Saving Private Ryan

In the present day, an elderly World War II veteran and his family visit the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in Normandy, France. The veteran walks around the cemetery and, upon seeing one specific gravestone, collapses to his knees, overwhelmed by emotion.

The film flashes back to the morning of June 6, 1944, the beginning of the Normandy Invasion, as American soldiers prepare to land on Omaha Beach. They suffer heavily from their struggle against German infantry, machine gun nests, and artillery fire. Captain John H. Miller, a company commander of the 2nd Ranger Battalion, survives the initial landing and assembles a group of his Rangers to penetrate the German defenses, leading to a breakout from the beach.

Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C, at the U.S. War Department, General George Marshall is informed that three of the four brothers of the Ryan family werekilled in action and that their mother is to receive all three telegrams in the same day. He learns that the fourth son, Private First Class James Francis Ryan, is a paratrooper and is missing in action somewhere in Normandy. Marshall, after reading Abraham Lincoln's Bixby letter, orders that Ryan must be found and sent home immediately.

Three days after D-Day, Miller receives orders to find Ryan and bring him back from the front. He assembles six men from his company— T/Sgt. Mike Horvath, Private First Class Richard Reiben, Privates Stanley Mellish, Adrian Caparzo, Danny Jackson, medic Irwin Wade—and T/5 Timothy Upham, acartographer who speaks French and German, loaned from the 29th Infantry Division. Miller and his men move out to Neuville; there, they meet a squad from the 101st Airborne Division, and Caparzo dies after being shot by a sniper. Eventually, they locate a Private James Ryan, but soon learn that he is not their man. They find a member of Ryan's regiment who informs them that his drop zone was at Vierville and that his and Ryan's companies had the same rally point. Once they reach it, Miller meets a friend of Ryan's, who reveals that Ryan is defending a strategically important bridge over the Merderet Riverin the town of Ramelle. On the way to Ramelle, Miller decides to neutralize a German machine gun position, despite the misgivings of his men. Wade is fatally wounded in the ensuing skirmish, but Miller, at Upham's urging, declines to execute a surviving German, nicknamed "Steamboat Willie", and sets him free on condition that he give himself up as a prisoner of war to the first Allied unit he encounters. No longer confident in Miller's leadership, Reiben declares his intention to desert the squad and the mission, prompting a confrontation with Horvath. The argument heats up until Miller defuses the situation by disclosing his background in civilian life, about which the squad had earlier set up a betting pool. Reiben then reluctantly decides to stay.

Upon arrival at Ramelle, Miller and the squad come upon a small group of paratroopers, one of whom is Ryan. Ryan is told of his brothers' deaths, the mission to bring him home, and that two men had been lost in the quest to find him. He is distressed at the loss of his brothers, but does not consider it fair to go home, asking Miller to tell his mother that he intends to stay "with the only brothers [he has] left." Miller decides to take command and defend the bridge with what little manpower and resources are available. Using his own men and the accompanying paratroopers, Miller forms ambush positions throughout the ruined town for the tanks and infantry utilizing molotovs, Det cord, and "sticky bombs" made from socks and TNT.

Elements of the 2nd SS Panzer Division arrive with infantry and armor. Although they inflict heavy casualties on the Germans, most of the paratroopers, along with Jackson, Mellish, and Horvath, are killed. While attempting to blow the bridge, Miller is shot and mortally wounded by a German soldier, who happens to be "Steamboat Willie". Just before a Tiger tank reaches the bridge, an American P-51 Mustang flies overhead and destroys the tank, followed by American armored units which rout the remaining Germans. The German infantryman who shot Miller raises his hands in surrender to Upham who, having witnessed Miller's death, shoots him and lets the other surviving Germans flee.

Reiben and Ryan are with Miller as he dies and says his last words, "James ... earn this. Earn it." The film returns to the present and it is revealed that the veteran is Ryan and the grave he is standing at is Miller's. Ryan asks his wife to confirm that he has led a good life, that he is a "good man" and thus worthy of the sacrifice of Miller and the others. His wife replies, "You are." At this point, Ryan stands at attention and delivers a salute toward Miller's grave.

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

Long-time friends and small-time criminals Eddy, Tom, Soap and Bacon put together £100,000 so that Eddy, a genius card shark, can buy into one of "Hatchet" Harry Lonsdale's weekly high-stakes three card brag games. The game is rigged however, and the friends end up massively indebted to Harry, who fully expects them not to be able to come up with the money before the deadline he gives them. He has his sights set on Eddy's father's bar as repayment, and sets his debt collector Big Chris (who is often accompanied by his beloved son, Little Chris) to work in order to ensure that some form of payment is coming up.

