Flight 714

Flight 714, also known as Flight 714 to Sydney (French: Vol 714 Pour Sydney) is the twenty-second volume of The Adventures of Tintin series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé. The title refers to a flight that Tintin and his friends fail to catch, as they become embroiled in a plot to kidnap an eccentric millionaire from a supersonic business jet on an Indonesian island. This album, first published in 1968, is unusual in the Tintin series for its science fiction and paranormal influences. The central mystery is essentially left unresolved.
On a refueling stop in Jakarta, Tintin, Captain Haddock and Professor Calculus are on their way to Sydney when they meet aircraft industrialist and eccentric millionaire Laszlo Carreidas. Unable to politely refuse Carreidas's offer of a lift, Tintin and his friends join the millionaire on his prototype private jet, the Carreidas 160. Unbeknownst to Carreidas and the others, his secretary Spalding and two of the pilots are in a plot tohijack the plane and bring it to a deserted volcanic island in the Lesser Sunda Islands. After a rough landing, while embarking from the plane, a terrified Snowy bolts from Tintin's arms and runs off. Guards shoot at him, and a horrified Tintin believes that he is killed.

The mastermind of the plot then reveals himself as the evil Rastapopoulos, intent on taking Carreidas' fortune. Captain Haddock's corrupt ex-shipmate, Allan, is present as Rastapopoulos's henchman. The Sondonesians have been hired as mercenaries.

The prisoners are bound and held in Japanese World War II-era bunkers. Rastapopoulos takes Carreidas to another bunker where his accomplice,Doctor Krollspell, injects the millionaire with a truth serum to enable Rastapopulos to learn Carreidas's Swiss bank account number. Unfortunately for Rastapopoulos, Carreidas becomes all too eager to tell the truth about his life of greed, perfidy, and corruption—everything except the Swiss bank account. Furious, Rastapopulos lunges at Krollspell, who is still holding the truth serum syringe, and is accidentally injected. He too recounts hideous deeds in a boasting manner, as he and Carreidas begin to quarrel over who is the more evil. Rastapopoulos reveals that nearly all of the men he recruited, including Spalding, the aircraft pilots, and (the increasingly unnerved) Krollspell, are all marked to be eliminated.

Snowy, alive after all, helps Tintin and his friends escape by distracting the two guards, enabling Tintin to knock them out, and find the bunker where Carreidas is held prisoner. Tintin and Captain Haddock bind and gag Krollspell, Rastapopulos, and even the irascible Carreidas, and escort them to lower ground, intending to use Rastapopulos as a hostage. However, the serum wears off and Rastapopulos escapes as Allan detects the escaping prisoners. However, Krollspell, in fear of Rastapopoulos, throws in his lot with Tintin and Haddock; he is subsequently released and continues to accompany Tintin and Haddock, watching the still irritable Carreidas.

Tintin, led by a telepathic voice, guides the protagonists to discover a hidden entrance to a cave. Through a large hallway they discover a temple hidden inside the island's volcano, guarded by an ancient statue that has all the appearances of a modern astronaut. Penetrating deeper into the volcano, Tintin and his friends meet Mik Kanrokitoff, a writer for the magazine Space Week, who reveals to them that his is the guiding voice that they have followed, having received it into their minds via a telepathic transmitter. Kanrokitoff obtained the device from an extraterrestrial race, who were formerly worshipped on the island as gods and who use it as a landing-point to contact Earth's people.

An earthquake and explosion set off by Rastapopoulos and his men triggers a volcanic eruption. Despite Carreidas's irascible behaviour, Tintin and his party finally reach relative safety inside the volcano's crater bowl. Meanwhile, Rastapopoulos and his henchmen flee the eruption by running down the outside of the volcano and launch a rubber dinghy from Carreidas' plane.

Once Tintin and his friends find their way out of the volcano, Kanrokitoff puts them all under hypnosis and summons a flying saucer piloted by the extraterrestrials. The hypnotised group boards the saucer, narrowly escaping the volcano's dramatic eruption. Kanrokitoff spots the rubber dinghy and exchanges Tintin and his companions (except Krollspell, who is taken back to his base in Cairo with hypnotic-induced amnesia) for Allan, Spalding, Rastapopulos, and the treacherous pilots, who are whisked away in the saucer to an unknown fate. The group awakens from hypnosis and cannot remember what happened to them. Professor Calculus has a souvenir, though—a crafted rod of alloyed cobalt, iron, and nickel, which he had found in the caves. The cobalt is of a state that does not occur on Earth, and is the only evidence of a close encounter with its makers. Only Snowy, who cannot speak, remembers the hijacking and alien abduction.

The story ends with Tintin, Carreidas, and companions finally catching flight 714 to Sydney.

Read more

Tintin in Tibet

Tintin in Tibet (French: Tintin au Tibet) is the twentieth of The Adventures of Tintin, the series of comic albums written and illustrated byBelgian artist Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as the hero. Originally serialised from September 1958 in the French language magazine named after his creation, Le Journal de Tintin, it was then first published in book form in 1960. An "intensely personal book" for Hergé, who would come to see it as his favourite of the Tintin adventures, it was written and drawn by him at a time when he was suffering from traumatic nightmares and a personal conflict over whether he should divorce his wife of three decades, Germaine Remi, for a younger woman with whom he had fallen in love, Fanny Vlaminck.

The plot of the book revolves around the young reporter Tintin who, aided by his faithful dog Snowy, his friend Captain Haddock and the sherpa Tharkey, their treks across the Himalayan mountains to the plateau of Tibet, having arrived by way of India and Nepal, in order to look for Tintin's friend Chang Chong-Chen whom the authorities claim had been killed in a plane crash over the mountains. Convinced that Chang has somehow survived, Tintin continues to search for him despite the odds, along the way encountering the giant Himalayan ape-man, the Yeti.

Released after the publication of the previous Tintin adventure, The Red Sea Sharks (1958), Tintin in Tibet would differ from the other stories in the series because many of the core characters from the series, such as Thomson and Thompson and Cuthbert Calculus, were wholly or almost absent, whilst at the same time it was the only Tintin adventure to not pit Tintin against an antagonist. Tintin in Tibet is highly thought of by prominent Tintinologists (as well as by writers on the art of the comic-book), with Michael Farr calling it "exceptional in many respects" and Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier describing it as "arguably the best book in the series". It has also been publicly praised by the Dalai Lama, who awarded his own Truth of Light award to the book and to Hergé. Adaptations of Tintin in Tibet have been made in various media, including ananimated television series, a radio series and a video game in the 1990s, and then for the theatre in the 2000s.

     

While on holiday in a resort in the French Alps with Captain Haddock and Professor Calculus, Tintin reads about a plane crash in the Gosain ThanMassif in the Himalayas. That evening at their hotel, he has a vivid dream that his young Chinese friend Chang Chong-Chen (introduced in The Blue Lotus) is terribly hurt and calling for help from the ruins of a plane crash. The next morning, Tintin reads in the paper that Chang was aboard the plane that crashed in Tibet. Believing that his dream was a telepathic vision, Tintin flies to Katmandu in Nepal via New Delhi, India with Snowy, and a skeptical Captain Haddock. They hire a sherpa named Tharkey, and accompanied by some porters, they travel overland from Nepal to the crash site in Tibet.

One the way, they discover footprints in the snow that Tharkey claims belong to the yeti. The porters abandon the group in fear, and Tintin, Haddock and Tharkey go on and eventually reach the crash site. Tintin sets off with Snowy to try to trace Chang's steps, and after glimpsing at a silhouette in the snow finds a cave in which Chang carved his name on a rock, proving that he survived the crash.

Tharkey believes that Tintin saw the yeti and convinces him that the area is just too large to search. The reporter however changes his mind back after spotting a scarf higher up on a cliff face. While attempting to climb upwards and after having his pick-axe caught with St. Elmo's fire, Haddock loses his grip and hangs perilously down the cliff wall, imperiling Tintin, who is tied to him. He tells Tintin to cut the rope to save himself, but Tintin refuses. Tharkey, who has also had a change of heart moved by Tintin's selflessness, returns just in time to save them. That night, a storm blows away their tent and they have to trek onwards, unable to sleep lest they freeze. They eventually arrive within sight of the Buddhistmonastery of Khor-Biyong before collapsing due to exhaustion. An avalanche occurs, and they are buried in the snow.

Blessed Lightning, a monk at the monastery, 'sees' in a vision Tintin, Snowy, Haddock and Tharkey being in peril. Tintin regains consciousness and, unable to reach the monastery himself, gives Snowy a written call for help to deliver. Snowy lets go of the message when he finds a bone, but then realises what he's done, and runs to the monastery to make someone follow him. The monks head after him as he is recognised as the white dog in Blessed Lightning's vision. Two days later, Tintin, Haddock and Tharkey regain consciousness in the monastery and receive an audience with the monks. After Tintin tells the Grand Abbot why they are there, the Abbot tells him to abandon his quest and return to his country. However, Blessed Lightning has another vision, through which Tintin learns that Chang is still alive inside a mountain cave, but that the "migou", or yeti, is also there. Haddock doesn't believe the vision is genuine, but Tintin, after being given directions by the Abbot, travels to Charabang, a small village near the Horn of the Yak, the mountain mentioned by Blessed Lightning. Haddock initially refuses to follow Tintin anymore, but once again changes his mind and pursues him to Charabang. The two of them, and Snowy, head to the Horn of the Yak on the final lap of their journey.

