CAYOM YEAR 9: Part 1 (FOURTH QUARTER) (DEADLINE- 11/16 10:59 PM EST)

[Alpha]

Urinetown
Director: Nicholas Stoller
Composer: Mark Hollmann and Greg Kotis
Genre: Musical/Comedy
Date: August 16th
Studio: Alpha Pictures
Format: Live-action, 2D
Budget: $100 million
Theaters: 3,081
MPAA Rating: PG for some mild rude humor
Running Time: 120 minutes
Tagline: On August 16th, It’s a Privilege to Pee

 

Cast:
Zac Efron as Bobby Strong
Hayden Panettiere as Hope Cladwell
Michelle Pfeiffer as Penelope Pennywise
Martin Short as Caldwell B. Cladwell
Bill Murray as Officer Lockstock
Connie Talbot as Little Sally
Pierce Brosnan as Officer Barrel
Andy Serkis as Senator Fipp
Joel Edgerton as Mr. McQueen
Jeff Bridges as Old Man Strong
Meryl Streep as Josephine Strong

 

Plot:

The movie opens with a parody of the opening to the film Moulin Rouge!, with a curtain in front of a dim-lit stage. The curtains draw, the lights completely dim, and in 1.85 aspect ratio we receive a grim welcome from Officer Lockstock, a policeman, assisted by the street urchin Little Sally. According to Lockstock and Little Sally, a twenty-year drought has caused a terrible water shortage, making private toilets unthinkable. All restroom activities are done in public toilets controlled by a megacorporation called "Urine Good Company" (or UGC). To control water consumption, people have to pay to use the amenities ("Too Much Exposition", and during this number the screen resizes to 2.35 aspect ratio). There are harsh laws ensuring that people pay to pee, and if they are broken, the offender is sent to a penal colony called "Urinetown", never to return ("Urinetown").

 

The oppressed masses huddle in line at the poorest, filthiest urinal in town, Public Amenity #9, which is run by the rigid, harshly authoritarian Penelope Pennywise and her assistant, dashing young everyman Bobby Strong. Trouble ensues when Bobby's father, Old Man Strong, cannot afford his urinal admission for the day and asks Pennywise to let him go free "just this once". After Old Man Strong's plea is dismissed ("It's a Privilege to Pee"), he urinates on the street and is soon arrested by Officers Lockstock and Barrel and escorted off to Urinetown. ("It's a Privilege to Pee (Reprise)").

 

Later that day, in the corporate offices of Urine Good Company, the CEO, Caldwell B. Cladwell, is discussing the new fee hikes with Senator Fipp, a politician firmly in Cladwell's pocket, when Cladwell's beautiful daughter, Hope Cladwell, arrives on the scene as the UGC's new fax/copy girl. By way of introduction, the UGC staff sing a paean to their chief ("Mr. Cladwell").

 

Officers Lockstock and Barrel discuss the journey to Urinetown and how it reduces everyone, even the toughest, to screams ("The Cop Song"). Hope enters and encounters Bobby Strong. Bobby, distraught over his father's arrest and wondering if he could have done something. He tells Hope that his heart feels either cold or empty. Hope tells Bobby that the only answer is to follow his heart. The two realize that they both want a new world where the people can be happy and pee for free, and united by their belief, fall in love ("Follow Your Heart"). Little Sally asks Officer Lockstock what Urinetown is like, but Lockstock replies that its power lies in its mystery and he cannot flippantly reveal that "there is no Urinetown, we just kill people", and that the reveal won't come until Act II, "with everybody singing and things like that."

 

The next day, Cladwell's assistant, Mr. McQueen, announces the new fee hikes set upon the urinals. Bobby concludes that the laws are wrong. Opening the doors of the urinal, despite Ms. Pennywise's protests, he begins a pee-for-free rebellion ("Look at the Sky").

 

Pennywise rushes to the offices of UGC, where she informs Cladwell of the revolution. The two give each other long, meaningful looks, but they are interrupted by the situation at hand. Cladwell vows to crush the rebellion, frightening Hope. Cladwell, by way of a series of increasingly convoluted metaphors involving a bunny, tells Hope that it is their privilege and responsibility to stomp on the poor.

 

Cladwell, McQueen, Fipp, Pennywise, Lockstock and Barrel arrive at Amenity #9 to snuff out the uprising. Bobby learns that Hope is Cladwell's daughter. Bobby realizes that the only way out of the trap is to kidnap Hope to use as leverage against Cladwell. The rebel poor escape with Hope as their hostage. The police give chase, but the slow choreography makes it impossible for the police to catch them. Lockstock vows to catch the poor as he tells the audience to enjoy intermission ("Act I Finale").

 

For the break, we see the word INTERMISSION flash on screen repeatedly for 1 minute.

 

After the “intermission,” Lockstock welcomes everyone back. He catches the audience up on the situation, and tells them that the rebel poor are holed up in a secret hideout somewhere, pointing to a large sign that reads "Secret Hideout." The sign leads to the sewers, where the rebels are holding Hope hostage. The rebels wonder what Urinetown is, and two of them, Little Becky Two-Shoes and Hot Blades Harry, explain their theories. Cladwell orders Lockstock to search harder for the rebels, threatening that he will send everyone to Urinetown if Hope isn't found. Bobby and his mother Josephine hand out memos to the other Assistant Custodians in hope that they will join them. Bobby is sure that Urinetown is nothing but a lie designed to keep the poor people in fear. Lockstock catches Little Sally, but she is unfazed by his threat of Urinetown, because as she sees it, they are already in Urinetown; it "isn't so much a place as it is a metaphysical place" that they are all in, including Lockstock. She escapes before Lockstock can ask her what "metaphysical" means. ("What is Urinetown?").

 

Convinced that Bobby, Josephine, and Little Sally have been captured, the rebels, particularly Hot Blades Harry and Little Becky Two-Shoes, decide that the best way to get revenge on Cladwell is to kill Hope ("Snuff That Girl"). They're about to kill her when Bobby bursts in and reminds the rebels that their purpose is more than just revenge. He explains that he made a promise that all the people of the land would be free. One of the rebels reminds Bobby that the only words he said were "Run, everybody, run for your lives, run." Bobby explains that in the heat of battle the cry of freedom sounds something like ("Run, Freedom, Run!"). Invigorated, the poor rally around Bobby, but balk at his statement that the violent fight could take decades. Just then, Pennywise bursts into the secret hideout telling Bobby that Cladwell wants him to come to the UGC headquarters. Bobby goes, but only after being reminded by the impatient rebels that if anything happens to him, Hope will be killed. Pennywise fiercely swears that if any of the rebels harm Hope, she will have Bobby sent off to Urinetown. Bobby says goodbye to Hope, apologizes, and tells her to think of what they have ("Follow Your Heart - Reprise").

 

At the UGC headquarters, Bobby is offered a suitcase full of cash and full amnesty to the rebels as long as Hope is returned and the people agree to the new fee hikes. Bobby refuses, and demands free access for the people. Cladwell orders the cops to escort Bobby to Urinetown—even if it means that the rebel poor will kill Hope. Horrified, Pennywise marvels at the depth of Cladwell's evil. Cladwell has her arrested as well. She, Hope, and Fipp sing of their regrets of falling for Cladwell's schemes. Meanwhile, Bobby is led to the top of the UGC building, and learns the truth, Urinetown is death. Bobby regrets having ever listened to his heart. Lockstock and Barrel throw him off the building.("Why Did I Listen To That Man?").

 

Little Sally returns to the hideout in a shocked daze, having just heard Bobby's last words. The Ghost of Bobby sings, along with Little Sally, his last words directed to Hope. ("Tell Her I Love Her"). His last words encourage the rebels to fight for what they know is right, and that the time is always now. Just as the rebels are about to murder Hope in revenge, Pennywise enters and offers herself instead, proclaiming herself to be Hope's mother. The poor reel back, shocked by this unexpected twist. Hope convinces the rebels to let her lead them, and she, Penny, and the poor march to the offices of UGC, killing Officer Barrel, Senator Fipp, and Mrs Millennium on the way ("We're Not Sorry").

 

Hope reveals to her father that she is still alive. Cladwell is overjoyed, until the rest of the poor reveal themselves. Hope tells him that his reign of terror is over, and that he will be sent to the same place he sent Bobby and all those who wouldn't—or couldn't—meet his criminal fee hikes. Cladwell pleads to the people that he is their only chance at seeing tomorrow, but it is no use. Pennywise and Cladwell reminisce about their past romance ("We're Not Sorry (Reprise)"). Cladwell is led to the roof, shouting that he regrets nothing, and however cruel he might have been, he "kept the pee off the street and the water in the ground." He is thrown off.

 

With the town at peace at last, the age of fear is over and that the people look forward to a bright new day. The Urine Good Company is renamed "The Bobby Strong Memorial Toilet Authority" and the people are henceforth allowed to pee whenever they like, as much as they like, for as long as they like, and with whomever they like ("I See A River").

 

However, the town's newfound urinary bliss is short-lived, as its limited water supply quickly disappears. Lockstock tells the audience that, as draconian as the UGC's rules were, they kept the people from squandering the limited water supply; now, much of the population dies of thirst. It is insinuated that Hope suffers a terrible death at the hand of the people for her actions in depleting the water supply, but the remaining townsfolk will wage on, their town now quite like the imaginary "Urinetown" with which they had been threatened for years.

Edited September 15, 2014 by Alpha

[cookie]

The Adventures of Scrooge McDuck

 

Genre: Animation (2D) / Adventure 

Studio: Cookie Pictures Animation 

Cast: Alan Young (Scrooge McDuck), Tony Alsemo (Huey, Duey and Luey), Brian George (Flintheart Glomgold), Chuck McCann (Duckworth, Burger & Bouncer Beagle), Frank Welker (Bigtime Beagle), Chris Edgerly (Gyro Gearloose), Corey Burton (Ludwig von Drake), Jim Cummings (El Capitan)  

Director: Mark Dindal 

Composer: Alan Silvestri 

Budget: $125,000,000 

Release Date: July 19th 

Theater Count: 3,801

MPAA Rating: PG for scenes of peril, comic mischief and some frightening images.

Running Time: 110 minutes (1 hour, 50 minutes) 

Inspired by: DuckTales (1987-1990) by Jymn Magon, The Son of the Sun (1987) and The Treasure of the Ten Avatars (1995) by Don Rosa. Characters created by Walt Disney and Carl Barks. 

 

Note: While many are familiar with Carl Barks work (which influenced the DuckTales TV series among others) I've decided to take heavier influence from Don Rosa's run on the series, which is the one I grew up with. While Rosa's stories and artwork often pay homage to Barks' style, Rosa's drawings tend to be more detailed and there's heavier emphasis on background gags. You can see some examples here.

 

Due to technical issues I can't post the full version here, but here's a link to a Google Docs version: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1H_vWRXaN_MtxIiWa3ZYH56Ed_jkkIawWEnA9xMjp2Wk/edit

Edited September 22, 2014 by C00k13

[Alpha]

Might as well post some fillers.OMG Sharkz!Director: Alexandre AjaComposer: Michael WandmacherGenre: Horror ComedyDate: July 3rdStudio: Redlight FilmsFormat: Live-action, 2DBudget: $1 millionTheaters: 830MPAA Rating: PG-13 for violence and some blood and goreRunning Time: 78 minutesTagline: OMGWTFLOLBBQCast:Ashlee SimpsonLindsay LohanJessica SimpsonPlot: A "teen girl flick" featuring Ashlee Simpson and Lindsay Lohan fighting for survival against a deadly mechanical shark. The dialogue captions are entirely in Internet-speak. Later in the movie, Ashlee's sister Jessica Simpson discovers the horrifying secret that the mechanical shark is really a large chicken.

Edited September 17, 2014 by Alpha

[Blankments]

Tyler Perry's Madea's Time Machine

 

Director: Tyler Perry

Genre: Comedy/Sci-Fi

Date: September 6

Studio: Blankments Productions

Cast: Tyler Perry as Madea, David Henrie as Gladea, Isaiah Mustafa as Dr. Martin Luther King Junior, and Neil Patrick Harris as Adolf Hitler.

Music by: Tyler Perry.

Runtime: 96 min

Tagline: A Truly Epic Film

 

Plot: Madea travels back in time to the 1950s, and meets her white alter-ego, Gladea. Together, they kidnap Dr. Martin Luther King Junior and then travel back to 1942 to stop World War II and murder Hitler.

 

Theaters: 2,869

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for violence, drug use, language and sensuality

Budget: $60 million

Edited October 21, 2014 by Blankments

[Blankments]

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic – The Legacy of Nightmare Rarity

Director: James Wooton

Genre: Flash Animation/Adventure/Musical

Date: September 13

Studio: Blankments Productions

Cast: Tara Strong as Twilight Sparkle, Ashleigh Ball as Applejack/Rainbow Dash, Andrea Libman as Pinkie Pie/Fluttershy, Tabitha St. Germain as Rarity/Princess Luna, Cathy Weseluck as Spike, Madeleine Peters as Scootaloo, Neil Patrick Harris as Larry/Shadowfright, Sean Astin as Bob, Michelle Creber as Apple Bloom, Nicole Oliver as Princess Celestia, Kelly Metzger as Spitfire, Britt McKillip as Princess Cadence, Peter New as Big Mac, Kristen Schaal as Maybelle, Rebecca Shoichet as Twilight Sparkle’s singing voice, Shannon Chan-Kent as Pinkie Pie’s singing voice, and Kazumi Evans as Rarity’s singing voice

Music by: William Anderson. Songs by Daniel Ingram.

Runtime: 113 min

Tagline: Friends or foes?

 

Plot Summary: Twilight, Applejack, Rainbow, Pinkie, and Fluttershy continue their quest with Luna and Spike to save Rarity from the evil Nightmare Forces.

 

Plot: Princess Celestia prepares the citizens of Ponyville against an imminent attack by the Nightmare Forces, and is almost certain they'll be ready for whatever comes. ("We Must Arm Ourselves") A silhouette of Nightmare Moon suddenly appears on the moon's surface, to several ponies' horror, but Celestia remarks that it doesn't look like Luna.

 

Rarity has been turned into the new Nightmare Moon by the Nightmare Forces. The others try to get through to her, but are unsuccessful. Nightmare Rarity taunts Princess Luna by saying if she'd become Nightmare Moon again, her friends would be spared, and her refusal means they'll never forgive her. ("You Killed The Friendship") Nonetheless, Twilight and the others stand by Luna, and a fight ensues between the ponies and the Nightmare Forces. Rainbow Dash incapacitates Shadowfright, but his sidekick hurls Spike into the distance. As the battle tips in the Nightmare Forces' favor, Twilight tells Luna to go back to Ponyville and help. Reluctantly, Luna flies back to Earth as the ponies are captured.

 

Nightmare Rarity has the five ponies imprisoned in a dungeon below her castle. The ponies start to give in to despair; Twilight says that without Rarity, they can't use the Elements of Harmony, and a spell on the castle prevents her magic from working. ("These Chains") As Fluttershy befriends a Nightmare-corrupted rabbit whom she later names Miss Buffy ("What An Adorable Creature"), the others presume Spike is dead.

 

Spike had survived his fall, however. He gets back up and goes to the Nightmare Forces' castle, using small slug-like creatures as camouflage to get close. Nightmare Rarity plans an attack on Ponyville and tells Shadowfright she chose Rarity as her vessel because she had a deep, dark secret that made it easier to possess her. When asked what to do with the imprisoned ponies once they conquer Ponyville, Nightmare Rarity jokes they could lock them up and throw away the key. ("Death to the Ponies") However, Shadowfright's sidekick misplaced the key, and an angry Shadowfright sends him to find it while Spike looks for the dungeon.

 

Spike eventually finds himself in a throne room where Rarity appears and asks him to be her king. She tells him to forget the past, but he doesn't want to. ("The Past Is In The Past") When Spike shows Rarity the fire ruby and she doesn't recognize it, he realizes that it isn't really her, causing Nightmare Rarity's dream to fade away. Spike tries to tell Rarity he loves her, but Nightmare Rarity says it's too late for Rarity. Shadowfright and his sidekick restrain Spike as he declares he'll never help the Nightmare Forces. Nightmare Rarity, however, says there's nothing he could help her with, and that this nightmare has only just begun.

