WELCOME TO CHATEAU DU MER BEACH RESORT

If this is your first time in my site, welcome! Chateau Du Mer is a beach house and a Conference Hall. The beach house could now accommodate 10 guests, six in the main floor and four in the first floor( air conditioned room). In addition, you can now reserve your vacation dates ahead and pay the rental fees via PayPal. I hope to see you soon in Marinduque- Home of the Morions and Heart of the Philippines. The photo above was taken during our first Garden Wedding ceremony at The Chateau Du Mer Gardens. I have also posted my favorite Filipino and American dishes and recipes in this site. Some of the photos and videos on this site, I do not own, but I have no intention on the infringement of your copyrights!

Marinduque Mainland from Tres Reyes Islands

Marinduque Mainland from Tres Reyes Islands
View of Marinduque Mainland from Tres Reyes Islands-Click on photo to link to Marinduque Awaits You

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Time for Some Tango Music and Dance

Dancing with my 2 daughters during our 25th Wedding Anniversary in Pinole, California

Tango Music and dance reminds me of my teenagers years in Iloilo, Philippines in the early 1950's. My late father was a good dancer and he taught me how to dance the Tango- The old style Tango, not the Argentine Tango shown in this video. So if you like dance and music, this video( and related vidoes in the set) is a must view for you. Enjoy!

Lifeforce is a 1985 science fiction film directed by Tobe Hooper, based on the 1976 novel, The Space Vampires, by Colin Wilson. The screenplay was written by Dan O'Bannon and Don Jakoby. Featuring Steve Railsback, Mathilda May, Patrick Stewart and Christopher Jagger (Mick Jagger's brother) in acting roles, the film portrays the fictional events that unfold after three mysterious humanoids, discovered in a space shuttle, are taken to Earth.

While investigating Halley's Comet, the crew of the space shuttle Churchill finds a 150-mile long spaceship hidden in the corona of the comet. Upon entering the alien craft, the crew finds hundreds of dead, shrivelled bat-like creatures and three naked humanoid bodies (two male and one female) in suspended animation within glass coffin-like containers. The crew recovers the three aliens and begins the return trip to Earth.

During the return journey, mission control loses contact with the shuttle as it nears Earth and a rescue mission is launched to investigate. The rescuers discover that the Churchill has been severely damaged by fire, with its internal components destroyed, and the three containers bearing the aliens are all that remain intact.

The aliens are taken to the European Space Research Centre in London where they are watched over by Dr. Leonard Bukovski (Michael Gothard) and Dr. Hans Fallada (Frank Finlay). Prior to an autopsy, the female alien (Mathilda May) awakens and sucks the titular "life force" out of a guard. The female then escapes the research facility and proceeds to drain various other humans of their life force, also revealing an ability to shape-shift.It transpires that the aliens are from a race of space vampires that consume the life force of living beings, rather than their blood.

Meanwhile, in Texas, an escape pod from the shuttle Churchill is found, with Colonel Tom Carlsen (Steve Railsback) inside. Carlsen is flown to London where he describes the course of past events on the Churchill, culminating in the draining of the crew's life force. Carlsen explains that he set fire to the shuttle with the intention of saving Earth from the same fate and escaped in the pod to preserve his own life. However, when he is hypnotized, it becomes clear that Carlsen possesses a psychic link to the female alien. Carlsen and Col. Colin Caine (Peter Firth), a member of the SAS, trace the alien to the body of a nurse located at a psychiatric hospital in Yorkshire. Whilst in Yorkshire, the two believe they have managed to trap the alien within the heavily sedated body of the hospital's manager, Dr Armstrong (Patrick Stewart); but Carlsen and Caine later learn that they were deceived, as the aliens had wanted to draw the pair outside of London.

As Carlsen and Caine are transporting Dr Armstrong in a helicopter back to London, the alien girl breaks free from her sedated host and disappears. When they arrive back in London it is clear that a plague has overtaken the city — even the prime minister has been infected — martial law is enacted to secure the quarantining of London. The two male vampires, previously thought destroyed, have also escaped from confinement by shape-shifting into the forms of the soldiers guarding them; the pair then proceed to transform most of London's population into vampiric zombies.