They wait outside until they see the yeti leave the cave. Tintin ventures inside with a camera while Haddock keeps lookout, and he finally finds Chang, who is feverish and shaking. The yeti, finally revealed as a large anthropoid with an oval-shaped head, returns to the cave before Haddock can warn Tintin, and he reacts with anger upon seeing Tintin taking Chang away. As he reaches toward Tintin however, he sets off the flash bulb of the camera, which scares him away. Tintin and Haddock carry Chang back to the village of Charabang, and he explains to them that the yeti saved him after the crash and took him away from the rescue parties. Along the way, they briefly encounter the yeti again, and he is scared off this time by Haddock blowing his nose.

After Chang has been prepared for comfortable transport, he, Tintin and Haddock are met ceremonially by the Grand Abbot and an emissary group of monks, who present Tintin with a silk scarf in honour of the bravery he has shown, and the strength of his friendship with Chang. The monks take them back to Khor-Biyong, and after a week, when Chang has recovered, they return to Nepal by caravan. As their party travels away from the monastery, Chang muses that the yeti is no wild animal, but instead has a human soul, while the yeti sadly watches their departure from a distance.

Read more

The Secret of the Unicorn

The Secret of the Unicorn (French: Le Secret de la Licorne) is the eleventh volume of The Adventures of Tintin, the series of comic albums by Belgian cartoonist Hergé. Young reporter Tintin, his dog Snowy, and his friend Captain Haddock discover a riddle left by Haddock's ancestor, the 17th century Sir Francis Haddock, which could lead them to the hidden treasure of Red Rackham, the pirate. To unravel the riddle, Tintin and Haddock must obtain three identical models of Sir Francis's ship, the Unicorn, but they discover that criminals are also after these model ships, and are willing to kill in order to obtain them.

The story was first serialized in Le Soir Jeunesse, children's supplement to Belgium's leading newspaper Le Soir, from 11 June 1942 to 14 January 1943 before being published in book form later that year. The Secret of the Unicorn is the first volume in a two-part adventure concluded inRed Rackham's Treasure (1944).

Written while Belgium was occupied by Nazi Germany during World War II, The Secret of the Unicorn is the first book in the series to avoid political themes, instead focusing purely on an adventure story, and has been described as being the first book in Hergé's middle period. It is also known for being one of only two books in the series set entirely in Belgium.

Hergé heavily researched the background to his story, ensuring that the various ships, buildings, and other features illustrated in it were based upon real life counterparts. The Secret of the Unicorn was Hergé's favourite Tintin adventure until he made Tintin in Tibet (1960). The story has had adaptations including a radio series (1992), two animated television series, Hergé's Adventures of Tintin (1959–63) and The Adventures of Tintin (1991), and the film The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn (2011).
       

Whilst browsing in a market in Brussels, Tintin purchases an old model ship which he wishes to give to his friend Captain Haddock as a gift. Two strangers, the model ship collector Ivan Ivanovitch Sakharine and a mysterious figure known as Barnaby, then unsuccessfully try to independently convince Tintin to sell the model to them. Returning with the model to his flat, Snowy knocks it over and its mainmast is broken. Repairing it, and showing the ship to Haddock, the latter is amazed that it is actually a model of theUnicorn, a 17th-century warship captained by his ancestor, Sir Francis Haddock. The model ship is subsequently stolen, and it is revealed that Sakharine owns an identical model of the Unicorn, although this was soon stolen. Returning to his flat, Tintin discovers a rolled-up parchment hidden under furniture, on which is a part of a riddle that points to the location of treasure, and he realises that this must have been hidden in the mast of the model which Snowy had broken.

Informing Haddock about the riddle, the captain tells him of how Sir Francis Haddock battled with the pirate Red Rackham somewhere in the West Indies, before killing him in single combat and blowing up his ship. Haddock gets somewhat carried away in his telling of the story: destroying his flat while re-enacting the battle scenes. He also reveals that three models exist in total.

Barnaby then turns up at Tintin's doorstep but is shot down by unknown assailants. Later Tintin is kidnapped by the perpetrators of the shooting. They are revealed to be the Bird brothers, two unscrupulous antique dealers who own a third model of the Unicorn. They are behind the theft of Tintin's model and Sakharine's parchment, knowing that only with all three parchments can the location of the treasure be found for the following book Red Rackham's treasure. Tintin escapes from the Bird brothers' country estate, Marlinspike Hall, whilst the Captain arrives with the police officers Thomson and Thompson to arrest them. However, it is found that they do not have two of the parchments. These are found to have been stolen by Aristides Silk, a kleptomaniacspecialising in wallet-snatching. As the pickpocket is cornered, his cache of stolen wallets is found, amongst which are the Bird Brothers' wallets containing the missing two parchments. By combining the three parchments, Tintin and Haddock discover the coordinates of the hidden treasure, and begin to plan for an expedition to find it. The story ends where it started, leading Tintin to the rest of the treasure.

Read more

The Last Crusade

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is a 1989 American fantasy-adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg, from a story co-written by executive producer George Lucas. It is the third installment in the Indiana Jones franchise. Harrison Ford reprises the title role and Sean Connery plays Indiana's father, Henry Jones, Sr. Other cast members such as Alison Doody, Denholm Elliott, Julian Glover, River Phoenix, and John Rhys-Daviesalso have featured roles. In the film, set largely in 1938, Indiana searches for his father, a Holy Grail scholar, who has been kidnapped by Nazis.

After the mixed reaction to the dark Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Spielberg chose to compensate with a film lighter in tone. During the five years between Temple of Doom and Last Crusade, he and executive producer Lucas reviewed several scripts before accepting Jeffrey Boam's. Filming locations included Spain, Italy, England, Turkey and Jordan.

The film was released in North America on May 24, 1989 to mostly positive reviews. It was a financial success, earning $474,171,806 at the worldwide box office totals. It won the Academy Award for Best Sound Editing.

In 1912, 13-year-old Indiana Jones (or Indy) is horseback riding with his Boy Scout troop in Moab, Utah. He discovers robbers in a cave who find an ornamental cross which belonged to Coronado and steals the cross from them. As they give chase, Indy hides in a circus train. Although he escapes, the robbers bring the sheriff, and Indy is forced to return it. Meanwhile, his oblivious father, Henry Jones, Sr., is working on his research into the Holy Grail, keeping meticulous notes in a diary. One of the robbers, impressed by the boy's tenacity, gives him his fedora and some encouraging words.

In 1938, after recovering the cross and donating it to Marcus Brody's museum, Indy is introduced to Walter Donovan, who informs him that Indy's estranged father has vanished while searching for the Holy Grail, using an incomplete inscription as his guide. Indy then receives a package by post which turns out to be his father's Grail diary, containing his father's research. Understanding that his father would not have sent the diary unless he was in trouble, Indy and Marcus travel to Venice, where they meet Henry's Austrian colleague, Dr. Elsa Schneider. Beneath the library where Henry was last seen, Indy and Elsa discover catacombs and the tomb of a knight of the First Crusade, which also contains a complete version of the inscription that Henry had used, this one revealing the location of the Grail. They flee when the catacombs are set aflame by the Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword, a secret society that protects the Grail. Indy and Elsa are pursued and escape on a speedboat, and a chase through Venice ensues in which they ultimately capture the secret society's leader, Kazim. After Indy convinces him of their honorable goal of rescuing Henry, Kazim explains that The Brotherhood are protecting the Grail from those with evil intentions, and that Henry was abducted to Castle Brunwald on the Austrian-German border. Marcus then reveals that Indy's made a map to the Alexandretta. Indy then finds his room and Elsa's ransacked.

Indy infiltrates the castle and finds his father, but learns that Elsa and Donovan are working with the Nazis, hoping that Indy would discover the location of the Grail for them. In Hatay, Turkey, Marcus arrives to wait for the Joneses carrying the map from Henry's grail diary showing the route to the grail's hiding place, but, despite aid from Sallah, is quickly captured by the Nazis. Meanwhile, the Joneses escape from Castle Brunwald and recover the diary from Elsa at a Nazi rally in Berlin, barely escaping an accidental face to face encounter with Adolf Hitler by giving him the diary to autograph. On a Zeppelin, and later in a biplane, they escape from Germany. But then, while escaping, Henry tells Indiana about the three challenges. After that, the plane is turning around to Germany. Indy and Henry get on the plane to escape. Henry mistakenly hits the wing of the plane and land. Indy and Henry take a car to escape. Then, the plane throws a bomb from above and destroys the car. Henry then destroys the plane by the power of his umbrella and the birds. They then meet Sallah in Hatay, where they learn that Marcus has been abducted and the Nazis have the map and are already moving towards the Grail's location. In exchange for a Rolls Royce owned by the Nazis, the Sultan of Hatay has given the Nazis full access to his equipment for the expedition, including a large WWI tank.

