Saturday, January 5, 2013
Guest House
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Plot
The story of every episode starts with arrival of new guests and the involvement of guest house's employees in their comic and tragic situations. Almost every episode ended with the solution of problems of the guests with the help of all-too-readily helpful employees and reluctant owners of the guesthouse.Pilot
The Pilot episode introduces the janitor of the guest house, John Rambo, in a very dramatic way. He is holding a wiper like a rifle or machine gun and a thrilling background music is playing. Camera moves in a way that the wiper actually looked like a rifle at the beginning of the scene. Later it turns out that John Rambo Cockroach Killer is inspired from the main character of the movie First Blood. Rambo was an instant hit and played a vital role in the popularity of the series. Producers wanted to remove the character of Rambo after the pilot episode, but its success made them decide otherwise. One of the producers admitted on TV that after the success of Rambo in the pilot episodes, he was the focus of every episode.
The Beaver
Plot
Walter Black (Mel Gibson) is a depressed CEO of Jerry Co., a toy company nearing bankruptcy. He is kicked out by his wife (Jodie Foster), to the relief of their elder son Porter (Anton Yelchin). Walter moves into a hotel. After unsuccessful suicide attempts, he develops an alternate personality represented by a beaver hand puppet found in the trash. He wears the puppet constantly, communicating solely by speaking as the beaver, helping him to recover. He reestablishes a bond with his younger son Henry and then with his wife, although not with his elder son, Porter. He also becomes successful again at work by creating a line of Mr. Beaver Building Kits for kids.Porter, who gets paid to write papers for schoolmates, is asked by Norah (Jennifer Lawrence) to write her graduation speech. He gets emotionally attached to Norah but his father's actions with the beaver puppet embarrass him.
Walter's wife moves out of the house with the children, because he lied to her about the puppet being part of a treatment plan monitored by his psychiatrist. She feels she can't communicate with her husband and that the beaver is taking him over.
Part of Walter's personality realizes what he has put his family through and wants to get rid of the beaver to get back together with his family, but the beaver resists. Walter finally takes the puppet out of his life by cutting off his arm at the elbow. He gets a prosthetic hand and is placed in a psychiatric hospital.
Norah reconnects with Porter. She starts the speech he wrote, but stops and admits publicly that she did not write it herself. She switches to explain the value of truth and her trauma caused by her brother's death some years ago. Porter realizes the value of his father and reunites with him.
Walter Black becomes himself again and returns to a normal life.
Centurion
Plot
The narrative opens with a Roman soldier fleeing across a snowy landscape, saying;"My name is Quintus Dias. I am a soldier of Rome, and this is neither the beginning, nor the end of my story."
It is AD 117 and the Roman garrisons are struggling to conquer the Picts, who inhabit the Scottish Highlands and a large part of the rest of Scotland. Centurion Quintus Dias is the only survivor of a Pictish raid on a Roman garrison and is taken prisoner by Vortix. Agricola, the Roman governor of Britannia, wants to obtain favour with the Roman Senate, hoping to secure a transfer back to the comforts of Rome. He dispatches the Ninth Legion, under General Titus Flavius Virilus, to eradicate the Pictish threat and provides him with a Brigantian scout called Etain.
As the legion marches north they encounter Dias and rescue him from three of Gorlacon's men. Dias tells Virilus of his encounter with Gorlacon and the general discovers that Dias' father was a famous gladiator whom he had seen fight. Dias befriends two Roman officers, a veteran named Bothos and a young Roman soldier named Thax.
Etain betrays the legion to Gorlacon, leading them into a trap where they are annihilated. The general is captured, while Dias, Bothos, and Thax survive, along with four others: "Brick"; two Greco-Roman legionaries named Macros and Leonidas; and Tarak, a cook from the Hindu Kush. They set out to rescue general Virilus and, after a few days' travel, they find him and sneak in at nightfall. Failing to break his chains, he orders them to leave him and get back to Roman territory. As they retreat, Thax kills Gorlacon's young son and recovers Virilus' helmet. The next morning the general is given a sword and made to duel with Etain, who kills him.
The seven plan to travel north (which is away from Roman territory) in order to throw the Picts off their trail, then head west, and then south. Meanwhile, Etain, Aeron, Vortix and a detachment of seven Pictish warriors are sent to kill them. After several days' pursuit they catch up with the fugitives, who jump off a cliff into a river. Tarak is killed before he can jump, Macros and Thax become separated from the others and see a wolf close-by.
Dias and his group camp for the night, while their trackers set up camp nearby. Dias and Brick launch a night raid on the enemy camp, killing two men and severely wounding a third, but cannot find Etain. Dias learns of the death of Gorlacon's son, and that the king has sworn vengeance on their heads. Etain is absent, as she has launched her own attack on the Roman's campsite. Dias and Brick return to their camp, only to discover that Leonidas has been killed and Bothos injured.
