[Q]: Build a movie plot around this: Whose gun did Quinlan use to shoot Menzies? Vargas's
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[A]: While passing through the seedy border town of Los Robles, newlyweds Mike and Susan Vargas (Charlton Heston and Janet Leigh) witness a car bomb explosion in which Rudy Linnekar, a local construction magnate, and his female companion are killed.Suspecting that the bomb was planted on the Mexican side of the border and may be the work of the Grandi narcotics ring, Vargas, the Mexican head of the Pan-American Narcotics Commission, offers his assistance to the Los Robles officials investigating the case. The lead detective, the obese and lumbering Capt. Hank Quinlan (Orson Welles), rudely rebuffs Vargas' offer. However, Quinlan's partner, the loyal Sgt. Pete Menzies (Joseph Calleia), and Adair, a district attorney (Ray Collins), apologize for Quinlan's behavior and invite Vargas to observe their investigation because of his status as a highly placed Mexican government official.In the meantime, a group of young Mexican men working for "Uncle" Joe Grandi (Akim Tamiroff), a small-time crime boss with a bad toupee, bring Susan, an American, to Grandi's headquarters in a sleazy hotel. Grandi warns Susan of dire consequences if her husband continues his prosecution of Grandi's brother, an imprisoned drug dealer awaiting trial in Mexico, but Susan is unimpressed.While investigating the case on the Mexican side of the border, Quinlan visits the tawdry brothel run by Tanya, a former lover (Marlene Dietrich), and the place fills him with nostalgic yearnings. Upon learning of Susan's encounter with Grandi, Vargas decides that she will be safer stashed in a motel on the American side of the border while he continues working on the Linnekar case. However, unknown to Vargas, the motel is owned by Grandi, staffed by a very nervous night clerk (Dennis Weaver), in the middle of the desert.Quinlan soon tracks down a suspect, a Mexican shoe clerk who was having an affair with Linnekar's daughter, Marcia (Joanna Moore), and later married her in a secret ceremony. Sanchez (Victor Millan) claims he is innocent and appeals to Vargas...

[Q]: Build a movie plot around this: How did the first victim die? Fed spaghetti and kicked in the stomach
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[A]: In an unidentified city of constant rain and urban decay, Detective William Somerset (Morgan Freeman) is preparing to retire and leave the horrors of the city. Before he retires, he is partnered with Detective David Mills (Brad Pitt), a cocky, young and short-tempered cop from Springfield, a comparatively small town. The two investigate the murder of a highly obese man (Bob Mack) who was fed spaghetti until a kick to his stomach burst him open. Somerset investigates the murder while Mills is given the murder case of Defense Attorney Eli Gould (Gene Borkan), with GREED written in Gould's blood on the floor. Gould was forced to carve a pound of flesh off of his body, and subsequently bled to death. The police captain gives Somerset an evidence container with three slivers of a plastic-like material found in the stomach of the obese man, which he was forced to consume along with the spaghetti. Going to the victim's house, Somerset finds three groove marks in front of the refrigerator and finds that the plastic-like slivers fit into them perfectly. Knowing the slivers resulted from the refrigerator being moved, Somerset looks behind it. He finds the word GLUTTONY written behind the fridge in grease, along with a note containing a quote from Milton's Paradise Lost. Somerset theorizes that a serial killer is basing his crimes on the Seven Deadly Sins, with five more to go.To give Mills and Somerset a chance to get along with each other, Mills's wife, Tracy Mills (Gwyneth Paltrow) invites Somerset over for dinner. While they are eating, a train passes by on the track nearby, making the building and all its contents and inhabitants tremble: the couple mention that that's why the realtor was so nervous for them to see the apartment quickly. After Tracy goes to bed, Mills and Somerset examine case evidence from the two scenes. They find a picture of Gould's wife with blood painted around the eyes. Realizing that this means she is supposed to spot something about the murder scene that nobody else would, the detectives...

[Q]: Build a movie plot around this: What was put in the trash? Whatever didn't sell
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[A]: The story takes place in affluent Grosse Pointe, Michigan, in 1974, as four neighborhood boys reflect on their neighbors, the five Lisbon sisters. Strictly unattainable due to their overprotective, authoritarian parents, Ronald (James Woods) and Sara (Kathleen Turner), the girls: 17-year-old Therese (Leslie Hayman), 16-year-old Mary (A.J. Cook), 15-year-old Bonnie (Chelse Swain), 14-year-old Lux (Kirsten Dunst), and 13-year-old Cecilia (Hanna R. Hall), are the enigma that fill the boys' conversations and dreams.The film begins with the suicide attempt of the youngest sister, Cecilia, as she slits her wrist in a bath. The family therapist Dr. Horniker (Danny DeVito) suggests to Ronald and Sara and Cecilia may have a problem with feeling neglected and says that they should pay more attention to Cecilia and the rest of their children.A few days later, Ronald and Sara throw a chaperoned party at their house which is intended to make Cecilia feel better. Cecilia excuses herself and jumps out her second-floor bedroom window, dying when she impales herself on an iron fence. In the wake of her act, the Lisbon parents begin to watch over their daughters even more closely, further isolating the family from the community and heightening the air of mystery about the Lisbon family and what they are really about.At the beginning of the new school year in the fall, Lux forms a secret relationship with Trip Fontaine (Josh Hartnett), the school heartthrob. Trip comes over one night to the Lisbon residence to watch television and persuades Mr. Lisbon to allow him to take Lux to the Homecoming Dance by promising to provide dates for the other sisters, to go as a group. Mr. Lisbon agrees as well as volunteers to be one of the chaperones. After being crowned Homecoming Queen and King, Lux and Trip have sex on the football field. Lux falls asleep, and Trip abandons her immediately. Lux wakes up alone and has to take a taxi home.Having broken curfew, Lux and her sisters are punished by a furious Mrs. Lisbon by being taken out of...

[Q]: Build a movie plot around this: What work is Paulie doing? writing a screenplay
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[A]:
At the New York Bulletin newspaper, its owner, Robert Drexel Gow (Charles Coburn), who has invested $2 million into this five year old project, receives a teletype story that the newspaper's editor, Max Wharton (Alexander Knox), is resigning to enlist in the army. Robert is livid, both at the news and the method that he found out about the news. There is a second story on the teletype: Max's wife, the famous novelist Paula Wharton (Irene Dunne) - who Max calls Paulie - is in Hollywood adapting her latest book into a movie screenplay. To the newspaper's Board of Directors, Robert rants his displeasure. Thirty-nine year old Max, joining them, tells them that he told them of this news two months prior, the only unknown at that time being the time of enlistment, which is in five hours. Max wants to do his duty as a citizen and responsible journalist to be close to the war, World War II. Robert's view is that without Max, the newspaper will fold because Max *is* the newspaper. Max counters that wouldn't be leaving unless he felt his hand picked replacement, Edward Kennedy (Robert Emmett Keane), could do the job, and that the newspaper has a strong editorial policy that guides what its employees do. From Hollywood, Paulie telephones Max. Not previously having known what her husband's intentions were, Paulie congratulates him on his decision. After Max informs her of the plan of basic training then possibly officer's candidate school, Paulie decides that she will move to where ever that school is to be close to him. The timing is perfect as she has seven or eight weeks worth of work to complete her screenplay for producer Joel Nixon (Pierre Watkin) before she makes her move. Before Max leaves, Robert wants to know his whereabouts at all times so that he contact him to solve the plethora of problems he foresees happening at the newspaper during his leave. Max wants no communication with Robert or the newspaper while he's gone, as he sees it as a point of distraction from his more important work of getting through...