Indiana, Henry, and Sallah find the Nazi expedition and spot Marcus in a car along with the Hatay tank close by. After the Joneses are fired upon by the tank's heavy gun and take cover, the Nazis are attacked by Kazim and several other members of the Brotherhood armed with rifles. The Brotherhood members bring down several Nazis, but are soon killed by machine gun fire and grenades. Before he dies, Kazim warns Elsa and Donovan of the Grail's power for those who are evil. While the Nazis are busy fighting the Brotherhood, Henry attempts to rescue Marcus from the tank but is instead captured himself. A lengthy chase sequence follows in which most of the Nazis and Hatay soldiers are killed as the younger Jones pursues the tank on horseback, boards it, and eventually saves both Marcus and his father just before the tank falls off a cliff. Though Henry, Marcus, and Sallah begin to grieve for Indy, presumed killed in the crash, he shortly appears from the canyon haggard but very much alive, and the four continue on.

Indy, Henry, Marcus, and Sallah catch up and find that the remaining Nazis, including Donovan and Elsa, have found the temple in which the Grail is kept, but are unable to pass through the three traps laid to protect it. Donovan shoots Henry, mortally wounding him, and Indiana is forced to risk his life in the traps in order to find the Grail and use its healing power to save Henry. Using the information in the diary and followed by Donovan and Elsa, Indy successfully passes the traps and reaches a chamber guarded by the last Knight. He has been kept alive for seven hundred years by the power of the Grail, which is hidden among dozens of other cups. Elsa selects a gilded cup encrusted in jewels for Donovan; when Donovan drinks from it, he rapidly decays and crumbles into dust. Indy, recognizing that the Grail would be that of a humble carpenter instead of a wealthy king, selects the plainest-looking wooden cup in the group. It turns out to be the correct vessel, but the Knight warns that it cannot be taken beyond the great seal at the entrance to the temple. Indy fills the Grail with water and quickly takes it to Henry, giving him some to drink and pouring the rest over his gunshot wound to heal it instantly. As they prepare to leave, Elsa tries to take the Grail past the great seal, disregarding the Knight's warning and causing the temple to collapse. She falls to her death into an abyss because she will not give Indy the free hand with which she is trying to grab the Grail; Indy nearly suffers the same fate until Henry persuades him to let it go by calling him by his preferred name for the first time. The Joneses, Marcus, and Sallah narrowly escape the collapsing temple, while the Knight watches them with his mission accomplished. Henry explains that he addresses Indy as "Junior" because his real name is Henry Jones Jr.; the younger Jones chose to use the family dog's name as his nickname, much to Sallah's amusement. The four then ride out of the canyon and into the sunset.

Read more

The Temple of Doom

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is a 1984 American fantasy-adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg. It is the second film in the Indiana Jones franchise and a prequel to 1981's Raiders of the Lost Ark, as well as a partial remake of Gunga Din. After arriving in India, Indiana Jones is asked by a desperate village to find a mystical stone. He agrees, stumbling upon a Kali-worshiping Thuggee cult practicing child slavery, black magic, and ritual human sacrifice.

Producer and co-writer George Lucas decided to make the film a prequel as he did not want the Nazis to be the villains again. The original idea was to set the film in China, with a hidden valley inhabited by dinosaurs. Other rejected plot devices included the Monkey King and a haunted castle in Scotland. Lucas then wrote a film treatment that resembled the film's final storyline. Lawrence Kasdan, Lucas's collaborator on Raiders of the Lost Ark, turned down the offer to write the script, and Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz were hired as his replacement, with the resultant screenplay partly based upon the 1939 film Gunga Din.

The film was released to financial success but mixed reviews, which criticized its violence, later contributing to the creation of the PG-13 rating.However, critical opinion has improved since 1984, citing the film's intensity and imagination. Some of the film's cast and crew, including Spielberg, retrospectively view the film in an unfavorable light. The film has also been the subject of controversy due to its portrayal of India and
In 1935, Indiana Jones (Indy) narrowly escapes the clutches of Lao Che, a crime boss in Shanghai. With his eleven-year old Chinese sidekick Short Round and the gold-digging nightclub singer Willie Scott in tow, Indy flees Shanghai on a plane that, unknown to them, is owned by Lao. The pilots leave the plane to crash over the Himalayas, though the trio narrowly manage to escape on an inflatable boat and ride down the slopes into a raging river. They come to Mayapore, a desolate village in northern India, where the poor villagers believe them to have been sent by the Hindu god Shivaand enlist their help to retrieve the sacred Sivalinga stone stolen from their shrine, as well as the community's children, from evil forces in the nearby Pankot Palace. During the journey to Pankot, Indy hypothesizes that the stone may be one of the five fabled Sankara stones which promise fortune and glory.

The trio receive a warm welcome from the residents of Pankot Palace (which includes the young Maharajah Zalim Singh and his representative, Pankot Palace Prime Minister Chattar Lal) and are allowed to stay the night as their guests, during which they attend a lavish banquet attended by the Maharajah. During the banquet, they are presented with odd culinary delicacies such as baby snakes, large beetles, eyeball soup, and chilled monkey brains, none of which Willie Scott is able to eat (she even passes out when she sees the monkey brains). The palace rebuffs Indy's questions about the villagers' claims and his theory that the ancient Thuggee cult is responsible for their troubles. Later that night, however, Indy is attacked by an assassin, leading Indy, Willie, and Short Round to believe that something is amiss. They discover a series of tunnels hidden behind a statue in Willie's room and set out to explore them, facing many booby-trapped rooms and a room filled with bugs along the way.

From the tunnels of the palace, they travel through an underground temple where the Thuggee worship the Hindu goddess Kali with human sacrifice. The trio discover that the Thuggee, led by their evil, bloodthirsty high priest Mola Ram, are in possession of three of the five Sankara stones, and have enslaved the children (as well as the Maharajah) to mine for the final two stones, which they hope will allow them to rule the world. As Indy tries to retrieve the stones, he, Willie and Short Round are captured and separated. Indy is whipped and forced to drink a potion called the "Blood of Kali", which places him in a trance-like state called the "Black Sleep of Kali Ma". As a result, he begins to mindlessly serve Mola Ram. Willie, meanwhile, is kept as a human sacrifice, while Short Round is put in the mines to labour alongside the enslaved children. Short Round breaks free and escapes back into the temple where he burns Indy with a torch, shocking him out of the trance. The Maharajah, who was also forcibly entranced by the "Blood of Kali", attempts to sabotage Indy with a voodoo doll. Short Round spars with the Maharajah, ultimately burning him to snap him out of the trance. The Maharajah then tells Short Round how to get out of the mines. While Mola Ram escapes, Indy and Short Round rescue Willie, retrieve the three Sankara stones, and free the village children.

After a mine cart chase to escape the temple, the trio emerge above ground and are again cornered by Mola Ram and his henchmen on a jungle canyon rope bridge on both ends over a gorge with crocodile-infested river flowing within. Using a sword stolen from one of the Thuggee warriors, Indy cuts the rope bridge in half, leaving everyone to hang on for their lives. In one final struggle against Mola Ram for the Sankara stones, Indy invokes an incantation to Shiva for Mola Ram misusing his power, causing the stones to glow red hot. Two of the stones fall into the river, while the last falls into and burns Mola Ram's hand. Indiana catches the now-cool stone, while Mola Ram falls into the river below, where he is devoured by crocodiles. The Thuggee across then attempt to shoot Indy with arrows, until a company of British Indian Army riflemen from Pankot arrive, having been summoned by the palace maharajah. In the ensuing firefight, over half of the Thuggee archers are killed and the remainder are surrounded and captured. Indy, Willie and Short Round return victoriously to the village with the missing Sivalinga stone and the children.

Read more

Raiders of the Lost Ark

Raiders of the Lost Ark (later marketed as Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark) is a 1981 American fantasy-adventure film directed bySteven Spielberg, produced by George Lucas, and starring Harrison Ford. It is the first (chronologically, the second) installment in the Indiana Jonesfranchise. It pits Indiana Jones (Ford) against a group of Nazis who are searching for the Ark of the Covenant which Adolf Hitler believes will make their army invincible. The film co-stars Karen Allen as Indiana's former lover, Marion Ravenwood; Paul Freeman as Indiana's nemesis, Frencharchaeologist René Belloq; John Rhys-Davies as Indiana's sidekick, Sallah; Ronald Lacey as Gestapo agent Arnold Toht; and Denholm Elliott as Indiana's colleague, Marcus Brody.

The film originated from Lucas' desire to create a modern version of the serials of the 1930s and 1940s. Production was based at Elstree Studios, England; but filming also took place in La Rochelle, Tunisia, Hawaii, and California from June to September 1980.