Macros and Thax are running from a wolf pack. Thax falls, with the wolves in close pursuit, and cries out to his comrade for help. Macros returns to help him and Thax slices through Macros' hamstrings to prevent him from standing, allowing Thax to escape while the wolves attack and devour Macros. Dias, Bothos and Brick find a hut in the forest where they befriend Arianne, a Pict exile accused of witchcraft. She shelters them, provides food and medical attention. When Etain comes the following day, Arianne confronts her while the Romans hide in her grain store under the floorboards. The next morning they leave Arianne, who provides them with enough food to travel to a nearby Roman garrison.
They find the garrison abandoned, an order pinned to a post says that the Roman troops have retreated south, by the orders of Emperor Hadrian. As they see Etain and her group of Picts approach, they set up a defensive position inside the fort. Bothos kills Vortix and a female warrior, Dias kills two Picts, and Brick kills Aeron and the last Pict warrior; however, before the Picts are defeated, Brick is killed by a spear thrown by Etain who Dias then kills.
Dias and Bothos continue southwards and are reunited with Thax. Upon reaching Hadrian's Wall, Thax threatens Dias and they fight, with Dias killing Thax. Bothos, joyfully riding towards the Romans, is mistaken for a Pict and shot by an archer. When Dias enters the camp he reports to governor Agricola, who is concerned that news of the Legion's annihilation may cause other tribes to rise up against them. He is also fearful of his record being tainted by a military failure, and decides that the Ninth Legion's fate should remain a mystery and Dias must be killed.
Dias manages to foil the attempt on his life, though he is grievously wounded in the thigh during the fracas, and Agricola's daughter tells him that he is too much of a risk. He escapes the camp and returns to Arianne in the forest. As the weakened Dias lies in her arms by the stream, he and Arianne kiss. The film ends with Quintus Dias adjusting the narrative of the film's opening line;
"My name is Quintus Dias. I am a fugitive of Rome, and this is neither the beginning, nor the end of my story."
Get Smart
Plot
Maxwell "Max" Smart, an analyst for the top secret American intelligence agency, CONTROL, yearns to become a field agent like his idol, Agent 23. Despite his amazing scores in the acceptance tests, Max is denied the promotion because the Chief of CONTROL feels that Max's analytic skills are best used for his present assignment. When CONTROL headquarters is attacked by the terrorist organization KAOS, led by Siegfried, almost all of CONTROL's agents' identities are exposed, leaving only Max and Agent 99, to pursue the culprits while former field operatives are demoted to desk jobs. Max is promoted to field agent as Agent 86, but the experienced 99 is reluctant to partner him because of his clumsy personality.Max and 99 enter Russia by parachute, hoping to trace KAOS' recent acquisition of nuclear materials through its chief bomb maker, Krstic. Along the way, they are attacked by Dalip, one of Siegfried's henchman. By infiltrating a luxurious party hosted by Krstic, they trace the nuclear material to a KAOS nuclear weapons factory disguised as a Moscow bakery, but when Krstic and his men corner them, Max is forced to shoot him. In the bakery, Max meets with Siegfried and his second-in-command, Shtarker, only to learn that Siegfried was expecting him because a double-agent has compromised his and 99's identities. Max manages to escape capture and destroy the weapons factory, but during their escape, Max and 99 are confronted by Dalip. Realizing that he knows Dalip through hours of listening to him on spy 'chatter', Max manages to persuade Dalip to spare their lives. The Chief sends 23 to observe the clean-up of the factory, but KAOS manages to sneak the weapons out through the Moskva River, with 23 reporting that only a bakery has been destroyed. Realizing that Max was alone during his key discoveries, CONTROL believes Max to be the double-agent. 99, who has been gradually falling in love with Max, is heartbroken but takes Max into custody.
CONTROL's warning is disregarded when Siegfried threatens to release nuclear weapon detonator codes to rogue states unless the United States government pays him $200 billion. While Max is in a CONTROL holding cell, Dalip sends him a coded message via the radio show American Top 40 revealing Siegfried's plan. Max escapes from CONTROL and flies to Los Angeles to unite with the Chief, 99, and 23, who have flown out to persuade the President to take the KAOS threat seriously. Max manages to convince 99 and the Chief that he is not the double-agent. As KAOS plants the nuclear bomb in the concert hall, the group figures out that 23 is the real double-agent after Max's Geiger counter-equipped watch beeps when he is near 23, picking up trace elements of radiation. 23 then pulls out a gun, takes 99 hostage and flees in a vehicle. Max and the Chief pursue 23 with a car before crashing into a golf course. The car hits a shack, sending it flying through the air, and landing on the fence of an airport which allows Max and the Chief to hop onto a small plane. Max reaches 23's car by jumping out of the plane and rescues 99, but in the struggle, the car is set on fire and forced onto railroad tracks. Max then kisses 23 to distract him. The car collides with a freight train, killing 23. After analyzing 23's nuclear football, Max realizes that the bomb will be triggered by the final note of Beethoven's "Ode to Joy". Afterwards, they manage to reach the concert hall, with Max tackling the conductor just before the final note. Siegfried, finding that his plan has failed, informs Dalip that he will not kill his wife for his failure. Max is afterwards given honors and gets his dream of becoming a real spy with agent 99 as his girlfriend. The movie ends as Max and 99 exit CONTROL headquarters through the walkway.
