William Atherton

In a quiet suburban town in the summer of 1958, two recently orphaned sisters are placed in the care of their mentally unstable Aunt Ruth. But Ruth's depraved sense of discipline will soon lead to unspeakable acts of abuse and torture. In a quiet suburban town in the summer of 1958, two recently orphaned sisters are placed in the care of their mentally unstable Aunt Ruth (Emmy winner Blanche Baker of Holocaust). But Ruth's depraved sense of discipline will soon lead to unspeakable acts of abuse and torture that involve her young sons, the neighborhood children, and one 12-year-old boy whose life will be changed forever. William Atherton (Die Hard), Catherine Mary Stewart (Night of the Comet) and Grant Show (Melrose Place) co-star in this devastating drama adapted from the controversial best seller by Jack Ketchum that Rue Morgue Magazine called "one of the most disturbing reads in the history of horror literature."

When a government official is killed, an American operative with experience in the Yakuza culture is brought in to investigate. When the governor of Tokyo is killed in his campaign for election, the former CIA agent Travis Hunter is assigned to find the responsible working together with the rookie FBI agent Sean. Travis was raised in Japan, has great connections with the underworld of the streets and is a master in sword and martial arts, trained by a former member of Yakuza. Travis discloses that there is a war between the old and traditional members of Yakuza and the new generation leaded by the deranged and sick Kuroda, who has associated to the Chinese Tong mobster Chen in a powerful drug dealing business. When his fiancée Nayako is brutally and cowardly murdered by one of Kuroda's men, the mission of Travis becomes a personal issue and he seeks revenge. —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil After the assassination of Tokyo's Governor by Yakuza members, the CIA bureau chief for Tokyo puts out a call to an agent that had been raised in Japan and trained by ex-Yakuza. Using his former ties, he quickly determines that a war is brewing between old-guard Yakuza members and a young, crazed leader with ties to the Chinese Tong. Siding with the older members, killing and mayhem ensues as Segal chops his way through the upstart gang members. —John Sacksteder <jsackste@bellsouth.net> When Takayama, the governor of Tokyo, is murdered, it falls on ex-CIA agent Travis Hunter to track down those responsible. And rookie FBI agent Sean Mac is assigned to work with Hunter on the case. It was the FBI who actually asked the CIA's Tokyo office to look into the killing, believing it to be linked to the Yakuza, a dangerous Japanese mafia. Tht's why the CIA is sniffing around under the auspices of Homeland Security. Mac proves to be more of a distraction, not really knowledgeable about procedures or Japanese customs. Hunter was raised in Japan, and he has a strong understanding of the Yakuza and their mysterious, eccentric, and sinister ways. Hunter and Mac discover a plan by Kuroda, the rising leader of a new Yakuza outfit, to build an enormous drug-dealing network with a Chinese Tong leader named Chen, and Kuroda is killing everyone who gets in his way. It was Kuroda who had Takayama killed. Hunter turns to help from Kojima, the second-in-command of an old-school Yakuza outfit run by elderly Oyabun Ishikawa. Hunter has been told that Kojima is the only Yakuza player who is capable of defeating Kuroda. Hunter visits Kojima, who laments that now that the new Yakuza are joining forces with the Tongs, they are becoming too powerful. Kojima tells Hunter that Kojima would love nothing more than to get ride of Kuroda. So who will get to Kuroda first -- Hunter or Kojima? As Hunter gets closer to Kuroda, he begins to endanger everyone associated with him. First, Kuroda has Ishikawa killed, making Kojima the new leader of Ishikawa's Yakuza outfit. And when Kuroda has Hunter's fiancé Nayako brutally murdered, Hunter's search for Kuroda becomes devastatingly personal. Teaming up with CIA spook Jewel and tattoo artist Kawamura, whose wife and young daughter were killed by Kuroda, Hunter sets out to take down Kuroda, permanently...even if he has to die trying. —Todd Baldridge