Released on June 12, 1981, Raiders of the Lost Ark became the year's top-grossing film and remains one of the highest-grossing films ever made. It was nominated for nine Academy Awards in 1982, including Best Picture, and won four (Best Art Direction, Best Film Editing, Best Sound, Best Visual Effects) and a fifth Special Achievement Award for its Sound Effects Editing. The film's critical and popular success led to three additional films, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), the television series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (1992–1996), and 15 video games as of 2009. In 1999, the film was included in the U.S. Library of Congress' National Film Registry as having been deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

 
In 1936, archaeologist Indiana Jones (or Indy for short, usually by his friends), braves an ancient Peruvian temple filled with booby traps to retrieve agolden idol. Upon fleeing the temple, Indy is confronted by rival archaeologist René Belloq and the indigenous Hovitos. Surrounded and outnumbered, Indiana is forced to surrender the idol to Belloq and escapes aboard a waiting Waco seaplane, in the process revealing his fear of snakes.

Shortly after returning to the college in the United States where he teaches archaeology, Indy is interviewed by two Army intelligence agents. They inform him that the Nazis, in their quest for occult power, are searching for his old mentor, Abner Ravenwood, who is the leading expert on the ancient Egyptian city of Tanis and possesses the headpiece of an artifact called the Staff of Ra. Indy deduces that the Nazis are searching for Tanis because it is believed to be the location of the Ark of the Covenant, the biblical chest built by theIsraelites to contain the fragments of the Ten Commandments; the Nazis believe that if they acquire it, their armies will become invincible. The Staff of Ra, meanwhile, is the key to finding the Well of Souls, a secret chamber in which the Ark is buried. The agents subsequently authorize Indy to recover the Ark before the Nazis. Indy travels to Nepal, only to find that Ravenwood has died and that the headpiece is in the possession of his daughter, Marion, Indy's embittered former lover. Indy offers to buy the headpiece for three thousand dollars, plus two thousand more when they return to the United States. Marion's tavern is suddenly raided by a group of thugs commanded by Nazi agent Toht. The tavern is burned down in the ensuing fight, during which Toht burns his hand on the searing hot headpiece as he tries to grab it. Indy and Marion escape with the headpiece, with Marion declaring she will accompany Indy in his search for the Ark so he can repay his debt.

They travel to Cairo where they learn from Indy's friend Sallah, a skilled excavator, that Belloq and the Nazis, led by Colonel Dietrich, are currently digging for the Well of Souls with a replica of the headpiece modeled after the scar on Toht's hand. In a bazaar, Nazi operatives attempt to kidnap Marion and as Indy chases after them it appears that she dies in an explosion. While deciphering the markings on the headpiece, Indy and Sallah realize that the Nazis have miscalculated the location of the Well of Souls. Using this to their advantage, they infiltrate the Nazi dig and use the Staff of Ra to determine the location correctly and uncover the Well of Souls, which is filled with snakes. Indy fends off the snakes and acquires the Ark, but Belloq, Dietrich and the Nazis arrive to take it. They toss Marion into the well with Indy and seal them in, but they manage to escape. After a fistfight with a giant Nazi mechanic, blowing up a flying wing on the airstrip, and chasing down a convoy of trucks, Indy takes back the Ark before it can be shipped to Berlin.

Indy and Marion leave Cairo to escort the Ark to England on board a tramp steamer. The next morning, their boat is boarded by Belloq, Dietrich and the Nazis, who once again steal the Ark and kidnap Marion. Indy stows away on their U-boat and follows them to an isolated island in the Aegean Sea where Belloq plans to test the power of the Ark before presenting it to Hitler. Indy reveals himself and threatens to destroy the Ark with a bazooka, but Belloq calls his bluff, knowing Indy cannot bear to eradicate an important historical artifact.

Indy surrenders and is tied to a post with Marion as Belloq performs a ceremonial opening of the Ark, which appears to contain nothing but sand. Suddenly, spirits resembling Old TestamentSeraphim emerge from the Ark. Aware of the supernatural danger of looking at the opened Ark, Indy warns Marion to close her eyes. The apparitions suddenly morph into "angels of death", and lightning bolts begin flying out of the Ark, gruesomely killing the Nazi soldiers, while Belloq, Dietrich and Toht meet even more gruesome fates as they melt and burst into flames. The fires rise into the sky, then fall back down to Earth and the Ark closes with a crack of thunder.

Back in Washington, D.C., the Army intelligence agents tell a suspicious Indy and Brody that the Ark "is someplace safe" to be studied by "top men". In reality, the Ark is sealed in a wooden crate labeled "top secret" and stored in a giant government warehouse filled with countless similar crates.

Read more

The Lost World: Jurassic Park

The Lost World: Jurassic Park, (also known as Jurassic Park 2: The Lost World), is a 1997 American science fiction adventure film directed bySteven Spielberg and the second of the Jurassic Park franchise. The film was produced by Gerald R. Molen and Colin Wilson. The screenplay was written by David Koepp, loosely based on Michael Crichton's 1995 novel The Lost World. The film stars Jeff Goldblum, Julianne Moore, Vince Vaughn, Pete Postlethwaite, Richard Schiff, Arliss Howard, Thomas F. Duffy, Vanessa Lee Chester, and Richard Attenborough.

Four years after the events of Jurassic Park, dinosaurs have secretly survived and been allowed to roam free on a deserted island. In the time between the two films, John Hammond loses control of his company, InGen, to his nephew, Peter Ludlow. Ludlow assembles a team to bring the animals back to the mainland to bring in revenue and restore the company. Hammond sees a chance to redeem himself for his past mistakes and sends an expedition led by Dr. Ian Malcolm to reach the island before InGen's team can get there. The two groups confront each other in the face of extreme danger and must team up for their own survival.

After the original book's release and the first film's success, Crichton was pressured not only by fans, but Spielberg himself, for a sequel novel. After the book was published in 1995, production began on a film sequel. The Lost World's plot and imagery is substantially darker than the previous film. Despite mixed reviews, it was a box office success, grossing $618 million worldwide.
Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) publicized the incident at Jurassic Park, but disbelief destroyed his academic reputation. Four years later, John Hammond (Richard Attenborough), having lost control of InGen to his unscrupulous nephew Peter Ludlow (Arliss Howard), summons Ian to his home and tells him about Isla Sorna. Isla Sorna is the island where the dinosaurs were engineered and nurtured for a few months, before being moved to the Jurassic Park's main location, Isla Nublar. He explains that after the park was shut down, a hurricane destroyed the containment facilities on Isla Sorna, and the dinosaurs have been living free in the wild ever since. Hammond asks Malcolm to join a team that will travel to Isla Sorna to document the dinosaurs in their natural habitat as a way of rallying public support to prevent Ludlow from exploiting the site for InGen and encourage him to leave it as a nature preserve. Ian initially refuses, but after learning that his girlfriend - paleontologist Sarah Harding (Julianne Moore) - is part of the team and is already on the island, agrees to go.

Ian meets the other two members of the team: equipment specialist and engineer Eddie Carr (Richard Schiff), and documentary producer Nick Van Owen (Vince Vaughn). Shortly after arriving on the island, they find Sarah and discover that Ian's daughter Kelly has stowed away on the trailer that the group is using as a mobile base. Ian tries to get Kelly home, but they're interrupted by the arrival of an InGen team of mercenaries, hunters, and paleontologists led by Ludlow, which they spot chasing and capturing several dinosaur species such as Parasaurolophus, Pachycephalosaurus,Gallimimus and Triceratops, for another park Ludlow plans to build in San Diego. Tracker Roland Tembo (Pete Postlethwaite) wishes to hunt and kill a male Tyrannosaurus by luring it to the cries of its injured offspring. That night, Nick and Sarah sneak into the InGen camp to free the dinosaurs, which causes a huge commotion as one of the Triceratops destroys the camp and the dinosaurs escape.

During the commotion, Nick frees an infant Tyrannosaur and takes it to the trailer so Sarah can set its broken leg. Ian takes Kelly to the "high hide", a lift Eddie built to keep them safe above the trees. Ian, after trying and failing to contact the trailer via phone, returns on foot. Shortly after he arrives, two adult Tyrannosaurs - parents of the infant - find the trailer. The team gives the infant back, but the two adults begin pushing the trailer over the edge of a nearby cliff with the team inside. Eddie leaves Kelly in the "high hide" and returns to the trailer in an SUV. With the adults temporarily gone, Eddie is able to tie a rope to a tree trunk and send it down to Ian, Sarah, and Nick to grab onto. He then ties a cable to the trailer and tries to use the SUV to pull it back over the edge. He partially succeeds, but is attacked and eaten when the Tyrannosaurus return. The trailer and SUV fall off the cliff, but Ian, Sarah, and Nick are rescued by the InGen team. With both groups' communications equipment destroyed in the attacks, they team up to reach the old InGen compound's radio station.