Braveheart
The film won five Academy Awards at the 68th Academy Awards, including the Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Director, and was nominated for an additional five.
Plot
In the 13th century, after several years of political unrest, Scotland is invaded and conquered by King Edward I of England (called "Longshanks" for his height) (Patrick McGoohan).Young William Wallace witnesses the treachery of Longshanks, survives the death of his father and brother, and is taken abroad by his uncle where he is educated. Years later, Longshanks grants his noblemen land and privileges in Scotland, including Primae Noctis, the right of the lord to take a newly married Scottish woman into his bed on her wedding night. When he returns home, Wallace (Gibson) falls in love with his childhood sweetheart, Murron MacClannough (McCormack), and they marry in secret so that she does not have to spend a night in the bed of the English lord.
When an English soldier tries to rape Murron, Wallace fights off several soldiers and the two attempt to flee. But Murron is captured and publicly executed by the sheriff, who proclaims "an assault on the King's soldiers is the same as an assault on the King himself." In retribution, Wallace and several villagers slaughter the English garrison and execute the sheriff. In addition, he goes to York, allows one of the villagers to avenge his wife's sexual shaming from an English lord, and sends the occupying English garrison back to England. This enrages Longshanks, who confronts his son Edward about this: he then orders his son to stop Wallace by any means necessary. He also knows his son has a bisexual relationship going with his French wife Isabella and another man: momentarily ignoring this, Longshanks tells Edward "One day you will be a king: at least try to act like one."
Wallace rebels against the English, and as his legend spreads, hundreds of Scots from the surrounding clans join him. Wallace leads his army to victory at the Battle of Stirling and then sacks the city of York. All the while, Wallace seeks the assistance of Robert the Bruce (Macfadyen), the son of nobleman Robert the Elder and a contender for the Scottish crown. Despite his growing admiration for Wallace and his cause, Robert is dominated by his father, who wishes to secure the throne for his son by submitting to the English.
Longshanks, worried by the threat of the rebellion, sends the wife of his son Edward, the French princess Isabella, to try to negotiate with Wallace in hopes that Wallace kills her in order to draw the French king to declare war on Wallace in revenge. Wallace refuses the bribe sent with Isabella by Longshanks, but after meeting him in person, Isabella becomes enamored with him. Meanwhile, Longshanks prepares an army to invade Scotland.
Warned of the coming invasion by Isabella, Wallace implores the Scottish nobility, who are more concerned with their own welfare, that immediate action is needed to counter the threat and to take back the country. Leading the English army himself, Longshanks confronts the Scots at the Battle of Falkirk where noblemen Lochlan and Mornay betray Wallace. The Scots lose the battle, Wallace is wounded, and Hamish's father is fatally wounded and dies after the battle. As he charges toward the departing Longshanks on horseback, Wallace is intercepted by one of the king's lancers, who turns out to be Robert the Bruce. Remorseful, Bruce gets Wallace to safety before the English can capture him. Wallace kills Mornay and Lochlan for their betrayal, avoids assassination attempts, and wages a protracted guerrilla war against the English.
Robert the Bruce, intending to join Wallace and commit troops to the war, sets up a meeting with him in Edinburgh where Robert's father has conspired with other nobles to capture and hand over Wallace to the English. Learning of his treachery, Robert the Bruce disowns his father. Following a tryst with Wallace, Isabella exacts revenge on the now terminally ill Longshanks by telling him she is pregnant with Wallace's child, intent on ending Longshank's line and ruling in his son's place.
In London, Wallace is brought before an English magistrate, tried for high treason, and condemned to public torture and beheading. Even whilst being hanged, drawn and quartered, Wallace refuses to beg for mercy and submit to the king. As cries for mercy come from the watching crowd, the magistrate offers him one final chance. Wallace instead shouts the word "Freedom!" Just before the axe falls, Wallace sees a vision of Murron in the crowd smiling at him.
