Tom Skerritt

A montage of news footage illustrating a violent coup that is taking place in Nigeria, overthrowing the Presidential family and establishing a dictatorship under the rebel general Yakubu. The Fulani rebels then begin a violent ethnic cleansing campaign against the Ibo (Eebow) tribes in the southern region. We then join a squad of SH-60B Seahawk helicopters on approach to the USS Harry S. Truman off the coast of Africa, and a news reporter on the flight deck reporting on the coup taking place. His report is interrupted by the news of the whole presidential family being assassinated by rebel forces. Lieutenant Waters (Bruce Willis) and his team of Navy SEALs disembark from a helicopter, returning from a mission to extract American citizens from the embassy. They are greeted by Captain Bill Rhodes on the deck who immediately informs them that they'll need to be reinserted to extract a critical personality immediately. After refitting for the next mission, eating and having their wounds tended by the medic they meet in the ships briefing room to get the details of their mission. They're instructed that they will Halo Jump over Cameroon and into the jungle outside of a small Catholic mission where they will find Dr. Lena Fiore Kendricks (Monica Bellucci) (an American citizen by marriage). Their secondary mission is to extract the priest and two nuns who run the mission if they are willing to go with them. Once they have their "package" they are to make a twelve-kilometer hike to the designated extraction point where they'll be flown out by helicopter. The mission begins precisely as planned with the SEAL team dropping from the aircraft and free falling over the target area. After forcibly having a young Nigerian woman lead the SEALs to Kendricks, Waters informs Kendricks of the rebel company approaching the mission and that their orders are to extract U.S. personnel. Kendricks refuses to leave the mission without the people under her care. Waters contacts Rhodes to explore their options and after a short and ambiguous conversation concedes to the doctor that they will take the refugees that can move under their own power with them. Kendricks agrees and immediately begins to round up every able-bodied refugee to make the hike. Irritated and behind schedule the SEALs start to move out with the refugees after daybreak. Their journey proves to be slow and hindered as guiding forty injured and wounded refugees is a difficult task. After night has fallen, they decide to take a short break to allow the refugees to rest and give Dr. Kendricks's time to administer medication to those that need it. Waters has his team setup a defensive perimeter around the refugees. Moments after the perimeter is set, guerrilla rebels are rapidly approaching their position, with Waters stealthily killing a straggling tail gunner. Dr. Kendricks expresses her concern to Waters that the rebels are headed for the mission, but Waters is determined to carry out his orders and they continue on their way. They finally reach their landing zone and contact the helicopters that are in route. When the choppers land, Waters' initial plan becomes clear as the SEALs suddenly turn on the refugees and hold them at gun point. Waters forces Dr. Kendricks onto the helicopter and the SEAL team collapses back for a swift extraction. The refugees are left stranded in the middle of the jungle without any protection against rebel forces. During the flight back to the Truman, the helicopter crew and SEALS pass over the mission and discover that it's been raided and destroyed just as Kendricks had predicted. Feeling a deep conviction, Waters orders the helicopter to turn around and regroup with the refugees. The SEALs decide on the spot to escort the refugees to the Cameroon border. During the trip, the SEALs discover that they are being tracked by a large body of rebel soldiers while using satellite scans of the area. Their pursuers are having mysterious success in their tracking of the SEALs. As they continuously attempt to escape and evade the rebels, they encounter a small village that is in the process of being destroyed and the residents executed, sexually assaulted and murdered by rebel soldiers. Realizing that they have an opportunity to stop it, Waters orders the refugees to remain on the high ground while his team assaults the village. They execute their plan with surgical precision, eliminating the threat. During the aftermath of the assault, the SEAL team becomes morally conscious after seeing the after-effects of the atrocities. While continuing on their way, Slo determines that somebody within the group must be transmitting a signal that's allowing the rebels to identify their location and close in with incredible speed. It is then revealed that there is a surviving member of the Presidential family in their party, Samuel Azuka's son, Arthur, and that its very important for the rebels to ensure his death. A newer "refugee" is discovered in the group to have a transmitter on his person. He attempts to flee but is shot dead. Waters is angry at Dr. Kendricks because she knew all along about Arthur's true identity, yet never informed him. The SEALs unanimously continue to escort the refugees no matter what the cost is. A massive fire fight breaks out between the SEALs and the hundreds of rebels hidden in the trees. Soon the SEALs form a defensive line against the rebels as they order the refugees to retreat to the tree line where the Cameroon border is in sight. Zee radios into the Truman for air support and two F/A-18 Hornets take off from the flight deck in route to their location. The SEALs continue to hold the line as they fall back to the refugees' location. However, the overwhelming firepower of the rebels claims the lives of Slo, Flea, Lake and Silk. The refugees provide a small amount of cover fire as the remaining SEALs fall back into the reeds. During the battle, Waters, Red, and Zee are all wounded. The planes forming the airstrike radio into their location. The SEALs mark the ground with a smoke grenade and order the pilots to fire on everything between the tree line and the smoke. Arthur and Dr. Kendricks are scrambling to the gate when they hear the thunderous roar of their birds on approach. They are terrified to see the planes drop a substantial payload on the rebel fighters. With the battlefield engulfed in fire, Arthur and Kendricks fear that the airstrike wiped out Waters' team. Waters, Zee, Doc and Red emerge from the grass as helicopters land on the other side of the Cameroon border as Captain Rhodes orders the guards to open the gate and let the SEALs and refugees in. A group of Marines then escort the SEALs to the helicopters where their wounds are tended to. Dr. Kendricks says her goodbyes to her friends and departs on the same helicopter with Waters. The final scene depicts the refugees recognizing Arthur as the tribal king and rightful heir to Nigeria, and he raises his hand exclaiming "Freedom!" as his fellow Nigerians celebrate around him. In the closing title, we see the quote "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" by Edmund Burke.