 

Princess Luna returns to Ponyville to inform her sister of the ponies' capture and of the Nightmare Forces' impending attack. ("Doom is Coming Soon") Celestia says they'll be ready, and Luna is resolved to help.

 

In the dungeon, Rainbow Dash throws a fit over her and her friends' situation, annoying Applejack and spurring an argument. When Fluttershy reminds them of what good friends they all are, a warm glow envelops their bodies; Twilight thinks the glow is their friendship lighting them up from within. ("Glow to Know")

 

On the castle balcony, Shadowfright continues to taunt the restrained Spike, telling him that Rarity's transformation will soon be permanent and breaking his fire ruby into pieces. As Nightmare Rarity, now clad in gold jewel-studded armor, and the Nightmare Forces commence the attack on Ponyville, Spike, using the camouflage slugs from before, manages to sneak away. He gathers up the pieces of his fire ruby and goes to free Twilight and her friends from confinement. Guided by the light of the ponies' friendship, he sneaks past Shadowfright's sidekick and into the dungeon. Spike tries in vain to set the ponies free from their cages; luckily, Pinkie Pie has the sidekick's key, which had fallen out of his pocket earlier and she'd forgotten about afterward. When the sidekick catches wind of the group's escape, he blocks the exit and prevents them from leaving. ("You Are Never Ever Getting Out of Here") However, it's clear to the ponies that the rest of the Nightmare Forces don't respect him—Shadowfright doesn't even know his name. Nonetheless, he refuses to let the ponies leave.

 

Meanwhile, in Ponyville, Rarity and the Nightmare Forces begin their attack, and the village turns into a warzone. Princess Luna faces off against Nightmare Rarity, and an exploitation of Luna's weakness gives Rarity the upper hand. However, her efforts to turn the other ponies against Luna are futile; in spite of her past as Nightmare Moon, Celestia and the citizens of Ponyville accept Luna as one of them. With renewed confidence, Luna resolves to protect Ponyville and defeat Nightmare Rarity, and her mane becomes a rippling, translucent blue.

 

As Nightmare Rarity spits at the sentimentality, Shadowfright's sidekick, apparently named Bob and now no longer smoky in appearance, arrives with Spike and the other Elements of Harmony. Princess Luna, channeling the Elements' magic, purges the moon creatures of the nightmare energy as well, including Shadowfright. Luna and the Elements then shower the still defiant Nightmare Rarity in magical light. The nightmare energy's grip on the real Rarity is momentarily loosed, but due to Rarity's lack of certainty in herself, the energy's too powerful to destroy. Twilight rallies her friends to remember the things about Rarity that they love, to show how special she is to them and how she'll never be forgotten. The power of the love they hold for their friend restores Spike's shattered fire ruby and banishes the nightmare energy from Rarity's body completely. With the Nightmare Forces' defeat, Rarity tearfully reunites with her friends and family.

 

Later that night, Princess Luna goes to escort the moon creatures back home, promising to visit Twilight and her friends soon. Fluttershy leaves the rabbit she befriended in the dungeon in Bob and Larry's care. Luna bids goodnight to her friends and thanks them for freeing her of her nightmare. The film ends with Twilight, Spike, their friends, and Princess Celestia looking fondly at the full moon. ("A Little Light of Love")

 

Theaters: 3,045

MPAA Rating: G

Budget: $15 million

Previous Films Gross: (OW/DOM/WW)

Return of Queen Chrysalis: 16.2/51.4/83.5

Return of Queen Chrysalis, Part 2: 17.2/59.2/95.8

Rise of Nightmare Rarity: 18.0/42.8/70.5

Edited October 21, 2014 by Blankments

[Alpha]

The Lucky Winner Director: Ivan Reitman Composer: Alan Silvestri Genre: Comedy Date: July 26th Studio: Redlight Films Format: Live-action, 2D Budget: $15 million Theaters: 2,688 MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some language and smoking Running Time: 95 minutes Tagline: What If This Man Won $100,000 And A Trip To Las Vegas? Cast: Josh Gad as Leeroy Plot: A local pop radio station holds a contest for one lucky winner to win a trip to the Golden Speaker Festival, the world's largest music event in Las Vegas, along with $100,000, a ride in a private jet, a special makeover for the red carpet, a billboard with a picture of the winner, and a chance to meet the biggest stars of the festival. So it's a bit of a shock when 34 year-old manchild Leeroy wins the contest, and gets to travel to Las Vegas for the biggest moment of his life, even if he wasn't expecting it at all. Edited September 21, 2014 by Alpha

[CJohn]

Godzilla: Apocalypse Part 2
Genre: Action/Sci-Fi
Date: July 3
Theaters: 4,102
Format: 2D, 3D and IMAX 3D
Director: Francis Lawrence
Cast: Ewan McGregor - Doctor Nick Tatopoulos
Emily Blunt - Doctor Elsie Chapman
Marion Cotillard - Monique Dupre
Terrence Howard - Randy Hernandez
Jeff Daniels - Doctor Mendel Craven
David Morrissey - Dr Alexander Preloran
Rafe Spall - Dr Hans Sopler
Jason Clarke - Dr Ted Hoffman
Rating: PG-13 for sci-fi monster action/violence
Runtime: 98 minutes
Budget: 165M (300M both Part 1 and Part 2 together, they were filmed at the same time)

Nick and Craven are about to be attacked by Godzilla, when suddenly Randy and Monique show up and attack Cyber-Godzilla and Godzilla. The attack is enough to distract them from Nick and Craven, who invade Site Omega.

Nick and Craven are quickly captured by Hicks and his men. They are taken to Hans and Ted, who have begun to physically transform into Leviathan Aliens. The two hybrids reveal their plan to Nick and Craven. They are using the monsters to soften up mankind for the Leviathan invasion fleet.

We see the monsters attacking several main cities in the world. The army tries to destroy them but it is useless, because the monsters are too strong. The Giant Bat is in Paris and takes down the Eiffel Tower and King Cobra destroys The Arc de Triomphe. Cyber-Godzilla strikes Tokyo, burning half of the city and taking down the Rainbow Bridge. Crustaceous Rex breaks the Tower Bridge in half and attacks the Big Ben and The Queen Bee destroys the statue of Christ the Reedemer in Brazil. Cryptocleidus comes ashore in Hong Kong, causing a devastating tsunami, while El Gusano tunnels up in Moscow, showing up at the surface and taking down the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. Godzilla hits home, as it attacks the White House and the Washington Monument. We see lots of people running in fear, and getting crushed by the gigantic monsters.

While this happens, the aliens use a Tachyon sign and are live, revealing themselves and talking to everyone in every screen and TV of the planet. They say that there plan is coming to an end, and that the human race was going to be terminated.

Nick and Craven are shocked, both looking at what is happening around the world and what the aliens are saying. Nick says they must stop them, or Earth will soon have a new dominant species, and it won’t be the humans.

We see Elsie joining the Aliens as the final phase begins. A signal is sent to the Leviathan fleet. We see thousands of ships attacking Earth, the skies are the battle stage now, as the Air Force shows up and we see an epic fight for survival.

Monique and Randy sneak in Site Omega. Nick and Craven get taken to a prison, but Randy and Monique are able to save them from Hicks’s men and Elsie. Craven asks them how they escaped from Godzilla and Cyber-Godzilla.

Randy says the monsters just stopped attacking them and get away. Godzilla and Cyber-Godzilla were ordered to attack the city. Nick says they are now destroying several cities in the world and must be stopped or Earth doesn’t stand a chance.

The team runs away from Site Omega and go to the boat (they take Elsie with them). In there, Craven sets up a new Tachyon signal to disrupt the aliens’ hold on the monsters, and Monique uses hypnosis to free Elsie’s mind. As Elsie is now fine again, she asks for forgiveness to the team. Nick welcomes Elsie back to the team.

Released from the alien control, the monsters turn against their former masters. The Leviathan Aliens don’t like what they are seeing, but thanks to his advanced technology, they are able to take down the Queen Bee, El Gusano, Crustaceous Rex, King Cobra and Cryptocleidus. Not before some of them destroy some ships. But now the aliens don’t have the monsters to protect them so they are weak against the human troops and a war in the skies begins.

Godzilla is able to go to the sea, we see an Alien Ship attacking it as it enters in the water, and a massive explosion happens. The Giant Bat flies in direction of Site Omega and attacks it. Cyber-Godzilla is the only monster still in control of the Aliens, and they call it to Site Omega to protect them.

As The Giant Bat is attacking the place, Godzilla shows up. The two of them never finished their battle, so it is time now to see which one is the strongest. The monsters battle each other, until the moment Cyber-Godzilla arrives, as it attacks the Bat with the atomic breath, and kills it.

Crustaceous Rex also shows up after being attacked by the alien race earlier and attack Cyber-Godzilla. Godzilla grabs the beast and throws it to the sea. After that, the monster sets sigh on the Cyber version of himself and both run against each other.

Godzilla and his clone have an epic battle. Meanwhile, H.E.A.T. finds an alien ship and pilots it. Elsie takes control of it and blasts the main Tachyon generator at Site Omega. Godzilla and his clone continue the battle.

Godzilla is able to kill the monster and tear it apart in an epic, hard PG-13 moment. While this happen, we see shots of the war in the skies, and the HEAT team tries to find the aliens to not let them run away. They find them in the control panel of the main ship ready to give new orders of attack to the alien fleet.

The aliens were confident Cyber-Godzilla was going to destroy Godzilla, but that doesn’t happen. Nick and his team are able to take control of the ship by shooting against the aliens (not their vital parts, since they know Ted and Hans are still in there somewhere), and they use it to unable all the alien weapons

With their weapons destroyed and Cyber-Godzilla defeated, the Leviathan Aliens sound the retreat and flee back to space. Godzilla screams and shows is dominance by stepping over Cyber-Godzilla. After that, the creature goes back to the sea.

Hicks and his men regain control of their bodies, and Hans and Ted are normal again. Hicks thanks Nick and his team for what they have done, and leaves with Hans and Ted to a hospital.

H.E.A.T. members decide to follow their life and leave the job. They are not needed anymore. Godzilla won’t attack anyone unless it is attacked first. Monique returns to France with Randy. Craven stays with the army to study the alien technology, and Nick and Elsie end up together still searching for more paranormal events.

[CJohn]

The Cloud
Genre: Action/Sci-Fi
Date: August 9
Theaters: 3,805
Format: 2D, 3D and IMAX 3D
Director: Roland Emmerich
Cast: Bryan - Logan Marshall-Green

Jonathan – Idris Elba

Alexander – Jason Statham

Hugh – Miles Teller

John - Thomas Brodie-Sangster

Amanda - Amandla Stenberg

Joseph – Ray Stevenson

Kevin – Liam Neeson

Stephanie - Kristen Connolly

Eva - Kaya Scodelario

Chris – Alexander Ludwig

Jenifer – Regina Hall
Rating: PG-13 for sci-fi action violence, destruction and language
Runtime: 140 minutes
Budget: 170M

Tagline: “The day of our extinction is here” | “Survive the invasion”

 

The movie opens with a wide shot of the sky. Everyone is living their normal life. Going to work, going to school. We see a shot of the sky. And then it goes into the universe. We see a lot of ships approaching (LINK HERE). We see the aliens (LINK HERE). They look at Earth. They speak in their language. One of them says this planet is the next target. The other agrees. We see a shot of Earth. We see a ship dropping something to Earth. After it, the others do the same.

 

THE CLOUD

 

We see four friends. John, Hugh, Eva and Chris. We see Eva and Chris kissing. John and Hugh are talking about games. All are heading into college. We see a mother (Jenifer) leaving her kid (Amanda) at school. We see Jonathan in a meeting at his company. He receives a call from Jenifer. She tells him that it is his weekend with Amanda and that he must not forget that get her later at school. Jonathan just says that he won’t forget, with a sad look on his face.

 

We see the military. A man called Bryan is seated at the base, look at a picture of a woman (Stephanie). A sergeant (Kevin) calls some soldiers discretely. He tells them that they were warned that unusual activity was felt in a city nearby and they will send a team to investigate. Bryan is one of them. Alexander passes by him, and tells him that maybe they have finally found space ships, with a smile. Bryan gives a small smile and advances with him.

 

We see John and Hugh in a class. They are bored. Eva asks if she can go to the bathroom and the teacher (Jenifer) says yes. John and Hugh are talking games and movies. John says he played Mass Effect recently, and that he loved it. That there were awesome moments. Hugh answers that the games are indeed great, and that is insane to think something like that would happen in real life. Chris asks if he can go to the bathroom. Hugh and John look at him. Chris blinks an eye with a smile in his face. The teacher lets him go. We see Chris and Eva meeting in the hallway and kissing. John and Hugh continue to talk. The teacher asks one of them what is she talking about. None of them can’t answer. She sends them both out for being talking during the whole class. They are angry but can’t do anything. Since it was his last class they go to home.

 

We see the military reaching the point where the activity was detected. There are some things in the floor (LINK HERE). The people have already been told to stay away by the police and the place is full of scientists and stuff. Kevin approaches but he can’t touch them. They have a shield around them. The thing seems to be sucking something out of the land. Kevin receives a call. Bryan and Alexander approach the thing. Bryan says that it doesn’t seem to be from this world. Kevin approaches them saying that things like these have been seen all over Earth and nobody knows what they are.

 

John is seeing reaching home with Hugh. They sit, and go play a bit of FIFA. Jenifer is seen at the college dealing with some stuff. We see a picture of her, Jonathan and their daughter in her desk. We see Eva and Chris having some time together in a coffee near college. Chris says that he can’t wait to finish college and get a job. Eva smiles and asks why. Chris says that he wants to start a life with Eva. That they have been together for the last 6 years and that he knows she is the one. Eva has a big smile of happiness and hugs Chris. She says she also wants that.

 

Jonathan parks the car near the school, waiting for the classes to end to see her daughter. Meanwhile, the things in the floor change of color. The shield turns green. Kevin approaches while Alexander and Bryan look from the distance. A huge cloud starts to form above them. Kevin receives a message. That is happening all over the world where those things landed and that all of them are in big cities. We see some lightning. The cloud forms around most of the city.

 

John and Hugh drop the controllers and go to the window. They see the cloud forming around the city. Jenifer does the same. We see Jonathan getting Amanda while looking at the sky. Chris and Eva go outside of the coffee to see what is happening. Some huge ships start to show up. Kevin looks at the sky.

 

We see a wide shot of people at the windows, getting out of the cars, etc. The smaller ships start to get away while a bigger one appears. The ship starts to open. Kevin calls the air force to attack them. Alexander grabs a rocket launcher but the ships are too far away. Bryan says they have to run. Alexander looks at him for a second and agrees.

 

Jonathan calls his ex-wife and tells her they will get her.  Bryan gets into a car and Alexander follows him. Bryan tries to call her wife but she doesn’t pick up. A huge battle in the skies start but the air force is defeated. Jonathan looks at the battle, and after that at his daughter. A huge light shows up. The bigger ship releases a giant thing. Jonathan calls her ex-wife. She tells him to put their daughter safe and don’t worry about her.

 

An approach on Kevin’s face is done. The thing hits the floor and an apocalyptic explosion happens. Buildings start to fall, and a huge barrage of fire consumes the city. Jenifer sees it. She is crying and says Jonathan to tell her daughter that she loves her. Jonathan is also crying, and continues to drive away. Amanda is seen looking behind. Only fire is seen. We see the fire consuming the college while Jenifer sees. Chris covers Eva while the fire approaches and also consumes them.

 

John and Hugh run to the car of John’s dad. They drive away. The explosion continues to advance. We see Bryan and Alexander. Alexander is screaming holy shit. We see the city falling and being consumed by the flames. The fire seems to extend to the whole city. Bryan and Alexander stop the car from above a mountain and look at the destruction. They see the ships releasing some animals (LINK HERE) into the land to see if there are still humans.

 

Jonathan stops the car at an abandoned gas station. He looks and sees nobody. Amanda asks for mom. Jonathan looks at her. He tells her that she is not with them anymore, but that she is in a better place and that she loves her very much. Jonathan goes and grabs some food. Bryan hears someone behind them and points the guns. Hugh and John are behind them asking for help with tears in their eyes. Bryan and Alexander drop the guns and go to the boys.