Years after Wallace's death, Robert the Bruce, now Scotland's king, leads a Scottish army before a ceremonial line of English troops on the fields of Bannockburn where he is to formally accept English rule. As he begins to ride toward the English, he stops and turns back to his troops. Invoking Wallace's memory, he implores them to fight with him as they did with Wallace. He then leads his army into battle against the stunned English, winning the Scots their freedom.
The Passion of the Christ
The film covers the final 12 hours of Jesus' life, beginning with the Agony in the Garden and ending with a brief depiction of his resurrection. Flashbacks of Jesus as a child and as a young man with his mother, giving the Sermon on the Mount, teaching the Twelve Apostles, and at the Last Supper are some of the images depicted. The dialogue is entirely in reconstructed Aramaic and Latin with vernacular subtitles.
The film was a major commercial hit, grossing in excess of $600 million during its theatrical release, becoming the highest grossing R-rated film of all time. The film has also been highly controversial and received mixed reviews, with some critics claiming that the extreme violence in the movie "obscures its message."Catholic sources have questioned the authenticity of the non-biblical material the film drew on.
Plot
The film opens in Gethsemane as Jesus prays and is tempted by Satan, while his apostles, Peter, James and John sleep. After receiving thirty pieces of silver, one of Jesus' other apostles, Judas, approaches with the temple guards and betrays Jesus with a kiss on the cheek. As the guards move in to arrest Jesus, Peter cuts off the ear of Malchus, but Jesus heals the ear. The temple guards arrest Jesus and the apostles flee. John tells Mary and Mary Magdalene of the arrest. Peter follows Jesus at a distance. Caiaphas holds trial over the objection of some of the other priests, who are expelled from the court. When questioned by Caiaphas whether he is the son of God, Jesus replies "I am." Caiaphas is horrified and tears his robes and Jesus is condemned to death for blasphemy. Three times Peter denies knowing Jesus but then runs away sobbing. Meanwhile, the remorseful Judas attempts to return the money to have Jesus freed but is refused by the priests. Tormented by demons, he flees the city and hangs himself with a rope he finds on a dead donkey.Caiaphas brings Jesus before Pontius Pilate to be condemned to death, but after questioning Jesus, Pilate sends him instead to the court of Herod, as Jesus is from Herod's ruling town of Nazareth. After Jesus is returned, Pilate offers the crowd that he will chastise Jesus and then will set him free. Pilate attempts to have Jesus freed by giving the people an option of freeing Jesus or the violent criminal Barabbas. To his dismay, the crowd demands to have Barabbas freed and Jesus killed. Pilate washes his hands and proclaims he is not guilty of Jesus' punishment, but in an attempt to appease the crowd, has Jesus brutally scourged and mocked with a crown of thorns. The crowd continues to demand that Jesus be crucified, and Pilate reluctantly orders Jesus' crucifixion.
As Jesus carries the cross along the Via Dolorosa to Calvary, Seraphia wipes Jesus' face with her veil. Simon of Cyrene is unwillingly pressed into carrying the cross with Jesus. Jesus is then crucified. As he hangs from the cross, Jesus prays forgiveness for those who did this to him and redeems a criminal crucified next to him. After Jesus gives up his spirit and dies, a single drop of rain falls from the sky, triggering an earthquake which destroys the Temple and rips the cloth covering the Holy of Holies in two, to the horror of Caiaphas and the other priests. Satan is then shown screaming in defeat. Jesus is taken down from the cross. In the end, Jesus rises from the dead and exits the tomb.
1920 Evil Returns
Plot
Jaidev Verma (Aftab Shivdasani) is a famous poet who lives the life of a loner as he is unable to meet the love of his life, Smruti (Tia Bajpai). They got to know each other through an exchange of letters and slowly fall for each other. One day, Jaidev receives a letter informing him that Smruti had an accident and has died. Now his sister Karuna (Vidya Malvade) is his only support system who keeps him motivated. One day Jaidev finds an unconscious girl near a lake and brings her home. After returning to her senses, she is not able to remember anything from her past life except Jaidev's poems. Karuna becomes skeptical of her presence in the house and gets even more so when the keeper of the cemetery warns them of an evil spirit in her.But Jaidev is insistent on keeping her at home since he feels a connection with her. He even names her Sangeeta. Strange & spooky things start happening with Sangeeta like vomiting iron nails and seeing ghosts in her room. On their way to see a doctor, Sangeeta gets completely possessed by the ghost. Now to save her, the only person Jaidev can turn to is the cemetery keeper. Slowly Jaidev gets to know that Sangeeta is actually his lost love Smruti. So he went to Smruti's old address to find the truth. But there he discovers that Karuna had come there before, asking about Smriti. Jaidev returns home and finds that Karuna is missing; he finds Karuna's body hanging in the forest with suicide notes around it. From Karuna's letters he comes to know that his best friend Amar (Sharad Kelkar), who was always jealous of Jaidev's success, exploited Karuna to get his revenge. When Amar discovers that Jaidev loves Smruti, he goes to Smruti, posing as Jaidev, and takes her to Shimla and tries to exploit her, but in the process Amar dies. Now Jaidev takes possessed Smruti to Shimla to face the final battle of good and bad.