The next night, the pair of T.Rexes come across the group's camp, having followed the scent of the infant's blood on Sarah's jacket. One of the hunters notices them and screams, causing everyone to awaken and run away, except Ian, who hides. The female T.Rex chases the group, while Roland stays behind and manages to tranquilize the male. The hunters disband into the thick trees, while Sarah, Kelly, and Nick hide in a crevice behind a waterfall. The hunters exit the thick trees into a field of tall grass, and are devoured by a large pack of Velociraptors. Ian reunites with Nick, Sarah, and Kelly, and they continue on toward the compound. Upon reaching it, Nick breaks off to find the communications room where he can call for rescue. After barely escaping a trio ofVelociraptors, Ian, Sarah, and Kelly reunite with Nick and fly away in a rescue helicopter. From the air, they spot the unconscious male T.Rex being prepared for transport.

A freighter carries the T.Rex back to the mainland, but upon reaching San Diego, crashes into the dock. Ludlow and several guards investigate the boat and find that the crew have all been devoured. A guard opens the cargo hold, accidentally releasing the T.Rex, which escapes into the city and goes on a rampage. During its rampage, the dinosaur enters a suburban backyard, drains the pool for water and disturbs the family dog tied to its kennel in the yard. The dog barks but the Tyrannosaurus eats it and leaves yet remarkably leaves the parents and their son unharmed. Realizing the T.Rex is likely searching for its infant, Ian and Sarah learn from Ludlow that the infant was captured and is in a secure InGen building somewhere in the city. They rush to get the infant, and use it to lure the adult back to the boat. The pair leave the infant in the boat's cargo hold, prompting Ludlow to go and retrieve it. The adult arrives, trapping him in the cargo hold and injuring him when he tries to escape. The infant pins him to the floor and eats him. Sarah finds a tranquilizer gun and sedates the adult, while Ian seals the cargo hold doors.

The next morning, Ian, Sarah and Kelly watch television reports of the cargo ship on its way back to Isla Sorna, surrounded by a convoy of naval vessels. During the program, they see an interview with Hammond, who explains that the American and Costa Rican governments have agreed to declare the island a nature preserve so the dinosaurs can live free of human interference. He ends the interview by saying "life will find a way", paraphrasing something Malcolm told him in the first film.

Read more

Jurassic Park

Jurassic Park is a 1993 American science fiction adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg and the first of the Jurassic Park franchise. It is based on the 1990 novel of the same name by Michael Crichton, with a screenplay by Crichton and David Koepp. It stars Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough, Ariana Richards, Joseph Mazzello, Martin Ferrero, Samuel L. Jackson and Bob Peck. The film centers on the fictional Isla Nublar near Costa Rica's Pacific Coast, where a billionaire philanthropist and a small team of genetic scientists have created a wildlife park of cloned dinosaurs.

Before Crichton's book was published, four studios put in bids to acquire the film rights. Spielberg, with the backing of Universal Studios, acquired the rights for $1.5 million before publication in 1990, and Crichton was hired for an additional $500,000 to adapt the novel for the screen. David Koepp wrote the final draft, which left out much of the novel's exposition and violence and made numerous changes to the characters. Filming took place in California and Hawaii.

Jurassic Park is regarded as a landmark in the use of computer-generated imagery. It received positive reviews from most critics, and is regarded by some as being one of the greatest science fiction films ever made. The film grossed over $900 million worldwide, surpassing another Spielberg film, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, to become the highest-grossing film released up to that time (it was surpassed four years later by Titanic). It currently ranks as the eighteenth highest grossing film worldwide, and 15th-highest-grossing film in North America, unadjusted for inflation. It is the highest-grossing film released by Universal and directed by Spielberg. Jurassic Park won 3 Academy Awards for Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, and Best Visual Effects.

The film's success led to the creation of two sequels: The Lost World: Jurassic Park also directed by Spielberg, which was released on May 23, 1997, and Jurassic Park III, directed by Joe Johnston, which was released on July 18, 2001. A 3D re-release was released on April 5, 2013, to commemorate the movie's 20th Anniversary. Jurassic Park 4 was originally scheduled to be released on June 13, 2014, but has re-entered development with no current release date.
John Hammond has created Jurassic Park: a theme park on a tropical island (Isla Nublar) near Costa Rica, populated with cloned dinosaurs. After a park worker is killed by a Velociraptor, the park's investors, represented by the lawyer Donald Gennaro, demand that experts visit the park and certify it as safe. Gennaro invites the mathematician Ian Malcolm while Hammond invites Allan Grant and Ellie Sattler, paleontologist and paleobotanist, respectively. They are joined by Hammond's grandchildren, Lex and Tim Murphy. The group sets off in a pair of cars on a tour of the park, while Hammond oversees the trip from the park's control room. The tour does not go as Hammond plans: the Dilophosaurus and the T. Rex do not appear, and the Triceratops becomes ill. Most of the park employees depart on a boat for the mainland before a tropical storm forces a cancellation of the tour. Everyone returns to the electric tour vehicles except Ellie, who stays with the park's veterinarian to study the Triceratops.

Jurassic Park's computer programmer, Dennis Nedry, deactivates the park's security system to allow him access to the embryo storage room; he has been paid to steal the embryos and deliver them to a corporate rival. Many of the park's electric fences are deactivated as a result, releasing a T. Rex that attacks the tour group, killing Gennaro and injuring Malcolm. Grant, Lex, and Tim narrowly escape. On his way to deliver the embryos to the island's docks, Nedry becomes lost, crashes his Jeep, and is killed by aDilophosaurus.

Sattler assists the park's game warden, Muldoon, in a search for survivors, but only find Malcolm before they are attacked by the T. Rex. Unable to decipher Nedry's code to reactivate the security system, Hammond and engineer Ray Arnold opt to reboot the park's computer and electrical network. The group shuts down the park's grid and retreats to an emergency bunker, while Arnold heads to a maintenance shed to complete the process of rebooting the system. When he fails to return, Sattler and Muldoon head to the shed themselves. They discover the shutdown has disabled the remaining fences and released the Velociraptors; Muldoon distracts the raptors while Sattler turns the power back on, discovering the severed arm of Arnold. The raptors ambush and kill Muldoon.

Alone in the park, Grant leads Tim and Lex back to the visitor center; leaving them in the dining room while he searches for the others. The kids escape two of the velociraptors before reuniting with Grant and Sattler. The four head to the control room and Lex restores full power. Grant's group is cornered by the velociraptors but escapes when the T. Rex attacks and kills the raptors and lets out a big roar. A helicopter arrives to take the survivors back home.

Read more

Congo

Congo is a 1995 action adventure film loosely based on Michael Crichton's novel of the same name. It was directed by Frank Marshall (a frequent collaborator of Steven Spielberg, who directed another film based on Crichton's work, Jurassic Park) and stars Laura Linney, Dylan Walsh, Ernie Hudson, Tim Curry, Grant Heslov, and Joe Don Baker. The film was released on June 9, 1995 by Paramount Pictures.

       

The film begins with Charles Travis (Bruce Campbell), the ex-fiancé of electronics expert Karen Ross (Laura Linney), testing a diamond-powered communications laser in a remote part of the Congo by a dormant volcano. Charles' friend Jeffrey discovers an ancient lost city's ruins and brings Charles with him. But when Jeffrey goes to explore the city, he's mysteriously killed along with Charles. Karen, waiting in TraviCom's headquarters for Charles to test the device, activates a video feed and is shocked to see a destroyed camp with several dead bodies. A shadowy animal knocks the camera over ending the transmission. TraviCom's CEO and Charles' father R.B. Travis (Joe Don Baker) reveals why they're exploring the Congo. He wants to find a rare blue diamond that's only found at the volcanic site and will help expand his communication technologies. He orders Karen to finish the mission and find the blue diamond. She makes Travis promise that he's sending her there for his son, and not simply for a diamond.

Meanwhile, Dr. Peter Elliott (Dylan Walsh), a primatologist at the University of California, Berkeley, and his assistant Richard (Grant Heslov) have devised a way to teach human communication to primates using a gorilla named Amy (voiced by Shayna Fox). With a special backpack and glove, her sign language is translated to a digitized voice. Despite the success, Peter is concerned that Amy is having nightmares and psychological problems. These have been partly quelled by Amy's painted pictures of trees and an open eye. Peter theorizes that she's painting a jungle and decides to return her to Africa, but the university is reluctant to fund the expedition. Peter is then approached by a Romanian philanthropist, Herkermer Homolka (Tim Curry), who offers to fund the expedition. Karen, hoping to find Charles, joins Peter and provides additional funding.

Upon arriving in Africa, the group is met by their expert guide Captain Munro Kelly (Ernie Hudson). However, they're soon captured by the local authorities and questioned by a militia leader named Captain Wanta (Delroy Lindo) who grants them passage in exchange for a sizable bribe. As the group boards another plane, Munro reveals that Homolka has led previous safaris in search of the "Lost City of Zinj", with disastrous results. The group covertly crosses the closed Zaire border but must parachute into the jungle after their plane is shot down by Zairean soldiers. They make camp and Karen sets up equipment to contact TraviCom via satellite. While Amy is playing with Richard they inadvertently knock over the communication equipment destroying it and leading Travis to conclude that this second expedition has met a similar fate as the first. He organizes and sends another expedition. The next morning, a ghost tribe's members enter the camp, claiming to have found a dead white man with the TraviCom logo on his clothes.