Former U.S. Army Captain Nathan Algren (Tom Cruise), a bitter alcoholic traumatized by the atrocities he committed during the American Indian Wars, is approached by his former commanding officer Colonel Bagley (Tony Goldwyn) to train the newly created Imperial Japanese Army for a forward-thinking Japanese businessman Omura (Masato Harada) (an industrialist and pro-reform politician who dislikes the old samurai and shogun-related lifestyle. He quickly imports westernization and modernization while making money for himself through his railroads. Coming from a merchant family that was like many repressed during the days of Samurai rule and the cause for his extreme dislike for their nobility, he assumes a great deal of power during the Meiji Restoration and takes advantages of Meiji's youth to become his chief advisor (wielding power similar to those of the Shoguns)), who intends to use the army to suppress a Samurai-headed rebellion against Japan's new emperor Meiji (Shichinosuke Nakamura) (Credited with the implementation of the 1868 Meiji Restoration, the Emperor is eager to import Western ideas and practices to modernize and empower Japan to become a strong nation). Despite his hatred of Bagley (Algren dislikes Bagley for his role in the Washita River massacre of the Native Americans that Algren cannot get over) for his role in the Indian Wars, an impoverished Algren takes the job for the money, and is accompanied to Japan by his old friend, Sergeant Zebulon Gant. Upon arriving, Algren meets Simon Graham (Timothy Spall), a British translator knowledgeable about the samurai. Algren finds the Imperial soldiers are actually conscripted peasants that have no knowledge of firearms or battle. Early in their training, Algren is informed that the samurai are attacking one of Omura's railroads; Omura sends the army there, despite Algren's protests that they are not ready. The battle is a disaster; the undisciplined conscripts are routed, and Gant is killed. Algren fights to the last before he is surrounded; expecting to die, he is taken prisoner when samurai leader Katsumoto (Ken Watanabe) (a warrior-poet who was once Emperor Meiji's most trusted teacher. He is displeased with Mr. Omura's bureaucratic reform policies which leads him into organizing a revolt against the Imperial Army) decides to spare him. Algren is taken to Katsumoto's village to live among his family. While he is poorly treated at first, he eventually gains the samurai's respect and actually becomes friends with Katsumoto. Algren overcomes his alcoholism and guilt and learns the Japanese language and culture. He develops sympathy for the samurai, who are upset that the pace of modern technology has eroded the traditions of their society. Algren and Taka (Koyuki Kato), Katsumoto's sister and the widow of a samurai killed by Algren, develop an unspoken affection for each other. One night, a group of ninjas infiltrate the village and attempt to assassinate Katsumoto. Algren saves Katsumoto's life, and then helps defend the village. Katsumoto requests a meeting with Emperor Meiji and is given safe passage to Tokyo. He brings Algren, intending to release him. Upon arriving in Tokyo, Algren finds the Imperial Army is now a well-trained and fully equipped fighting force. Katsumoto, to his dismay, discovers that the young and inexperienced Emperor has essentially become a puppet of Omura. At a government meeting, Omura orders Katsumoto's arrest for carrying a sword in public and asks him to perform Seppuku to redeem his honor. Algren refuses Omura's offer to lead the new army to crush the rebels, due to his sympathy. Omura sends assassins to kill Algren, but Algren kills them. Algren assists the samurai in freeing Katsumoto; in the process, Katsumoto's son Nobutada (Shin Koyamada) (Katsumoto's son who is lord of the village in which the Samurai are encamped. Nobutada befriends Algren. Katsumoto, the samurai lord, advises Nobutada to teach Algren in the Japanese way - Japanese culture and Japanese language) is mortally wounded, sacrificing himself to allow the others to escape. As the Imperial Army marches to crush the rebellion, a grieving Katsumoto contemplates Seppuku, but Algren convinces him to fight until the end, and joins the samurai in battle. The samurai use the Imperial Army's overconfidence to lure them into a trap and deprive them of artillery support. The ensuing battle inflicts massive casualties on both sides and forces the Imperial soldiers to retreat. Knowing that Imperial reinforcements are coming, and defeat is inevitable, Katsumoto orders a suicidal cavalry charge on horseback. During the charge, the samurai break through Bagley's line. Bagley is killed by Algren, but the samurai are quickly mowed down by Gatling guns. The Imperial captain, previously trained by Algren and horrified by the sight of the dying samurai, orders all of the guns to cease fire, disregarding Omura's orders. A mortally wounded Katsumoto commits Seppuku with Algren's help as the soldiers at the scene kneel in respect. Days later, as trade negotiations conclude, Algren, though injured, arrives and interrupts the proceedings. He presents the Emperor with Katsumoto's sword and asks him to remember the traditions for which Katsumoto and his fellow Samurai died. The Emperor realizes that while Japan should modernize, it cannot forget its own culture and history; he promptly rejects the trade offer. When Omura attempts to protest, the Emperor silences him by threatening to seize the Omura family assets and distribute them among the populace. While various rumors regarding Algren's fate circulate, Graham concludes that Algren had returned to the village to reunite with Taka.