 

Jonathan is seen in the gas station grabbing some food. Someone shows up behind him with a gun. The man tells Jonathan to leave the food. Jonathan says he has a daughter. The man says he doesn’t care. We hear a voice. Bryan shows up behind and tell the man to quietly drop the gun and leave. He does that. Jonathan thanks him. Alexander is with Amanda and the boys outside. They bring a lot of fun. Alexander and the boys go inside to bring more. Jonathan talks to Bryan and tells him his story with some tears in the eyes. Bryan hugs Jonathan.

 

While the kids put the food in the military’s car, Amanda is also already there. Suddenly they hear a noise. Alexander looks behind and drops the food. They see one of the creatures that the aliens dropped on Earth. The beast attacks. Alexander grabs the gun and shoots it. Bryan gives Jonathan a gun. The boys get into the car and cover Amanda’s eyes. Bryan tells Alexander to get the creature closer to the gas. Alexander shoots the creature while Jonathan and Bryan go to the back of the car.

 

Jonathan asks Bryan what he is doing. Bryan pulls a rocket launcher out of the car. I am killing that thing, he says. Alexander screams. Bryan shoots the rocket. We see Alexander getting behind the walls. The beast looks while the rocket hits the gas and causes a big explosion. After that, everyone looks and sees the creature dead. But the explosion called the attention of other creatures.

 

They all go aboard the military’s car. Jonathan asks Bryan if they can go back to the college in the city because his wife was there. Bryan looks at a Jonathan for a bit and ends up saying yes. Alexander tells Bryan to go out of the car and tells him that they can’t go back. Bryan tells him that if it was him he would go and look for his wife, and that he will help Jonathan. Alexander ends up saying he will go with them.

 

They arrive at the college. Bryan tells Alexander to stay with the kids. Bryan goes with Jonathan into the college. Meanwhile, the boys look at the coffee and decided to check it out. Alexander sees them going out of the car and follows them, and tells Amanda to stay in the car.

 

Jonathan and Bryan go very slowly into the college. Jonathan reaches his wife in a classroom. She is dead. A part of body his burned. Jonathan goes to his knees. He grabs her hand. A ear is seen in his eye. Bryan puts his hand on Jonathan’s shoulder. He says they need to go. A weird noise is heard. One of the wolf-like alien shows up.

 

Bryan and Jonathan start to run while they shoot against the creature. The creature is fast. Jonathan and Bryan get into a room and close the door. They put a table and some chairs at the door to be able to lock the alien outside. Alexander hears the noise. The boys are looking at the coffee. A person rises from the ashes. It is Chris, but his eyes are red. The boys look in shock. An alien shows up behind them. He is using Chris to communicate.

 

Chris says the aliens are here to exterminate the human race. They need this planet to survive. Alexander looks back and shoots the alien. There is a shield around him. He moves very fast and attacks Alexander. The boys look while Chris approaches. The hand starts to change into a alien hand. The boys look. Chris attacks Hugh, and John very fast takes a gun from his back. He points it at Chris. Chris says he would never be capable of shooting against him. John says he isn’t Chris and shoots.

 

Meanwhile, the alien continues his attack. Alexander can’t see him. John and Hugh go and help Alexander. John shoots his gun and hits the alien from the back. The beast falls and Alexander kills it. They now go to the rescue of Bryan and Jonathan. Alexander tells John and Hugh to protect Amanda. The boys stay.

 

Alexander takes the rocket launcher. The beast is very close to open the door. Jonathan and Bryan both have their weapons pointed at the door. Jonathan says that if they die, it was an honor to meet Bryan. Bryan says the same. When the beast finally destroys the door, a scream is heard from Alexander saying Bryan to hide. Alexander shoots the rocket launcher and kills the alien. Bryan thanks Alexander and they go back to the car.

 

Bryan tells Alexander that there is a base in the desert and that maybe there they know something more about the aliens and they can also protect them. They go there. We see an alien seeing what happens. The creatures are like cameras and the aliens can see through them. Our characters drive to the desert. We see them reaching a fencing.

 

Bryan and Alexander show their identifications and they let them enter. When they reach inside, they meet Joseph, the man in charge. The boys and Amanda are analyzed by the doctors. Meanwhile, Bryan and Alexander talk to Joseph. Jonathan also wants to hear and goes to them. Joseph says the aliens decimated all the big cities in the world and that killed more than half of the WW population.

 

Jonathan looks in shock while hearing that. Bryan asks where other survivors are. Joseph points a room. Bryan goes there. Jonathan goes to his daughter and the boys. Alexander keeps talking to Joseph. He says that they were attacked by some wolf-type creatures. Joseph says they are like the dog version of the aliens, only much worse.

 

Alexander says he and Bryan killed one. Joseph says that the aliens want to colonize Earth because it has the necessary elements for them to live in. He says that there are lots of reports of aliens dropping from their ships and starting to terraforming Earth. He also says they dropped closer to water, and we were seen reuniting lots of it.

 

Bryan looks and the survivors and sees Stephanie. He reunites with her while we see tears in the eyes of both of them. Bryan says he thought he would never see her again. Stephanie says she remembered he talked about this base and she decided to go to it, because there was a chance he would be there. They kiss and hug. Jonathan arrives from behind. He says Joseph told him that there would be an emergency meeting. Jonathan also asks Stephanie if she can take care of her child because he wants to assist the meeting. She agrees. The boys also stay with her. Bryan hugs Stephanie again and leaves with Jonathan. We see the creatures looking at the base from far.

 

Joseph reunites with the 3 main characters plus some other soldiers. They say that the aliens destroyed half of Earth but that there are still lots of bases untouched and the military is reuniting the heavy weaponry. They also say some ships have fallen in the battle in the city (earlier in the movie), so they are not indestructible. Bryan agrees on a huge WW assault. Joseph says they will attack in 24 hours.

 

Suddenly, a huge noise is heard. The ships are above the base. We see the creatures attacking at the gates. But, for some reason, they get away. Bryan and the rest get outside and look at the sky. A huge machine is seen being dropped. When it hits the floor it connects. The machine starts to create earthquakes. Joseph gives an order to fight. Alexander goes into a place while Bryan and Jonathan grab some guns. John and Hugh also show up and say they want to fight. Bryan looks hesitant at first but he ends up giving guns to the boys.

 

The machine starts to open holes in the floor. Joseph grabs a rocket launcher and shoots against hit, destroying it. A huge battle happens in the skies. Alexander is seen destroying a ship. The wolf type of alien creatures approach and we see the boys and Bryan trying to stop them. The mother ship that was over the city earlier shows up.

 

Alexander looks at it. The mother ship seems to be ready to do what they did in the city. Suddenly, Alexander points his plane to the opening and ejects himself. Bryan looks and screams thinking his friend was inside it. A wolf creature attacks one of the boys. Jonathan protects him by shooting against it. Hugh thanks him. We see Stephanie inside hugging Amanda.

 

The plane goes inside the ship. It also had a few grenades inside left by Alexander. The plane gets in and makes the ship explode. The explosion hits the closer ships and they all start to fall. Joseph and Bryan call everyone to inside the base. We see fragments of ships hitting the wolf creatures. We see Alexander from distance dropping in a parachute. Bryan looks and screams. The ships continue to fall and Alexander barely escapes. He finally gets to the floor and drops the parachute. We see a wolf creature running behind him. A shot is heard and the creature falls. We see Joseph with a sniper. Alexander is finally able to get to the base. They close the doors.

 

A few hours pass until Bryan and Alexander decide to see what happen. We see the ships destroyed and the wolf creatures dead. They trying to go to the roof and see that no ship is above the city. A team is sent to the city to see if everyone survived and what can be saved from it. Joseph calls other bases. He says that their city is saved. They were able to shoot down the aliens. The news are met with some happiness and the news start to spread.

 

Bryan goes to her wife. There is a smile on his face. Hope is back. Jonathan also hugs her daughter. John and Hugh are happy and they say they will try to find their parents since both of them had their parents out of the city when it was attacked. Alexander tells them to be calm and that they all will do that together. We see Bryan looking at the sun. A new day is starting. His voice is heard saying that a battle had been won, but the war was far from over. And that humanity would rise again and reclaim Earth.

 

END

[ChD]

TRAIN TO PARADISE

 

Director: Alfonso Cuaron

Composer: Jóhann Jóhannsson

Cinematographer: Roger Deakins

Genre: Drama

Date: August 30

Studio: Emerald Pictures

Budget: $5 million

Theaters: 2,674

MPAA Rating: R

Running Time: 99 minutes

Cast: Saoirse Ronan as Lily, Kevin Bacon as Father, Patricia Clarkson as Mother

Plot:

 

The start will feature Lily Porter, aged eighteen and a half, hair dark and cut short, getting off a bus in the middle of Montreal with a gym bag in her hand. The sun is setting, and it’s snowing heavily, and the clothes she is wearing aren’t really protecting her from the cold. She starts walking towards Montreal’s train station, where she is supposed to catch a train to Moncton.

 

She reaches the train station and takes a seat, having to wait a little bit until the train she needed to catch arrived. A voice over starts and we find out that she had run away from home, intending to put distance between her life and the people in it, and start anew. She knows there’s no turning back, and she was going to take the next step without looking back. She would catch a train, a train to paradise.

 

She gets on the train and sits down in a cart that is pretty empty. The train starts moving shortly after, leaving the city. The view of the sun setting through the dense snow that is falling down is breath taking, and Lily is taking it all in.

 

We flash back to an earlier memory of Lily’s. She is watching the sunset with her father and her pregnant mother. Through voice over, we find out that back then, everyone was different. Her mother was caring and loving, and so was her father. We find out that this is her fondest memory from when she was young because it was the only time the whole family sat next to each other in silence without hating each other.

 

We cut back to see that the sun had set and that it was extremely dark outside. The lights placed above the tables are on, dimly illuminating the cart. We see that the few people that are in the cart, are asleep, and we hear Lily say that she cannot sleep because of the fear and excitement of doing what she was doing.

 

The voice over continues with Lily saying she can’t believe how much they changed since then, how from a loving family they ended up hating each other. She says that soon afterwards, her mother gave birth to her little sister, Alice. Everything changed after that. It started with the fact that there was no money. She says her father always yelled at her mother, and when she went to investigate, he would yell at her go to away. She still could hear what they said, and she still knew what problems her mother had.

 

She still says she couldn’t believe it until she came home early one day, catching her mother injecting heroine. She said her mother didn’t even flinch at the sight of her, but just looked at her and then back at the needle as it slowly went into her arm. The thing that scared her the most, though, was the fact that her little sister was just a few feet away, sitting on the ground, playing with her toys.

 

She says that she didn’t know what happened at first. Her mother injected that and then closed her eyes and just stopped moving.

She thought she was dead, so in a moment of panic, she called her father. He didn’t say a word in the phone, and just hung up after she told him everything. She took Alice in her room and soon after the front door slammed open. Her father entered, cursing, calling her mother a whore and a junkie. Lily ran out to see him going towards her mother angrily, so she just jumped in front of him, telling him to stop, but in a moment of rage, he slapped her so hard that he threw her on the ground. Lily mentions that he stopped and looked at her, and in retrospect, she could see that the look on his face told her that this was only the beginning. It was like she wasn’t out of reach anymore. He turned towards her mother. Her face in tears, she looked up at her father shaking her mother, cursing her, while she cried and told him to stop. After she didn’t stop crying, her father turned at her and told her to shut the fuck up and go in her room.

 

Lily then says that from there it was all downhill. With her father having realized she wasn’t out of reach anymore, she got beaten more and more. She says it wasn’t just a few times that she had purple eyes and she missed school because she was afraid to show herself like that. He didn’t care about school, just about everyone respecting him. She had to take care of her sister too, now. Alice was now sleeping Lily’s room, not leaving it during the days, at the order of Lily.

 

Lily says that the only support came from her sister. After getting beaten by her father, she would just retire to her room and cry in the corner, and her sister would always cuddle next to her, hug her, and tell her she loved her. She says that this went on for as long as she remembers.

 

She says that by the time she started high school, she had stopped caring about anything. She just went to school to be away from home, but that was it. She didn’t show any interest in it. Soon enough, depression took over her and she fell victim to the same problems her mother did: drugs. She didn’t have the money to buy it, but there were friends of her who told her to do it a few times or so, telling her she would relax and feel like the happiest person in the world, a feeling Lily would want to experience.

 

She says she got addicted for it, and that she started transporting drugs from one place to the other for a little bit of money so she could buy herself drugs. Still, she never took drugs when her sister was around. She cared for her a lot.

 

She was called to the school principal many times, her parents failing to show up every time. She was asked about her grades and stuff like that, but she just said she didn’t care. She managed to go through high school by studying at the end of each semester so she could get passing grades.

 

This went on until she got the eleventh grade. She bought some heroin which she wanted to share with her friend. They went underneath a bridge where her friend started preparing it. Lily injected it first, followed by her friend. Her friend overdoses and dies next to Lily. She panics and doesn’t know what do, so she runs away from the place. She finds out a couple of days later that her friend’s body had been found, and that if someone would’ve been there to call the ambulance, she possibly would’ve made it.

 

Lily says that this was the beginning of the new beginning. She realized that the world around her was falling apart, that her life was falling apart, so she decided to start anew. She starts working all kind of jobs, some of them still having her transport drugs, to start getting money. She still took care of her sister and still got beaten up by her father when she arrived late at home and refused to tell him where she was. She was hiding the money underneath the front porch, because he knew that if her father found it, he would take it.

 

The year passed and she managed to finish high school before leaving. She said that she got up in the middle of the night and snuck out of the house, bags packed and everything. She says that she had actually left her sister behind, the only person who supported her through the hardest moments of her life. She knew she couldn’t take her with her because she didn’t have the money. She spent the night in the bus station, and as soon as the sun rose, she set moving towards a local barber shop, where she cut her hair short and dyed it black.

 

We see that after she left home and arrived in Montreal, she called child protection and told them the address where she lived. She then set off to grab her bus and start a new life. She said she was planning on returning to her sister one day, thank her for everything she had done for her, but that day had to wait for now.

 

By the time she left, she had gathered three thousand dollars, money that she spent on changing her appearance, travel and accommodations once she got to Summerside. She managed to find a few job openings on the computer at the local library.

 

The last scene depicts her saying it was good thinking of her to bring along a book, since the train ride could be pretty boring. She takes out The Great Gatsby; a book she was supposed to read in high school but never did, saying that it was the only one she remembered because of its cover: the face of a crying woman.

Edited September 3, 2014 by ChD

[rukaio101]

Death Note: Eyes of a God  

Director: David Fincher Genre: Thriller/Detective/Supernatural Date: July 19th Cast: Zac Efron (Liam 'Light' Bailey), Ezra Miller (L), Peter Stormare (voice of Ryuk), Gary Oldman (Detective Steven Bailey), Jessica Chastain (Wendy), John Hurt (Watari), Hayden Christensen (Detective Matthews), Ming Na-Wen (Detective Asawa), Charles Halford (Detective Milston),Molly Quinn (Sarah Bailey), Brie Larson (Mia Amane), Judi Dench (voice of Rem)

 

Plot: 

We begin with Light in his room going over everything he has done in the last few days to kill the Mi6 agents send to find Kira and making sure there are no holes for L to find. Light comments to himself that it would be a lot easier if he had some way of accessing L’s real name. Ryuk tells him that there may just be a method to do that. Ryuk asks Light if he knows how Death Gods, like him, live so long. Light points out that, obviously, he doesn’t. Ryuk explains that Death Gods look down upon the human world and choose humans to target depending on how long they have left to live. Then, they write that human’s name down in the Death Note. The Death God then receives the rest of that human’s remaining lifespan. Obviously, it doesn’t work for humans though. Light is intrigued by this story but asks what this has to do with his situation. Ryuk asks how he thinks a Death God finds out the name and remaining lifespan of the humans they target. Light figures that it must be an innate power. Ryuk tells him he’s correct. Specifically, it’s the eyes. A Death God’s eyes can tell the name and remaining lifespan of anyone whose face they see. Light points out that Ryuk claimed he would be neutral in this conflict, not supporting him or L unless it suited him. Ryuk nods but explains that there is a way for a Death God to give a human that same power, the Eyes of a God. But only if that human agrees to trade away half his remaining lifespan. Light thinks about this offer for a short while before refusing it. He already has plenty he still needs to do to turn the world into a utopia and intends on staying around long enough to reap the rewards. However, he might have considered the deal if he received Ryuk’s wings instead. Ryuk asks why. Light lays back on his bed and comments that there’s something God-like about being able to fly and swoop wherever you please, raining vengeance down from the heavens. Ryuk looks at the Death Note, crammed with names, and chuckle that Light already makes a fine God. Or at least a God of Death.

