Ceremonies and Ritual in Fiction by Egantx7

One of the oldest daily ceremonies in the West is the Ceremony of the Keys where the Tower of London is locked down for the evening ... a ceremony held every evening for roughly the past six centuries (minus the one night the Tower was attacked during WWII). Jack and his wife Caroline are invited by the guard to attend this ceremony after Jack saves the life of the Prince and Princess of Wales during an IRA attack in which 1987 novel (the invitation and ceremony were not part of the 1992 film adaptation).

New members of this organization must take an oath which notes that those who reveal the organization's secrets will see their stomach become bloated, and [their] head plucked of all but three hairs. Jack Nicholson and Orville Redenbacher sit on this organization's world council. Identify this organization that makes initiates go through ordeals called "The Wreck of the Hesperus", "Crossing the Desert", "The Unblinking Eye", and "The Paddling of the Swollen Ass ... with Paddles", all of which are the same gauntlet of paddles.

Inhabitants of the planet Betazed require all those in attendance at traditional weddings to be nude. This tradition likely grew out of the several and varied relationships held by the creator of this universe, which included a long-running open marriage to one of the actresses he hired for his television program, and whom he later married before finalizing a divorce from his first wife. In which fictional "universe" of television, film, and other media would one find Betazed and their libertine weddings?

This 2001 film twice (once early in the film, and once near the end) shows a pen ceremony where colleagues of a professor each hand him a pen to signify a significant career accomplishment. The main character witnesses this as a student, and then later is a recipient of the pens. In fact, this ceremony was made up for the film, and did not exist prior. Identify this film that follows the life of a real Princeton professor.

One of the criteria that is (allegedly) used to find a new Buddhist Lama is to see if a candidate can select items owned by the previous Lama from among ordinary items. In the episode "Won't You Be Pimai Neighbor" of this TV series, a group of monks arrives in town, and begins to suspect that their new Lama may be in the neighborhood. A pushy father is disappointed that his daughter is not selected, though her friend, the oaf next door, does manage to pick up, first, the former Lama's cane (for a soft-shoe routine), and then his mirror, though the monks don't choose him. In what animated series did these events occur?

A funeral scene toward the end of this film sees Robert DeNiro conduct a version of the Tolling of the Bell, which in the case of the movie saw him toll the bell 3 times, 3 times, and 5 times to signify that all of the men had returned home. While this tradition varies across the country, it is a traditional ritual at the funerals of people in the profession at the center of what 1991 film which sees funerals for characters played by Scott Glenn and Kurt Russell?

This film includes a coming-of-age ceremony where young men must stick their arms into a log, and avoid getting lethally stung by a creature. The title character of this film is forced to undergo this ceremony, but tricks the moon's leader into thinking he has been stung, and escapes. Identify this psychedelic 1980 cult classic with a rock soundtrack.

In some branches of the military, new officers graduating from officers' school pay an enlisted person, usually one of their instructors, a silver dollar in return for being saluted for the first time. That ritual occurs near the end of this film in which Zack Mayo, a newly christened naval aviation officer, pays Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant Emil Foley for his first salute. The man who played Foley would win an Oscar for his role. Name this sappy chick-flick which also featured the Grammy, Golden Globe, BAFTA, and Oscar-winning Joe Cocker/Jennifer Warnes hit "Up Where We Belong".

This 1835 story ends with the title character having become cynical, noting they carved no hopeful verse upon his tombstone, for his dying hour was gloom.. This gets traced back to a real or imagined event where the title character sees the town at an evil ceremony at night in the woods, with his wife, Faith, and himself about to be inducted into their dark society. Identify this Nathanial Hawthorne short story which sees the title character at what may have been a "witches sabbath" ritual.

In this 1967 novel by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson, individuals live for 21 years, before voluntarily ending their lives in a ritual called "Carrousel" where the body is vaporized, with the hope of being born again (spoiler alert: no one is ever reborn). In the 1976 film adaptation, Carrousel is shown, but the age of mandatory death is moved back to 30.

Identify ...

the novel or film of the same title

The events of this story revolve around an industrialist needing a rare mineral to make superconductors, and the islanders on the island with the mineral needing a human sacrifice. In this film, a man who thinks he is dying volunteers as the human sacrifice in return for a comfortable last few months. Identify this 1990 film, the first of four collaborations between Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, which ends with a huge feast, and an attempt at human sacrifice that goes hilariously and romantically wrong.

The 1967 novel, Ritual by David Pinner, about a police officer investigating what appears to be a ritualistic killing in a rural English town, was the basis of this film. SPOILER ALERT: In the novel, the townspeople don't seem to know what happened, largely because it turns out the police officer, a schizophrenic devout Christian, was the killer all along. Thus, the ending differs greatly from this 1973 film which was inspired by that novel, in which the police officer, played by Edward Woodward, ends up the victim in a May Day related ritual which wasn't in the novel, but which was created for the film based on the writings of Julius Caesar while he was in Gaul. Identify this 1973 film which featured an occasionally nude and prancing Britt Eklund.