This movie is more of a historically inspired children's fantasy. It centers around a young boy who's widowed father, Dr. Huber (James Woods), is the preiminent German rocket scientist at NASA during the early space program. Patterned after Werner Von Braun, Dr. Huber is trying to raise his son Billy (Linz) as a proud German while the son is much happier being an all American kid. In addition to fighting the ever present cultural conflict, Dr. huber is faced with political intrigue and ruthless competitors. The story is mostly about Billy's relationships with various space program employees (engineers, animal trainers and astronauts) and with the other kids who often see him as a German. The space program serves largely as a backdrop to a story of a child caught between two cultures. A good movie for kids and space buffs it is a fictional (and at times fantastical) account of the very early space program as seem from Billy's eyes. Excellent special effects and accurate minitaures.

A distraught man inadvertently takes a group of children hostage in a museum while a hungry, seasoned reporter tries to resurrect his career covering the story. Sam Baily, upset over losing his job, takes a natural history museum hostage. Max Brackett, journalist, is in the museum when this occurs and gets the scoop. The story spreads nationwide, and soon it is all anyone talks about. The story itself is the news, not the reason why or the real people behind it. —<freckles@vivid.net>

In 1934, Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson (Laurence Fishburne) is released from Sing Sing and returns to Harlem, where mobster Dutch Schultz (Tim Roth) asserts his control of the lucrative numbers game. Schultz begrudgingly reports to Mafia boss Charles "Lucky" Luciano (Andy Garcia), who pays bribes to special prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey (William Atherton) to protect his business. Reuniting with his cousin "Illinois" Gordon (Chi McBride), Bumpy returns to the employ of Harlem crime boss Madame Queen (Cicely Tyson), whose business is threatened by Schultz. Bumpy is introduced to Francine (Vanessa Williams), a friend of Illinois' girlfriend Mary (Loretta Devine). Schultz's meeting with the Queen ends in a standoff when he presents her with a rival's testicles. Walking Francine home from a club, Bumpy charms her with his poetry. Madame Queen is attacked by Schultz's men, led by black enforcer Bub Hewlett (Clarence Williams III), but Bumpy and fellow mobster Whispers (Paul Benjamin) repel the assassins and rescue her. At a meeting of the Commission, Schultz states his determination to take over Harlem. After robbing Schultz's operation with Illinois, Bumpy is chastised by Madame Queen for making his own decisions. Schultz then hires two hit men, the Salke brothers, to kill Bumpy, and has his police contact, NYPD Captain Foley (Richard Bradford), arrange for Madame Queen's arrest. At a party, a 17-year-old named Tyrone asks Bumpy for a job, and Francine struggles to reconcile her feelings for Bumpy with his criminal ways. The Salkes break into Bumpy's home, killing his guards, but Bumpy ambushes them and kills one while a terrified Francine shoots the other dead. Illinois is beaten and robbed by Foley and his officers, while Madame Queen is arrested for illegal gambling. Taking over her operation, Bumpy enlists Tyrone as a runner, and ignores the Queen's orders to avoid violence. By May 1935, he is locked in an all-out war with Schultz. His wealth and power grow, as does the body count, including Tyrone. Bumpy's attempt to comfort Tyrone's mother at his funeral is rejected. At an ice cream parlor with Francine, Bumpy realizes his banana split has been poisoned. When the shop owner reveals that Bumpy's associate Vallie ordered him to hire the new teenage employee responsible, Bumpy forces the boy to eat the poisoned ice cream despite his attempts to apologize. Whispers then kills Vallie with a razor. Bumpy confronts Schultz at the Cotton Club with Vallie's severed finger, demanding he cease his Harlem operations, but Schultz refuses. Disguised as truck drivers, Bumpy and Illinois deliver a bomb to one of Schultz's illicit breweries, narrowly escaping before the warehouse explodes. Illinois returns home to find Schultz had Mary killed in retaliation. Threatened by Dewey to end the bloodshed in Harlem, Luciano invites Bumpy and Schultz to a meeting, against both their wills. Visiting Madame Queen in prison, Bumpy is rebuked for inciting a gang war. Finding she can no longer accept who he is, Francine leaves him, and Illinois drunkenly confronts him over the innocent lives lost. Illinois is abducted and tortured by