 

Death Note: Eyes of a God

 

We cut to outside the hotel where the five remaining detectives on the Kira Task Force are preparing to meet L. Detective Bailey raises his hand to knock but, before he can, a voice from inside tells him to enter. He cautiously opens the door to reveal a small hallway leading to a deluxe furnished but mostly empty hotel room. L walks into view and the detectives gasp in surprise. He’s not how they pictured him at all. L is young, skinny, dressed in a plain white top and jeans. He’s slightly hunched over and is completely barefoot. His hair is uncombed, there are heavy, noticeable bags under his eyes and his skin is very pale. However, there is a strange dignity to him and he doesn’t look at all surprised or shy at seeing them. He asks them their names. They all show him their ID and introduce themselves. As well as Detectives Bailey and Matthews, there are Detective Milston, Kitan and Asawa. L looks at them in quiet for a few seconds, his face betraying no emotion, before raising his finger like a gun and saying ‘Bang’. L tells the detectives that if he was Kira, they would all likely be dead by now. If they are to pursue Kira then they must be a lot less eager to give out their names to anybody. He then motions for them to follow him to a meeting table where he sits in an odd crouching position. (Note: Miller’s performance is quite physical with L moving/sitting/holding objects in odd but strangely natural ways with absolutely no notice of how other people react to him.) Before the detectives sit down, L asks them to switch their mobiles off and place them on the table. Asawa asks if he’s worried about someone using them to eavesdrop. L states that he actually just hates it when people’s phones go off while he’s talking. He also requests that the detectives refer to him as ‘Detective Rathbone’ from now on, to help preserve his identity. (The detectives have mixed results remembering to do this. (Especially Matthews))

 

The detectives, slightly bemused at all of this, sit down and Matthews tells everyone he’s had an idea for dealing with the Kira case. Since Kira needs a name and a face to kill a criminal, simply withhold the names and faces of all criminals from the press. L states that that would just lead Kira to kill innocent people. Bailey asks L to explain his reasoning. L tells the group that Kira is childish and doesn’t like to lose pointing out that after L confronted him on TV and revealed his location to be New York, Kira started deliberately concentrating his killings around that area as a cocky challenge of his own. If they tried to withhold criminals from him then he’d kill people like police commissioners or politicians as a way to show what will happen to those who oppose him. Bailey asks how he can be so sure. L explains that he’s certain Kira would do that because it’s also what he would do. And he’s equally childish and hates to lose. However, while Matthews’s idea is flawed, L likes the idea of using the media to their advantage. He suggests claiming that the EU, outraged over the death of the Mi6 agents, have agreed to send a task force of over 1500 agents to New York to hunt Kira. Kira would feel trapped and threatened, see enemies around every corner but, since said agents don’t actually exist, he can’t do anything to them. The detectives are enthusiastic about this plan. Bailey notes that earlier L states that he hates to lose. But surely being forced to show his face is an indicator that he lost to Kira. L admits this is true. But he’ll win in the end. Especially since this is the first time he’s truly staking his life on a contest. L tells them all that he already has an idea as to their next move but first he needs to interview them all in private to make sure none of them are Kira. In particular, he needs to talk to Detective Bailey…

 

Back at his house, Light receives a phone call from his father asking if he can drop off a spare change of clothes at the police station since he’ll be working overnight for the next few days. Light notes that his father sounds oddly stressed for some reason. George writes it off as him being tired from working on the Kira investigation. Light accepts this but is still slightly suspicious. After hanging up, Detective Bailey turns to L and tells him everything is ready and that he’d ‘better be right’. We see Light hiding the Death Note in a very secure location and placing a small slit of paper in the doorframe (in a way so it would fall out if the door was opened) before exiting the house. As he leaves, we see Detective Milston and an unidentified elderly man and woman watching him in an unmarked van. In the back of the van is an old man with a lot of unidentified electrical equipment.

 

We flash back to L introducing the man and woman to the detectives. The man is actually Watari, willing to reveal his face since L is confident none of them are Kira. The woman introduces herself as ‘Wendy’, an associate of L’s who will assist them in the investigation. L explains that with Wendy’s help, L was able to make a major breakthrough involving the Mi6 agents. While the order of death and the order in which they received the file with their names and faces (which Kira likely used to kill them) seemed random, one agent drew his attention. On the day of the murder, Ray Penber got on a subway train and travelled for an hour and a half on a loop that only took one hour to complete. In addition, according to CCTV footage, Ray entered the subway carrying a manila envelope. However, when he died, he had no such envelope on him and nothing was found on the train either. L believes Ray was used by Kira to kill the other agents and thus it’s possible Kira could’ve been one of the people Ray was following (although L states it’s only about 5%). Matthews asks who it was Ray was following. L explains that, since arriving in New York, Ray followed two different families. L wishes to place hidden surveillance cameras and bugs in the houses of both families. The detectives (minus Bailey) immediately object to this pointing out that it’s illegal and that they could lose their jobs. Wendy points out that they’re supposed to be willing to risk their lives to catch Kira and it seems odd they’re testy about their jobs. Kitan points out that L himself said there was only about 5% chance of Kira being one of the family members. Bailey finally speaks up, saying that even if there was only a 1% chance, it’s better than anything else they have and they should go through with it. Asawa is angry that Bailey would so willingly agree to let someone’s human rights be violated like that. Bailey is clearly repressing anger at this statement and L reveals to the other detectives that Bailey’s family was one of the two Ray Penber was investigating and that Bailey has already agreed to let his family be placed under surveillance.

 

This last scene is interspersed with shots of Light returning home and being watched by multiple hidden cameras. Light pauses a second before opening his bedroom door and seeing the small slit of paper drop down from where he left it. Ryuk tells Light that he’s hungry and asks if he can have an apple. Light doesn’t answer him and doesn’t register his presence. Ryuk, slightly annoyed by this, keeps badgering Light until the latter gets up, grabs his coat from his wardrobe, dusts it off and leaves the house, placing the slit of paper back in the door. From the screen showing the security camera footage, Detective Bailey states it’s odd that Light would lay traps to see if anyone has entered his room. L claims its normal teenage behaviour and that he’s done it himself for seemingly no reason. Outside, Light is still being badgered by Ryuk until Light eventually sits down on a bench and states that ‘he’s confident this coat has no bugs on it’. Ryuk is confused. Light explains that he believes someone has been in his room and planted bugs or cameras. Ryuk points out that the bit of paper was still in the doorframe. Light explains that the paper was a decoy and that he secretly hid a piece of pencil lead in one of the hinges, designed to snap if someone opens it. And the lead had been snapped when he returned home. Ryuk asks how he knows it wasn’t his mother or sister. Light explains that his mother or sister wouldn’t have bothered putting the slit of paper back. Ryuk chuckles that L must be closing in. However, his mood swiftly turns when Light points out that he’ll be unable to eat apples while he’s in the house because of the cameras. Ryuk freaks out at this, explaining that apples to a Death God are rather like heroin to humans. Light tells him that if Ryuk searches the house and finds the hidden cameras then perhaps Light can find a blind spot for him to eat apples in. Ryuk is initially unwilling, wanting to remain neutral in the duel between Light and L but very quickly breaks down out of ‘apple withdrawal’ and agrees to go and search. He asks what Light is going to do in the meantime. Light states he had already considered the possibility his house would one day be bugged and has a plan to deal with it.

 

We cut to Light arriving home a few hours later, carrying what looks like normal groceries. Ryuk greets him at the door and tells him he was right. There are hidden cameras and bugs all over the house. Ryuk tells him the location of each one as he’s putting the groceries away. The camera in particular zooms in on a packet of potato chips which make an odd clunk as he puts them in the cupboard. We cut to him having dinner with his sister and mother while watching a detective show on TV. L and Detective Bailey are watching on the security cameras. Light’s already worked out the killer and spoils it and the murder method much to Sarah’s annoyance. Light suggests switching to the news but Sarah insists on watching. L tells Watari to run ‘it’. A breaking news headline runs across the bottom of the TV giving the news about the supposed 1500 investigators coming to New York. Light, figuring this is a test and that L is watching, calls the idea stupid, pointing out that it’d be safer to let the investigators work in secret rather than announce their existence to everyone. Light figures it probably isn’t even true and the police are merely doing it to put pressure on Kira. L smiles at this and tells Detective Bailey that Light is very intelligent.

 

Light gets up and tells his family he’s going to his room to study. He grabs a bag of potato chips as he leaves, claiming they’re for a late night snack. He opens the bag, places it in front of him and begins studying, only stopping occasionally to pull a potato chip from the bag and eat it. L is watching him intently when suddenly Detective Bailey receives a phone call. He tells L that a suspected burglar just dropped dead of a heart attack. His case was only just reported on the news that night. Shortly after, Watari receives a phone call stating a gangbanger has also died. We cut back to Light’s room and see that Light has hidden a portable TV in the packet of chips, along with a pencil nub and a scrap of the Death Note which he is writing names he sees into. Since Light’s back is covering the contents of the bag to the cameras, L is unable to see what Light is doing. Light finishes his studying and dumps the half-full bag of potato chips into the bin. Light’s mother enters and empties the contents of his bin for garbage collection. Ryuk admits he’s impressed with Light’s plans and how he’s willing to spare no expense on his plans, pointing out how expensive that portable TV (which is about to be crushed) was. Light doesn’t comment.

 

One week later, L gathers the detectives and tells them that after carefully checking the surveillance tapes, suspicious behaviour was discovered in no-one and that the cameras will be removed. The detectives are disappointed that all their efforts were for naught and Bailey tells them they’ll just have to go back to Stage One. L interrupts telling them that he only said he didn’t spot any suspicious behaviour, not that they were definitely innocent. It just means they’re good enough not to get spotted doing anything on camera. Bailey asks how they’re going to proceed. L states he’s going to need some time to think it over and suggests the detectives build profiles on all the possible suspects. After the detectives leave, Wendy confronts L stating that compared to the L she knows (who wouldn’t hesitate in forming a new plan), he seems slightly shaken up. L admits that Kira frightens him. Not because of his killing powers, or that he’s managed to find a way to avoid being caught on camera. But because any normal person would show some change in expression or behaviour while killing someone. Yet Kira has reached the level where he can murder people without batting an eye or showing any visible sign of it. L almost wants to wish that Kira doesn’t actually exist and that this is genuinely divine judgement. Wendy points out that, if this was divine judgement, there was no reason for the Mi6 agents to be killed. L agrees that it’s ridiculous for a god to need someone’s name and face to kill someone and that Kira is no more than a murderer. Wendy asks if he knows what his next move is yet. L simply smiles.

 

The next day, Light returns home and Ryuk tells him that the cameras have been removed. Light smiles smugly and tosses Ryuk an apple. The next day is the day of the entrance exams for the university Light is aiming to enter. He arrives at the university just at the right time and obviously finds the test very easy. However, partway through the test, one of the moderators tells an entrant sitting behind Light to ‘sit properly’. Light turns and sees L, in person, watching him intently.

 

We cut to several weeks later at the University Entrance Ceremony where, as the joint top-scoring student that year, Light is one of two students due to give a speech. The other student is L who is going by the pseudonym ‘Troy Bolton’, also the name of a famous in-universe movie star. L naturally gets a lot of odd looks from the student body both his odd demeanour and his choice of clothes for the Entrance Ceremony (his regular shirt and jeans as well as a pair of sneakers without socks). He reads his speech incredibly blandly and without emotion. As Light and L are walking back to their seats, L whispers that he knows Light’s father is leading the Kira investigation and asks to meet up with Light in a cafe to discuss some important information related to the Kira case. Light thinks L is a bit of a nutjob but agrees anyway out of curiosity about how L learned about his father and what the ‘important information’ is.

 

Light and L arrive at the cafe and sit near the back where they won't be overheard. L brings a chessboard and offers to play Light. Light agrees and, while setting up the chessboard, asks what the important information was. L casually tells Light 'I'm L'. The rest of the scene switches between Light and L's inner consciousness (where both show their inner thoughts and emotions) and their outer appearance/poker face as they talk and play chess. After a moment of internal disbelief, Light growingly realizes that, if this is true, L has seriously outmaneuvered him. By approaching him directly and revealing his identity, L has made himself nearly untouchable. Obviously, the 'Troy Bolton' alias is false but if Light were to test it there's a chance the movie star's face might appear in his head and cause Light to accidentally kill him and incriminate itself. But, beyond that, if L were to die in suspicious circumstances, no matter how he did it Light would be the one suspected since L just revealed his face and identity to him. Light is internally furious at being so embarrassing cornered. However, on the outside, he remains calm and states that, if he's telling the truth, L has his full respect. L states that he approached Light believing he could be of help to the Kira investigation. Internally, L states that out of all the suspects monitored, Light's behaviour was 'too perfect'. In addition, Light's proven intelligence makes him the most likely to have found some way past the security cameras.

 

L states that before Light can join the Kira investigation further L wants to test Light's deductive ability using some evidence related to the Kira case (while they continue playing chess on the side). Light realises that L is planning on using his momentary instability after the unexpected reveal to try and trip him up into incriminating himself. Light internally calms himself and smugly tells L to try his worst (obviously sounding a lot more sincere in the real world). L passes him a list of the Mi6 agents killed and both the order they died and the order they received the file. Light chuckles and internally states he won't fall for something so obvious. He immediately asks what this 'file' mentioned is as he wouldn't be expected to have any knowledge of it. L pretends to have absentmindedly forgotten and explains that the file contained the names and faces of each FBI agent. Next L passes Light photos of the three notes he received from Kira in the first film. Light notes that there are print numbers on the back. Light points out L that by taking the first word from each line, a message can be found. He points out the print numbers on the back but notes that the message spelt out in that order doesn't make any sense (L do you know love apples Gods of Death) and points out the more sensible order. L congratulates but tells him he's wrong to Light's surprise. In fact, there's a fourth note which states 'Have Red Hands' in code. Light is internally confused and angered by this and, in real life, points out that the message still makes no sense. L states that it may make perfect sense to Kira and internally notes that Light is getting angry. Light realizes that this is all merely a ruse by L to get him to trip up since Kira's the only one (outside of L himself) who should know that the fourth note is a fake. Instead, Light calms down and admits he just didn't think of that. L internally notes that Light not only didn't think of it but also seemed to have completely eliminated the possibility of it from his mind. L increases the percentage he suspects Light and notes the latter is going to be much more defensive and on the lookout for tricks. He asks Light how, if he came face to face with someone he suspected to be Kira, he would try to determine who he was. Light answers that he'd try and make them say things that hadn't been reported in the news that only Kira could know. Just like L is doing now.

 

L smiles at this, stating Light is the first person he’s asked that question to who answered it with some modicum of common sense. He admits that he does have reason to suspect Light. However, as this reason is incredibly small, it’s of more value to him to acquire Light’s help instead. He tells Light he has all he needs and suggests they concentrate on their chess game. Light is internally confused why L would suddenly alleviate the pressure on him and wonders whether there's an ulterior motive to the chess game and if L intends to profile him through it. L internally comments that it's just a chess game but that Kira hates to lose. Light also realises this and momentarily wonders if going for the win would incriminate him. However, aiming to win is natural for a human being and Light deliberately losing would be even more suspicious. Light reaffirms his belief that L couldn’t accurately profile him through a chess game and goes to take L’s queen. However, before Light can call checkmate, both his and L’s mobiles begin to ring. They both answer them only to be reported the exact same news (Light by his mother and L by Watari). Light’s father has just collapsed from a heart attack.

 

We cut to Diomedes Broadcasting Station (DBS) where their boss, Matthew Grade, is lamenting the low ratings of their recent Kira specials. He tells his employees that the regular coverage isn’t going to cut it anymore and they need something new and hard-hitting. He tells them to make up a poll claiming 50% of people support Kira and make something around that. While his staff are discussing ideas, an aide enters with a package for Grade. Grade opens the package and several tapes fall out along with a letter. Grade reads the letter and his frown slowly turns into a grin of joy as he states that if this letter is true their viewing figures will be astronomical.