As they are preparing to take Smruti, the cemetery keeper warns Jaidev that the spirit possessing Smruti is very vengeful and has to be deceitfully taken to the same place i.e. Amar's residence, and when once Smruti touches Amar's corpse, even unwillingly, the spirit of Amar will have to leave Smruti's body and return to Amar's corpse; then the corpse can be set on fire, releasing Amar's spirit from this karmic cycle of life, death and after death and attain nirvana. Whilst doing this Smruti must not know where she is being taken, else the spirit residing in her will also know, and may try to flee from the spot, so she is made unconscious and completely enveloped in a sacred cloth from head to toe, while maintaining complete preparedness of not letting cloth move from Smruti's face. Eventually they reach the designated place, but as fate would have it, the cemetery keeper topples on old broken flooring and so drops Smruti's unconscious body, moving the sacred cloth away from her face, awakening the spirit in her. The possessed Smruti unleashes bloody mayhem on all four persons including Jaidev and in a matter of time all the persons except Jaidev are brutally killed by decapitation from old steel wire broken by possessed Smruti. Jaidev is badly injured in battle of evil versus just, and the possessed Smruti even burns the corpse of Amar thus forever remaining in Smruti's body. Helpless Jaidev lying on floor pleads with spirit in smruti's body that since spirit will take smruti forever with him there is no meaning in him letting Jaidev live after and pleads spirit to kill him so as to release from agony of living after smruti's separation. But spirit refuses saying that it is exactly what spirit want Jaidev to suffer but while saying so possessed smruti walks at least in lying Jaidev's reach and Jaidev cuts one rope attached to loft in ceiling thus opening ceiling loft's door then a corpse from ceiling falls on possessed smruti eventually touching smruti there it is revealed in flashback that it is the real corpse of amar that Jaidev along with other persons had hidden in ceiling loft as precaution for future planned convincingly.The corpse comes alive as spirit is forced to return to its original body once the corpse touched smruti's body when it fell on her.now the enraged corpse aka spirit trys to kill smruti also by jumping with her in fire lit by spirit earlier. But jaidev in nick of time thrusts the axe like weapon in corpse's heart saying that this time he will not let his love get separated by menovalent spirit again. And as the corpse in great pain tumbles in lit fire jaidev jumps and saves smruti still lying unconscious in jaidev's arm, and it is shown the end of amar aka spirit. In the closing credits, it is shown that smruti and jaidev have been united for good and henceforth jaidev will always keep smruti protected by his undying love for her.
Skyfall
The film centres on Bond investigating an attack on MI6; it transpires that the attack is part of a plot by former MI6 operative Raoul Silva to humiliate, discredit, and kill M as revenge against her for betraying him. The film sees the return of two recurring characters after an absence of two films: Q, played by Ben Whishaw, and Eve Moneypenny, played by Naomie Harris. Skyfall is the last film of the series for Judi Dench, who played M, a role that she had played in the previous six films. The position is subsequently filled by Ralph Fiennes' character, Gareth Mallory.
Mendes was approached to direct the film after the release of Quantum of Solace in 2008. Development was suspended when MGM encountered financial troubles and did not resume until December 2010; during this time, Mendes remained attached to the project as a consultant. The original screenwriter, Peter Morgan, left the project during the suspension. When production resumed, Logan, Purvis, and Wade continued writing what became the final version of the script. Filming began in November 2011 and primarily took place in the United Kingdom, China and Turkey.
Skyfall premiered in London at the Royal Albert Hall on 23 October 2012 and was released in the United Kingdom on 26 October 2012 and the United States on 9 November 2012. It was the first James Bond film to be screened in IMAX venues, although it was not filmed with IMAX cameras. The film's release coincided with the 50th anniversary of the Bond series, which began with Dr. No in 1962. Skyfall was positively received by critics and at the box office, becoming the 14th film, as well as the first Bond film to cross the $1 billion mark worldwide. It is thus far the 14th highest grossing film of all time and has become the highest-grossing film in the UK, the highest-grossing film in the Bond series, the highest-grossing film worldwide for Sony Pictures, and the third highest-grossing film of 2012.
