Actor Robert Redford (1936)

In the months before the US 2004 presidential election, Mary Mapes (producer of the primetime news program 60 Minutes Wednesday) and her crew consisting of Mike Smith, Lucy Scott, and Colonel Roger Charles are seeking evidence to verify whether or not George W. Bush received any preferential treatment during his time in the military. Charles, knowing that the military “is good at what they do,” believes there were no mistakes or errors, despite some claims that Bush’s records were lost or altered, and that Bush had difficulty meeting minimal physical aptitude testing. Seeking leads, Mapes and her crew eventually find Bill Burkett, who says he has documents in the ...

Author Bill Bryson, after living for ten years in the UK, moved to New Hampshire. Now in his 60s, he had been living there peacefully. A television interview reports that he has published several popular books and there is speculation he will be writing more. Bryson, however, has no such plans. Bryson and his wife Catherine attend a funeral. Afterwards, he takes a stroll up to the nearby Appalachian Trail, and suddenly decides he will hike its entire length. Catherine objects, presenting many accounts of accidents and murders on the trail. She relents on condition that he not travel alone. He agrees and searches for a friend willing to join him.

Two years after the Battle of New York, Steve Rogers works in Washington, D.C., for the espionage agency S.H.I.E.L.D., while adjusting to contemporary society. During a mission alongside Agent Natasha Romanoff and S.H.I.E.L.D.’s counter-terrorism S.T.R.I.K.E. team, led by Agent Brock Rumlow, to free hostages aboard a S.H.I.E.L.D. vessel from pirates led by Georges Batroc, Rogers discovers Romanoff has another agenda: to extract data from the ship’s computers. Returning to the Triskelion, S.H.I.E.L.D.’s headquarters, Rogers confronts Director Nick Fury and is briefed about Project Insight: three Helicarriers linked to spy satellites, designed to preemptively eliminate ...

The film begins with a flash-forward in which a man, played by Robert Redford, narrates a letter addressing people he will miss, as the camera pans across a lost shipping container. In the Indian Ocean eight days earlier, the man wakes to find water flooding his boat. It has collided with a wayward shipping container, ripping a hole in the hull. The man uses a sea anchor to dislodge the container, then changes course to tilt the boat away from the hole. He patches the hole and uses a manual bilge pump to remove the water from the cabin. The boat’s navigational and communications systems have been damaged by saltwater intrusion. The man tries to repair the marine radio and ...

Two students at a West Coast university, Arian and Ernest, at the urging of their idealistic professor, Dr. Malley, attempt to do something important with their lives. They make the bold decision to enlist in the army to fight in Afghanistan after graduating from college. Dr. Malley also attempts to reach talented and privileged, but disaffected, student Todd Hayes, who is not at all like Arian and Ernest. He is naturally bright, comes from a privileged background, but has apparently slipped into apathy upon being disillusioned at the present state of affairs. Now, he devotes most of his time to extra-curricular activities like his role as president of his fraternity.

During springtime on a farm in Somerset County, Maine, young Fern Arable discovers her father John about to kill a runt of a litter of newborn pigs. She successfully begs her father to spare the piglet’s life; Fern names him Wilbur and nurtures him lovingly. The next morning, Fern sneaks Wilbur into her school desk and she lies to the teacher who forces her to open her desk and sends her to the principal’s office. When Wilbur has matured, Fern is regretfully forced to take him to her uncle Homer Zuckerman’s barnyard. Mrs. Arable feels slightly concerned for Fern’s behavior and one night, prevails upon Fern to stay home, do her homework and go straight to ...

In 1991, the United States and China are close to a major trade agreement, with the President due to visit China to seal the deal. The CIA learns that its asset Tom Bishop has been arrested at a People’s Liberation Army prison in Suzhou and will be executed in 24 hours, unless the US government claims him and bargains for his release. Bishop’s actions, unsanctioned by the CIA, risk jeopardizing the agreement. A group of CIA executives summon Nathan Muir, a veteran case officer and Bishop’s mentor, who plans to retire from the agency at the end of the day. While purportedly interviewing Muir to learn his history with Bishop, the executives seek a pretext for not ...

Joe Turner is a bookish CIA analyst, code named “Condor”. He works at the American Literary Historical Society in New York City, which is actually a clandestine CIA office. The seven staff members examine books, newspapers, and magazines from around the world. Turner files a report to CIA headquarters on a thriller novel with strange plot elements; despite poor sales it has been translated into many languages. Turner leaves through a back door to get staff lunches. Armed men enter the office and murder the other six staffers. Turner returns to find his coworkers dead; frightened, he grabs a gun and exits the building. He contacts the ...

Writer Nick Carraway pilots his boat across the harbor to his cousin Daisy and her husband Tom’s mansion in East Egg. While there, he learns Tom and Daisy’s marriage is troubled and Tom is having an affair with a woman in New York. Nick lives in a small cottage in West Egg, next to a mysterious tycoon named Gatsby, who regularly throws extravagant parties at his home. Tom takes Nick to meet his mistress, Myrtle, who is married to George Wilson, an automotive mechanic. George needs to purchase a vehicle from Tom, but Tom is only there to draw Myrtle to his city apartment. Back on Long Island, Daisy wants to set Nick up with her friend, Jordan, a pro golfer. When Nick and Jordan ...

In 1936, during the Great Depression, Johnny Hooker, a grifter in Joliet, Illinois, cons $11,000 in cash in a pigeon drop from an unsuspecting victim with the aid of his partners Luther Coleman and Joe Erie. Buoyed by the windfall, Luther announces his retirement and advises Hooker to seek out an old friend, Henry Gondorff, in Chicago to learn “the big con”. Unfortunately, the reason their victim had so much cash was that he was a numbers racket courier for vicious crime boss Doyle Lonnegan. Corrupt Joliet police Lieutenant William Snyder confronts Hooker, revealing Lonnegan’s involvement and demanding part of Hooker’s cut. Having already blown his share on a ...

In 1899 Wyoming, Butch Cassidy is the affable, clever, talkative leader of the outlaw Hole-in-the-Wall Gang. His closest companion is the laconic dead-shot “Sundance Kid”. The two return to their hideout at Hole-in-the-Wall to discover that the rest of the gang, irked at Butch’s long absences, have selected Harvey Logan as their new leader. Harvey challenges Butch to a knife fight over the gang’s leadership. Butch defeats him using trickery, but embraces Harvey’s idea to rob the Union Pacific Overland Flyer train on both its eastward and westward runs, agreeing that the second robbery would be unexpected and likely reap even more money than the ...