 

We cut to the hospital where Detective Bailey was taken after his heart attack. Luckily, it was not fatal and the doctors managed to stabilise him. Light and L visit him in his bed and Bailey confirms L is who he says he is. L is surprised that Detective Bailey survived since every other Kira victim has died immediately. Bailey suspect it was more likely something natural brought on from overwork and stress from the last few days. Light states it is a bit of a coincidence that the head of the Kira investigation would suffer a heart attack and L states a murder attempt by Kira isn’t something they can rule out. However, Bailey is confident it was brought on by stress and that Kira wasn’t responsible. Light states that he’s wrong. Even if he wasn’t directly responsible, Kira still caused this situation and Light vows not to rest until Kira is brought to justice. Internally, L questions whether this is really an act noting that it’s ‘way too cheesy’. Light and L meet outside the hospital and Light asks if he can directly join the investigation. L states that it’s too risky as long as he’s a suspect. Light asks if there’s something he can to help clear himself, like be locked in a cell for a month with no outside contact. L notes that it would be ridiculous to accept such a proposition from the suspect himself but that he’ll think about it.

 

L arrives back at headquarters only for Wendy to suddenly phone him and tell him to turn the TV onto DBS immediately. The detectives do so to see that DBS are showing one of several tapes that they claim to be a message from Kira. They received the tapes several days ago along with a list of several criminals who died of heart attacks the next day as well as instructions to play the first tape at exactly 9:59pm. If they do not obey, they will be killed. They start the tape. Kira’s name comes up in the same font and with the same garbled voice as L used in the first film. Kira states that if the tape has been played at the correct moment, then the TV anchor of a rival channel, Jeremy Vine, who is currently live on air will die of a heart attack in 3…2…1… L switches the channel to see Jeremy Vine clutched over at his desk, obviously dying of a heart attack. He realizes that if the broadcast continues more people could die and orders them to try and stop the broadcast immediately. Asawa states the DBS aren’t letting any calls through. Kitan decides to go and stop the broadcast personally and drives off.

 

Back on the tape, Kira states that Vine was killed because he regularly criticized Kira on his show. He continues that he does not wish to hurt innocent people, is merely trying to create a perfect world where people can live happily and states that the police can either try and work with him to create that world or continue opposing him and face the punishment that will come. As he speaks, we see Kitan rushing to the scene and Bailey watching from his hospital bed with Samantha Bailey. Samantha switches off the TV telling him it’s not good for his heart. Bailey reminds her that he’s still the chief detective of the Kira Investigation and she grudgingly switches it back on. Meanwhile, Kitan has arrived at DBS’s broadcast station but is locked out by the guard who refuses to let anyone in. Kitan draws his gun and is about to bust in when he suddenly suffers a fatal heart attack and dies. L and the detectives are still watching from headquarters when one of the other news station reports that someone has collapsed in front of DBS’s broadcast station. Matthews recognizes it as Kitan and is about to go down himself when L stops him, stating that Kitan is already dead and if he goes down there it’s likely he’ll die as well. Asawa wonders if Kira has their real names and used them to kill Kitan. L points out that, if that were true, they’d all be dead already. At that moment, a police car arrives and two officers attempt to enter the station. They also die of heart attacks. L tells Watari to phone up the police commissioner and tell him not to let any more police cars go near the entrance.

 

L notes that it’s impossible for Kira to have gotten their names but if he could somehow kill them with their faces alone and had set up a security camera somewhere then he could kill them that way. Matthews states that’s just more of a reason to go down there and find some clues. L states that until they know exactly what Kira is doing, it’s too dangerous for anyone to go down there. We cut to Samantha entering Bailey’s hospital room only to find it empty. We cut to Detective Bailey, having commandeered a truck, smashing through the front entrance of DBS’s broadcast station. Keeping his jacket over his head, Bailey threatens the guards at gunpoint, gets to the broadcasting room and manages to commandeer the tapes, although tonight’s tape had already finished. He contacts L and asks what to do next. L asks Watari to contact the police commissioner again and tells Bailey to walk out the door in approximately 15 minutes. Bailey does so to find a sheer wall of police vehicles and SWAT members, all with concealing helmets, forming a tight barrier around the entrance so Bailey can walk out safely. The barrier is reported all over the news as a resounding ‘No’ to Kira’s demands and one reporter states that they’re doing the right thing and that this is how a country under the rule of law ought to respond before proudly stating his name at the end of the broadcast. We cut to Light watching the same broadcast. Ryuk chuckles and checks with Light that he wasn’t responsible for all that. Light confirms he wasn’t. A second Death Note has made its way into the human world and is in the hands of someone who not only supports Kira but has the Eyes of a Death God. Light states that while this ‘Second Kira’ would be a useful pawn, he’s dragging the real Kira’s name into the mud with his actions. In addition, it’s likely L will get quite desperate considering the circumstances.

 

We cut to L, having watched the tapes that Detective Bailey retrieved. L states there were two tapes depending on whether or not the police decided to co-operate with Kira. If ‘Yes’ more criminals are to be shown on the news and both L and top police officials are to appear on the news to make the announcement, giving Kira a chance to bump them off if they turn against him. If ‘No’ then, as punishment, Kira will take the life of the chief of police unless L shows himself. L is naturally unwilling to die especially, in his own words, ‘at the hand of an imposter’. Shocked, the detectives ask what L means by that. L explains that, on watching the videos he came to the conclusion it was highly likely they were dealing with a fake or, to be exact, a Second Kira. He notes that quality of the tapes were incredibly amateurish and that the criminals that were killed to prove the tape’s authenticity to DBS were killed for incredibly minor crimes compared to Kira’s usual kills. L theorizes that the Second Kira chose these victims so the real Kira wouldn’t kill them by accident in the waiting period. L is very confident that this is a different Kira they’re dealing with. In addition, the original Kira is going to be forced to move by the actions of the fake and that this is the perfect opportunity to trap the both of them. L requests Bailey’s permission to have Light join them on the investigation, stating his deductive abilities could be invaluable.

 

Later that day, we see Light entering the investigation headquarters having been called down by his father for an unknown purpose. L greets him and states he called Light down to see if he would be willing to help the Kira investigation. Internally L states that by keeping Light close he’ll be able to keep a close eye on him and watch to see if he’ll slip up and reveal himself. Light smiles and states he’d be happy to help internally planning on working behind the investigation’s back to find L’s real name. The two shake hands while internally commenting that to win you must keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

 

We cut to the Second Kira, a young fashionably dressed woman walking down the street, accompanied by her own Death God, Rem. Rem states that the woman, Mia, is playing a dangerous game. Mia states it’s worth it if she gets to meet Kira. Besides, if push comes to shove, she has the eyes so she’s stronger. She wonders what kind of a person Kira is and whether she’ll choose to save him or smite him.

 

To be continued in Death Note: A New Player

 

Theaters: 3912

MPAA Rating: PG 13 Budget: $23 million

Previous Film Gross:

Death Note: The Game Begins:   $46,658,231 million/$137,200,179 million/$350,895,598 million  

Edited September 22, 2014 by Rukaio Alter

[rukaio101]

Note: I had Robin Williams cast in his role before his untimely death (RIP). I'm willing to switch it if people complain though.

 

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney- Part 2

 

Director: Paul McGuigan

Genre: Courtroom Drama/Mystery

Date: August 23rd

Cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Phoenix Wright), Benedict Cumberbatch (Miles Edgeworth), Michael Shannon (Manfred von Karma), Mira Opie (made-up) (Maya Fey), Jason Segal (Dick Gumshoe), Neil Patrick Harris (Larry Butz), Bill Nighy (The Judge), Hayley Atwell (Mia Fey), Judy Reyes (Lotta Hart), Robin Williams (Uncle)

 

Plot: To be completed...

 

Theaters: 3494

MPAA Rating: PG 13

Budget: $12m

[rukaio101]

Tick Tock

 

Director: Vin Viccio (Made-up)

Genre: Horror

Date: September 13th

Cast: Matt Damon (Daniel Kant), Matthew Gray Gubler (Richard Kant), David Bradley (Mr Clove). Emily VanCamp (Olivia Brand), rest unknowns

 

Plot: 

We begin with the sound of a clock ticking over a black background. The sound gets louder and louder until suddenly we hear something smash. We cut to a 11 year old Daniel Kant waking with a start in his bed in the middle of the night. He switches on his light to find that he’s accidentally knocked over his alarm clock which has smashed. He makes his way down the hall in near pitch black darkness, treading in something sticky and goes into the kitchen to grab a dustpan and brush. While there, he stumbles and accidentally knocks a kitchen timer onto He turns to head back to his room only to see that he’s left bloody footprints all over the floor behind him. He grabs a torch and slowly retraces his steps to find blood pooling from behind the door to his parent’s room. He, slightly scared, calls to them. No answer. He calls again. Still no answer. He presses his ear to the door and from in the room he begins to hear a ticking noise. Suddenly the door opens on its own accord and Daniel stumbles into the room. We don’t get to see what he does but we can tell by his face, that it’s pretty horrific. All we get to see is the face of a broken clock with blood splattered on it. Daniel screams.

 

We cut to 12 years later where Daniel is woken by his mobile ringing on the desk beside him. He answers the phone to find it his wife, Jane, calling to make sure he’s up. It’s revealed that the two are moving into a new apartment complex today along with their baby son Rudy. The two arrive and begin carrying everything in with help from a friendly cleaner, Miguel. They ask for help from their direct neighbour, a miserly man named Mr Clove, but are turned down. Everything is successfully brought in and, exhausted, the two are about to have a nap when suddenly their doorbell rings. They open it to find a young couple, Keith and Susan Mitchell who live a few doors down and decided to introduce themselves. As a gift, they offer a novelty clown-themed house clock they thought Rudy might like. (Naturally, said clock is very much on the creepy side.) Daniel is very hesitant to take it and slightly unsettled by something but Jane politely thanks the couple. After the Mitchell’s leave, Jane promises Daniel they’ll get rid of the clown clock. It’s revealed that Daniel has a phobia of ticking clocks after the incident 12 years ago where both his parents were violently murdered along with 9 other people in his apartment block. No culprit was ever found. The only clue was that, that night, nearly every ticking clock in the complex stopped working at the time of the murders.

 

Daniel goes to take the clown clock to the garbage bins outside the apartment complex when suddenly he runs into his younger brother, Richard. After the death of their parents, Richard became obsessed with finding the truth about their death and, as a result, became something of a social outcast and weirdo, especially when he started to believe something supernatural was responsible. Daniel has tried to help him plenty of times in the past but with no success. Richard is visiting Daniel with, surprise surprise, a theory about how their parents died. Richard claims the incident wasn’t an isolated one and that he’s found several other similar cases from countries all around the world where 12 people died mysteriously and brutally while every ticking clock in the building broke down. Daniel points out that only 11 people died the night their parents died. Richard admits that’s true but is convinced it must be linked. Daniel asks if there’s a reason he’s here. Richard states that, while researching those cases, he found a pattern in the dates they happened and that he calculates the next attack will take place tonight. Daniel, obviously not believing a word, tells Richard to get some help.

 

Daniel returns to his apartment. As he does, he helps a young woman who dropped a bag of groceries. The woman thanks him and introduces herself as Olivia Brand. Olivia goes into her apartment where three police detectives, Gerrold, Fried and Rhett are waiting. It is revealed that Olivia is a police officer herself and the three are staking out the apartment of Kayneth Wong, an infamous drugs smuggler. Coincidentally, Wong lives very nearby Daniel and Jane. Back at his apartment, Daniel can’t help but think over what Richard told him. Jane insists he’s worrying over nothing and, noting how late it’s getting, suggests they get some sleep. Daniel is about to when the doorbell rings again. Their visitor is Jane’s old friend, Jacob, who visited to congratulate them about getting a new house. Daniel is a little annoyed that Jacob is visiting so late and that Jacob is visibly flirting with his wife. Jacob asks if he can stay the night since he had to travel quite some distance to get here. Daniel is obviously unwilling but Jane says he can. Meanwhile, we see the clown clock that has been dumped in the garbage and we slowly begin to hear a ticking sound. A shadow moves past the camera and the clock disappears. Meanwhile Daniel’s neighbour, Mr Clove, is talking to his daughter on the phone when the phone cuts out. Confused, Clove tries phoning back but the phone won’t work and the time on the phone is just flashing 12:00. Clove looks at an old grandfather clock in his room and sees that it’s stopped. He gets a look of sheer terror on his face

 

Meanwhile, in the Kant’s apartment, Daniel and Jacob are having an argument. Jacob’s expensive watch has disappeared and he’s convinced Daniel is responsible. Daniel loudly orders him to get out of their flat and Jacob storms out. Daniel goes out into the hallway to make sure Jacob has left and finds, to his surprise, the clown clock propped up against the wall. Meanwhile, Jacob is taking the elevator alone to the bottom floor when it suddenly stops much to Jacob’s annoyance. He tries to force the doors open only to find nothing but brick wall. However, suddenly he hears a noise coming from above him. Confused, he stands on a nearby box and presses his ear against the roof of the elevator only to hear a ticking sound. Suddenly, something loudly slams on the elevator roof again and again. We see the roof being dented and torn and Jacob screams as the lights in the elevator go out and we hear the sound of ticking.

 

Back in his apartment, Daniel is trying to get some sleep (on the couch where Jane has delegated him after how he treated Jacob) but simply can’t with the clown clock watching and ticking and keeping him awake. He decides to take it back down to the dumpster. However, when he presses the elevator button, he is greeted by the sight of Jacob’s horribly mangled corpse. His screams attract everyone else on the floor, including Mr Clove, the Mitchells and the police officers. When Olivia sees Wong running out of his room, she naturally assumes he’s responsible, runs him down and arrests him. She tries to contact the station but her radio has no reception. She orders Gerrold to go outside and see if reception is better and tells Fried to take Wong to a private room to interrogate him. She and Rhett will guard the crime scene. Wong naturally protests his innocence but no-one believes him. Mr Clove is visibly unsettled by what has happened and states they should all stick together. Olivia and the Mitchells believe he is just being paranoid and the latter return to their room. Meanwhile, Daniel remembers what Richard said earlier that day and starts to suspect there might be more to it. He tries to call his brother but Clove stops him, telling him it won’t work and that Clove has been through something like this before.

 

Meanwhile, on another floor, Miguel (the friendly cleaner from before) is vacuuming a hallway when he begins to hear odd sounds, like a woman in distress, from in one of the rooms. He switches off his vacuum cleaner only to hear nothing. Yet when he switches it back on the noises start up again. After knocking on the door to check if everything’s okay and getting no response, Miguel places his ear against the door to listen inside the room. He can only hear a slow ticking. The door bursts open and something unseen drags a screaming Miguel into the room before the door slams shut behind it and only silence can be heard. Until the slow ticking starts up again.

 

Under Clove’s advice, Daniel takes Jane and Rudy and moves into Clove’s room. Clove explains that 36 years ago, when Clove was just a young man, he was involved in an incident just like Daniel was. He and his friends were staying in a foreign hotel. In the middle of the night, every clock in the house broke and something began attacking the hotel’s occupants. By the end of the night, 12 people were dead. Clove was never able to physically see the creature that attacked him and his friends. They could only sense its presence by a slow ticking sound. The room falls silent and everyone slowly realises that they can hear a slow ticking sound right now. However, Daniel realises it’s just the clown clock. Clove is bemused at how the clock could still be working and asks Jane to take it out of the room. Jane does so. Clove and Daniel are about to continue their conversation when they both realise that, even with the clown clock out of the room, they can still hear the ticking sound. The door suddenly slams shut on its own accord and the lights shove off. Something invisible starts attacking the two which we only see through periodic flashes of light. Jane and Olivia hear the disturbance and try to knock down the door. When they do, they find Daniel semi-conscious on the floor and Clove dead, crushed by the grandfather clock.

 

Daniel is immediately arrested by Olivia for the murders of Clove and Jacob. Daniel protests his innocence claiming it was the monster but no-one except Jane believes him. Meanwhile, downstairs, Detective Gerrold is attempting to get out of the hotel but all the doors are locked. As Gerrold is trying to open them, we see a shadow pass in front of the camera. Gerrold seems to sense the presence as well and calls to see if anyone’s there. No answer. The sound of a door shutting can be heard. Gerrold decides to follow down a dark hallway to see if he can find anyone. His flashlight is an old one which occasionally shorts out. While searching the dark hallway, he sees a file dropped on the ground. He picks it up only for his flashlight to start blink out again. As he tries to reset it, a shadowy figure can be seen behind him.