Foley, to Hewlett's disgust, but refuses to betray his cousin. At Luciano's meeting, Bumpy and Schultz refuse to settle their dispute. After finding Illinois' corpse left as a message, Bumpy slits Foley's throat while he's with a black prostitute, but spares Hewlett's life and offers him a partnership. Bumpy accepts an alliance with Luciano, and Luciano's driver - on Bumpy's orders - informs Schultz that Bumpy will be meeting with Luciano's accountant. Schultz and his men burst in but find only the accountant, whom Schultz kills. At a restaurant, Schultz's long-suffering henchman Lulu (Ed O'Ross) shoots him in the bathroom, and Schultz calmly returns to his table before dying. Meeting Luciano outside for payment, Lulu is shot dead. With Dutch eliminated and the gang war settled, Dewey - having received an enormous bribe from Bumpy, delivered by Hewlett - warns Luciano to stay away from Harlem. Hewlett and Bumpy part ways, and Bumpy arrives at Illinois' funeral. After exchanging looks with Francine and Madame Queen, Bumpy walks out into the rain alone.

A law student`s theory about the deaths of two Supreme Court justices embroils her in a web of greed, corruption and murder that goes to the top of the United States government.

A Chicago detective, seeking to avenge his partner's death, travels to New Orleans where he unexpectedly becomes involved in a cat and mouse game of survival. Maverick Chicago cop Eddie Jillette poses as a hit man to meet with someone in from New Orleans looking to have a job done. The result is that both the guy and Jillette's partner wind up very dead, while a stunning blonde in on the setup disappears. He heads south to settle the score and soon finds himself being hunted, with the girl in tow and the local police anything but happy. New Orleans may never be the same again. —Jeremy Perkins {J-26} Eddie Jillette and Joey Collins are partnered Chicago detectives working largely undercover. While on a drug stakeout, they learn of a contracted hit to take place in New Orleans, the actual target unknown. The contracted hit becomes personal for Eddie who travels to New Orleans to investigate. His primary lead is the wealthy southern Deveneux family, Paul Deveneux who was going to contract the hit but got killed supposedly by his intended target in Chicago. When the Deveneuxs prove uncooperative, Eddie turns to his only other lead, a blonde named Michel Duval who was Paul's companion in Chicago. While Eddie is able to track down Michel, NOPD learn that Eddie is town, they who make him unwelcomed in the city. But worse, Deveneux's intended target, a man named Losado, also knows Eddie is in town and he and his henchmen know who he is. This begins a game of cat and mouse between Eddie and Losado, with Michel caught in the middle, often as the pawn and often as the bargaining chip, as Eddie learns largely from Michel the connection between Deveneux, Losado and her, and as Eddie and Michel seem to be falling for each other. —Huggo In Chicago, Det. Eddie Jillette and his partner and friend Det. Joe Collins are working undercover in a car wash to catch a drug dealer in the act. When they capture the criminal, he says that he was supposed to meet a couple from New Orleans at a restaurant to be hired as a hitman. Eddie and Joe go to the encounter with Paul Deveneux and Michel Duval and while Eddie poses as the killer and goes with Deveneux in his car to discuss details, Joe takes Michel to the hotel. Out of the blue, the car of Eddie and Deveneux is attacked by a group of gangsters and Eddie hardly survives. He unsuccessfully tries to contact Joe, but the killers go to the hotel, kill Joe and abduct Michel. The New Orleans police do not care to what happened to Joe and Captain Stemkowski authorizes Eddie to travel to NOLA and revenge Joe. Soon Eddie finds Michel in a club, cuffs and abducts her and learns that Deveneux and Joe's killer, the dangerous kingpin Losado, are associate in human trafficking. Further, Losado bought Michel from her mother when she was thirteen and will do anything to recover her. Meanwhile, Eddie loses the cuffs' key in the bayou and now Michel and he are trapped to each other. —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The story opens with a promotional video featuring a new government weapon, the Crossbow aircraft, which is outfitted with a powerful laser. The laser has advanced accuracy that will allow it to vaporize any target from high altitudes. Though development of the plane itself is on track, the laser has yet to be completed. At a high school science competition, Mitch Taylor, 15, is approached by Dr Hathaway, who has been given the government's laser project. Mitch