Following contact with the male vampires, the victims cycle into "living-dead" every two hours and seek out other humans in order to absorb their life force, thereby perpetuating the zombie virus. The absorbed life force consumed by the zombies is collected by the male vampires to deliver to the female vampire, who then transfers the accumulated energy to a waiting spaceship in Earth's orbit.

Fallada manages to impale one of the male vampires with a sword made of leaded iron and surmises that the space vampire race is actually the origin of the human vampire myth. Carlsen then admits to Caine that, whilst on the shuttle, he felt compelled to open the female vampire's container and to share his life force with her. Carlsen realizes that his psychic connection is being used to lure him back to the alien so she can regain the life force shared with him earlier. She is later found lying upon a church's altar, transferring the energy from infected humans to her spaceship.

Caine follows Carlsen into the church and is intercepted by the second male vampire, whom he dispatches using the leaded iron sword obtained from Fallada (Caine was forced to kill Fallada, who had become infected with the others at the research centre). Caine relocates Carlsen but the colonel manages to impale himself and the female alien simultaneously as a sacrifice for the benefit of Earth. However, the female vampire is only wounded and returns to her ship with Carlsen in tow, releasing a burst of energy that destroys the top of the church building. The two ascend the column of light that leads to the spaceship which then returns to the comet it came from.

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Second Diet Pill Approved by FDA



Last month the first diet pill Belviq was approved by FDA after 13 years of hiatus. The pill is manufactured by Arena Pharmaceuticals of San Diego, California. This week a second weight-loss pill to fight against obesity was approved. This new pill is named Qsymia and is manufactured by Vivus, Inc of Mountain View, California. The news release on this second pill's approval is written by Matthew Perrone of the Associated Press as follows:

WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday approved a new weight loss drug from Vivus Inc. that many doctors consider the most effective therapy in a new generation of anti-obesity pills designed to help patients safely shed pounds. The agency cleared the pill Qsymia for adults who are obese or overweight and have at least one weight-related condition such as high blood pressure, diabetes or high cholesterol.

Patients taking Qsymia for a year lost 6.7 percent of their body weight in one study and 8.9 percent in another study, the FDA said. That was more than two other weight loss pill recently reviewed by the FDA. Despite its impressive performance in clinical trials, Qsymia is not exactly a scientific breakthrough, and its development underscores the slow pace of research for obesity treatments.

The drug is actually a combination of two older drugs that have long been known to help with weight loss: phentermine and topirimate. Phentermine is a stimulant that suppresses the appetite, and has long been used for short-term weight loss. Topiramate is an anticonvulsant, sold by Johnson & Johnson as Topamax, that makes people feel more satiated after eating. Researchers say the innovation of Qsymia lies in targeting multiple brain signals that drive people to overeat.

"We now know there are multiple pathways that determine how much energy we take in every day," said Dr. Tim Garvey of the University of Alabama at Birmingham. "If you intervene on one pathway it's hard to make much of a difference, you really need to attack multiple mechanisms to get a pronounced effect."

Qsymia is the second weight loss drug approved by the FDA in less than a month, following Arena Pharmaceutical's pill Belviq in late June. Previously the agency had not approved a new drug for long-term weight loss since 1999.

With U.S. obesity rates nearing 35 percent of the adult population, many doctors have called on the FDA to approve new weight loss treatments. But a long line of prescription diet pills have been associated with dangerous side effects, particularly heart problems. In 1997, the popular diet drug combination fen-phen was linked to heart valve damage. The cocktail of phentermine and fenfluramine was a popular weight loss combination prescribed by doctors, though it was never approved by the FDA.

Fenfluramine was eventually withdrawn from the market. Other safety failures for diet pills have continued to pile up in recent years. In 2010, Abbott Laboratories withdrew its drug Meridia after a study showed it increased heart attack and stroke.

The FDA's successive approval of Qsymia and Belviq suggests a new willingness to make weight loss medications available, even in the face of lingering safety issues. The FDA initially rejected Vivus' drug in 2010 over concerns that it can cause birth defects if taken by pregnant women. The agency laid out a risk-management plan Tuesday specifically designed to minimize the chance of the women becoming pregnant while using the drug. It recommends that women of childbearing age test negative for pregnancy before starting the drug and take a monthly pregnancy test while taking it.