A ragtag group of youngsters band together after the American Civil War to form the Texas Rangers, a group charged with the dangerous, ruthless duty of cleaning up the West. Set after the American Civil War in the 1870s, 'Texas Rangers' is a story about a group of men determined to maintain peace and contain the chaos that is erupting on the Texan frontier. Native Americans are attempting to reclaim their land, Mexicans are pouring over the U.S. border, and renegade outlaws are tearing up the state, so the Texas Rangers swear to protect the innocent and their loved. To do so, they must be willing to maintain the peace where law enforcement cannot, fight while they are out-manned and out-armed by the opponent, and be willing to die for the freedom for which they fight.

In 1958 California, a teenage girl goes to work as a prostitute in a high-class brothel after the death of her father. Blue is a teenage girl who lives with her Jazz playing father Ham. Ham, frustrated with being a drug addict, crashes his car and kills himself. Blue must support herself somehow. Elle, the headmistress at a brothel, talks her into living and working at her establishment. She decides to leave the business and lead a normal life. Elle is hellbent to see that she never has one. —Pat McCurry <ccgrad97@aol.com>

Steel Magnolias follows the close friendship of a group of women living in a small town, as they look to each other for strength and support to survive life`s various misfortunes.

In the Maine small town of Castle Rock, school teacher Johnny Smith (Christopher Walken) takes his fiancée sweetheart Sarah (Brooke Adams) to an amusement park. On the roller coaster, he suffers a bad headache and tells her that he must go home to sleep it off. Sarah begs him to stay, but he declines saying: "some things are worth waiting for". As he drives home, a tanker jackknifes in front of him and he plows into it and black out. Johnny wakes up at the Weizak Clinic. His parents Herb and Vera (Sean Sullivan and Jackie Burroughs) are shown in by Dr. Sam Weizak (Herbert Lom). They tell him that he has been in a coma for five years and Sarah has married another man. The distraught Johnny is inconsolable. One day, as a nurse mops his brow, he seizes her hand. He has a super-real vision of being trapped in a screaming girl's bedroom. He tells the nurse: "Amy needs your help." The nurse knows that Amy is her daughter's name, but puzzled why Johnny knows her. Johnny tells her that the house is burning, and her daughter is in the house - but it is not too late. The nurse rushes home to find her house in flames, but her daughter is rescued by firefighters just as she arrives home. After a few weeks of physical therapy, Johnny is able to walk again with some difficulty. When Johnny gratefully takes Dr Weizak's hand, he is jolted by another vision. It is wartime with burning buildings, advancing tanks. A protesting young boy is lifted into a horse-drawn cart, leaving his mother behind. Johnny tells Weizak that his mother survived. Weizak says that it is impossible, but Johnny knows her name and address. Weizak calls the number and hears his mother on the line. However, he doesn't speak to her as it "wasn't meant to be". Weizak comes back and tells Johnny: "you're either in possession of a very new human ability... or a very old one." Sarah comes to visit Johnny. Catching his stare, she asks him not to look at her that way. He says that he can't help it while Sarah says that it's been five years, but Johnny remembers it as yesterday. She says that she now has a ten-month-old son, named Denny. Johnny takes it well. She tells him that his power of "second sight" is the talk of the town. Against Weizak's advice, Johnny gives a press conference to defuse the situation. Cynical TV reporter Dardis (Peter Dvorsky) demands a demonstration. Aware that he is being mocked, Johnny takes his hand and says "You wanna know why your sister killed herself?" Taken off guard, Dardis calls Johnny a freak. Johnny's distressed parents watch the event on their TV and his mother collapses. At the hospital, Johnny holds her hand as she dies. Johnny moves in with his father. A few days later, Sheriff Bannerman (Tom Skerritt) pays him a visit for his help to catch a serial killer known as the "Castle Rock killer". Johnny refuses. When Herb tells Johnny that he should use his power he's been blessed with, Johnny becomes furious. He thinks that his power is a curse, not a gift. One day, Sarah brings her son over when Walt (her husband) is out. She puts Denny to bed and says: "haven't we waited long enough?" As the scene cuts to the next, sex is implied. After watching another TV program about the Castle Rock killer, Johnny changes his mind & calls Sheriff Bannerman and agrees to help. Bannerman and Officer Dodd (Nicholas Campbell) take him to the scene of the latest murder, but Johnny gets nothing - he advises Bannerman that in order to get something, he needs a physical article that the killer was in contact with. Bannerman is called to another murder scene at the park bandstand where there is a woman's frozen corpse. Dodd identifies the woman as Alma Frechette. John takes the dead woman's hand and instantly "sees" a man calling to her from the bandstand. "She knows him" says Johnny. He watches helplessly as she is killed with a pair of scissors. The killer is revealed to be Frank Dodd. As Bannerman calls for him, he leaves in his squad car. At Dodd's house, Johnny & Sheriff Bannerman arrive where his mother tries to prevent him from entering. Johnny takes her by the arm and sees that she knew her son was the killer all along and she has been protecting him. Mrs. Dodd calls Johnny a devil, sent from hell, and that her son has been killing all "dirty women" in Castle Rock for their sins at her own encouragement. In an upstairs bathroom, Dodd impales himself on the scissors just as Johnny forces himself into the room. Dodd's equally deranged mother takes his gun and shoots Johnny in his shoulder. Sheriff Bannerman runs in and is forced to shoot and kill her to save Johnny's life. Following this close brush with death, Johnny moves out of town to a remote cabin. His bullet injury eventually heals, but his headaches are getting worse. He takes private tutoring jobs, and he is persuaded by millionaire lumber mill owner Roger Stuart (Anthony Zerbe) to teach his introverted son Chris. Johnny arrives at the Stuart mansion as a loud and abrasive politician named Greg Stillson (Martin Sheen) is leaving. Johnny and Chris get along well, to Stuart's relief. Later, Johnny and Chris watch TV coverage to Stillson's campaign for state senator. Stuart says that Stillson is probably a liar and dangerous. In a local newspaper office, editor Brenner is confronted by Stillson and his henchman/sidekick Sonny who demand that he retract an anti-Stillson editorial in the next edition. Producing photographs of Brenner with a young woman (possibly manufactured), they threaten to "take his head off" if he doesn't do as they say. At one of Johnny's tutoring session with Chris, he gets interrupted by a knock on the front door and it is Sarah whom is a Stillson campaign volunteer bringing him a brochure to vote for Stillson. Another man appears at the door and Sarah introduces him as Walt, her husband. After an uneasy introduction, they leave and Johnny breaks down. As Chris hugs him for comfort, Johnny has another vision of kids in hockey uniforms and falling through the ice of a frozen lake. One of them is Chris. Johnny goes to Stuart and insists he call off the kids' ice hockey practice, or they'll drown. Stuart angrily fires Johnny despite Chris' pleas. The next day at a local news stand, Johnny reads a headline about two boys drowning in a skating accident. He calls Stuart's house, hanging up in relief when Chris answers. Meanwhile, Stillson's next rally takes place in a park opposite Johnny's house. Looking for Sarah, Johnny finds himself in Stillson's path. As they shake hands, another vision strikes: at Camp David, President Stillson orders a general to co-authorize an all-out nuclear missile launch against the USSR and the entire world which will bring on Armageddon. The 5-star General, realizing Stillson is a psychopath, refuses, but the maniacal Stillson threatens to 'cut off [the general's hand] and put it on the [scanning screen]'. Reluctantly, the General complies, and the sadistic Stillson tells the Vice President & Secretary of Defence that 'the missiles are flying....Hallelujah! Hallelujah!!'. Horrified, Johnny is rooted to the spot. Stillson is shaken by Johnny's grasp, until Sonny pushes Johnny away. Johnny goes to Dr. Weizak where he asks him that if he could go back in time knowing what he knows, would he kill Adolf Hitler? Weizak answers, 'I would have no choice but to kill the sonofabitch.' He thinks that the "dead zone" in Johnny's visions means that as well as seeing the future, he can also change it. Johnny decides he must take drastic action to stop Greg Stillson before he becomes President of the USA and brings on the end of the world through nuclear war. He packs up his hunting rifle and takes a bus to the Castle Rock Civic Hall, then breaks into the hall where Stillson will appears the next day and lies in wait on the balcony with the rifle. As the hall fills, the charismatic Stillson arrives and invites Sarah and Denny onto the stage with him as he gives his speech. On the balcony, Johnny rises and takes