The tribe's members lead the team to Bob (John Hawkes), a member of the original TraviCom expedition. He's not actually dead but in a catatonicstate and the tribe performs a ritual to summon his spirit back to his body. After they revive him, Bob sees Amy and begins screaming, before coughing up blood and dying. Perplexed, the group heads deeper into the jungle by boat. Munro again presses Homolka about his obsession with the lost city, and he reveals that as a young man he found a book in Soviet Georgia that contained a drawing of Zinj where King Solomon was believed to have had a vast diamond mine. The drawing featured a peculiar decoration that resembles an open eye, the same eye that Amy has been painting. Homolka comes to the conclusion that Amy has seen Zinj and can lead the group there. Before entering the mountain range the group see the plane from the third expedition take anti-aircraft fire from the Zaire Air Force and watch as it burns up and crashes.

Arriving at the empty camp site, the group finally discovers Zinj. Peter, Karen, Munro, Homolka, and head porter Kahega (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) enter the ruins while Amy, Richard, and the remaining porters wait outside. While the first group searches the city, they see a certain hieroglyphic everywhere. Suddenly, a hysterical Richard runs into the city with his head covered in blood. He collapses dead and a gray gorilla comes out of the shadows and attacks the group, but is killed by gunshots. That night, they set up a secure camp. Gray gorillas then attack the perimeter after dark and are driven off by automated machine guns set up by Karen. Homolka translates the repeated hieroglyph to: "We are watching you."

The group reenters the ruins, where they find hieroglyph pictures of people teaching the gorillas to be "guard dogs" for the mines and to kill anyone trying to steal the diamonds. It is theorized that the plan backfired and the gorillas turned on their masters, which is why the city collapsed. Soon they find Homolka at the entrance of Solomon's diamond mine. Homolka picks up handfuls of large diamonds but they're again ambushed by the gorillas, who appear to be living in the mine with its precious minerals. Homolka is killed and the others open fire. In a small geode within the mine, Karen and Peter find Charles' dead body, holding a large blue diamond in his hand. Kahega and the other porters run out of ammunition and are killed. As the gorillas attack Peter, Amy arrives and fiercely protects him from them, giving Karen enough time to load the blue diamond into her own laser, which she uses as a weapon on the gorillas. The volcano then suddenly erupts, collapsing the mine into molten lava. This gives the three survivors and Amy time to escape as the gorillas are killed by the boiling lava.

Upon escaping the city and volcano, Karen contacts Travis and informs him that she found the blue diamond, but that Charles is dead. However, when she realizes that Travis only values the diamond, she programs the laser to target TraviCom's orbiting multimillion-dollar satellite, destroying it. Having found the crashed cargo plane from the third expedition (equipped with a hot air balloon), Karen has Munro set it up. Peter says goodbye to Amy as she's set free in the wild and joins a group of mountain gorillas. At sunset, Peter, Karen, and Munro set off in the balloon. Karen has Peter throw away the only diamond she managed to save from the mine. The balloon sails away over the jungle as Amy looks on and heads off with the mountain gorillas.

Read more

Anaconda

Anaconda is a 1997 adventure-horror film, directed by Luis Llosa, starring Jennifer Lopez, Ice Cube, Jon Voight, Eric Stoltz, Owen Wilson, Kari Wuhrer and Jonathan Hyde. It centers around a film crew for National Geographic who are kidnapped by a hunter who is going after the world's largest giant anaconda, which is discovered in the Amazon Rainforest. Though the film received mostly negative reviews from critics, it was a box office hit. It was then followed by three sequels.









        

Shooting a documentary about a long-lost Indian tribe on the Amazon River known as the Shirishama tribe, director Terri Flores (Jennifer Lopez) and members of her crew--including cameraman Danny Rich (Ice Cube), production manager Denise Kalberg (Kari Wuhrer), sound engineer Gary Dixon (Owen Wilson), visionary Warren Westridge (Jonathan Hyde), anthropologist Professor Steven Cale (Eric Stoltz) and captain of the boat Mateo (Vincent Castellanos)--come across stranded Paraguayan snake hunter Paul Serone (Jon Voight) and help him, believing he knows how to find the tribe they are searching for. But Serone acts strangely and the crew suspects something.

While trying to free the boat's propeller from a rope, Cale is stung in the throat by a wasp inside his scuba gear, leaving him unconscious. With that, Serone takes command of the boat and the crew. They are then forced to help him achieve his true objective — hunting down and capturing a record-breaking Green Anaconda he had been tracking.

Mateo is the first of the crew to be killed by the anaconda, which wraps around him and then breaks his neck near a boat where a poacher (Danny Trejo) had been killed at the beginning of the film. The others try to find him while Gary sides with Serone, who promises if they help him find the anaconda, he will help them get out alive. Ironically, Gary is killed next when they attempt to capture the anaconda. The survivors overcome Serone and tie him up. When Denise attempts to kill Serone, he gets the edge and strangles her to death with his legs before dumping her body in the river. The anaconda returns and kills Westridge, only to be shot dead and Serone incapacitated by the newly awakened Cale (who later loses consciousness again). Danny punches Serone, knocking him into the river.

Later on, Terri and Danny, two of the surviving members of the crew, are captured when Serone catches up to them. He dumps a bucket of monkey blood on them and then uses them as bait in an attempt to capture a second, larger anaconda. The anaconda wraps around Terri and Danny and begins to suffocate them. They are caught in a net by Serone, but the snake breaks free. Terri and Danny cut their bonds and slip away as Serone is eaten by the snake. Terri finds a nest of baby anacondas in a building, but the snake arrives, and after regurgitating the still twitching Serone, chases her up a smoke stack. The snake becomes trapped in the smoke stack, whereupon Danny ignites a fire below and burns the snake alive. As Terri and Danny recuperate on a nearby dock, the snake appears one final time. Danny beats the anaconda with an axe until it is finally dead.

Afterwards, Terri and Danny reunite with Cale, who begins to revive on the boat. As they float down the river, they accidentally locate the natives for whom they were originally searching. They realize Serone was right and begin filming their documentary as the movie ends.

Read more

The Mummy

The Mummy is a 1999 American adventure horror film written and directed by Stephen Sommers and starring Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah and Kevin J. O'Connor, with Arnold Vosloo in the title role as the reanimated mummy. It is a loose remake of the 1932 film of the same name which starred Boris Karloff in the title role. Originally intended to be part of a low-budget horror series, the movie was eventually turned into ablockbuster adventure film with horror themes.

Filming began in Marrakech, Morocco, on May 4, 1998, and lasted seventeen weeks; the crew had to endure dehydration, sandstorms, and snakes while filming in the Sahara. The visual effects were provided by Industrial Light & Magic, who blended film and computer-generated imagery to create the titular Mummy. Jerry Goldsmith provided the orchestral score.

The Mummy opened on May 7, 1999, and grossed $43 million in 3,210 theaters during its opening weekend in the United States; the movie went on to gross $416 million worldwide. The box-office success led to a 2001 sequel, The Mummy Returns, as well as The Mummy: The Animated Series, and the spin-off film The Scorpion King. Seven years later, the third installment, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, opened on August 1,2008. Universal Pictures also opened a roller coaster, Revenge of the Mummy, in 2004. Novelizations of the movie and its sequels were written byMax Allan Collins.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3XXKF0oDtU&list=PL0AAF7BB326CD60EA

Read more

Deep Rising

Deep Rising is a 1998 American action horror film directed by Stephen Sommers and starring Treat Williams, Famke Janssen and Anthony Heald. It was distributed by Hollywood Pictures and Cinergi Pictures and released on January 30, 1998.

The film opens with an explanation about deep water trenches with undiscovered sea life. A boat is being piloted through a storm on the South China Sea by John Finnegan (Treat Williams). With him are his crewmen Joey "Tooch" Pantucci (Kevin J. O'Connor), and Joey's girlfriend Leila (Una Damon). Finnegan has been hired to lead a group of mercenaries to an undisclosed location in the middle of the ocean. The mercenaries are: Hanover (Wes Studi), Vivo (Djimon Hounsou), Mason (Clifton Powell), Mulligan (Jason Flemyng), Billy (Clint Curtis), T-Ray (Trevor Goddard), and Mamooli (Cliff Curtis).

Meanwhile, the luxury cruise ship Argonautica embarks on its maiden voyage. The ship is the brainchild of Simon Canton (Anthony Heald) and led by Captain Atherton (Derrick O'Connor). Canton and Atherton discover a woman, Trillian (Famke Janssen), attempting to steal from the vault. They lock her in a storeroom as the brig is incomplete. Soon after, a saboteur disables the ship's navigation and communication systems. A large object is then detected by the sonar, headed towards the ship. They collide, flooding the ship and leaving it dead in the water.