himself is a gifted student interested in working with laser technology. Hathaway tells Mitch and his parents that he wants Mitch to enroll at his university, Pacific Tech. Mitch's parents eagerly accept. Hathaway meets with a government official who tells him that the work on the laser is behind schedule and that the grant money he's gotten could be cut off. Mitch arrives at Pacific Tech and goes immediately to the lab where the laser is being developed. He finds the project's current leader, Kent, who dismisses him as a restaurant delivery boy. Kent is instantly abrasive with Mitch, asserting that he is Jerry's right-hand-man, until Jerry walks in and informs Kent and his toadies that Mitch is going to lead the project. Jerry also asks of the whereabouts of Chris Knight, one of Pac Tech's smartest students and whom Mitch will be working with. One of Kent's buddies tells Jerry that Chris has blown off his time in the lab. Mitch goes to his dorm room, finding it a cornucopia of odd decorations and objects, with clothes strewn about. He looks in his suitcase and finds his clothes are all missing. As he looks around, a strange and silent man enters the room, walks into the closet and closes the door behind him. Mitch opens the door and sees that the man has disappeared. When he turns around, he finds his roommate, Chris Knight himself, doing a handstand, asking him what the world would do "if gravity suddenly reversed itself." Chris tells Mitch that Mitch reminds him of how he once was and that he requested Mitch be his roommate. Mitch realizes that Chris is not a button-down academic but more of a free-spirit who does everything he can to avoid responsibility but still exceeds academically. Mitch sees that the other occupants of their dorm have seemingly followed Chris' example: they use their high intelligence to play pranks, build contraptions for fun and have generally loosened up so that the pressures of their academic work don't drive them crazy. Chris also keeps a cylinder of frozen liquid nitrogen in the freezer from which he cuts slugs that he uses like coins in the dorm's vending machines. Chris meets with Jerry at his home - a large Victorian that he's clearly sprucing up with the government grant he's gotten. He tells Chris that, with Mitch's assistance, the laser will have to be five megawatts in power and must be finished by May. He also says he wants Christ to spend more time in the lab on the project. Chris and Mitch work on developing the laser while participating in the antics of the science dorm's students. Ick covers one of the hallways in ice, prompting the others to go sledding and skating. Mitch meets Jordan, a chatty, "hyperkinetic" woman who lives down the hall and claims she never sleeps. Kent walks in with a stack of research on the laser for Mitch to read and analyze and also informs Chris that Mitch's placement test scores were higher than Chris'. Chris doesn't seem to care and continues to enjoy the ice party. Kent complains that the ice will make a terrible mess; Ick retorts that he's rigged it to sublimate with no trace. The ice vaporizes a few minutes later and Ick scares Kent into his room when he gleefully exclaims that the steam might explode. Mitch soon begins to buckle under the pressure of his classwork and the laser research and finding out what Chris already knows; Hathaway is an ill-tempered, overbearing and overdemanding tyrant obsessed with the laser project. Mitch also becomes frustrated when Chris doesn't seem to take the project seriously. While working in the lab together one night, Chris starts up the laser, which throws a beam all through the building and outdoors to the school auditorium where Chris has set up a lavish indoor beach party with female students from a local beauty tech school. He tells his friends to have a good time. Mitch is mostly uptight about the party until Jordan shows up to test out a new rebreathing system she's invented. However, Kent sees the party and immediately runs off to tell Jerry. When Jerry arrives, he harshly admonishes Mitch in front of the crowd. Mitch goes back to the lab and, too upset to work, storms out to an office and calls his parents, begging to come home. One of Kent's friends sees him and calls Kent and the rest of his toadies. They secretly record Mitch's conversation. The next day in the cafeteria, Chris finds Mitch and consoles him about Jerry's unfair reprimand. After Chris leaves, Mitch suddenly hears his conversation with his parents being broadcast over the PA system. He rushes back to the dorm and begins packing his things. Chris catches up with him and talks him into staying by relating his own experiences