta buys the pyramid jacket for herself. That evening back at her house, Roberta discovers a Port Authority locker key, a newspaper clipping with Dez's phone number, and a Polaroid of Susan in the pocket of her new jacket. By this time, Susan has returned to the store in search of the locker key and leaves her name and phone number in case the new owner of the jacket returns. Roberta decides to put a her own "desperately seeking Susan" advertisement in the personals, asking Susan to meet her at Battery Park regarding the key. Susan and Jim both see the ad, and Jim calls Dez (Aiden Quinn), asking him to go to the meeting point to make sure Susan is safe. Having never met Susan, Dez asks for a description, and Jim mentions the jacket with the pyramid on the back. The next day, when Roberta, wearing Susan's jacket, arrives at Battery Park, Nolan mistakes her for Susan tries to engage her in conversation. Meanwhile, Susan takes a taxicab to the rendezvous but is arrested when she tries to shortchange the cabdriver on the fare. Before getting into the police car, Susan spots Nolan and Roberta. Nolan asks Roberta about her boyfriend in Atlantic City and the earrings. Not knowing what he is talking about, Roberta tries to run away but hits her head on a lamppost, falls unconscious, and loses her purse as it rolls into the water... and this is where the movie really takes off. Roberta awakens to find Dez next to her, but she now has amnesia and cannot remember any details about herself or her life. Assuming that Roberta is Susan based on her jacket, Dez suggests she look in her pockets for any material that could confirm her identity. When she pulls out the newspaper clipping, Dez confirms the phone number written on it is his. He also identifies the locker key as coming from the Port Authority, so he takes Roberta there, hoping the contents of the locker will jog her memory. At the locker, Roberta rifles through the suitcase and finds one Egyptian earring along with an assortment of other material, none of which helps her remember who she is. Dez offers to let Roberta stay in his apartment for the night since she has nowhere to go. Meanwhile, Gary, his sister, Leslie, and Leslie's new boyfriend, Larry, worry about Roberta. Gary has reported Roberta's disappearance to the police and was told that she is probably having an affair. Also, after making bail, Susan goes to the Port Authority and finds her locker where she stored her belongings empty. The next morning, Roberta and Dez go to a cafe for breakfast and Nolan follows. Roberta gets mistaken for Susan by the owner and both she and Dez are denied service and thrown out. Roberta then takes a taxicab to the Magic Club, having found a postcard for it in Susan's suitcase. There, she walks into a job interview by chance and is hired as the magician's assistant after he fires Crystal on account of her myopia and unable to perform without her eyeglasses. Meanwhile, Gary goes to the store where Roberta bought her jacket, and the boutique owner gives Gary Susan's contact information, suggesting maybe they can help each other. Gary calls Susan at Crystal's apartment, and they arrange to meet. That same night, Roberta goes onstage at the Magic Club and fumbles through her routine. In the audience, Nolan notices that Roberta is wearing one of the Egyptian earrings. Elsewhere, Gary and Susan meet at a nightclub, and Susan tells him she thinks Nolan and Roberta are working together to frame Susan for the murder of Meeker. Gary doesn't believe this, and Susan suggests they go back to his place. Outside the Magic Club, Nolan follows Roberta and eventually catches her, but they get into a scuffle and Roberta hits her head once again. The police show up, forcing Nolan to escape. Assuming Roberta is a prostitute, the policemen arrest her and take her to the station. Having regained her memory, she identifies herself as Roberta Glass. Back in New Jersey, Susan shares a marijuana cigarette with Gary while lounging around the Glass' home. When Roberta calls from jail and hears Susan and Gary laughing, she hangs up and calls Dez instead. The next morning, Gary and Leslie get word that Roberta has been arrested, but when they arrive at the police station, she has already been bailed out. When a police officer (Victor Argo) suggests that Roberta's pimp probably paid her bond, Gary refuses to believe that his wife has turned to prostitution. Meanwhile, Roberta and Dez find Dez's apartment ransacked. Dez blames Roberta for all the bad luck he has been having. She gets