All the book-based movies and TV shows featuring Alan Arkin, ranked

On November 4, 1979, Iranian Islamists storm the United States embassy in Tehran in retaliation for President Jimmy Carter giving the Shah asylum in the U.S. during the Iranian Revolution. While on the phone with his son, he is inspired by watching Battle for the Planet of the Apes and begins plans for creating a cover story for the escapees: that they are Canadian filmmakers who are in Iran scouting exotic locations for a science-fiction film.

The film depicts two days in the lives of four real estate salesmen who are supplied with leads — the names and phone numbers of prospects — and use deceitful and dubious tactics to make sales. Blake unleashes a torrent of verbal abuse on the salesmen and announces that only the top two will be allowed access to the more promising Glengarry leads.

Despite his desire to express the beauty and dignity within him, John Singer is forced to rely on a card to communicate. It reads: “I am a deaf-mute. I read lips.” When he relocates to a quiet Southern town to be close to his friend, who is hospitalized and brain-damaged, Singer’s benevolent nature without words attracts other individuals who are physically and emotionally broken.

Newlyweds John and Jenny Grogan escape the brutal Michigan winters and relocate to South Florida, each landing reporter jobs at competing newspapers. When John senses Jenny is contemplating motherhood, his friend and co-worker suggests adopting a dog to test the couple’s readiness to raise a family. The couple will learn important life lessons from their adorable, but naughty and neurotic dog.

Captain John Yossarian, a U.S. Army Air Force B-25 bombardier, is stationed on the Mediterranean base on Pianosa during World War II. Futilely appealing to his commanding officer, Colonel Cathcart, who continually increases the number of missions required to rotate home before anyone can reach it, Yossarian learns that even a mental breakdown is no release when Doc Daneeka explains the Catch-22 the Army Air Corps employs.

Gary, a resident of Smalltown, plans a vacation to Los Angeles with his girlfriend, Mary, to celebrate their tenth anniversary, inviting his brother Walter, a fan of the Muppets, who watched The Muppet Show throughout his youth, so he can tour the Muppet Studios. Mary accepts this, as she is a Muppet fan as well, but feels Gary’s devotion to Walter is distracting from their relationship.

In Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II, poor Jewish cafe owner Jakob Heym accidentally overhears a forbidden radio news bulletin signaling Soviet military success against German forces. To combat the overwhelming depression and suicide that pervades the ghetto, Jakob invents fictitious news bulletins about Allied advances against the Nazis.

In 1938 Los Angeles, two gangsters in Eddie Valentine’s gang steal a rocket pack from Howard Hughes. During their escape from the authorities that ends up on an airfield, one gangster is killed, the getaway driver hides the rocket pack, and stunt pilot Cliff Secord’s Gee Bee racer is destroyed in the resulting auto-airplane accident, crippling his career.

In 1938 Los Angeles, two gangsters in Eddie Valentine’s gang steal a rocket pack from Howard Hughes. During their escape from the authorities that ends up on an airfield, one gangster is killed, the getaway driver hides the rocket pack, and stunt pilot Cliff Secord’s Gee Bee racer is destroyed in the resulting auto-airplane accident, crippling his career.

Following a move to a suburban retirement community, initiated by her significantly older husband, Pippa Lee embarks on a period of self-reflection that leads her towards a silent nervous breakdown.

In 1919, equestrian performer and World War I amputee Holt Farrier returns after the war to the Medici Brothers’ Circus, run by Max Medici. The circus has run into financial troubles and Medici had to sell the circus’ horses after Holt’s wife and co-performer, Annie, died from the Spanish flu outbreak, so Medici reassigns Holt as the caretaker for the circus’ pregnant Asian elephant Mrs. Jumbo.

In 1919, equestrian performer and World War I amputee Holt Farrier returns after the war to the Medici Brothers’ Circus, run by Max Medici. The circus has run into financial troubles and Medici had to sell the circus’ horses after Holt’s wife and co-performer, Annie, died from the Spanish flu outbreak, so Medici reassigns Holt as the caretaker for the circus’ pregnant Asian elephant Mrs. Jumbo.