The agency also said patients with recent or unstable heart disease or stroke aren't good candidates for the drug because its effect on heart rates in those patients is not known. Vivus has to do studies of the heart effects of Qsymia, the FDA said.

Analysts estimate the new pill could garner more than $1 billion in sales by 2016, though Mountain View, Calif.-based Vivus Inc. plans a slow roll out. The pill will launch in the last quarter of the year with a relatively small sales force of 150 representatives. Company executives say their initial marketing efforts will focus on obesity specialists, not general doctors. "We're going to have to grow our sales organization in order to support the primary care market," said Vivus president Peter Tam, in an interview with the Associated Press.

Vivus had originally planned to market the drug under the brand name Qnexa. However, FDA regulators ordered the company to change the name to avoid potential confusion with similar sounding drugs. br />
Rival Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc. of San Diego plans to start selling Belviq in early 2013. A third California drugmaker, Orexigen Therapeutics Inc., is still running clinical trials of its product, Contrave, and is working toward an FDA approval date in 2014.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Do You Know that Viagra was Discovered by Accident?



Viagra's discovery as an impotence therapy was a happy accident. The manufacturer Pfizer Inc. initially tested the drug as a heart medicine. It turned out to be ineffective for that use, but many of the participants in the study noted a surprising side effect. Men who were impotent were able to have erections.

Before the drug was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in March,1998 studies were conducted on 4,000 men with erectile dysfunction, caused by a variety of medical as well as psychological conditions. Results showed that 64 percent to 72 percent completed intercourse after taking Viagra, compared with 23 percent of men taking a dummy pill. Men were instructed to take the drug about an hour before intercourse.

Common side effects include flushing in the face, headache and upset stomach. Some men reported a blue tinge to their vision while taking the drug. Men are warned not to take Viagra if they are also taking nitrate heart drugs, such as nitroglycerin.

The drug, which goes by the generic name sildenafil citrate, works by causing the release of a chemical found largely in the penis, cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cyclic GMP), that in turn causes the smooth muscle of the penis to relax, allowing the organ to fill with blood and become erect. The drug also suppresses an enzyme that breaks down cyclic GMP, extending the duration of erection.

Viagra is not the only treatment for impotence, though it is the first effective oral medication. Other therapies include drugs that can be injected or inserted directly into the penis. Another oral medication, apomorphine, is being tested and could be available in about a year.

Reference: The Washington Post Company, 1998

Origin: Sildenafil (compound UK-92,480) was synthesized by a group of pharmaceutical chemists working at Pfizer's Sandwich, Kent, research facility in England. It was initially studied for use in hypertension (high blood pressure) and angina pectoris (a symptom of ischaemic heart disease). The first clinical trials were conducted in Morriston Hospital in Swansea. Phase I clinical trials under the direction of Ian Osterloh suggested that the drug had little effect on angina, but that it could induce marked penile erections. Pfizer therefore decided to market it for erectile dysfunction, rather than for angina.

The drug was patented in 1996, approved for use in erectile dysfunction by the United States Food and Drug Administration on March 27, 1998, becoming the first oral treatment approved to treat erectile dysfunction in the United States, and offered for sale in the United States later that year. It soon became a great success: annual sales of Viagra peaked in 2008 at US$1,934 million.

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Is this for Real or Another Phishing Letter?



I received this E-mail today. Is this for Real or a Scam? If you know please let me know as soon as possible. Thank you!

UNDP had sponsored me a decade ago on their TOKTEN Program to the University of the Philippines. Tokten( Transfer of Knowledge through Expatriate Nationals) is now known as the Balik Scientist Program.

United Nation Development Program UN House, London, United Kingdom.

The UNITED NATION DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM established 1873 by the Multi -Million groups and now supported by the FBI in conjunction with the Economic community for West Africa States (ECOWAS),and the European union, is giving out a yearly donation of $400,000.00 (Four hundred thousand USD) to support individuals for their own personal, educational, Working and business development.

This is to inform you that your email address just won which makes you one of the lucky recipients to receive the award sum of $400,000(Four hundred thousand USD). The email address was selected from an exclusive list of 250,000 e-mail addresses of individual and corporate bodies picked by an advanced automated random computer balloting system.