angry and packs up her suitcase to leave. When the contents of the suitcase spill out onto the floor, Roberta begins to cry and Dez, who still thinks Roberta is "Susan", kisses her. They make love. Meanwhile, back at Gary's house, Susan is seen relaxing at the house when sees a television news story about the theft of two ancient Egyptian earrings, for which Meeker and Nolan are prime suspects. Susan recognizes the earrings as those she took from Meeker. When Gary and Leslie return home from the police station, Susan tells them she knows what is going on. She goes to the Classifieds office and inserts an advertisement into the personals with a message for Roberta. Back at Dez's apartment, Roberta tells him her true identity, but Dez does not believe her, still thinking her to be Susan. Jim arrives, and Dez tells him about the relationship that has developed between him and Roberta; however, Jim does not believe him, saying Susan is not the type to settle down. When they both decide to ask "Susan" to what is going on, Roberta had left. Later, Roberta sits on a bench at Battery Park, unsure what to do now. Then she reads from a discarded newspaper and sees Susan's advertisement, directing her to meet that night at the Magic Club. Jim and Dez also see the message and decide to go to the rendezvous location to confront "Susan". Gary, Leslie, Larry, Dez, Jim, Susan and Nolan all show up that night at the Magic Club. Before the show begins, Jim sees Susan and points her out to Dez, who says that she is not "his Susan". Gary, Leslie, Larry and Dez all recognize Roberta as she appears onstage. At the end of the show, Nolan jumps up from the audience, grabs Roberta's wig and earring, and runs backstage. Dez and Gary both rush over to make sure Roberta is all right. As she tries to explain what has happened, Gary does not seem to believe or even listen to her, so Roberta announces that she will not be going home with him. Meanwhile, Nolan comes across Jim and Susan kissing backstage and puts a gun to Susan's head, taking her hostage to help him escape from the nightclub as the bouncers are now chasing him. He notices that Susan is wearing the other earring. After Nolan and Susan crawl through a window into the women's dressing room, Roberta hits Nolan over the head with a bottle, knocking him unconscious. There, Susan and Roberta officially meet for the first time. Later, Roberta finds Dez in the projection booth at the movie theater where he works. She tells him her real name once again, and as they begin to kiss, Roberta knocks the projector, causing it to malfunction and burn the movie. The audience is outraged, all except Jim and Susan who smile and continue eating their popcorn. Soon after, Roberta and Susan are celebrated as heroes in the newspaper and credited with recovering the stolen earrings.

After a long and boring day at work, Paul Hackett (Griffin Dunne), a computer word processor, meets Marcy Franklin (Rosanna Arquette) in a local cafe in New York City. Paul wants more in his life than just going to work and going home every boring day of his life. Paul is a well-dressed man in a suit and a tie. Paul leaves the office building when it closes at the end of the day and goes to his Upper East Side apartment on East 91st Street where he wastes the evening away watching TV and reading Arthur Miller books. Paul went to the coffee shop as he had nothing else to do at his apartment. Marcy was having her own dinner across the table from Paul. Paul and Marcy discuss their common interest in Henry Miller. Gradually, Marcy comes over to Paul's table as they strike a conversation. Marcy leaves Paul her number and informs him that she lives in SoHo with a sculptor named Kiki Bridges (Linda Fiorentino), who makes and sells plaster of Paris paperweights resembling cream cheese bagels. Later in the night, Paul calls the number from his apartment under the pretense of buying a paperweight. She invites him to come down to SoHo where she is staying with Kiki. The time is 11:32 p.m. Paul visits Marcy, taking a cab to her apartment. On his way to visit Marcy, Paul keeps a $20 bill into the payment slot of the cab. But the driver was driving very fast and recklessly and the $20 bill is blown out the window of the cab, leaving Paul with only some spare pocket change. The cab driver is furious that he cannot pay. This is the first in a long series of misadventures for Paul that turn hostile through no fault of his own. At the apartment Paul meets the sculptor Kiki, who's wearing nothing but a black bra