Harry also has his sights set on a couple of antique shotguns up for auction, and gets his enforcer Barry "the Baptist" to hire a couple of thieves, Gary and Dean, to steal them from a private home. The two turn out to be highly incompetent and unwittingly sell the shotguns to Nick "the Greek", a local fence. After learning this, an enraged Barry threatens the two into getting the guns back.

Eddy returns home and overhears his neighbours, a gang of robbers led by a brutal man called Dog, planning a heist on some cannabis growers supposedly loaded with cash and drugs. Eddy relays this information to the group, intending for them to rob the neighbours as they come back from their heist. In preparation for the robbery, Tom buys the antique shotguns from Nick the Greek.

The neighbours' heist gets under way; despite a gang member being killed by his own Bren Gun, and an incriminating encounter with a traffic warden, the job is a success and they return home with a duffle bag filled with money and a van filled with bags of marijuana. The success is short-lived however, as they get robbed by Eddy and friends before they've even unloaded their cargo. Eddy's group decide to keep the money and, with the help of Nick the Greek, sell the drugs to Rory Breaker, a drug dealer with a reputation for violence. Rory agrees to the deal, but later learns that the drugs were stolen from people in his employ and were in fact his all along. Thinking that Eddy and his friends knowingly concocted a scheme to rob him and sell his own drugs back to him, an enraged Rory threatens Nick the Greek into giving him Eddy's address.

Eddy and his friends go out to celebrate their successful heist, and spend the night at Eddy's father's bar. Meanwhile, Dog's crew accidentally learns that their neighbors are the ones that robbed them, and set up an ambush at Eddy's flat. When Rory and his gang also arrive to exact vengeance they have a shootout with Dog's crew, resulting in the deaths of all but Dog and Winston, one of the robbed drug manufacturers. Winston leaves with the drugs; Dog leaves with the two shotguns and the money, but is waylaid by Big Chris who knocks him out and takes everything. Meanwhile, Gary and Dean, having learned who bought the shotguns and not knowing that Chris works for Harry, follow him to Harry's place. Chris delivers the money and guns to Harry, but discovers when he returns to his car that Dog is hiding inside, holding a knife to Little Chris's throat and demanding Chris recover the money. Chris calmy agrees and starts the car. Meanwhile, Gary and Dean burst into Harry's office, starting a confrontation that ends up killing both of them, and Harry and Barry as well.

Having seen the carnage at their flat, Eddy and friends arrive at Harry's to offer their apologies, but when they discover Harry's corpse they decide to take the money for themselves. Before they are able to flee the scene, Chris crashes into their car to disable Dog, and brutally bludgeons Dog to death with his car door in retaliation for threatening his son (who is shown to be unharmed). He then takes the debt money back from the unconscious friends, but allows Tom to leave with the antique shotguns, after a brief standoff in Harry's office.

The friends are arrested, but declared innocent after the traffic warden identifies Dog's dead crew as the prime suspects. Back at the bar, they send Tom out to get rid of the last piece of evidence connecting them to the case: the antique shotguns. Meanwhile, Chris arrives to give the friends back the duffel bag. He has taken all the money for himself and his son, and the bag is empty save for a catalogue of antique weapons. After leafing through the catalogue, the friends learn that the shotguns are actually quite valuable, and quickly call Tom. The film ends with Tom's mobile phone, situated in his mouth, ringing as he hangs over the side of a bridge, preparing to drop the shotguns into the River Thames, ending on a cliffhanger.

Enemy at the Gates

In 1942, following the invasion of the Soviet Union the year before, Vasily Zaytsev (Jude Law), a shepherd from the Ural Mountains who is now a soldier in the Red Army, finds himself on the front lines of the Battle of Stalingrad. Forced into a suicidal charge by barrier troops against the invading Germans, he uses impressive marksmanship skills—taught to him at a young age by his grandfather—to save himself and commisar Danilov (Joseph Fiennes).