Finnegan realizes their destination is the Argonautica. The mercenaries' plan is to rob the vault and torpedo the ship. Finnegan's boat suddenly hits a speedboat that had detached from the cruiseliner, causing damage to Finnigan's boat engines. Everyone transfers over to the liner, except for Leila and Billy. Finnegan, Joey, and the mercenaries explore the abandoned ship, finding only blood and damaged superstructure. Soon after, they begin to hear screeches and ominous sounds on the boat. Back on Finnegan's boat, Leila is dragged overboard by an unseen creature. Finnegan and Joey go to the cruiseliner's engine room to get parts to fix their boat. T-Ray and Mamooli go along to guard them, but are killed by an unseen creature. On Finnegan's boat Billy, too, disappears. Finnegan and Joey then find Trillian, still locked in the storeroom and unaware of what happened. They are captured by Hanover, Vivo, Mason, and Mulligan, who still want to get into the vault before leaving. Vivo opens the vault, but is killed with an axe by Canton and Atherton, who were hiding inside.

Canton and Atherton explain creatures attacked the ship and killed everyone else on board; the group soon discovers human skeletons stripped clean of flesh in the bottom of the ship. After questioning Canton is also revealed to be the saboteur; he hired the mercenaries to destroy the ship so he could collect on the insurance, due to badly misplaying with the market and having to pay 400 million dollars for the ship. The group is suddenly attacked by giant tentacles, and Captain Atherton is killed. The remaining survivors agree to work together to escape. Canton theorizes that the tentacles are from evolved deep-sea worms which strip their prey of body fluids and then eject the carcass.

The group is forced to swim under a collapsed section of the deck to reach an exit; Mason is the last in line and is eaten. Once through, Mulligan goes insane and attempts to stand alone against the creatures, giving the others a chance to escape before he is killed. It soon becomes apparent that the tentacles are herding them to the bow, where they find the carcasses of all the passengers and crew. Finnegan, Trillian, Joey, Hanover and Canton become separated. Hanover tries to sacrifice Joey to save himself, but Joey escapes and Hanover is instead killed. Canton realizes the ship is sinking, meaning he would collect the insurance money after all. Finnegan and Joey make it back to the boat but without the engine parts.

They see an island in the distance, but it is too far to travel without engines. Finnegan tells Joey to set the boat on autopilot and crash it into the Argonautica to detonate the mercenaries' torpedoes, which are still on his boat, and destroy the creature. Finnegan returns to the ship to find Trillian and get a jet ski from the cargo bay. Canton tries to kill Trillian so there are no witnesses to his scheme, but Finnegan saves her and Canton flees back into the ship. The creature pulls itself out of the water in full, revealing itself as a kraken and attacks the two, but they escape. Finnegan returns to his boat to find Joey gone with evidence of another attack. Finnegan sets the boat's autopilot and leaves on the jet ski with Trillian. Canton climbs on board, but cannot turn off the autopilot, so the boat rams the Argonautica and explodes, killing the creature and Canton.

Finnegan and Trillian use the jet ski to travel to the nearby island, where they are soon joined by Joey. He survived the attack and escaped to the island using Finnegan's surfboard. As the three relax, a loud roar echoes across the island and something crashes toward them through the nearby forest while the camera pans out to reveal multiple active volcanoes within the island. An exasperated Finnegan mutters, "Now
what?"


 

Read more

Star Wars Episode III

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith is a 2005 American epic space opera film written and directed by George Lucas. It is the sixth film released in the Star Wars saga and the third in terms of the series' chronology.

The film takes place three years after the onset of the Clone Wars. The Jedi Knights are spread out across the galaxy leading a massive clone army in the war against the Separatists. The Jedi Council dispatches Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi to eliminate the evil General Grievous, leader of the Separatist Army. Meanwhile, Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker, separated from Kenobi, his former master, grows close to Palpatine, the Chancellor of the Galactic Republic and, unknown to the public, a Sith Lord. Their deepening friendship proves dangerous for the Jedi Order, the Republic, and Anakin himself who inevitably succumbs to the dark side of the Force and becomes Darth Vader, changing the fate of the galaxy forever.

Lucas began writing the script before production of Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones began. Filming took place in Australia with additional locations in Thailand and Italy, and lasted over three months. The film was released in theatres on May 19, 2005, and received generally positive reviews from critics, especially in contrast to the previous two prequels.

It broke several box office records during its opening week and went on to earn over $848 million worldwide, making it the second-highest-grossing film in the Star Wars franchise (not adjusting for inflation). It was the highest grossing film of 2005 in the U.S., and the second highest-grossing film of 2005 worldwide behind Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. As of 2013, it is the 33rd highest-grossing film of all time. In 2012, following the acquisition of Lucasfilm by The Walt Disney Company, the Star Wars sequel trilogy was announced, with Star Wars Episode VII being planned for release in 2015

 

Read more

Century of the Dragon (1999)

A lawman finds his loyalties put to the test in this action thriller from Hong Kong. Shing (Louis Koo), a top student at the Police Academy, is groomed for a special assignment -- to crack open the Hung Hing triad from the inside as an undercover agent. Shing is able to join up with the Hung Hings and becomes close friends with notorious gangster Fei Ling (Andy Lau). However, when Fei Ling and his henchmen become involved in a gang war with another triad, Shing learns that the rival gang has also been infiltrated by an undercover cop, White Head (Sui-Kei Lee). When Shing is given his assignment to wipe out the enemy gang, he must decide if his loyalty is with the law or with the triad. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Read more

The Mummy Returns

The Mummy Returns is a 2001 American adventure film written and directed by Stephen Sommers, starring Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah, Arnold Vosloo, Oded Fehr, Patricia Velásquez and Freddie Boath. The film is a sequel to the 1999 film The Mummy. It features less horror and more frivolity than the first film, often resorting to slapstick humor.

The Mummy Returns inspired the 2002 spin-off film The Scorpion King which is set 5,000 years prior and whose titular character, played by Dwayne Johnson (The Rock), was introduced in this film. It was followed by the 2008 sequel The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.

In 3067 BC, the Scorpion King leads his army on a campaign to conquer the world. Seven years later, the Scorpion King and his army are defeated and exiled to the desert of Ahm Shere. His men die of heat exhaustion, leaving only the Scorpion King. Vowing to give Anubis his soul for the power to defeat his enemies, an oasis is created to hide the Scorpion King's pyramid and giving him a legion of humanoid jackal warriors to seek revenge. The Army of Anubis sweeps across Egypt, destroying everything in its path, but once their task is finished Anubis claims the Scorpion King's soul and his army.

In 1933, Rick and Evelyn O'Connell explore a ruined mortuary structure in the ancient Egyptian city of Thebes with their son, Alex. They find the Bracelet of Anubis. In London, Alex puts on the bracelet, which shows him a vision with directions to the Oasis of Ahm Shere. Alex has seven days to reach the oasis, or the bracelet will kill him the moment the sun's rays shine on the Scorpion King's pyramid; at that point, the Scorpion King and his army will reawaken.

Evelyn is captured by an Egyptian cult who have resurrected Imhotep; they wish to use Imhotep's power to defeat the Scorpion King, which would give him command of Anubis' army. The cult, led by Baltus Hafez, the British Museum's curator, includes a warrior named Lock-Nah and Meela Nais, the reincarnation of Imhotep's love Anck-su-namun. The O'Connells set out to rescue her, accompanied by Evelyn's brother Jonathan and the Medjai Ardeth Bay.

After having discovered the bracelet is missing, they attempt to kill Evelyn, however a fight ensues between Rick and Imhotep. Imhotep then calls on the help of his mummified soldiers to kill them. After freeing Evelyn they flee on a double-decker bus. After defeating them, Alex is kidnaped and they travel across Egypt to rescue him along with Rick's associate from his past adventures, Izzy, a pilot, who provides the group with transportation.

The bracelet gives Alex visions, directions to Ahm Shere that the cult follows. At each location, Alex leaves clues for his parents, who follow in Izzy'sdirigible. Imhotep uses the Book of the Dead to give Meela Nais the soul of Anck-su-namun but by doing so he allows Evelyn to unlock the memories of her previous life as Princess Nefertiri, the bracelet's keeper and Pharaoh Seti I's daughter. Lock-Nah discovers that Alex has been leaving clues, so Imhotep makes a wall of water that attacks the dirigible. The O'Connells crash in the jungle of Ahm Shere. Izzy stays with the dirigible in hopes of repairing it. The O'Connells attack the cult, and both groups are attacked by pygmy mummies. Rick retrieves Alex while Ardeth Bay kills Lock-Nah. They escape from the pygmies, who kill most of the cult except for Baltus. Imhotep and Anck-su-namun are unharmed due to Imhotep's powers and Anck-su-namun being the keeper of the Book of the Dead.