Plot
In Istanbul, MI6 agents James Bond and Eve chase a mercenary, Patrice, who has stolen a computer hard drive containing details of undercover agents placed in terrorist organisations by NATO states. Patrice wounds Bond in the shoulder and, as the two men fight atop a train, Eve inadvertently shoots Bond, allowing Patrice to escape. Bond falls into a river and goes missing, presumed dead.In the aftermath of the operation, M, the head of MI6, comes under political pressure to retire from Gareth Mallory, the Intelligence and Security Committee Chairman. On her return from the meeting, MI6's servers are breached and M receives a taunting message via computer moments before the offices explode, killing a number of employees. MI6 relocates to its emergency offices underground. Bond, having used his supposed death to retire, learns of the attack and returns to London. Although he fails a series of physical and psychological examinations, M approves his return to the field. Shrapnel taken from Bond's shoulder wound helps identify Patrice, and intelligence places him in Shanghai, where he is planning an assassination. Bond is ordered to identify Patrice's employer, recover the stolen hard drive and kill Patrice.
After Patrice kills his target, he and Bond fight. Patrice falls to his death before Bond can learn of his employer. Searching Patrice's equipment, Bond finds a gambling chip intended as payment for the assassination, which leads him to a casino in Macau. Bond approaches Sévérine, whom he witnessed as an accomplice in the assassination, and asks to meet her employer, Raoul Silva. She warns him that he is about to be killed by her bodyguards, but promises to help him if he will kill Silva. Bond defeats his attackers and joins Sévérine on her boat. They travel to an abandoned island off the coast of Macau, where they are taken prisoner by the crew and delivered to Silva. A former MI6 agent who had previously worked under M, Silva has turned to cyberterrorism, orchestrating the attacks on MI6. Silva kills Sévérine, but Bond overpowers his guards and captures Silva for removal to Britain.
At MI6's underground headquarters, Q attempts to decrypt Silva's laptop, but inadvertently enables it to access the MI6 systems, allowing Silva to escape from MI6 custody. Realising Silva's capture was part of a plan to confront and kill M, Bond gives chase through the tunnel network under London. Silva attacks M during a public inquiry into her handling of the stolen hard drive. Bond arrives in time to join Mallory and Eve in repelling Silva's attack, and M is hurried from the building by her aide, Bill Tanner. Bond drives M to Skyfall, his family estate and childhood home in Scotland. Laying a trap, he instructs Q to leave an electronic trail for Silva to follow, a decision Mallory supports.
Bond and M are met by Kincade, the Skyfall gamekeeper. The trio are only lightly armed, but they improvise a series of booby traps throughout the house. When Silva's men arrive, Bond, M and Kincade fight off the assault, although M is wounded. Silva arrives by helicopter to lead a second assault, and Bond sends M and Kincade off through a secret tunnel at the back of a priest hole to a chapel on the grounds. The second assault uses firepower from the helicopter, while Silva throws incendiary grenades into the building. Bond detonates gas canisters with a stick of dynamite and retreats down the same tunnel as M and Kincade. The resulting blast causes the helicopter to crash, destroying the house and killing most of Silva's men. Silva survives and, spotting Kincade's torch beam, follows Kincade and M to the chapel. He forces his gun into M's hand, begging her to kill them both. Bond, having been delayed fighting Silva's henchmen, arrives and kills Silva, but M succumbs to her earlier wound and dies. Following M's funeral, Eve—formally introducing herself to Bond as Eve Moneypenny—retires from field work to become secretary for the new head of MI6, Mallory, who assumes the title of M.
Arrivals
Arrivals Series
A new documentary series called the Arrival Series started being viewed and aired from 5 February 2010.The documentary has also been uploaded previously on YouTube and the official site.The Green Zone
Pre-invasion
The Green Zone was a heavily fortified zone in the center of the Iraqi capital that served as the headquarters of successive Iraqi regimes. It was the administrative center for the Ba'ath Party. The area was not originally home to the villas of government officials though it was the location of a number of military bases, government ministries, and presidential palaces inhabited by Saddam Hussein and his family. The largest of these was the Republican Palace that was President Saddam Hussein's primary seat of power. The area is also known as Karradat Mariam so named for a locally famous woman who helped the poor people of Baghdad.[citation needed]Post-invasion
The area was taken by American military forces in April 2003 in some of the heaviest fighting during the capture of Baghdad. In the lead-up to the US invasion of Iraq, Saddam and many high status residents of the area were evacuated because of the much anticipated heavy aerial bombardment of the area by US forces. Most of the remaining residents fled as US ground forces closed in on the Iraqi capital out of a fear of arrest by Coalition forces or possible reprisals by disgruntled Iraqis. Some of the original inhabitants who did not flee continued to live in the area but many are also undocumented squatters referred to as the "215 Apartments".Coalition airstrikes at the outset of the fighting left a sizable number of buildings in central Baghdad abandoned. The Coalition Provisional Authority administrators who arrived on the heels of the forward invading forces decided they were ideal for use by Coalition administrators. Jay Garner, head of the reconstruction team, set up his headquarters in the former Republican Palace; other villas were taken by groups of government officials and private contractors. Eventually some five thousand officials and civil contractors settled in the area.