from high school: he too was a nerdy kid whom his parents insisted be sheltered from an ordinary and fun life. Chris was also envied and disliked by his fellow classmates and his teachers because he was plainly smarter than they were. He also talks about the man who hides in their closet: Laslo Hollyfeld, who was the star student at Pacific Tech in the 1970s and who suffered a breakdown, leaving him hiding in the steam tunnels under the dorm. Mitch takes the conversation to heart, realizing that he can become a burnout like Hollyfeld very quickly and decides to loosen up. Mitch especially brightens up when Chris tells him the first order of business is to get even with Kent. The two, with help from their friends, take Kent's prized 1972 Citroen and somehow sneak it into his dorm room. Kent is infuriated and promises to complain to Jerry about it after Mitch and Chris happily confess to the prank. Jerry receives further pressure from the government to complete the laser. He tells Chris that he won't let him graduate unless the laser is done ahead of schedule. Chris protests but is quickly shot down. Later, while he sits around looking despondent, Mitch finds him and tries to boost his spirits, saying they have to get even with Jerry. The two work long hours and seem on the verge of completing the project. Chris takes Jerry's final exam, passing the professor a note saying he aced it, however Jerry is obviously undeterred in his wish to fail Chris. In the lab, Kent sabotages Chris and Mitch's work, causing catastrophic failure. When Kent suggests later that he caused the meltdown, Chris throws a tantrum, causing the thermos of frozen nitrogen he keeps in the dorm freezer to clatter to the floor. Chris looks at it for a few seconds, has an epiphany and rushes off to find Mitch. Chris later shows up at Jerry's house after hours and tells him he's solved the laser problem. He also discovers that Jerry was in the midst of a tryst with the daughter of one of the government officials overseeing the project. They go to the lab where Mitch and Chris show how they solved the problem with a new type of freezing technology that blasts through the solid steel target, the brick wall behind it through a statue and a few trees, even off campus to the marquis of a local biker bar. Jerry is overjoyed, and offers Chris a lucrative job with a high tech company, a job he was going to offer to Kent. Jerry quickly leaves the lab, over Kent's protests. While they all celebrate at the biker bar, Laslo asks them about the laser and the power level they achieved. He also asks about the applications of such a laser and they all realize with horror that they were working on a military project the whole time. Back at the lab, they find the laser is gone. They only have one lead: Kent, whom they think may know where Jerry took the unit. They knock Kent out in his dorm room with sleeping gas and rig his braces with a microphone and speaker. Pretending to be the voice of Jesus, Mitch asks Kent what he knows about the theft of the unit. The team begins to surveil Jerry, discovering he's gone to a nearby Air Force base. They craft fake ID cards for Mitch and Chris, who steal onto the base and find their invention in a fighter plane. When they connect via modem with Laslo at his hideout, Laslo is able to help them hack the weapon's operating system and change the coordinates of the target for the laser's test. They're forced to rush out of the plane when Jerry shows up for a final inspection. Jerry finds an discarded microchip replaced by Chris and Mitch in a circuit board and is suspicious but withholds it, not wanting to see the test delayed. The next day, Jerry oversees the test of the laser. The gang waits at Jerry's house. Chris has called in one of the university's high-ranking deans and a United States senator. They all hide when Kent, ordered to the house by Mitch's Jesus voice, walks up to the house. The test proceeds and the laser fires, completely missing it's intended target, the beam blasting its way into Jerry's foyer. Inside, Kent has found a huge aluminum foil tub full of popcorn that the beam hits. The popcorn expands and begins to destroy the house, tumbling Kent harmlessly out the front door. When Jerry tracks the location of the shot, he sees his house falling apart. Laslo shows up in an brand new RV and a trailer towing all the prizes he won with the contest tickets he'd been churning out. He remarks that this math may have been off and that they may have used too much popcorn in their prank. The gang celebrates their victory while the local kids all play in the popcorn. Jerry returns to his house later, upset that it's been trashed.