Contact Mr. Jason Morrison via Email with the below information for claim:

1.FULL NAME 2.ADDRESS 3..COUNTRY 4..SEX 5..AGE 6.OCCUPATION 7.TELEPHONE

NAME: Mr. Jason Morrison Email: undpverificationdeptt@live.com Claims Processing Agent, Verifications/Logistic Department.

Warm Regards Patricia Gallen (Online Announcer UNDP)

Romantic Piano Pieces for Relaxation



Time for Music and Relaxation: If you are harassed,tensed and feel you are going to have a bad hair day, take a moment and view this video. I guarantee it will be worth the 30 minutes you have vested for your sanity and peace of mind. The music is not only relaxing but romantic. The photography is stunning and mesmerizing. Some of the sunset photos reminds of Chateau Du Mer in Marinduque, Philippines. Some of the popular pieces in this video are: Autumn Leaves, Secret Garden, Libestraum, Nostalgia and Melodie. This video also includes other piano and guitar music as well as Concertos. Let me know if you enjoy this video and the related videos in this set! Happy Listening!



The Other Side of Heaven is about John H. Groberg's experience as a Mormon missionary in the Tongan islands in the 1950s. It is based on the book that he wrote about his experiences, In the Eye of the Storm. The movie focuses on Groberg's adventurous experiences and trials while serving as a missionary in the South Pacific. While portraying these events, the film discusses little LDS theology, focusing instead on the Mormon missionary experience.

The Other Side of Heaven is about John Groberg's mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to Tonga. The movie takes place in the 1950s. John Groberg (Christopher Gorham) is playing in the band at a dance being held at Brigham Young University. Jean (Anne Hathaway) is his girlfriend; and she is also at the dance. John and Jean end up dancing with each other, and they leave the dance together.

John's family in Idaho Falls receives his mission call. He learns that he is called to serve in Tonga. He says goodbye to his family and leaves from Idaho Falls to Los Angeles. In Los Angeles, he boards a ship and gets to Fiji where he is detained in a Fijian jail. He is released and sets sail for Tonga. When he gets to Tonga, he meets his mission president.

His mission president introduces him to Feki, his companion. Feki is a native Tongan who also speaks English. They are assigned to serve in a remote island of the mission. He expects a warm welcome from the people. Instead, he is greeted with contempt by the island people. He goes through culture shock as he adjusts to the Tongan culture. He has difficulty with the Tongan language. Also, a local minister has told the people not to listen to John or to his message.

He begins by learning the Tongan language. He isolates himself and studies the Bible in both English and Tongan. He becomes more familiar with the language. John and Feki build a house for themselves on the island. One morning, John discovers that rats have eaten the soles of his feet. His fellow church members help him as his feet heal. They heal just in time for the Sunday church meetings, and he is miraculously able to walk. This astonishes the people, and they become more receptive to his message.

One night, a group of men surround John and Feki to beat them up. They have been sent by the local minister. One of the men, Tomasi, breaks them up and sends them away. Tomasi saves John and Feki, because he was baptised into the church and is Mormon himself. Tomasi begins attending church meetings. A local woman, at the behest of her family, tries to seduce John so that she can have a "half White baby". The woman's mother becomes offended at John's rejection of her daughter. John tells her that he is saving himself for Jean, his girlfriend back home. The woman's mother is satisfied.

A hurricane hits the island, and the island is heavily damaged. A supply ship is expected in a few weeks, but the ship is late. The people ration their food and water to survive. Many people on the island die. John is saved when the local minister approaches him, apologizes to him, and gives John his last ration of food. The supply ship arrives. John, Feki, and many others are saved. The local minister passes away and is given an honorable burial.

The mission president authorizes John to form a congregation on the island. John is set apart as the branch president and calls two counselors. Feki is assigned to go back to construction. John and Feki part ways, and thank each other for their friendship.

The new mission president visits the island and has concerns about the work there. Even though a lot of work has been done, the mission president has no records of the work. John quickly completes the required forms and turns them in to the mission president. The mission president apologizes to John and praises John for his work. He also puts John in for a six-month extension of his mission.

While traveling to an outlying island, John and his two counselors are caught in a major storm at sea. All three are tossed overboard and must swim for their lives. John miraculously makes it to shore and finds that his counselors are also safe.

Once John returns to the Tongan Island, he finds out the six-month extension is denied, and John concludes his mission to Tonga. The people thank him for all he has done for them, and John heads back home to the United States.