The abandoned buildings were not only attractive to Coalition forces, but also to homeless Iraqis.Among these were individuals who had lost their homes in the conflict, but most were urban poor who had been homeless or lived in slums before the war and saw moving into the abandoned houses as a sizable increase in their standard of living. They felt that since they were not Ba'athist, they had as much right to the vacated houses as the Coalition authorities. There continue to be some five thousand of these Iraqis living in the Green Zone.
Entry to the Green Zone was under the control of a small garrison of American troops who manned the various checkpoints. They were typically a battalion of soldiers at FOB Prosperity, under the command of the Multi-National Division - Baghdad. Additionally, a battalion of coalition soldiers from the Republic of Georgia also manned the entry checkpoints.
The Green Zone was completely surrounded by high concrete blast walls, T-Walls and barbed wire fences with access only available through a handful of entry control points, all of which controlled by Coalition troops. It is this security that made the Green Zone the safest area of Baghdad, and gave its name colloquially as "the bubble". The southern and eastern side of the zone is protected by the Tigris River – the only entrance to the zone from this side is the Arbataash Tamuz (July 14th) Bridge (named for the date that the former regime came to power.)
The Green Zone was frequently shelled by insurgents with mortars and rockets, though these attacks caused few casualties. In October 2004 it was hit by two suicide bombings, which destroyed the bazaar and the Green Zone Cafe. On April 12, 2007, a bomb went off in the Iraqi Parliament cafeteria, killing Mohammed Awad (a member of the Sunni National Dialogue Front) and injuring 22, including one of the vice presidents. The Green Zone was shelled with rocket and mortar fire almost daily from Easter 2008 until May 5, 2008, causing numerous civilian and military casualties; As stated in a USA Today Article " A high percentage of the rocket and mortar fire originated in Sadr City. On April 6, 2008, two U.S. soldiers were killed and 17 more wounded when a rocket or mortar attack struck inside the Green Zone. On July 22, 2010, three Triple Canopy security guard contractors (two Ugandans and one Peruvian) were killed and 15 more wounded (including two U.S. nationals) when a rocket attack struck inside the Green Zone.[citation needed]
Since the handover of sovereignty to Iraqis, many of the facilities in the Green Zone have been turned over to the new Iraqi government. It is still a base for western private military contractors, and home to the U.S., British, Australian, and Egyptian embassies. The permanent U.S. embassy is located in the southern part of the International or "Green" Zone overlooking the Tigris River.
On 1 January 2009, full control of the International (formerly "Green") Zone was handed over to Iraqi security forces.
Apocalypto
The film features a cast of Mayas, and some other people of Native American descent. Its Yucatec Maya dialogue is accompanied by subtitles.
Plot
While hunting tapir in the Mesoamerican jungle, Jaguar Paw (Rudy Youngblood), his father Flint Sky (Morris Birdyellowhead), and their fellow tribesmen encounter a procession of traumatized refugees. The group's leader explains that their lands were ravaged, and asks for permission to pass through the jungle. When Jaguar Paw and his tribesmen return home, Flint Sky tells his son not to let the refugees' fear infect him.The next morning, after Jaguar Paw wakes from a nightmare involving the refugee leader, he sees warriors entering the village and setting the huts on fire. The raiders, led by Zero Wolf (Raoul Trujillo), attack and subdue the villagers. Jaguar Paw slips out with his pregnant wife Seven (Dalia Hernández) and his little son Turtles Run (Carlos Emilio Báez), lowering them by vine into a deep vertical cave, tying the vine off so they could climb out later. Jaguar Paw then kills a raider and returns to help the village. He is eventually subdued and a raider named Middle Eye (Gerardo Taracena), whom Jaguar Paw almost killed, slits Flint Sky's throat while the bound Jaguar Paw can only watch. Before the raiders leave with their prisoners, Snake Ink, one of the raider captains, notices Jaguar Paw staring toward the cave. Suspicious of the tied-off vine hanging into the cave, he cuts it, trapping Seven and Turtles Run. Jaguar Paw and the other captives are then led off into the jungle.
A short distance from the village they join another group of raiders who have captured the refugees Jaguar Paw met the day before. Later, Cocoa Leaf, a wounded captive tied to the same pole as Jaguar Paw nearly tumbles off a cliff, but Jaguar Paw and the others are able to pull him back up with incredible effort. Though Middle Eye, who is guarding them, is impressed by this show of brute power, he kills Cocoa Leaf by cutting him loose and pushing him off the cliff.