May, 1937. Kathie Rauch from Milwaukee, Wisconsin sends a letter to the German Embassy in Washington, D.C. claiming the Hindenburg zeppelin will explode after flying over New York. In the meantime, Luftwaffe Colonel Franz Ritter (George C. Scott) boards with the intention of protecting the Hindenburg as various threats have been made to down the airship, which some see as a symbol of Nazi Germany. Ritter is assisted by a Nazi government official, SS/Gestapo Hauptsturmführer Martin Vogel (Roy Thinnes), who poses as official photographer. However, both operate independently in investigating the background of all passengers and crew on the voyage. Ritter has reason to suspect everyone, even his old friend and former mistress, Countess Ursula von Reugen (Anne Bancroft), who vehemently opposes the Nazi regime. Other prime suspects include card sharks Emilio Pajetta (Burgess Meredith) and Major Napier (Rene Auberjonois), Edward Douglas (Gig Young), a suspicious German-American ad executive, as well as several crew members and even the Hindenburg captains Pruss (Charles Durning) and Lehmann (Richard A. Dysart). As the Hindenburg makes its way to Lakehurst Air Field, events conspire against Ritter and Vogel. They soon suspect the rigger Karl Boerth (William Atherton), a former Hitler Youth leader who has become disillusioned with the Nazis. Ritter attempts to arrest him. Boerth resists. He requests help from Ritter, whose son was killed a year before. Boerth's girlfriend, Freda Halle, was killed while trying to escape arrest as the Hindenburg crossed the Atlantic. Boerth, upon hearing the news of Halle's death, plans to commit suicide by staying aboard the airship as the bomb goes off. Ritter eventually agrees with Boerth to set the bomb to detonate at 7:30 p.m., when the airship should have landed and passengers disembarked. While setting up the bomb (a small C-4 plastic explosive), Boerth drops a knife, which was later revealed to have been stolen from Rigger Ludwig Knorr. Vogel starts to work behind Ritter's back, arresting Boerth and confiscating the Countess's passport. As the airship approaches Lakehurst Naval Air Station at 7:00, Ritter now realizes the landing has been delayed and searches for Boerth to ask where the bomb is. Vogel is caught by Ritter torturing Boerth and gets into a fight with Ritter and is knocked unconscious. An injured Boerth tells Ritter the bomb is in the repair patch of gas cell 4. Ritter attempts to defuse the bomb, but is unable to do so in time and is spotted at the last few seconds by a now awakened Vogel. The bomb explodes, killing Ritter instantly and sending Vogel flying down the walkway. Vogel survives, being carried by ground crewmen, while Boerth dies of his burns. At this point the film changes to monochrome in order to match up with the actual newsreel footage of the disaster. Passengers and crew struggle to survive the fire. The disaster scene ends when the camera pans over wreckage, towards a strip of burning fabric that says "Hindenburg" on it. The following day, with the fire cleared, a list of passengers who died or survived is described briefly, while the wreckage is examined for the inquiry before being cleaned up. The film ends with a tribute to Herbert Morrison's radio commentary, with the memorable quotation, "Oh the humanity," as the Hindenburg flies once again, only to disappear again in the clouds.

Young artist Tod Hackett (William Atherton) looks over an apartment in the new Depression Era Hollywoodland as a place to set up residence as he makes his way into the film industry. Hackett is like many other young men of the time seeking a career at one of the studios that make silent films in the 30s. Across from his bungalow lives Faye Greener (Karen Black) a young blonde who works as a film extra and very attractive to Hackett whose attempts to initiate a romantic relationship with the woman is rebuffed. Hackett aspires to great art as a painter visualizing his major work "Burning of Hollywood" but working as a set designer for a second rate producer Claude Estee (Richard A. Dysart) who was a graduate from Yale College as Hackett was. As Hackett gets involved deeper into the world of Faye and her former Vaudeville performer father Harry Greener (Burgess Meredith) who makes money selling elixir door-to-door he becomes more disillusioned over the mythic value of Hollywood. When Harry collapses at the home of unassuming accountant Homer Simpson (Donald Sutherland), Faye pulls Homer into the fringe world of film performers using him to live on while she pursues her career. As Hackett is exposed to more of the lifestyle in the film world of Los Angeles his vision of Mankind takes on bolder, grander imagery when an event at a film premier develops into mayhem.