 

We cut to Olivia attempting to contact Gerrold on Rhett’s radio with no success. Daniel forlornly states Gerrold is already probably dead. Olivia tells him to shut up. Rhett offers to go down and look for him but Olivia tells them not to bother and that she’ll just borrow Fried’s radio instead. She opens the door to the private interrogation room only for Fried’s eviscerated corpse to drop in front of her. Drawing her gun, Olivia enters the darkened room and switches on the light only to reveal both Fried and Wong have been brutally murdered. On the wall is a clockface painted from their blood with the hour hand at 5. Daniel points out that he couldn’t have gotten here and murdered the two while he was under arrest. Olivia points out that he could’ve had accomplices. Suddenly, Gerrold arrives, dragging Richard (the shadowy figure) behind him in handcuffs stating he caught Richard skulking around downstairs. Olivia is convinced Richard must be Daniel’s accomplice. However, Jane spots a police tape recorder on the floor and suggests that, if it was switched on during the murder, it might be able to help find out who the culprit is.

 

Olivia, Gerrold, Rhett, Daniel, Jane, Richard and the Mitchells sit down to listen to the tape (Rhett being left to guard the crime scenes. It begins with Fried questioning Wong about the murder and getting increasingly frustrated and violent when Wong continues denying all knowledge. However, partway through the tape, a loud ticking sound can be heard. Wong doesn’t know where it’s coming from since all the clocks in the room are broken. Suddenly, Fried shouts ‘Who turned out the lights?!’ There is the sound of violence and screams before all goes silent except for the ticking noise. Daniel points out that this proves what he’s been saying. Olivia has turned white and nervously claims that it could just have been someone hiding the dark. Daniel states she’s just trying to fool herself. Frustrated, Oliva tells Gerrold that she’s fed up of that damned ticking noise and to switch off the tape. (Gerrold: “I… I already did…”) The room falls silent except for the ticking. The lightswitch turns off by itself.

 

The group is attacked by the invisible creature and both Detective Gerrold and Susan Mitchell are killed. Daniel eventually manages to drive the creature away by smashing a chair over its back while it is attempting to strangle Jane. Olivia switches the light back on to find that the blood clock on the wall has changed its hour hand to 7. Richard reasons that the monster, whatever it is, plans on killing 12 people before the night is through. 7 is the number it has already killed. Olivia asks how they stop it but Richard isn’t entirely sure. He knows the answer must lie on the night he and Daniel’s parents were killed since only 11 people were killed then. Something must’ve stopped the creature from killing the 12^th person. He asks Daniel if there’s anything important he remembers about that night. Daniel isn’t sure. However, he is interrupted by Jane suddenly realising something. Rudy is still alone in his bed. And if everyone except Rudy is in this room, then who is the monster going to target?

 

We cut to Rudy sleeping alone in his room when we suddenly hear the sound of ticking and his baby mobile begins to move of its own accord. Daniel and the rest desperately rush to Rudy’s room and break it open to find… everything is fine and Rudy is still sleeping without any problems. There’s no ticking to be heard anywhere. Everyone breathes a sigh of relief. Everyone except Jane who realises the lack of ticking itself is odd. After all, she moved the clown clock (the only clock which still worked) into this room. And now it’s nowhere to be seen. Richard wonders why the clown clock was still working and why the creature would take it. Daniel realises something odd about the night his parents were killed. Every clock in the building was supposed to be out, yet Daniel could still hear his alarm clock ticking. And the murders stopped when he accidentally broke it. Daniel suggests that maybe the clown clock holds the key to stopping the monster. But first they need to find it. Suddenly, the lights go out for the entire floor. Olivia realises the creature must’ve switched off the power to make it easier to hunt them.

 

The group makes their way through the dark hallways with only the light from Olivia and Rhett’s flashlights to guide them. Rhett hears a ticking noise coming from the elevator where Jacob’s body was found. Naturally, Olivia wants to head away from the source of the sound, but Daniel points out it could just as easily be the clown clock and insists they investigate. They find the clown clock sitting abandoned in the investigator. Rhett goes in and picks it up seconds before Olivia realises it’s a trap. The elevator cable snap and sends Rhett and the cable car plummeting. However, before Rhett falls to his death, he tosses the clown clock to Keith Mitchell. However, the second Keith catches it he is dragged into the dark by something unseen leaving the clown clock on the floor behind him. Olivia fires a couple of gunshots in Keith’s general direction and begins chasing it, leaving Daniel the torch. Meanwhile, Rudy has been woken by the noise and begins crying, blocking out the sound of the ticking. We also hear several more gunshots and Olivia’s unseen screams. While Jane desperately tries to quiet the baby, Richard carefully makes his way towards the clown clock. Daniel warns him it’s too dangerous. Richard tells Daniel that the latter will only have a few seconds to break the clown clock and apologises for being such a lousy brother. He grabs the clock and throws it to Daniel seconds before being yanked into the darkness by the creature. Daniel hit the clown clock with the flashligh apparently smashing it. For a short while, there is nothing but silence and darkness before eventually, the lights switch back on showing Daniel, Jane and Rudy alone in an abandoned hallway.

 

Thankful that it’s all over, Daniel tells Jane to take Rudy outside and get some help. Jane notes that Rudy seems hungry. Daniel agrees to head back into their room and grab Rudy’s bottle. While in the room, Daniel suddenly realises he can hear ticking from behind a small desk drawer. Unsettled, he looks behind the desk drawer only to find Jacob’s missing watch has fallen down behind it. Relieved, he fishes it out. And realises it is broken. Back in the hallway, Jane notices that, despite it no longer ticking, the clown clock is still working. Daniel slowly turns to find a large clock drawn on his wall in blood. The hour hand is at 12. The lights snap off and all we can hear is ticking…  

 

Theatres: 3108

MPAA Rating: R

Budget: $8m

Edited September 21, 2014 by Rukaio Alter

[rukaio101]

The Sky Crawlers

Director: Rutger Hauts (made-up)

Genre: Action/Sci-Fi
Date: August 9th
Cast: Jeremy Renner (Yust Kanstead), Rinko Kikuchi (Suito Kusanagi), Chiaki Kuriyama (Midori Mitsuya), Anthony Mackie (Nathan Tock), Cary Elwes (Arthur Yurven/Aecorn), Keanu Reeves (Thomas Sancere), Mana Ashida (Mizuki Kusanagi)

Plot:

The Sky Crawlers is set in an alternative history timeline where although the world is at peace, in order to ease the tension of a populace accustomed to war and aggression, private corporations contract fighter pilots to engage in actual combat operations against each other. The film introduces a mystery involving characters called Kildren - humanoids genetically engineered for combat

 

After the deaths of three pilots of the Rostock Corporation at the hands of a J2 Skyly piloted by the Lautern ace pilot 'Teacher', Yust Kanstead is reassigned to Area 262. After meeting with the Chief Mechanic Thomas Sancere, he inquires as to the fate of the predecessor who had left the Sanka Mk.B pusher-prop assigned to him in pristine condition prior to his disappearance. Kanstead is told to ask the base's CO Suito Kusanagi, who quickly dismisses him after informing him of a sortie that is to take place the following day. Shortly afterward, he meets the rest of the base's piloting corps: Arthur Yurven, Samuel 'Yoyo' Scarab and Nathan Tock. After observing Yurven folding a newspaper in a certain way, Kanstead learns that the fifth pilot in Area 262 is Kusanagi.

 

Tock and Kansteadi embark upon a reconnaissance mission the following day, which is interrupted by three enemy fighters from the Lautern Corporation. The three pilots are quickly dispatched and the duo return to the base without incident. Once again, Kanstead inquires as to the fate of his predecessor Kristoph Jinn, while questioning if Kusanagi is a Kildren as well. Less than willing to reveal the details of Jinn's absence as well as information about her own nature, Kusanagi ignores Kanstead's questions by dismissing him. Later that evening, Tock and Kanstead visit Danielle's Diner, where they are met shortly afterward by Kirst and Fiona - the latter of which Kannami engages in sexual intercourse with. Fiona informs Kanstead of the relationship she had with Jinn, while acknowledging that Kanstead's existence must mean that Jinn is no longer be alive.        

 

Returning from sortie early, Kanstead meets Mizuki Kusanagi, who introduces herself as Suito's younger sister, who inquires as to the nature of the Kildren. Tock, returning later, reveals that Mizuki is not Suito's younger sister, but rather Suito's daughter. Discussing the matter with Suito, she wonders what will happen when Mizuki reaches Suito's age, revealing that Suito is indeed a Kildren. Speaking with Yurven later, he reveals that Kusanagi is always armed, and that she was the one who apparently shot Jinn.

 

A sponsor tour of the base is interrupted by the downing of a Rostock Sanka Mk.B from the neighbouring area. Arriving on the scene, Kusanagi berates a group of civilian observers for pitying the killed pilot before leaving the scene with Kanstead. Later, Kanstead visits the diner again, but his leave is cut short by the arrival of Lautern heavy bombers. Able to warn the base of the arriving bombers, Kusanagi sorties the pilots, taking Kanstead's plane in his absence. The two visit theatre command, where they are met with an officer trying to bar them from meeting with Kusanagi's superior. The two later visit an isolated lodge, which, according to Kusanagi, "no-one visits twice". Kanstead asks Kusanagi if Yurven's story of Kusanagi killing Jinn is true, to which Kusanagi asks if Kanstead "wants to be killed as well".

 

 

During a later sortie, Yurven and Kanstead spot several Lautern bombers with fighter escorts. Rushing ahead to engage the enemy alone, Yurven is shot down by a J2 Skyly with a black jaguar painted on the side, the insignia of the Lautern ace known as "The Teacher". Discussing the matter with Tock and Yoyo, Kanstead hears the rumour that the Teacher is not a Kildren, but a normal adult. Kusanagi orders all the remaining pilots sortie to hunt down the Teacher, taking Kanstead's plane personally. Later, Tock and Yoyo return without Kusanagi, who rushed off alone after spotting the Teacher. Kanstead's crashed Sanka is later found by Fiona, and the injured Kusanagi is brought back to base for treatment. Fiona reveals that Kusanagi once visited one of her clients, engaging in sexual intercourse with him. Kanstead asks Sancere about Mizuki, but is, as always, unwilling to part with information easily.

 

The pilots are called to March-Hare base in preparation for a major Rostock operation against one of Lautern's major bases. Tock and Kanstead meet with Midori Mitsuya, March-Hare's ace pilot, who seeks out Kanstead, having heard about his reputation. The pilots are briefed on the large operation, and are placed on escort for the fifty bombers. The collective pilots sortie, March-Hare's twin-engined heavy fighters pooled together with 262's Sanka-B's.

 

The operation commences, with Rostock's fighters refueling in mid-air. The pilots engage Lautern's fighters, but despite their best efforts, the Rostock forces lose several of their heavy bombers. The fighters are ordered to retreat and return to base, albeit without Yoyo. 262 Squadron is reinforced by March-Hare's remaining pilots and their machines, Midori among them. During a debriefing session, Midori reports on the loss of two of March-Hare's pilots, describing the Teacher's aircraft and the exact way the Teacher shot them down at point-blank range.

 

Later that evening, Tock, Kanstead and Kusanagi go bowling together. After Tock leaves, Kanstead asks Kusanagi about the day she was shot down, and inquires as to her relation to the Teacher. Kusanagi reveals that the Teacher was not only once a member of Rostock, but her former superior officer. Kusanagi contemplates the nature of war, and how the perpetual existence of war mandates an undefeatable enemy, which exists in the form of the Teacher. Later, a heavily intoxicated Kusanagi puts a gun to Kanstead's head before asking him to kill her, lest "nothing change" for them.

 

The pilots return to 262's base with the new March-Hare additions. Midori inquires about Mizuki, while Kanstead encounters a new pilot, Aecorn, who is a dead ringer for the late Yurven, right down to folding his newspaper in the same fashion. The base personnel settle into their familiar routines, while Midori begins to search for answers about Kusanagi. Sancere reveals that Kusanagi, as such a skilled pilot, was one of the few Kildren who survived long enough to question their existence, while Midori expresses her lack of understanding of how the base personnel can be so complacent with the state of affairs.

 

Midori visits Kanstead, questioning Kanstead's memories and how he copes with his life. Theorising that Kanstead copes by blurring his memories with the present, falling into an endless repetition of now. Midori reveals the nature of the Kildren's conception: they are an accidental by-product of Rostock's experiments with genetics, and as a result, they do not age, and cannot die unless killed. Midori suffers a nervous breakdown, questioning her own memories, wondering if she, too, is a Kildren, and crying about how she cannot recall anything of her childhood, questioning if she ever had one. She continues, revealing her conclusions: Kusanagi shot Jinn to end the perpetual repetition of the life of a Kildren, but he didn't die: he simply became Kanstead, implanted with new memories to maintain his skills as a pilot.

 

Later that evening, Midori tries to shoot Kusanagi. Kanstead, intervening at the sound of Midori's gunshot, proposes that he shoot Kusanagi, which appears to her as a "fine idea". As Kansteadi disarms Midori, she leaves, revealing that Kusanagi had Midori under her own gun the whole time. Kusanagi admits to killing Jinn on his own request, before asking Kanstead to shoot her in turn. Kanstead refuses to shoot Kusanagi, insisting that she must continue to live until she can change things.

 

The pilots leave on sortie, flying a patrol as Kanstead contemplates how one can find new experiences even if one has travelled the same path before, and regains his memories as Jinn. Midori sights the Teacher's J2 Skyly, and Kanstead engages the Lautern ace alone, resolving to "kill his father". After a brief dogfight, the Teacher executes his unique maneuver against Kanstead's Sanka-B, and Kanstead is killed in action. One by one, the base personnel accept that Kanstead is not coming back.

 

Iain Hirman, Kannami's replacement, arrives at 262. His face is not seen, but his physical mannerisms in exiting his plane are identical to Kannami's, as is his lighting a cigarette, and the tone of his voice. As Sancere looks on impassively from the hanger, as if she'd seen the scene play out many times before, the viewer is given a final strong hint that the Kildren may all be clones. Hirman is greeted by Kusanagi in a much warmer fashion, telling him that she's "been waiting for him to arrive".

Theaters: 3396
MPAA Rating: R
Budget: $30mil

Edited September 22, 2014 by Rukaio Alter

[cookie]

In case Numbers hasn't seen my post in the discussion thread, I'm moving DuckTales up to July 19th.

[cookie]

Minnie's Summer Vacation 

 

Format: Live-action, 2D 

Genre: Family / Adventure 

Studio: Fine Films Inc. 

Cast: A bunch of young kids 

Director: David Bowers 

Composer: Edward Shearmur 

Budget: $10m 

Release Date: July 3rd 

Theater Count: 2,522 

MPAA Rating: G 

Running Time: 82 min (1 hour, 22 minutes) 

 

 

 

Minnie's out of school for the rest of the summer but her family can't afford a vacation to the Bahamas, so she's stuck at home bored out of her mind while all her friends are out of town. One day while playing soccer by herself she accidentally stumbles upon an old treasure map and decides to go on a quest to find the treasure. But without any of her friends around to help her she coerces some of her bullies to help her in exchange for part of the treasure. They refuse to help her so they steal the treasure map instead and go to find the treasure on their own while Minnie follows them. While looking for the treasure she also stumbles upon the house of a boy she has a crush on and he agrees to help her out. The pair finds a treasure chest in a mine before the bullies do but when the bullies arrive they threaten Minnie to hand over the chest or else they'll bury them in the cave. However the cave starts to collapse on them all but Minnie saves everyone just in time. The bullies apologize to Minnie for being mean to her and they all open the chest, only to find a letter saying the whole thing was a prank from the 19th-century. They go home disappointed but Minnie has earned new friends and the attention of the boy she likes so she's happy in the end. 

 

 

Edited September 9, 2014 by C00k13

[cookie]

Sailing Champion

 

Genre: Sports / Comedy

Studio: Fine Films Inc.

Cast: Owen Wilson, Kate Hudson, Christopher McDonald

Director: Paul Weitz

Budget: $40m

Release Date: September 20th

Theater Count: 3,127

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Running Time: 100 minutes (1 hour, 40 minutes)

 

Needing money to save the orphanage he grew up in, Donny (Wilson) teams up with his ex-wife Kathryn (Hudson) to win a sailing contest where the price is $100,000. However, Donny's rival Burt (McDonald) shows up and signs up for the contest to get money for more botox on his face. Donny faces another problem though, he doesn't know how to sail, but Kathryn teaches him. Along the way they rediscover old passions for one another and discovers that Burt's plan is more sinister than they've imagined.