Nikita Khrushchev (Bob Hoskins) arrives in Stalingrad to coordinate the city's defences and demands ideas to improve morale. Danilov, now a Senior Lieutenant, suggests that the people need figures to idolize and give them hope, and publishes tales of Vasily's exploits in the army's newspaper that paint him as a national hero and propaganda icon. Vasily is transferred to the sniper division, and he and Danilov become friends. They also both become romantically interested in Tania Chernova (Rachel Weisz), a citizen of Stalingrad who has become a Private in the local militia. Danilov has her transferred to an intelligence unit away from the battlefield.

With the Soviet snipers taking an increasing toll on the German forces, German Major Erwin König (Ed Harris) is deployed to Stalingrad to take out Vasily and thus crush Soviet morale. A renowned marksman and head of the German Army sniper school at Zossen, he lures Vasily into a trap and kills two of his fellow snipers, but Vasily manages to escape. When the Red Army command learns of König's mission, they dispatch König's former student Koulikov (Ron Perlman) to help Vasily kill him. König, however, outmaneuvers Koulikov and kills him with a very skillful shot, shaking Vasily's spirits considerably. Khrushchev pressures Danilov to bring the sniper standoff to a conclusion.

Sasha, a young Soviet boy, volunteers to act as a double agent by passing König false information about Vasily's whereabouts, thus giving Vasily a chance to ambush the Major. Vasily sets a trap for König and manages to wound him, but during a second attempt Vasily falls asleep after many sleepless hours, and his sniper log is stolen by a looting German soldier. The German command takes the log as evidence of Vasily's death and plans to send König home, but König does not believe Vasily is dead. The commanding German general takes König's dog tags to prevent Russian propaganda from profiting if König is killed. König also gives the general a War Merit Cross that was posthumously awarded to König's son, who as a lieutenant in the 116th infantry division was killed in the early days of the Battle for Stalingrad. König tells Sasha where König will be next, suspecting that the boy will tell Vassili. Tania and Vassili have meanwhile fallen in love, and the jealous Danilov disparages Vassili in a letter to his superiors.

König spots Tania and Vasily waiting for him at his next ambush spot, confirming his suspicions about Sasha. He then kills the boy and hangs his body off a pole to bait Vasily. Vasily vows to kill König, and sends Tania and Danilov to evacuate Sasha's mother (Eva Mattes) from the city, but Tania is wounded by shrapnel en route to the evacuation boats. Thinking she is dead, Danilov regrets his jealousy of Vasily and expresses disenchantment for his previous ardency of the Communist cause. Finding Vasily waiting to ambush König, Danilov intentionally exposes himself in order to provoke König into shooting him and revealing his hidden position. Thinking that he has killed Vasily, König goes to inspect the body, but realizes too late that he has fallen into a trap and is in Vasily's sights. He turns to face Vasily, taking off his hat, after which Vasily kills him. Two months later, after Stalingrad has been liberated and the German forces have surrendered, Vasily finds Tania recovering in afield hospital.

Titanic

Titanic is a 1997 American epic romantic disaster film directed, written, co-produced, and co-edited by James Cameron. A fictionalized account of the sinking of the RMS Titanic, it stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winsletas members of different social classes who fall in love aboard the ship during its ill-fated maiden voyage.

Cameron's inspiration for the film came from his fascination with shipwrecks; he felt a love story interspersed with the human loss would be essential to convey the emotional impact of the disaster. Production began in 1995, when Cameron shot footage of the actual Titanic wreck. The modern scenes on the research vessel were shot on board the Akademik Mstislav Keldysh, which Cameron had used as a base when filming the wreck. Scale models, computer-generated imagery, and a reconstruction of the Titanic built at Playas de Rosarito in Baja California were used to re-create the sinking. The film was partially funded by Paramount Pictures and 20th Century Fox. It was the most expensive film made at that time, with an estimated budget of $200 million.

Upon its release on December 19, 1997, Titanic achieved critical and commercial success. Nominated for fourteen Academy Awards, it tied All About Eve (1950) for the most Oscar nominations, and won eleven, including the awards for Best Picture and Best Director, tying Ben Hur (1959) for the most Oscars won by a single film. With an initial worldwide gross of over $1.84 billion, Titanic was the first film to reach the billion-dollar mark. It remained the highest-grossing film of all time until Cameron's 2009 film Avatar surpassed it in 2010. A 3D version of Titanic, released on April 4, 2012 to commemorate the centennial of the sinking, earned it an additional $343.6 million worldwide, pushing the film's worldwide total to $2.18 billion. It became the second film to gross more than $2 billion worldwide (after Avatar).