The real incident took place in May of 1969. This one is about February of 1973, just west of Houston, Texas (Sugarland in actuality), Clovis Poplin is serving the remainder of his one year prison sentence in pre-release at the TDC Pre-Release Facility for petty larceny. His wife Lou Jean is also newly released from prison and comes to visit him with the intention of breaking him out because she just lost their child to foster parents that intend to adopt Baby Langston. She threatens to leave him for good if he does not go along with her plan. Clovis and Lou Jean are uneducated and not playing with a full deck; Clovis is naïve and easily manipulated and Lou Jean is beautiful, but annoying, ignorant, impulsive, and borderline sociopathic. Lou Jean is wearing Clovis' clothes underneath hers and they very easily sneak out of the facility, posing as visiting friends of Clovis' fellow prison mate, Hubie Nocker. They hitch a ride out with his parents, with his father driving on the freeway less than 25 miles an hour. A young patrol officer by the name of Maxwell Slide stops him and gives him a warning citation. Fearing that the young officer will spot them, Clovis and Lou Jean steal the elderly couple's 1956 Buick Roadmaster skidding and speeding over the Brazos River and through the town of Richmond, wrecking the car near a slough. Lou Jean pretends to be badly injured, and Patrolman Slide is kidnapped at gunpoint. Because Slide is new and inexperienced to the force, they seem to have little problem with his cooperation. Veteran police Captain Tanner is in the middle of a court hearing in Houston and the hearing immediately adjourned until later so he can get to the kidnapping. Tanner is a mannered and genteel soul who seems sympathetic to the Poplin's and Slide's dilemma, but realizes with his job he needs to stick to his principles and do the right thing. During the trip across Alternate Highway 90 and Interstate 10, the local radio station reveals Clovis to be a native of Crowley, a small town just south of Fort Worth and Lou Jean as an unemployed beautician from Sayers, a town just east of San Antonio. The Poplin's stop at a porta potty in the road so Lou Jean can relieve herself, an Exxon Humble filling station with cop cars escorting them, an Arco filling station taking a load of gold stamps, two Louisiana state troopers join in and participate, stop at a chicken stand in Pleasanton, then take Loop 1604. At a Fina gas station in Converse, Slide zooms his police car to escape the convoy of police cars so they can rest for the night. Clovis, Lou Jean, and Officer Slide hide out for the night at a used car lot near the old Loop 13 Drive In Movie Theater on Military Drive, with Slide handcuffed to the backseat of the police car and Clovis and Lou Jean staying in an RV. Captain Tanner and half the state police force are using the Harlandale ISD football stadium for the night. Captain Tanner has summoned Lou Jean's father from his home in Sayers by helicopter to make a statement to her via police radio to persuade her to turn herself in. He's an elderly man, courteous to the police officers, but just as ignorant and uneducated as Lou Jean and states on the radio that she's no good, would shoot her and Clovis if he had a chance, and that God will get her. Lou Jean does not hear this, but Slide hears it on the police radio in the car just before she comes to check on him. He assures her that he knows she's really a good person inside and comes to realize her upbringing was not a pleasant one. The next morning, an unidentified trio of leftist lunatics leave their home with intent to find Lou Jean and Clovis. They spot them at the used car lot and, acting no better than their upbringing taught them, shoot at the car's helpless occupants repeatedly. The police get wind of the incident and arrest the men, who are not the National Guard they claim to be. Tanner assures Clovis and Lou Jean that they will be left alone. But Tanner realizes he still needs to do his job. He asks the couple and baby to hide in a downtown shelter and enlists two sharpshooters to their home to kill the couple. Down the trip on Highway 90 from San Antonio to Sugarland (Del Rio in reality of this movie, except the filming location of the home and downtown was actually Floresville), Tanner dodges media, the trio in the police car are welcomed and supported by a large crowd in the fictional town of Rodrigo (probably Hondo), and they make it to the house. Clovis does not want to get out of the car and fears it's a trap, but Lou Jean pushes him to do it. Clovis is shot in the chest. The three of them drive to the Rio Grande river to cross the border, but Clovis dies at the wheel right before he can escape. After Clovis dies, Lou Jean is arrested and Officer Slide consoled by Captain Tanner for his bravery and a job well done. Lou Jean served 15 months of a 5 year prison sentence and was awarded custody by the state after getting out on parole.