and leather miniskirt. He comes across a collection of photographs and medications which imply that Marcy is severely disfigured from burns on her legs and torso. Kiki is working on a sculpture of a screaming man which he compares to Edvard Munch's The Scream. Marcy had gone to the drug store. Kiki invites Paul to work on her sculpture and he spills plaster of Paris on his shirt. Kiki takes the shirt away for laundry and asks Paul to give her a shoulder massage. Kiki falls asleep just as Marcy returns from the drug store. They go out to a nearby diner where they talk about their favorite movie, which is The Wizard of Oz, among other things. When offered to pay the bill, the strange diner waiter (Dick Miller) tells Paul that it's on the house. At 1:40 a.m., Marcy and Paul return to the loft, where she ushers Paul to her bedroom. In conversation Marcy reveals that she was sexually assaulted by her boyfriend. And that she is married to a guy named Franklin, who owns the place where she lives, but Franklin doesn't stay there anymore. Franklin was obsessed with the movie "the Wizard of Oz" and would scream "Dorothy", after he came during sex. After smoking a joint of Marcy's which she claims it's from Columbia, Paul, for some reason, begins acting like a jerk and leaves. Paul then attempts to go home by subway, but the fare has increased at the stroke of midnight, and he finds that his pocket change is no longer sufficient to purchase a token. Paul had 97 cents in his pocket. The attendant tells Paul that the subway fare for a token has just gone up to $1.50 that very midnight, and the time is now 2:15 am. He goes to a bar where Julie (Teri Garr), a waitress, becomes enamored with him. After Paul uses the men's room, he returns to his table and finds a note slipped by the waitress in which she asks for Paul's help as she hates her job. At the bar, Paul learns that there has been a string of burglaries in the neighborhood. The bar's owner, Tom Schorr (John Heard), offers to give Paul money to cover the subway fare, but cannot open the cash register. As a sign of trust, Paul leaves his apartment keys with Tom and rushes off with Tom's apartment keys to earn his $1.50. Paul lets himself into Tom's apartment, checks the alarm which is on (Tom had asked Paul to check the alarm due to robberies in the neighborhood). On the way back from Tom's apartment, Paul is questioned by suspicious neighbors. Afterwards, Paul spots two actual burglars, Neil (Cheech Marin) and Pepe (Tommy Chong), with one of Kiki's sculptures. After he attempts to confront them, they flee, dropping the sculpture in the process. Paul brings the statue back to Kiki's loft nearby and finds her gagged and tied to a pillar. He unties Kiki thinking that they robbed her, but she tells them that the men are Pepe and Neil, friends of hers who just bought the stature and that she's tied up because she and her boyfriend Horst (Will Patton) are playing a sex game. Kiki and Horst tell Paul that he should apologize to Marcy who has been in her bedroom crying since Paul left. Paul finds Marcy has committed suicide by overdosing on Seconal. Paul reports Marcy's death before noticing a roving neighborhood watch on the street below. On the way out, he grabs a note from Kiki inviting him and Marcy to Club Berlin. Kiki and a stout man named Horst had already left to go to Club Berlin, a nightclub. Paul looks and finds no burn marks on Marcy. Paul sees a $20 bill left behind by them and instinctively takes it. Paul calls the police to report the body. Paul attempts to return to Tom's bar, but it is locked up, with a sign indicating that Tom will be back in half an hour. Paul meets Julie, the waitress, in the street, who invites him up to her apartment to wait for Tom to reopen the bar. Julie's apartment looks like a shrine to the mid-1960s replete with the music of the Monkees playing in the background. Julie asks Paul to let her draw a picture of him which he agrees. Julie is enamored with Paul, but Paul goes back to Tom's bar. Tom tells Paul that he just left to check his apartment because it took so long for Paul to come back. Paul apologizes and gives Tom back his apartment keys. Just as Tom is about to hand over the $1.50, the phone rings and someone on the other line informs Tom that his girlfriend has just committed suicide. To his horror, Paul immediately learns that Marcy was Tom's girlfriend. Paul returns to Julie's apartment where she begins to sketch his portrait while they talk. Ultimately, Paul rejects Julie's advances and leaves. But