[Blankments]

Mickey After Walt

 

Director: Seth Gordon

Genre: Comedy
Date: July 12

Studio: Blankments Productions

Cast: David Henrie as Mickey, Miles Teller as Oswald, Anna Kendrick as Mickey's wife, Rebel Wilson as Oswald's wife, and Kevin Spacey as Walt Disney.

Music by: Christopher Lennertz.
Runtime: 106 min
Tagline: The True Story Of The World's Evilest Man

 

Plot: A servant named Mickey who works on a train car meets Walt Disney, who has inspiration strike him as he names his soon famous character. However, Mickey's life is ruined as no one begins take him seriously. He falls into poverty and meets a guy named Oswald who had the same thing happen to him. They team up to try to kill Walt Disney, who has stolen their wives. (Important note: Kevin Spacey is sleepwalking through the role. As in, he's basically playing Frank Underwood with a pencil thin mustache. There's even the asides!)

 

Theaters: 3,469

MPAA Rating: R for violence, drug use, language and sexuality

 

Budget: $30 million

Edited September 15, 2014 by Blankments

[Alpha]

The Yellow Wallpaper
Director: James Wan
Composer: Joseph Bishara
Genre: Psychological Drama/Horror/Thriller
Date: August 23rd
Studio: Alpha Pictures
Format: Live-action, 2D
Budget: $8 million
Theaters: 2,754
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some disturbing content and brief sexuality
Running Time: 99 minutes
Tagline: It’s Formless / From the Studio That Brought You Resonance / From Director James Wan

 

Cast:
Rose Bryne as Jane
Adam Scott as John

 

Plot Summary: A woman is confined in the upstairs bedroom by her husband, who has bought a beautiful summer home.

 

Plot:

Married couple Jane and John rent a large countryside home in the middle of a forest. However, Jane is feeling rather grey about spending the summer with her husband. Her John, who is also her doctor, however, disregards her “illness” as only her worrisome thoughts. He contrasts his practical, rationalistic manner with her own imaginative, sensitive ways. John says that Jane will be able to relax over the summer in the new home, as he’s made special arrangements for her that could combat her depression.

 

When they arrive, Jane marvels at the grandeur of the house and grounds her husband has taken for their summer vacation. She describes it in romantic terms as an aristocratic estate or even a haunted house and wonders how they were able to afford it, and why the house had been empty for so long. John tells her he was able to secure the house because of money he had earned over the years, as he had been saving up for this “special occasion.”

 

John guides Jane around the house. His description is mostly positive, but to Jane, disturbing elements such as the “rings and things” in the bedroom walls, and the bars on the windows, keep showing up. John introduces Jane to her “quarters,” and she is particularly disturbed by the yellow wallpaper in the bedroom, with its strange, formless pattern, and describes it as “revolting.” John closes and locks the door in the bedroom, which has a peephole.

 

Throughout the first few weeks, Jane is only allowed to come out for meals. John starts becoming more controlling, and tries to keep her inside the bedroom. She continues to long for more stimulating company and activity, and she complains to herself about John’s patronizing, controlling ways—although she begins thinking about the wallpaper, which begins to seem not only ugly, but oddly menacing. John is worried about her becoming fixated on it, but he has refused to repaper the room so as not to give in to her neurotic worries. Jane has hallucinations about people walking around the house, and is always enticed by their appearances, but John always discourages such fantasies.

 

As the Fourth of July passes, Jane rarely comes out of the bedroom on her own, and has become almost fond of the wallpaper, and that attempting to figure out its pattern has become her primary entertainment. John, who now has to force Jane out of the bedroom, becomes worried. As her obsession grows, the sub-pattern of the wallpaper becomes clearer. It begins to resemble a woman “stooping down and creeping” behind the main pattern, which looks like the bars of a cage. Whenever Jane tries to discuss leaving the house, John makes light of her concerns, effectively silencing her. John is determined to keep her in the house. Each time he does so, her disgusted fascination with the paper grows.

 

Soon the wallpaper dominates Jane’s imagination. She becomes possessive and secretive, hiding her interest in the paper and making sure no one else examines it so that she can “find it out” on her own. At one point, she startles John, who had been touching the wallpaper and who mentions that she had found yellow stains on their clothes. Mistaking Jane’s fixation for tranquility, John thinks she is improving. Jane sleeps less and less and is convinced that she can smell the paper all over the house, even outside. She discovers a strange smudge mark on the paper, running all around the room, as if it had been rubbed by someone crawling against the wall.

 

The sub-pattern now clearly resembles a woman who is trying to get out from behind the main pattern. Jane sees her shaking the bars at night and creeping around during the day, when the woman is able to escape briefly. The narrator mentions that she, too, creeps around at times. She suspects that John is aware of her obsession, and she resolves to destroy the paper once and for all, peeling much of it off during the night. The next day she manages to be alone and goes into something of a frenzy, biting and tearing at the paper in order to free the trapped woman, whom she sees struggling from inside the pattern.

 

Soon enough, Jane is hopelessly insane, convinced that there are many creeping women around and that she herself has come out of the wallpaper—that she herself is the trapped woman. She creeps endlessly around the room, growling, smudging the wallpaper as she goes. When John breaks into the locked room and sees the full horror of the situation, Jane starts attacking him. Jane starts choking him, and soon enough John passes out. Jane gets up, and begins creeping around the room again.

 

In the entrance to the home, we see John and another woman come to door. John asks what she thinks, and the woman says, “it’s beautiful.”

Edited September 21, 2014 by Alpha

[4815162342]

This is Not a Game

Genre: Techno-Thriller Cast: Anna Kendrick (Danni Shaw), Jack Huston (Charlie), Dane DeHaan (BJ), Jake Johnson (Austin) Directed By: Rian Johnson Release Date: 9/20

Running Time: 102 minutes Theater Count: 2615 Theaters Budget: $37 million MPAA Rating: PG-13 for scenes of violence, coarse language, and some sensuality Plot Summary:

The film is set in the near future where Danni Shaw (Kendrick) works as a producer of alternate reality games (ARGs) for the company Great Big Idea which is run by her former college friend Charlie (Huston), a software millionaire who made a small fortune from his initial project in college, and is financed by another old friend from college Austin Katanyan (Johnson), a wealthy venture capitalist. Dagmar, Charlie, Austin, and another friend BJ (DeHaan), had all been friends and role playing enthusiasts in college. After college Charlie and BJ had started a software company together but Charlie had forced BJ out and the latter now works a dead end job at a computer help line. There are a couple scenes introducing Danni, Charlie, and Austin and the work they do. Danni has just completed a successful ARG and heads to Jakarta to take some time off with Austin, who she has an on/off relationship with. Instead the two after some early scenes vacationing and getting cozy, get caught in the chaos of a revolution as a currency collapse, blamed on Chinese traders, causes the city to erupt in violence. This causes them to have to flee to the airport, barely avoiding being kidnapped by criminal gangs looking to profit from the violence by holding Westerners for ransom. After escaping, the two return home to LA where Danni is scheduled to begin a new ARG to promote an MMORPG in which Charlie is invested. Charlie is glad the two managed to avoid being hurt in the chaos. Danni starts working on the new game and we get a couple scenes showing her working with a team on it. There’s also another scene with her and Austin together on a date and afterwards where they “release” their stress from the Indonesia trouble. We also see her meet up with BJ for coffee to talk about how things are going. BJ is still bitter over being forced out, though he and Charlie have both been mum on the exact details. Danni offers to help BJ find a better job but he declines. The following day, Danni is heading to work late when she sees Austin gunned down in front of Great Big Idea's offices. She is shell-shock as police investigate but find no leads. Charlie meanwhile has, aside from the phone call where Danni informs him about Austin’s murder, to which he started freaking out, completely dropped off the face of the planet. This essentially puts Danni as the senior corporate officer in the company and she has to struggle with keeping things going while also grieving over Austin’s death. So, with Charlie in hiding and the police apparently stymied, Dagmar writes Austin's death into the new ARG, hoping that the thousands of players will act as a human flesh search engine and discover the killer. Meanwhile she talks with BJ about Austin’s death and BJ, though not socially graceful, manages to do a good job being a comforting friend. He is suspicious of Charlie suddenly disappearing right after Austin’s death but Danni is positive Charlie would never have been involved with that. After a few scenes showing Danni trying to keep her personal and work life afloat the players do in fact discover the killer's identity, a hitman who works for the Russian mob. As the police try to track him down Danni becomes more discontented as Charlie gets in touch with her from hiding via video-conference and tries to reassert his control over the company. This includes him forcing her to make clumsy rewrites to her game in order to promote several products including cryptography software and a water testing device. She complies, but then, partly to piss off Charlie, Danni brings in BJ as a writer for the game. BJ is at first reluctant to come aboard but eventually agrees since Danni wants someone she can totally trust helping her out. A few scenes show them working together on the game. One night, at work late, they have drinks and talk about Austin and the past. BJ explains how his and Charlie’s company nearly failed only a year into its existence but that at the last minute Charlie came up with a mysterious bunch of financial backers who saved them. Danni becomes suspicious that these backers are the Russian mob, or at least that Charlie is involved in illegal activity. Meanwhile the Russian mob directs their hitman to target Danni due to her ties to Charlie and Austin. Danni then gets news that the Argentine currency is in crisis. With the economics of the company at risk, Danni uses the little information she has to ask players in her ARG to locate Charlie. The information they provide she and BJ use to pinpoint Charlie’s location in a fancy hotel halfway across the country. Danni travels there and confronts Charlie with her suspicions and he confesses to the truth: Back during the early days of his company he and BJ had created self replicating bots which were supposed to play the financial markets. As the company was collapsing, Charlie, without letting BJ know, released them onto the internet, hoping they might do something. In a few months the bots had made enough money playing the markets to save Charlie's company. Due to fears that BJ might find out, or that he would sabotage something, Charlie forced him out, making up a BS excuse about his workplace behavior and fiscal imprudence that has resulted in him being unhireable by any other major tech company. Now, however, the bots have grown too powerful to control. Somewhere along the line they had stolen some money from an account controlled by the Russian mob. The mob had no clue about the bots but their own techs traced funds to Charlie’s company, so they shot Austin in retaliation. Charlie believes they’re after him as well. The bots have amassed a fortune of twelve billion dollars for Charlie but they were also responsible for the Indonesian currency collapse and the instability of the Argentine currency. Charlie is worried that the bots will eventually cause an even more massive financial crisis, such as attacking the dollar. Danni is furious on several levels, for hiding the bots’ existence, for getting Austin killed, for ruining BJ’s career, etc. She forces Charlie to bring BJ into this, since his knowledge of the bots will be useful and because Charlie owes it to BJ to redeem his career. Charlie uses his videoscreen to contact BJ, who acts furious over what Charlie tells him. Danni says Charlie is going to make things right, but they need BJ’s help. BJ agrees but says when this is over he and Charlie are going to have words. Danni returns to her home city but on her way to her apartment she is accosted by the mob hitman, who kidnaps her and wants to interrogate her to find Charlie, but thankfully at the last second she is found by police officers who had been tailing her and they kill the hitman. Danni is shaken, but relieved that the mob threat is likely over. Danni, Charlie, and BJ set out to stop the bots by working together to create a software patch that would turn the bots off, using the players in their ARG to distribute it to the various servers where the bots are located. There is some tension and sniping between Charlie and BJ in the conferences but Danni helps smooth it over. However, before the patch can be completed though Charlie is killed when a bomb explodes at the hotel he is hiding at. The initial evidence indicates the Russian mob was behind it and Danni is worried she may have compromised Charlie’s location accidentally. BJ tries to comfort her but she wants to focus on finishing the patch and then mourn her friends. After some more work, Danni talks to the police who have some questions about Charlie’s location, intentions, etc. She answers truthfully, though she conceals the existence of the bots. Something the police say about what BJ told them when they talked to him triggers something in her mind. She does some research into the patch data, communications by Charlie and BJ, etc, all with help from the ARG players, and realizes that BJ was behind the bombing, having sent out messages to players of the ARG, who he used to deliver the bomb to Charlie. She also figures out through her research that that BJ has subtly hacked into the company’s system and has created a patch of his own which, instead of turning the bots off, will make them loyal to him. Danni realizes that since she was able to figure this out, she is also a potential target for BJ if he suspects she was able to do so. Danni meets with BJ at the company offices, playing it cool and talking about the original patch and plans for the company’s future, which with Charlie and Austin gone she hints at means there is a place for BJ to help lead. This makes BJ feel satisfied and she is able to get him to leave his things unattended thanks to her fake flirtations and promises. She searches his computer and files and finds out the exact program and code for his patch-altering. When BJ returns she makes an excuse for leaving. BJ has a look of slight suspicion as he watches her go. Danni at first goes home but then thinks twice about it and goes to a friend’s place where she crafts a code that would undo BJ’s patch. Then, after leaving the code with the friend with specific instructions in the event something happens to her, returns home to her place and after searching, discovers a bomb intended for her. It is triggered by a cell phone call. Since BJ still needs her for the moment, she knows it won’t go off and hides it in her backpack and the following day, hides it and instead places it in BJ's car’s trunk. She meets with BJ inside and they talk more about the company and the patch, which is supposed to be released at midnight. Danni is barely able to pretend that she has no idea what BJ’s scheme is and what she’s done to counteract it. That night, BJ drives to an empty parking lot and calls Danni, who is in her apartment. After a minute of talking to confirm the patch is ready to go, he presses a button on his cell phone and the back of his car beeps. BJ has a split-second “oh fuck” look before his car explodes. Danni puts down her phone sadly and regains composure and calls her friend from a bit earlier and tells her to upload the new patch to the ARG for distribution. After confirming it is done, she hangs up and slumps against a wall crying over the loss of all her best friends. The film jumps to about a year later, with the company essentially in Danni’s hands and her having kept it afloat through the successful release of new software. They’re all set to begin work on a new ARG and Danni calls a big meeting with all the developers, coders, and writers to talk about the big new project, dedicated to the memories of Charlie and Austin. After some talk, she tells them to get to work and they all file out, some saying “sure thing boss.” Danni smiles.

Edited September 21, 2014 by 4815162342

[4815162342]

Fortune’s Hunters

Genre: Western/Action
Stars: Timothy Olyphant (Joe), Benicio Del Toro (Manuel), Woody Harrelson (Darrow), Jon Bernthal (Smith), Ted Levine (Henry Carrington)
Directed By: Peter Berg
Score By: James Newton Howard
Release Date: 8/9
Theater Count: 2911 theaters
Budget: $46 million
Running Time: 143 minutes
MPAA Rating: R for strong sequences of violence and some language
Plot Summary:

In the Coloradan wilderness, a man on horseback is chased and finally gunned down by a group of gunmen led by Darrow (Harrelson), a man dressed all in black. The man who was shot, Hess, is asked by Darrow about the location of a man named Holden. After Hess says that Holden is catching a train in Colorado City for Santa Fe Darrow shoots him dead. His second-in-command, Smith (Bernthal), asks for instructions and Darrow says they have a train to catch.

In Colorado City, the robber and gunslinger Manuel Rodrigo Cortes (Del Toro) and two of his gang members are celebrating in a saloon. When they come out, Manuel spies a man by himself walking down a side street that would be an easy target to hold-up. They make their move once the streets are clear but the man, after being told to give up his wallet, replies that they got more than they bargained for. Manuel and his compadres start to pull out their guns but the man is quicker and shoots three times, killing the two sidekicks and shooting Manuel’s gun out of the air. Manuel curses in Spanish and the man approaches Manuel and pulls out a rolled-up wanted poster that shows Manuel and a reward notice of $5,000. After the man remarks that this is his lucky day, Manuel realizes the man is a bounty hunter and that the whole thing was a trap. The man, whose face we finally see after many camera angles designed to never show his front, says that Manuel does have a brain after all and that should have used his smarts instead of his greed. The man’s name is Joe, and he is a bounty hunter (Olyphant).

At the train station in Colorado City, Darrow and his men arrive and fan around the crowd to see if Holden is there. As they look around, Joe leads Manuel, whose hands are tied behind his back, onto the train to a private compartment. Smith meanwhile reports to Darrow that one of the men spotted Holden getting on. Darrow decides against going in now due to too many people being around and says they’ll head the train off at Mt. Mestas to the southwest.