Throughout his mission, John and Jean keep in contact by letters. Some of the narrative of the story is told through these letters. They remain faithful to each other and are married after John returns home. They have children and continue to serve in the church. They also visit the Tongan islands several times.

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Cure for Alzheimer's Disease Coming Soon



As a member of the senior community and formerly involved in the development of new drugs, the following news just released by Associated Press excites me beyond imagination. If this news turns out positive, I feel the discovery of these three Alzheimer's drugs will be a historic event in drug development in the US. It will prolong the lives of millions of senior citizens all over the world. Here's the article for your reading pleasure.

Hopes for the Cure of Alzheimer's Coming Soon? By MARILYNN MARCHIONE(AP) We're about to find out if there will be a way anytime soon to slow the course of Alzheimer's disease. Results are due within a month or so from key studies of two drugs that aim to clear the sticky plaque gumming up patients' brains.

A pivotal study of a third drug will end later this year, and results from a small, early test of it will be reported next week at an Alzheimer's conference in Vancouver, British Columbia.

These three treatments are practically the "last men standing" in late-stage trials, after more than a decade of failed efforts to develop a drug to halt the mind-robbing disease. Current medicines such as Aricept and Namenda just temporarily ease symptoms. There is no known cure.

Experts say that if these fail, drug companies may pull out of the field in frustration, leaving little hope for the millions of people with the disease. An estimated 35 million people worldwide have dementia, which includes Alzheimer's. In the U.S., experts say about 5 million have Alzheimer's. The three treatments being tested are not even drugs in the traditional, chemical sense. They are antibodies — proteins made by the immune system that promote clearance of amyloid, the stuff that forms the plaque.

It's a strategy with a checkered history, and scientists aren't even sure that amyloid causes Alzheimer's or that removing it will do any good in people who already have symptoms. But there are some hopeful signs they may be on the right track. "Everybody in the field is probably holding their breath that there is something positive to come out of these trials," said Dr. Ronald Petersen, director of the Mayo Clinic's Alzheimer's Disease Research Center.

"It may not be a home run" in terms of improving memory and cognition, but if brain imaging or spinal fluid tests show the drugs are hitting their target, "they will be regarded as successes," he said. William Thies, scientific director of the Alzheimer's Association, agreed. Even if there is just a small effect, "that would be a huge finding because that would let you know you had a drug that worked," he said. It then could be tried as a preventive medicine or given earlier in the course of the disease when it may have more impact.

The three drugs and their developers are: _Bapineuzumab (bap-ih-NOOZ-uh-mab), by Pfizer Inc. and Johnson & Johnson's Janssen Alzheimer Immunotherapy unit. _Solanezumab (sol-ah-NAYZ-uh-mab), by Eli Lilly & Co. _Gammagard, by Baxter International Inc.

All are given as periodic intravenous infusions; some companies are trying to reformulate them so they could be given as shots. If a major study shows that one of the drugs works, there will be a huge effort to make it more convenient and practical, Thies predicted. Still, it would probably be very expensive.

The first two on the list are lab-made, single antibodies against amyloid. Gammagard is intravenous immune globulin, or IVIG — multiple, natural antibodies culled from blood. Half a dozen companies already sell IVIG to treat immune system and blood disorders. It takes 130 plasma donations to make enough to treat one patient for a year.

Treating Alzheimer's with IVIG would cost $2,000 to $5,000 every two weeks, depending on the patient's weight, said Dr. Norman Relkin, head of a memory disorders program at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. He consults for some drugmakers and has patents for tests that measure amyloid.

Relkin is also leading a late-stage, 400-patient study of Gammagard that will wrap up late this year. A much smaller, earlier study he led showed less brain shrinkage among people receiving the drug than among those getting dummy infusions. "It was so startling that I sent it to two laboratories for independent verification," Relkin said.

Next week, at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference in Canada, Relkin will give a three-year progress report on 16 patients out of the original 24 enrolled in that earlier study.

Lea Salonga singing I dreamed a Dream from Les Miserables Broadway Musical Les Misérables is an upcoming British epic musical drama film produced by Working Title Films and distributed by Universal Pictures based on the musical of the same name, which is in turn based on an 1862 French novel by Victor Hugo.