when Paul returns to the bar to get his apartment keys back from Tom, he finds the place closed again. Paul goes over to Tom's apartment, but he is not there either. Then the gay couple and another of Tom's neighbors see him and chase him away again. By this time, however, Tom's neighbors have become convinced that Paul is responsible for the rash of burglaries in SoHo and form together a vigilante group to hunt him down. Paul goes to find Kiki and inform her of Marcy's suicide. The bouncer at Club Berlin refuses him entry because his hairstyle does not fit the Mohawk dress code, and Paul narrowly escapes several punks who attempt to forcibly give him a haircut. Paul sees Kiki and Horst at a table and calls out to them, but they don't see or hear him through the loud music and crowd. Paul runs out of the club barely able to compose himself with only a line or two of his hair shaved off. On the street, Paul is mistaken for a burglar and is relentlessly pursued by a mob of local residents. Back on the street, Paul suddenly meets the same cab driver whom he was forced to stiff earlier for the ride. Paul gives the driver the $20 bill he took from Kiki's loft, but the driver just grabs the bill and drives off as payback for stiffing him. Paul by then has just run into another strange woman, coming out of the cab, named Gail (Catherine O'Hara) a Mister Softee ice cream truck driver, whom she feels sorry for and takes him back to her apartment. Gail then blurts out that she drives a Mister Softee ice-cream truck nearby and will be glad to give him a ride home. But when they arrive at the truck parked in an alley, Gail spots a wanted poster of Paul. Gail mistakes him for the burglar based on Julie's posters. Back on the street, Paul runs into a shy homosexual man, named Alex, (Robert Plunket) and allows himself to be "picked-up" to let himself into the man's apartment. Paul asks to use Alex's phone to call the police and then tries to tell the desk sergeant about wanting to report the vigilante mob that's been endangering his life. Unbelievably, the police officer on the other end of the line thinks that it's a prank call and hangs up on him. Then Paul sees Julie on the street putting up wanted posters of him on a lamp post. Paul runs back out onto the street and calls out to her, but she just scornfully glances at him and rides off on a bicycle. At 4:10 a.m., Paul goes back to the diner where he sees Tom sitting at a table. Tom tells Paul that he just got back from the local morgue where he was forced to identify Marcy's body. Paul demands that Tom give him back his apartment keys, but Tom says that he left them back at the bar. Frantic, Paul asks Tom to hide him for there is a vigilante mob looking for him. Tom goes outside to check if the coast is clear, but Paul sees Tom running right to up Gail and the vigilante mob passing by and he tells them where Paul is. Angered at Tom's betrayal, Paul runs out of the diner just in time. As a last resort, Paul dashes back to Club Berlin hoping to find Kiki and Horst there to ask them for help, but now finds the place deserted for it is closing since the time now is almost 5 a.m. Sleep-deprived, bedraggled, and ranting, Paul uses his last quarter to play "Is That All There Is?" by Peggy Lee on the club's jukebox and asks an older woman named June (Verna Bloom) to dance. After he explains his situation, June offers to hide him in her apartment underneath the club, where she uses Papier-Mache to disguise him as a sculpture while the mob raids the club. After the mob leaves, June is worried they will come back, and doesn't take off the plaster, which hardens, trapping Paul in a position that resembles Kiki's sculpture. Neil and Pepe break into June apartment and steal Paul, thinking him to be the sculpture they had dropped in the street earlier. They load Paul in the back of their van now spilling over with dozens of stolen appliances from the SoHo apartments including June's. The van speeds uptown and takes a sharp turn which swings open the van's back door. Paul falls to the pavement, with the force of the impact breaking the plaster open, directly outside the front gate of his office building. With no way to go home, he simply brushes himself off and goes to his desk. Paul goes to the floor where he works, sits at his desk, and goes to work at his computer while the rest of the office workers arrive. It's the beginning of just another boring weekday for him.

A 1920s mail pilot and a rich man's daughter crash-land on a mountain full of hungry wolves.