aim. Sarah sees him and screams and as a result the shot misses. As the spectators panic and fleet the hall, the equally panicked Stillson snatches Denny from Sarah and uses him as a shield. Johnny hesitates to fire again, and gets shot by Sonny and other members of the security detail. Johnny falls from the balcony and lands on the floor onto some chairs. What no one else had seen was a young photographer shooting pictures of it all before running out of the hall. Paranoid as always, Stillson walks up and grabs Johnny after recognizing him from a few days ago and demands to tell him who hired him. Johnny grabs Stillson's wrist and has a final vision where he sees a drunken and distraught Stillson in his office where there is a Newsweek magazine on his desk. The front cover shows the photo of Stillson using Denny as a shield with the headline "No Future For Stillson". Beside the Newsweek magazine are other magazines and newspaper headlines with the same photo describing Stillson's despicable act of cowardice. Stillson takes a loaded .45-caliber handgun from his desk drawer, points it under his chin, and commits suicide. Johnny smirks at Stillson and weakly says: "It's over. You're finished." Stillson then turns on Sonny Elliman, demanding to know where the photographer is. Sonny replies, disgustedly, 'I didn't see him!', suggesting that he may be just as disgusted with his boss. Greg Stillson angrily berates Sonny before running out of the hall to hunt for the photographer himself. Sonny follows, leaving the hall empty except for Sarah, Denny & Johnny. As Sarah comes up to Johnny's side, she asks him, 'Why?'. Johnny simply whispers, 'Good-bye'. Sarah starts crying, but as she kneels down next to Johnny & hugs him, she whispers to him, 'I love you....' just before he dies. As Sarah grieves for Johnny, the film fades out & credits begin to scroll across the screen.

Alexis "Lexie" Winston (Lynn-Holly Johnson) is a sixteen-year-old girl from Waverly, Iowa, who dreams of becoming a champion figure skater. Her boyfriend, Nick Peterson (Robbie Benson), dreams of being a hockey player. Coached by family friend and former skater Beulah Smith (Colleen Dewhurst), Lexie enters a regional championship over her father's protests. There she is discovered by an elite coach (Jennifer Warren) who sees her potential despite a lack of training and a relatively advanced age for figure skaters. Over her father's objections, Lexie moved from her home in Waverly, Iowa to train at the legendary Broadmoor World Arena in Colorado Springs, Colorado. She becomes unpopular with the other female figure skaters in training because of the attention lavished on her natural talent and the media attention her coach obtains for her in an effort to make her known to the skating world. Lexie proves and enhances her skating abilities and qualifies for the senior championship level, her life changing drastically in the process. She becomes a star, alienates her boyfriend and begins dating an older man, television broadcaster Brian Dockett (David Huffman), following her training. Becoming uncomfortable with the direction her life is taking, Lexie leaves a party for skating sponsors and goes down to the outdoor rink nearby to skate. Her coach and the partygoers notice her and are watching through the windows as Lexie skates. She attempts a difficult triple jump, but lands off the ice onto a set of tables and chairs that are chained together near the edge of the rink. Lexie suffers a serious head injury, with a blood clot in her brain robbing her of her eyesight and leaving her able to see only lights and blurry shapes. The doctor is uncertain in case her injury will be permanent. Abandoned by all her fairweather friends, Lexie goes home and becomes a recluse. Resenting her affair with Brian, Nick demands that she get out of the house and back on the ice. Despite their mutual resentment and Lexie's depression, they work through their estrangement and rediscover their love for each other. With help from Nick, her father Marcus (Tom Skerritt) and Beulah, Lexie begins to believe she can still fulfill her dreams. Though virtually blind, she can still see the boards at the edge of the rink, and so learns how to skate around her disability. Lexie enrolls in the sectional championship and competes once again. She presents a flawless, beautiful program that provokes an enthusiastic standing ovation from the crowd. However, her disability is revealed when she trips over the roses, thrown onto the ice by adoring fans after her performance, and falls to the ice. Nick rushes to her side and says, "We forgot about the flowers," as the crowd realizes that Lexie has not recovered from her injuries but has risen above them.