The film is directed by Tom Hooper, written by William Nicholson, Alain Boublil, Claude-Michel Schönberg and Herbert Kretzmer, and stars an ensemble cast led by Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe. Anne Hathaway, Eddie Redmayne, Amanda Seyfried, Samantha Barks, Sacha Baron Cohen, Helena Bonham Carter, and Aaron Tveit also star. The film tells the story of Jean Valjean, a former prisoner who becomes mayor of a town in France. Valjean agrees to take care of Cosette, the illegitimate daughter of Fantine, and must avoid being captured again by Javert, a police inspector.

Development of Les Misérables began in the late 1980s. After the musical's 25th anniversary concert, producer Cameron Mackintosh announced that the film resumed development. Hooper and Nicholson were approached in March 2011 and the main characters were cast in 2011. Principal photography of the film commenced in March 2012, and took place in various locations in Winchester, London and Portsmouth in England, as well as Paris in France.

Les Misérables is scheduled to be released on 14 December 2012.

Michio Kaku (加来 道雄 Kaku Michio, born January 24, 1947) is an American theoretical physicist, the Henry Semat Professor of Theoretical Physics in the City College of New York of City University of New York, a co-founder of string field theory, a futurist, and a "communicator" and "popularizer" of science.b> He has written several books about physics and related topics; he has made frequent appearances on radio, television, and film; and he writes extensive online blogs and articles. He has written two New York Times best sellers, Physics of the Impossible (2008) and Physics of the Future (2011). He has hosted several TV specials for BBC-TV, the Discovery Channel, and the Science Channel. Here's another interesting video from several of Dr Kaku's videos.

Monday, July 9, 2012

The Rock- My Action Movie of the Month



The Rock is a 1996 action film that primarily takes place on Alcatraz Island and in the San Francisco Bay Area. It was directed by Michael Bay, director of Bad Boys, and stars Sean Connery, Nicolas Cage and Ed Harris. It was produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, producers of Top Gun and Crimson Tide, and released through Hollywood Pictures. The film is dedicated to Simpson,[2] who died five months before its release. This was the first film on which Cage and Bruckheimer worked together.

Plot: A group of rogue Force Recon Marines led by disenchanted Brigadier General Frank Hummel (Harris) seize a stockpile of deadly VX gas–armed rockets from a heavily guarded military bunker, reluctantly leaving one of their men to die in the process, when a bead of the gas falls and breaks. The next day, Hummel and his men, along with more renegade Marines (Captains Frye and Darrow who have never previously served under Hummel) seize control of Alcatraz during a guided tour and take 81 tourists hostage in the prison cells. Hummel threatens to launch the stolen rockets against the population of San Francisco unless the government pays ransom and reparations to the families of Recon Marines, (using money the US earned via illegal weapons sales) who died on illegal, clandestine missions under his command and whose deaths were not honored.

The Pentagon and FBI develop a plan to retake the island with a Navy SEAL Team, enlisting the bureau's top chemical weapons specialist, Dr. Stanley Goodspeed (Cage), who initially thinks he's consulting the team, but soon learns that he has to accompany the SEALs due to his specialisation in chemical warfare. Goodspeed's confidence, already shaky as he received only minimal training in combat, is further tested when his fiancee Carla reveals that she is pregnant.

Recognizing that any surface approach will be seen by Hummel's men, FBI Director James Womack (John Spencer) is forced to turn to federal prisoner John Mason (Connery), a former MI6 Agent and SAS Captain who has been illegally detained for decades by Womack and his predecessors. Mason is the only Alcatraz inmate ever to escape through the prison's uncharted tunnels, doing so in 1963, one year after imprisonment.

Although Goodspeed manages to convince Mason to cooperate with the FBI in return for a pardon from the US Attorney General, Womack reneges on the deal. While in custody under the supervison of Special Agent Ernest Paxton (William Forsythe), Mason manages to escape to see his estranged daughter Jade (Claire Forlani), who is the only proof that he exists. Goodspeed arrives and reveals to Mason's daughter that he is aiding the FBI. Womack initially only wants Mason to consult the SEALs, as he confides to Agent Paxton that he does not want Mason loose, but the FBI have no choice but to let Mason accompany the SEALs since he has committed the maps to memory.

