Problem: Build a movie plot around this: What does the sniper beg for? Death

A: In 1967, during the Vietnam War, a group of new U.S. Marine Corps recruits arrive at Parris Island, South Carolina, for basic training. After having their heads shaved, they meet Senior Drill Instructor Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, who employs excessively forceful methods to turn the recruits into hardened, combat-ready Marines. Among the recruits are privates "Joker", "Cowboy", and the overweight, bumbling Leonard Lawrence, who earns the nickname "Gomer Pyle" after attracting Hartman's wrath.Unresponsive to Hartman's discipline, Pyle is eventually paired with Joker. Pyle improves with Joker's help, but his progress halts when Hartman discovers a contraband jelly doughnut in Pyle's foot locker. Believing the recruits have failed to improve Pyle, Hartman adopts a collective punishment policy: every mistake Pyle makes will earn punishment for the rest of the platoon, with Pyle being spared. In retaliation for Pyle's failures, the platoon hazes him with a blanket party, restraining him in his bunk while beating him with bars of soap wrapped in towels. After this incident, Pyle reinvents himself as a model Marine. This impresses Hartman but worries Joker, who recognizes signs of mental breakdown in Pyle, such as him talking to his M14 rifle.Following their graduation, the recruits receive their Military Occupational Specialty assignments; Joker is assigned to Basic Military Journalism, while most of the others (including Cowboy and Pyle) are assigned to Infantry. During the platoon's final night on Parris Island, Joker discovers Pyle in the bathroom, loading his rifle with live ammunition. Joker attempts to calm Pyle, who executes drill commands and recites the Rifleman's Creed. The noise awakens the platoon, and Hartman confronts Pyle, ordering him to surrender the rifle. Pyle shoots Hartman dead, and then kills himself.In January 1968, Joker, now a corporal, is a war correspondent in South Vietnam for Stars and Stripes with Private First Class Rafterman, a combat photographer. Rafterman wants to go into combat,...

Problem: Build a movie plot around this: Who is sent to hunt down Derek? Thor

A: An alien spaceship comes to Earth while searching for a planet suitable to raise "Gargons", a lobster-like but air-breathing creature that is a delicacy on their home world. Thor (Bryan Grant) shows his alien contempt for Earth's creatures by vaporizing a dog named Sparky. Crew member Derek (David Love), after discovering an inscription on Sparky's dog tag, fears that the Gargon might destroy Earth's native inhabitants. This makes the other aliens scoff at the thought. Being members of the "supreme race", they disdain "foreign beings", no matter how intelligent; they pride themselves that "families" and "friendships" are forbidden on their world. Derek turns out to be a member of an alien underground that commemorates the more humane periods of their world's history.Their one Gargon seems to be sick in Earth's atmosphere. While his crew mates are distracted, Derek leaves. Eventually, the Gargon seems to revive. When the Captain reports his actions, Derek is quickly connected to their Leader (Gene Sterling); Derek, it turns out, is the Leader's son, although Derek is unaware of this. Thor is sent to hunt down Derek, with orders to kill him in order to protect their mission to Earth. They return to their base, leaving the Gargon behind.Meanwhile, Derek finds the home address he found on the dog's tag. There he meets Betty Morgan (Dawn Anderson) and her Grandpa Joe (Harvey B. Dunn). They have a room to rent, and Derek inadvertently becomes a boarder. When Betty's boyfriend, reporter Joe Rogers (Tom Graeff), can't make their afternoon date, Derek tags along with Betty. He shows the tag to Betty, who recognizes it immediately. Derek takes her to the place where the spaceship landed and shows her Sparky's remains. She doesn't believe him, so he describes Thor's weapon that can also vaporize humans. Betty takes this surprisingly well and vows to help Derek stop his crew mate.For the rest of the day, Betty and Derek have several run-ins with Thor, and Joe follows up on stories of skeletons popping up all over...

Problem: Build a movie plot around this: Does Alice forgive Douglas for cheating on her? No, she leaves him and moves to Calcutta

A: Synopsis by "Cult Movies" author Danny Peary...Fifteen years ago, Alice (Mia Farrow) gave up her fashion career to marry the wealthy Douglas (William Hurt). Now they live in a fancy East Side apartment, with their two kids and several servants. She spends her time shopping, heaving beauty treatments, and being a good wife/mother. Raised a Catholic - her idol is Mother Teresa - Alice feels guilty just for being madly attracted to Joe (Joe Mantegna): a sax player and single father whose kids attend her kids' school. She is too shy to talk with him. Having a painful back, she goes to Dr. Yang (Keye Luke): a weird acupuncturist-herbalist, who realizes that her problem is caused by her attraction to Joe. Yang gives her a special herb. The next day she uninhibitedly flirts with Joe and they make a date. But later she feels to guilty and scared to keep it. She takes more of Yang's potions. One potion makes her invisible: she watches Joe make love to his ex-wife (Judy Davis). Another potion allows Alice to be with the ghost of her first love, Eddie (Alec Baldwin), of whom Joe reminds her. After several false starts and near break-offs, Alice and Joe consummate their love. When invisible, Alice goes to Douglas's office and catches him making love with a coworker. He has been unfaithful for years. Alice breaks up with him and goes to Joe, who sadly tells her that he is returning to his ex-wife. Yang gives Alice a potion that will make any man love her completely. She can choose between Douglas and Joe, but decides on neither. Instead, she goes to Calcutta and works with Mother Teresa. With better values, Alice returns to New York and happily brings up her kids alone.

Problem: Build a movie plot around this: Where do they find Trudy's Body? In the back

A:
In the midst of a series of gruesome murders, a young woman is killed inside her suburban Miami house by a grey-haired, wild-eyed man. He stabs her in the eye and hacks her leg off with a machete, bagging the leg before he leaves. At the police station the next day, detective Pete Thornton investigates the killing, noting that it is the latest in a series of four murders by a homicidal maniac who has yet to leave any clues. The police chief advises him to continue to pursue the case.At Fuad Ramses Catering store, wealthy socialite Dorothy Fremont arrives, where she arranges for Fuad to cater a party for her daughter Suzette. Fuad agrees and tells Mrs. Fremont that the Egyptian feast that he is preparing has not been served for over 5,000 years. Mrs. Fremont wants the catering done in two weeks, and Fuad assures her that he will have enough time to procure the last of his needed ingredients. After Mrs. Fremont leaves, Fuad ventures to the back storage room where he has displayed a large gold statue of his "Egyptian goddess" Ishtar. Fuad is preparing a "blood feast" a huge vat containing the dead women's body parts that will ensure the goddess's resurrection. That evening, teenagers Tony and Marcy make out on a nearby beach. Fuad attacks them, subduing Tony and slicing off the top of Marcy's head. He removes her brain to serve as the latest ingredient. Thornton arrives on the scene with the police chief. After failing to obtain any useful information from the distraught Tony, they interrogate Marcy's mother, who can only tell Pete that her daughter belonged to a book club.Staking out a local motel, Fuad sees a drunken sailor drop his wife off at her room. Fuad knocks on the woman's door and attacks her when she opens it. Fuad rips the woman's tongue out through her throat as another ingredient to his "blood feast". Pete continues to investigate this latest killing, and discovers that the latest murder victim also belonged to a book club.Pete attends his weekly Egyptian Studies lecture at the local...