Rick and Alex run to the pyramid, barely making it before sunrise. The bracelet detaches from Alex's arm. Ardeth regroups with the Medjai in case Anubis' army rises. Anck-su-namun stabs Evelyn and kills her. Rick, grieving, pursues Imhotep. Baltus puts on the bracelet and revives the army. As Imhotep walks into the pyramid, Anubis takes his powers, wanting Imhotep to fight as a mortal. Rick finds Imhotep summoning the Scorpion King and they fight. The Medjai engage the army. The Scorpion King interrupts Rick and Imhotep's fight. Imhotep tells the Scorpion King that he is the Scorpion King's slave, but Rick was sent to kill him. During Rick and the Scorpion King's fight, who kills Baltus. Jonathan and Alex collaborate to steal the Book of the Dead from Anck-su-namun. Alex uses the book to resurrect Evelyn, who duels with Anck-su-namun. In a direct reference to the first film, Alex asks Jonathan for help to decipher a hieroglyph; the same hieroglyph Evelyn had to translate for Jonathan in first film.

Alex and Jonathan go help Rick while Evelyn fights Anck-su-namun. It is revealed that the scepter that Jonathan has been carrying extends into a spear that can kill the Scorpion King. The Medjai seemingly defeat Anubis' army despite heavy casualties, but see that they have only defeated the vanguard, and the full army is charging towards them. However, before the Anubis warriors hit the Medjai lines, Rick succeeds in killing the Scorpion King, sending him and his army back to the Underworld. The Scorpion King's death breaks his oath with Anubis, causing the oasis to turn back into a desert, and the oasis to be sucked into the pyramid. Rick and Imhotep are hanging from the edge of a pit that leads into the underworld. Evelyn risks her life to save Rick, but Anck-su-namun refuses to do the same for Imhotep, and abandons him. Heartbroken about her desertion, he lets go of the ledge, falling into the underworld, to his death. Anck-su-namun, running away from the pyramid, falls into a pit of flesh-eating scarab beatles.

The O'Connells reach the top of the pyramid, which is being sucked into the desert. Izzy arrives with a modified dirigible and saves the O'Connells. Jonathan grabs the diamond at the top of the pyramid. Ardeth Bay salutes them as they fly over him.

 

Directed by Stephen Sommers
Produced by Sean Daniel
James Jacks
Written by Stephen Sommers
Starring Brendan Fraser
Rachel Weisz
John Hannah
Freddie Boath
Oded Fehr
Arnold Vosloo
Patricia Velásquez
Alun Armstrong
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje
Shaun Parkes
Dwayne Johnson
Music by Alan Silvestri
Cinematography Adrian Biddle
Editing by Ray Bushey III
Bob Ducsay
Kelly Matsumoto
Studio Alphaville Films
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release date(s)
May 4, 2001
Running time 130 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Arabic
Budget $98 million
Box office $433,013,274

Read more

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider

Directed by	Simon West
Produced by	Lawrence Gordon Lloyd Levin Colin Wilson
Screenplay by	Patrick Massett John Zinman
Story by	Sara B. Cooper Mike Werb Michael Colleary Simon West
Based on	Tomb Raider by Core Design
Starring	Angelina Jolie Jon Voight Chris Barrie Iain Glen Noah Taylor Daniel Craig
Music by	Graeme Revell
Cinematography	Peter Menzies Jr.
Editing by	Dallas Puett Glen Scantlebury Eric Strand Mark Warner Stuart Baird
Studio	Mutual Film Company
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	June 11, 2001 June 15, 2001 July 6, 2001
Running time	100 minutes
Country	United States United Kingdom Japan Germany[1]
Language	English
Budget	$115 million
Box office	$274,703,340

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider is a 2001 adventure and fantasy film adapted from the Tomb Raider video game series. It was directed by Simon Westand starred Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft, with Jon Voight, Chris Barrie, Iain Glen, Noah Taylor, and Daniel Craig in supporting roles. It was released in U.S. theaters on June 15, 2001. The film was a commercial success. The film held the title of highest grossing video game to film adaptation worldwide, until on June 16, 2010, the record was taken by Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, which grossed $335 million worldwide as of October 10, 2010. Reviews were largely negative, with critics criticizing the sloppy direction and video-game-esque action-sequences, but praising Jolie's performance.


Lara Croft (Angelina Jolie) is in an Egyptian tomb, seeking a diamond. As she approaches it she is attacked by a large robot. She disables it by ripping out its motivational circuits. She takes the diamond, which is revealed to be a memory card labeled "Lara's Party Mix", and inserts it into a laptop computer inside the robot, whereupon it plays music. Now it is revealed that the scene took place in a practice arena in her home, and that her assistant Bryce (Noah Taylor) programmed the robot, SIMON, to challenge her in combat.

It is the day of the first phase of a planetary alignment, culminating in a solar eclipse. In Venice, the Illuminati search for a key to rejoin halves of "the triangle", which must be done by the final phase of the alignment. Manfred Powell (Iain Glen), an Illuminati member, makes assurances that they are almost ready, but in reality he has no idea where to find the key. Lara's butler, James "Hilly" Hillary (Chris Barrie), tries to interest her in several projects but she ignores them. May 15, as Hilly is aware, is the day that Lara's father disappeared many years earlier. She never recovered from his loss.

Later that night, Lara has a dream reminding her what her father said about the alignment and an object linked to it called the Triangle of Light. Waking, she is aware of a clock ticking. Searching for it, she discovers a secret chamber under the staircase with a carriage clock that had spontaneously begun ticking. Bryce probes it and discovers a strange device hidden inside the clock.

Since the device resembles a clock, Lara consults a clock expert friend of her father's, Mr. Wilson (Leslie Phillips). She believes it is connected to the "Triangle of Light", but Wilson disavows knowledge of the clock or the Triangle. Lara encounters Alex West (Daniel Craig), an American archeologist and friend with unscrupulous methods. They are attracted to each other, but Lara cannot abide his for-profit attitude. That night, Lara is contacted by Wilson, who tells her that he gave her name to Powell in regards of the clock. In reality, Wilson is also a member of the Illuminati.

The next day, Lara sees Powell in his home, and shows him photographs of the clock. Later, while discussing it with Bryce, she points out that Powell was lying about his knowledge. That night, as Lara does a bungee ballet, armed mercenaries invade the estate and steal the clock despite her attempts to fend them off.

Ta Keo at Angkor.

The next morning, Lara receives a letter from her father, arranged to arrive after the beginning of the alignment. In her library, she finds a secret letter in a book where he explains that the clock is the key to retrieve two halves of the mystic Triangle of Light, which is revealed to be an object of phenomenal destructive power that granted its wielder power over time and space. He says that it was made from a metal found in a meteor crater made by a meteor that had fallen to earth during a previous alignment. Initially housed in a city built in the meteor crater by those who worshiped the object, misuse of the Triangle's power destroyed the city and so it was split into two halves; one was hidden in a tomb in Cambodia, the other half in the ruined city itself, in modern-day Siberia. Her father urges her to find and destroy both halves before the Illuminati can find it.

In Cambodia, West figures out part of the puzzle on how to retrieve the triangle half, but Lara manages to successfully grab the piece. Before everyone can leave, the liquid metal which came out with the piece brings the statues in the temple to life and attacks the team, killing some members. Lara is left to fight off and destroy a huge six-armed guardian statue which is the last one to come to life. She successfully defeats it by weakening it and leaves the temple by diving through a waterfall. She then travels to a Buddhist town where a young monk welcomes her. After a worship service, an aged monk who is the leader there gives Lara some tea and as they converse, he tells her that he knew her father before.

She and Powell arrange to meet in Venice, since each of them has what the other needs to finish the Triangle. Powell proposes a partnership to find the Triangle, and informs Lara that her father was a member of the Illuminati, which she vehemently denies. Though hesitant at first, she, along with Bryce, meets with Powell for the trip to Siberia. Inside the chamber, there is a giant model of the solar system, which activates as the alignment nears completion. Lara retrieves the last half of the Triangle, but when Powell tries to complete it, the halves will not fuse. He realizes that Lara knows the solution to the puzzle, and kills West in order to persuade her to complete the Triangle to save both West's life and her father's. Lara reluctantly complies, and they then struggle for control of the Triangle, with Lara gaining the upper hand.

Lara then finds herself in a strange alternate existence facing her father Richard Croft (Jon Voight). He explains that it is a crossing of time and space, and urges her to destroy the Triangle instead of using it to save his life. She leaves her father and returns to the chamber, where time is slowly running backwards from the point where Powell killed West. Croft takes the knife he threw into West's chest and reverses it, then destroys the Triangle, which returns time to its normal flow and directs the knife into Powell's shoulder. The chamber begins to self-destruct, Everyone turns to leave, but Powell tells Croft that he killed her father and retrieved his pocket watch with a picture of Lara's mother inside. Lara and Powell engage in a hand to hand fight with Lara emerging victorious. After Powell is killed, she retrieves the watch and escapes as the chamber crumbles.

At the mansion, Hilly and Bryce are shocked to see Lara wearing a dress. She goes into the garden to her father's memorial, then returns inside, where Bryce has a reprogrammed SIMON, ready to challenge Lara once again. Hilly reveals a silver tray holding Lara's pistols, which she takes with a smile.

Read more