The team infiltrates Alcatraz, through the underground tunnels with Mason's guidance. The SEALs however are surrounded and gunned down by Hummel's marines in a shower room after SEAL Commander Anderson (Michael Biehn) refuses to surrender (the fight is provoked by Marine Captains Frye and Darrow, later revealed to be following Hummel only for the money instead of honor), leaving only Mason and Goodspeed alive. Womack plans to abort the mission, but Paxton agrees to let them them continue saying that Mason and Goodspeed are their last hope. Mason attempts to leave the prison, but Goodspeed manages to convince him to help him defuse the rockets, since Mason's daughter is at risk from the rockets. Using Mason's knowledge of the prison, they quietly eliminate several small teams of marines and disable 12 of the 15 rockets, until Hummel threatens over the loudspeaker to execute a hostage if the remaining "Navy SEALs" do not surrender and return the guidance chips from the rockets. Only Mason surrenders to Hummel, trying to buy Goodspeed some time. Though Goodspeed manages to disable another rocket, the Marines capture him shortly thereafter. With the incursion team lost, the military readies a backup plan: an air strike by F/A-18's with Thermite plasma, which will neutralize the poison gas but kill everyone on the island including the hostages.

As Mason uses his unique experience to escape from their cells, he reveals why he was held there for so many years — for stealing a microfilm of the United States' most closely guarded secrets, including the Roswell UFO incident and the John F. Kennedy assassination (Womack revealed this to Paxton, earlier). Mason states he didn't return it, because he knew the FBI would "suicide" him, if he did. While Goodspeed and Mason search for the final two rockets, Hummel fires one of them but changes the coordinates at the last second causing the rocket to crash harmlessly out to sea. Facing Captains Frye and Darrow's (Gregory Sporleder and Tony Todd) frustration, Hummel explains that their bluff failed and that he refuses to harm innocent civilians. He orders them to exit Alcatraz with a few hostages and the remaining VX rockets to cover their retreat, while he'll stay, personally assuming blame.

Realizing that they will not be paid their $1 million apiece, Frye and Darrow, along with Sergeant Crisp (Bokeem Woodbine), decide mutiny against Hummel and his second-in-command, Major Tom Baxter (David Morse). With Mason and Goodspeed watching from afar, Crisp attempts to secure Hummel on Darrows orders, but fails as the General is able to hold the NCO at gunpoint. When Baxter is asked to take a side, he appears to side with Frye, Darrow and Crisp. The Major says what a privilege it was serving with Hummel, then fires at the three rogues. In the ensuring firefight, Crisp is killed by Hummel but Baxter is killed while Hummel is fatally wounded and pulled away by Mason. Darrow and Fyre proceed with the plan to fire on San Francisco. With his last breath, Hummel tells Goodspeed the location of the last rocket. As the jets approach, Darrow is killed when Goodspeed fires the last disarmed rocket into him, launching the Marine outside where he falls and is impaled on a fencepost. Goodspeed stows the last gas pearls from the warhead and takes a loose one, but is then attacked by Frye who begins to strangle Goodspeed to death.

Using the VX to defend himself, Goodspeed shoves the gas pearl into Frye's mouth and gives him an uppercut to the jaw, breaking the pearl and exposing both of them to the gas. Goodspeed injects himself in the heart with atropine as Frye dies from the VX gas. Goodspeed then lights green flares to signal that the threat is over, but only after one of the pilots fires, sending Goodspeed flying into the sea. The early detonation hits the back of the island and harms no one else.

Mason reappears to pull the unconscious Goodspeed to shore. When he recovers, Goodspeed tells Mason that Womack tore up his pardon, which Mason expected. When radioed, Goodspeed states that Mason is dead. Goodspeed tells Mason to go to his hotel room, take a change of clothes and $200 he stashed and run. Mason thanks Goodspeed, and gives him a note that holds the location of where he had stashed the microfilm. When the FBI arrives, Goodspeed is asked about Mason and says the man was "vaporized." Paxton simply grins, suspecting otherwise as he, too, sympathizes with Mason.

Goodspeed and his pregnant bride Carla (Vanessa Marcil) visit Fort Walton, Kansas, recovering the microfilm with a half-century of state secrets, including who actually killed John F. Kennedy.
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