The raiding party march toward a Mayan city, encountering razed forests and failed maize crops, along with villages decimated by plague. A little girl dying of plague prophesies that there will be a solar eclipse and a man running with a jaguar will bring the raiders to those who will scratch out the earth and end their world. In the city's outskirts, where the prisoners come upon slaves working in lime quarries, the female captives are sold as slaves while the males are escorted to the top of a step pyramid. The high priest sacrifices several captives, including Jaguar Paw's friend Curl Nose (Amílcar Ramírez), by cutting out their beating hearts before beheading them. When Jaguar Paw is about to be sacrificed, a solar eclipse occurs. The high priest looks at the emperor and the two share a knowing smile while the people below panic at the phenomenon. The priest declares the god Kukulkan is satisfied with the sacrifices. He asks Kukulkan to let light return to the world and the eclipse passes. The crowd cheers in amazement and the priest orders that the remaining captives be led away and "disposed of".
Zero Wolf takes the captives to a ball court. The captives are released in pairs and forced to run the length of the open space within the ball court, offering Zero Wolf's men some target practice, with a cynical promise of freedom should they reach the end of the field alive. Zero Wolf's son, Cut Rock (Ricardo Díaz Mendoza), is sent to the end of the field to "finish" any survivors. The raiders target the runners with atlatls, arrows and large stones. The first pair are Jaguar Paw's last living friends, Smoke Frog and Blunted (Jonathan Brewer). Smoke Frog is struck by a heavy stone, then finished off by Cut Rock while Blunted is impaled through the stomach by a dart launched with an atlatl.
Next up are Jaguar Paw and the refugee leader from the beginning. Although they almost make it, the refugee leader is shot through the head with an arrow. Jaguar Paw is shot in the waist with another arrow although he is able to break off the arrowhead. As Cut Rock approaches to finish Jaguar Paw, the not-quite-dead Blunted trips Cut Rock, buying Jaguar Paw time. Cut Rock gets up and savagely kills Blunted, then turns to finish off Jaguar Paw, who reaches up and slices through Cut Rock's neck with the broken-off arrowhead. Jaguar Paw then pulls the arrow from his back and stumbles away towards the jungle.
As Cut Rock bleeds out with Zero Wolf easing him into the next life, Jaguar Paw runs through a withered maize field and an open mass grave of sacrificial victims before finally reaching the jungle. The enraged Zero Wolf and his eight men pursue Jaguar Paw into the jungle and back toward Jaguar Paw's home. Eventually Jaguar Paw climbs a tree. The pursuers move past him, but a black jaguar who has made the tree its home is angered by him, and gives chase. The raiders see Jaguar Paw and the jaguar. At first they only see Jaguar Paw. They move to intercept him, but the jaguar kills one of the raiders. The raiders are forced to stay and kill the jaguar. They ponder this next fulfillment of the girl's prophecy.
Again in pursuit, another raider, Drunkards Four, is killed when a venomous snake bites his neck. Eventually, after running all night, Jaguar Paw finds himself caught between a high waterfall and the raiders and is forced to jump. He survives and declares from the riverbank below that the raiders are now in his homelands, echoing his father's challenge to the refugees at the beginning of the film.
After listening to Jaguar Paw's challenge, Zero Wolf says they must pursue him over the waterfall, but Snake Ink says they will climb down around the side after Jaguar Paw. Zero Wolf stabs Snake Ink for his impudence. Zero Wolf then gives the order that he and his men will jump the falls. While most make it alive, one smashes his head on the rocks below and is killed. The remaining men swim to the shore and restart their pursuit. Jaguar Paw escapes a pool of black quicksand and, now camouflaged in black mud, resolves to become the hunter rather than the hunted. First he disables his pursuers by throwing a hornets' nest into their midst. The coating of mud protects Jaguar Paw from the hornets. Next, Jaguar Paw prepares poison darts with poison he extracts from a tree toad. The darts allow him to kill another raider. This leads to his showdown with the sadistic Middle Eye, whom Jaguar Paw bludgeons to death with the Mayan war club of the raider he just killed. Now, to add to Jaguar Paw's worries, it begins raining heavily. The cave where Jaguar Paw's wife and son are trapped is starting to flood. As Jaguar Paw rushes to save his family, Zero Wolf confronts him and shoots him again with an arrow. As Zero Wolf advances to finish Jaguar Paw, he blunders into Jaguar Paw's hunting trap; he is impaled and killed.
Following Zero Wolf's death, the two remaining raiders chase Jaguar Paw out to a beach where, much to the surprise of all three of them, they encounter conquistador ships anchored off the coast, with men making their way ashore. The amazement of the raiders allows Jaguar Paw to flee. He returns into the forest to pull his wife and son out of the flooded pit where they are hiding, and where Seven has just given birth to a second son. As the reunited family look out from the forest towards the Spanish ships, Seven wonders if they should go to them, but Jaguar Paw says they should return to the forest in search of a new beginning.
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