On the train as it chugs along, Manuel is cocky and chipper again, badgering the bounty hunter with questions such as their destination and also says that he can get the hunter $5,000 soon enough if he agrees to let him go. The bounty hunter, amused, turns the offer down saying he has a reputation to uphold. Manuel again gives the hunter an offer to let him go, only this time saying he can keep his life. The bounty hunter smirks at the comment and says that he knows the kind of scum Manuel works with and that whatever is left of his band won’t risk their necks to save his skin. Manuel laughs and says only a fool would underestimate him and the loyalty of his blood brothers. The bounty hunter tells him to be quiet and Manuel mutters in Spanish under his breath.

Later on the train ride Holden is finally shown, nervous as he looks out the train window. In the distance, Darrow is on horseback and after seeing the train, gives the signal for his men to move out. His gang, seven in total, swarms down a hill to intercept the train and board it. The passengers panic and a couple wild gunshots are fired. This alerts Joe and Manuel. When Joe looks out the window to see what is happening, Manuel slips out the door. Joe tries to follow but is slowed down by all the passengers in the train running about in fear. Meanwhile Smith boards the train by the locomotive and shoots the engineers dead and applies the break to bring the train to a halt. Darrow and the others board a bit further back and force their way through the crowd of passengers, pistol-whipping those who resist and even shooting a couple people who pull guns on them. Manuel rushes into the mail car and locks the door, turning to see Holden hiding in there as well. Joe, finding the door to the car locked, climbs out a window and on top of the train to find another route in. Up there, he sees another group of horsemen swooping to the train, only these people are shouting in Spanish. Manuel’s group has shown up to rescue him.

In the mail car, Holden is muttering about “they” trying to get him while Manuel works to get his hands untied. The fugitive ignores Holden until he hears the man mention the money he stole. Interested, Manuel curiously prods Holden and Holden tells the story of how he was part of a gang sent by a powerful landowner to commandeer a stagecoach down in New Mexico belonging to a rival power broker and the gold it carried, over $100,000 worth. He and a man called Hess were supposed to deliver it, but instead they took it for themselves and hid it, though now men are coming to kill him and find the fortune. He tells Manuel that the fortune is his if he can avoid being caught. He whispers the location in Manuel’s ear (we don’t hear) and then Manuel, now untied, thanks him and quickly steals Holden’s gun and shoots him in the gut. He exits the car via the big sliding door on the side and is promptly tackled by Joe who had jumped down. Manuel wrestles free and the two point guns at each other when Manuel’s group shows up, four strong. Outnumbered and out-gunned, Joe has to back down and watches Manuel and his partners quickly ride off for the hills.

Darrow and his men break into the mail car to find Holden on his last breathes. Darrow shakes Holden, demanding to know where the money is, but all Holden says is that he told someone else the location and now Darrow will never know. Darrow, frustrated, slits Holden’s throat with a Bowie knife and then exits the car with his men to find Joe still watching the distant dust cloud of Manuel’s group’s horses. They all point guns at Joe and Joe points his pistol at them. The tense standoff is resolved after Joe explains he is a bounty hunter tracking a fugitive who just escaped the train. Darrow realizes that Manuel must be who Holden talked to. He tells Joe that his group is looking for Manuel too on a private contract, not one with the law, and that they can pool together to get him. Joe agrees since he wants Manuel caught. Darrow tells Smith to take Joe and the team in pursuit and track Manuel down. Smith asks where he’ll be, to which Darrow says he has to go see “the Boss” and fill him in on developments. As Darrow rides off one direction, the rest of his gang, now including Joe, tries to follow Manuel as best they can.

Manuel and his gang race across the rocky wilderness with Manuel shouting exuberantly since he is free and his comrades cheering him on. Joe, Smith, and their group is close behind though they ride near-silently, focusing completely on riding hard in pursuit. During one night, Joe, Smith, and the others are gathered around a campfire. The regular members of the group are chatting about their race to capture Manuel and one of them comments that when they catch him they’ll do Manuel like they did Hess and Holden. Joe casually asks who Hess and Holden are. Smith replies that they’re other people the group has hunted down and shoots the talkative member a warning look. Later the same night, Joe hears some noise carrying across the valley. He sneaks away from the campsite and treks down the hill a ways until he sees another campfire burning. Sitting around it are Manuel and his gang, singing Mexican folk songs and getting a bit drunk. Joe shakes his head at Manuel’s foolishness.

A bit later, after Manuel’s group has fallen asleep, Joe starts to go towards their camp when he hears a twig snap behind him. He discovers the talkative man followed him and, not wanting him to let Smith know that Manuel is nearby since he wants the bounty, quickly and quietly subdues and kills the man. Having silenced the threat, Joe sneaks down into the camp as Manuel walks out to take a piss. Joe surprises Manuel and covers his mouth, saying that he led him on a fine chase but now it’s over. Manuel whispers that if Joe takes him in then he loses a chance at $50,000. Before Joe can respond, gunfire breaks out on the hill. Smith and his men discovered Joe and the other man were missing, found the man’s body, and then saw Manuel’s camp. Manuel’s comrades wake up and return fire. Manuel quickly explains what happened on the train and tells Joe that they can leave now and get to the money and go their separate ways. Joe asks if Manuel would really leave his friends behind and Manuel says they aren’t his friends, just people he robs other people with. Satisfied, Joe lets Manuel go and they each grab a horse and ride off into the night. Smith’s men manage to take out Manuel’s group, though they lose two more men and then find no trace of Manuel or Joe. Smith curses and tells the surviving men that they’ll leave the bodies and go back to Colorado City to wait for Darrow.

Meanwhile, Darrow had rode hard to Denver to meet with “the Boss,” who is in fact Henry Carrington (Levine), a powerful man with big hooks in the land business, especially land used for ranching, railroads, and mining. Carrington wants to know of Darrow’s progress in recovering the money he earlier stole from one of Carrington’s rivals. Darrow replies that though Hess and Holden are dead his men have a lead and are tracking it as they speak. Carrington is pleased and asks when Darrow will know. Darrow replies that he would meet his men at Colorado City when they return. Carrington tells Darrow to go there and wait for word, and reminds Darrow that the money would give Carrington an unbeatable edge over his rivals. He also reminds Darrow that his patience and forgiveness are not absolute. Darrow nods and exits to ride south to Colorado City.

Joe and Manuel are deep in the badlands of Western Colorado now, riding cautiously through the mountains and canyons as Manuel is unsure of the exact route to take. Joe, not faithful in Manuel’s sense of direction, asks if the fugitive really has a clue where to go. Manuel says of course he does and after some mumbling to himself about directions, says they need to head southwest now, out of Colorado. Joe asks if he is sure and Manuel says sure enough. Later while camping for the night, Joe, a bit curious about Manuel’s odd character, asks how he became a no-good criminal. Manuel takes mock offense at the title but then talks about how he grew up just across the Mexican border, where people were poor and had few chances to be somebody. One day as a young man, he saw a group of bandits ride into town and everyone went out of their way to make them comfortable, either out of respect, fear, or both. Manuel said he swore that day to become a bandit like them, so that others would respect and fear him as well. He then asks Joe how he became the “collector of souls” but Joe says it doesn’t matter and leans against a rock to rest, though not fall asleep since he trusts Manuel as far as he can throw him.

Darrow is sitting in a Colorado City saloon when Smith and the surviving members of his gang arrive outside. Smith walks in and sits next to Darrow at the bar while the others wait by the entrance. Darrow asks if they got it and Smith says that they found the Mexicans but that in the midst of the shooting the one in charge, Manuel, managed to ride off, with the bounty hunter Joe helping him. Darrow doesn’t react but just asks what direction. Smith approximates west-southwest. Darrow nods and simply says “good” before firing once from a pistol held on his lap into Smith’s side. Smith gasps and falls to the ground and Darrow gets off his stool and tells Smith that failure can be accepted only so far, and then finishes him off with a second bullet. He goes outside, the nervous saloon patrons watching him leave and his gang following him. One of them asks what to do and Darrow says to head back to Carrington at Denver and tell him Smith failed and that he will take care of things. Another asks how Darrow can do it by himself. Darrow smiles and says that their quarry is heading into hostile Ute country, so he knows exactly where they will end up.

Joe and Manuel have crossed into New Mexico and are entering a stretch of desert-like terrain when they encounter a group of cavalry heading deeper into the desert. The commander of the force, a Captain Wallace, tells Joe and Manuel that all further travel into the deserts is discouraged since the Ute Indians have rebelled and are attacking homesteads and travelers without discretion. In fact they are on their way to check an outlying homestead that is vulnerable to Indian raids. Joe asks if there is a safe detour and Wallace replies that there isn’t one for nearly a hundred miles, so all non-military personnel are being asked to fall back to the town of Durango, back across the Colorado border. Manuel protests that they need to keep going and his fidgety behavior makes Wallace suspicious, not to mention the fact that both are heavily armed. Wallace tells them that there are no exceptions, and adds that unless they want an inquiry into their backgrounds, it would be better if they came along with his men on their mission. Manuel grumbles, but Joe, coolly seeing there is no other good option, agrees. He and Manuel travel with Wallace and his men southwest for about a day until one of the cavalrymen sees a pillar of smoke in the distance. Wallace urges his men onward and the entire group arrives to find multiple buildings of a large ranch being consumed by flames, as well as the sound of gunshots.

Several bodies are scattered across the ground as a few ranch hands and workers are firing at the hills while a few women and children are hiding behind cover. Wallace asks the man in charge what happened and the head workman says that at dawn the ranch got attacked by a large group of Utes who set killed the owner and several workers before setting fire to most of the buildings. Ever since then there have been a lot of the Indians in the hills firing at them as they tried to put out the flames, eventually too many to make it safe. Wallace says his men will clear the Indians out and tells Joe and Manuel to stay here and help the ranch workers out. After Wallace’s men move out, a woman’s scream is heard from one of the burning buildings. The head workman realizes that it is his wife who tried to get inside to take some mementos. Joe immediately races into action and runs towards the building while Manuel screams at him for being a fool. Joe makes his way into the burning building and rescues the woman, who is trapped. After bringing her out he is profusely thanked by the workman but doesn’t reply, just silently walking away.

Soon Wallace and his men return saying that the Utes have been driven off. He tells the workers to get the women and children together and that his men will escort them to safe harbor. He also tells Joe and Manuel that they can go about their business but recommends they return to Durango and find another route of travel. The two agree that is the best thing to do and ride in that direction. Along the way, Manuel prods Joe about why he suddenly risked everything to save the woman. The criminal starts putting pieces together and deduces that Joe had someone once but lost her and maybe it is linked to his career. Joe tells Manuel that he should start to be quiet but Manuel doesn’t listen, instead putting more pieces together. Eventually he surmises that a criminal killed Joe’s wife and that now Joe is a bounty hunter as a form of vengeance and has a compulsion to help people like his wife. Cackling in glee at his brains, Manuel provokes Joe who quickly pulls out his pistol and points it at Manuel’s face, saying that if Manuel makes another sound until they get to Durango, he will kill him, money or no money. Manuel is quiet the rest of the way and when they get into Durango he makes for the saloon to get a drink, Joe following behind. As they walk in a camera angle moves to the side to reveal that a man dressed in black in watching them.

Manuel and Joe sit at the bar and both order a scotch when a voice behind them says he’ll have one of those too. Joe recognizes the voice and turns to see Darrow standing with his gun pointed at them. Manuel then notices Darrow and starts to make a move for his pistol, but Darrow cocks his gun and says that wouldn’t be a smart idea. Joe asks what happens now and Darrow says that first they give him their weapons, and then they finish their drinks, go outside, and lead him to where the money is buried. After they are outside the saloon, Manuel asks how he found them. Darrow chuckles and says that he just followed the smell of scum. Manuel mutters under his breath while Joe just stays silent. All three of them get on their horses and on the outskirts of town are met by another rider, one of Darrow’s underlings. He quickly tells Darrow that Carrington is in Durango and that they need to see him immediately. Darrow is annoyed that Carrington came himself since it implies a lack of trust in him. At the hotel Carrington is staying at, Darrow leads Joe and Manuel in to see Carrington, who is pleased. He asks Joe and Manuel where the cash is but gets no response. He tells a couple other men in the room to “persuade them” and they viciously pummel and beat Joe and Manuel for a few minutes. Joe, who wouldn’t talk anyway, doesn’t say anything since he never knew the location. Manuel though cries out for it to stop and says that he’ll lead them to it. Carrington grins evilly and tells Darrow that he and a few associates will join him in accompanying Manuel and Joe. Darrow asks if he doesn’t think he can get it done. Carrington replies that he has faith in Joe’s skills, but not necessarily his loyalty when given the chance to take the money and run.

The following morning the group sets out: Joe, Manuel, Darrow, Carrington, and five others. Manuel, who is riding close to Joe, says that he’ll pay back the men who beat him since no one crosses him and lives to gloat. Joe replies that Manuel better think first about how to lead the people to the money and still get out alive. After some days of hard riding, they reach a spot in North-Central New Mexico that is the location of the buried cash: an abandoned homestead. Carrington asks Manuel where the money is buried and after being prodded by a pistol pressed to his back, he says that there is a grave to the side of the house that holds the money. They all ride over the gravesite and Carrington tells two of his men to start digging and once they unearth a coffin tells two others to shoot Joe and Manuel. Manuel yells that he did all Carrington wanted and Carrington replies that he never promised they would live. Things look bleak but at that instant Darrow pulls out his pistol and shoots the two men who would have killed Joe and Manuel. As they grab the dead men’s pistols and open fire on the other men, Carrington curses Darrow and pulls out his gun but Darrow fires first and hits him in the gut. Carrington falls off his horse and Darrow rides over to him and says that Carrington was right in that Darrow would betray him, then putting a final bullet in his body.

The dust cleared, only Joe, Manuel, and Darrow are left. Manuel profusely thanks Darrow for his help but Darrow tells him to save it and take them to the real hiding spot. Manuel says he doesn’t know what he means but Joe kicks open the coffin lid to reveal an empty space and comments that either Manuel lied to play for more time, or the man who told Manuel told him wrong in the first place. Manuel sighs and admits that the real hiding spot is nearby and Darrow suggests they go find it. The real hiding spot is a covered-up well on the other side of the homestead that really only goes a few feet deep. Darrow tells Manuel to go in and get the money out. Manuel pulls off the wooden boards covering the hole and goes in, coming back out a moment later with a heavy wooden chest. Manuel opens it and inside is four sacks. Joe asks Darrow what happens now. Darrow replies that he takes the four sacks and they get to keep their lives. Manuel is furious at says he’d rather die than let Darrow take the money for himself. Joe agrees, saying in a calm voice that after all he’s been through; walking away with nothing doesn’t sit too well. Darrow smirks and says that if they want their cut, they have to earn it. Joe understands and tells Manuel to give him his gun. Manuel is confused but does it. Joe sticks the gun in his holster and examines his own to make sure it will work. He says “twenty paces” and Darrow nods. The two of them walk a bit away from the well and then walk in opposite directions until they both have walked twenty paces, then turning to face one another. For a moment, there is total silence except for a dramatic music arrangement as the two men eye each other to see who makes the first move. Darrow blinks first and moves for his weapon, Joe doing the same. Joe is a bit quicker and gets off a shot that hits Darrow in the chest, causing Darrow’s shot to go short and wide. Joe then eyes the open coffin and grave and comments that it would be a shame to let it go to waste.

After putting Darrow in the coffin and that in the grave, Joe and Manuel return to the money. Manuel is excited and speaks very quickly about how they both can live whatever lives they want now and says two for him and two for Joe. Then, off-camera, we hear Joe say “No, four for me.” Manuel, shocked, turns and says that they had a deal. Joe smiles and says that Manuel forgot what he said back on the train ride: he has a reputation to uphold. The scene cuts to Manuel tied up face down on the back of a horse cursing in English and Spanish at Joe as the bounty hunter calmly ties the sacks of money together and drapes them over his own horse. As he gets on his horse, Joe tells Manuel to quit complaining, saying that a man with his talents should be able to find a way to escape the noose. He then rides off, leading the other horse behind him with a rope as he takes Manuel off to collect the bounty on him. The final shot is the camera pulling up and away as the two horses disappear into the desert heading for the nearest town.