Early Edition (1996)

After being kicked out of his house by his wife, Gary Hobson is forced to move into a hotel room. It's a regular Monday morning - apart from a mysterious newspaper that is delivered to his door by an even more mysterious orange cat. At first, Gary doesn't pay much attention to the newspaper but, after a while, he realises that it isn't a regular newspaper, it's tomorrow's.

Gary must choose between stopping a fatal plane crash or saving the life of one girl.

Gary helps Chuck deliver twins in an elevator after Chicago has a blackout due to Gary's inability to stop street workers to keep a water pump turned off. Meanwhile, Gary keeps chasing for a mysterious blonde woman while his ex-wife attempts to get back together.

While searching for answers about the paper, Gary becomes involved with a reporter who is suspicious of his apparent knowledge of a certain story.

Lottery fever grips Chicago with the jackpot climbing every night. Meanwhile, Gary tries to understand why someone would want to steal the Mayor's dog.

Gary tries to stop a popular basket-baller with a medical condition from risking his life on the court.

Gary has to stop a 17 year-old single mother from abandoning her child. But as always, Gary gets more involved with her than he should, and finds out she left home pregnant and now works for a drug dealer. Meanwhile, Chuck uses the paper to get a date with an attractive woman he had to share a cab with.

Gary poses as a social worker in order to stop a little boy from shooting his brother, but he gets more involved with the family than he should. Gary steals the gun, but has to give it back after the paper announces that the wife will be beaten to death. When the husband drops by, Gary shows up with the police, but little Tommy had already stolen the gun and almost killed his brother. Meanwhile, Chuck has a really hard time trying to get rid of the cat's fleas.

Meredith is back. She wants to pick things up with Gary where they left last time they met. But the paper seems to be in the way of Gary developing anything deeper with her, since he doesn't want her to have access to it. She promises not to read it, but Chuck walks in on her reading the paper. They make a deal, and Chuck wins over 15 million in the stock market. He gets in trouble and steals the paper to lose the 15 million, but Gary thinks Meredith stole it. After reconciliation, Meredith leaves for Washington.

Gary has to stop a man from his old office from killing himself. Marcia visits him with the news that she's getting married. She won't reveal the identity of her soon-to-be husband, but Gary finds out it's Phil Pritchard, his old jerky boss. Gary is not happy about it and a series of accidents make it look like he's trying to purposely hurt Pritchard and get in the way of their wedding. When the paper brings the headline that Pritchard is going to be murdered, Gary refuses to help him, but Chuck convinces him to do so. He also must stop Sam (the office mailboy for the past 9 years) from killing Pritchard.

Gary has to stop a bomb from killing 20 ice skaters on a park. He goes to Det. Crumb for help, who still doesn't quite believe Gary. The headline on the paper changes to a department store, but still the bomber seems to be ahead of them. Meanwhile, Chuck is arrested for not paying 106 parking tickets. In his cell there's a man who thinks he's Santa, and he convinces Chuck to escape from jail and steal a car to deliver the gifts.

It's 20 below zero in Chicago but Gary still has to rescue people around the city, even if the paper doesn't bring any important news. Plus, Chuck temporarily moves in to Gary's place after the heat in his place goes down, which is just another reason for Gary to be out of the house. He keeps running into a homeless kid, who is later featured in paper saying he froze to death. Now Gary has to find the kid, who got stuck under a pipe of an abandoned building. They both get locked there after the door is blocked, and now they rely on Chuck to save them from freezing to death.

Gary and Chuck get mistakenly involved with the mob after they save a gangster's ex-fiancé from being shot. They spend days trying to escape from trouble and death themselves, and to make it easier Chuck falls for the woman.

The paper reveals that the U.S. president will be murdered during his upcoming visit to Chicago - by Gary.

Gary continues to try and stop the assassination of the president while eluding the FBI who is convinced Gary is the suspected assassin. His friends try to protect Gary from exposure.

Gary meets an ex-cop who took the identity of Bat Masterson to continue his work against crime. The guy seems to be crazy, but helps Gary with his paper duties. As he learns more about Bat (or Mike Killebrew, his real identity), Gary discovers that he went crazy after his partner died.

Gary is chosen to serve as a juror in the trial of a man accused of stealing money from his company. Since the defendant is defending himself, the judge has the jury sequestered, which means Gary can't get access to the paper.

Gary is unable to stop a child from being kidnapped and looks for help in Claire (a psychic who pursued him about opening a fortune telling business with her after he saved her from dying). She "felt" there was something wrong with the child, but Gary thought it was just a part of her act.

Gary takes the cat to the vet thinking he's not feeling good. He is obligated to leave him there overnight, but rushes to the clinic in the morning for the paper, only to find out it's not there (nor is the cat). The cat mysteriously appears at Eunice's (the vet's mother) house with the paper, and Gary wonders if the cat decided to abandon him. He later finds out that the cat only wants him to save Eunice, who was madly in love with Lucius Snow 40 years ago and is now dying from cancer.

Gary saves a woman named Emma Shaw from being murdered during an art robbery. Gary keeps helping Emma establish herself in the city and develops romantic feelings for her, but the paper keeps getting in his way and interrupting their dates.

Gary and Chuck wait on a bridge to help a man who will be run over by a car, but they don't realize that the man is Gary, who is knocked unconscious. At he hospital, Gary meets a girl named Rachel, who is waiting for a compatible heart. Rachel questions Gary about his beliefs in God, a role the paper imposes him to play after announcing that Rachel will find a heart - from a young boy killed in a hold-up. Now Gary must choose between ignoring the boy and letting Rachel live or saving the boy, at the cost of Rachel's life.

Gary's father, Bernie, temporarily moves in with his son after his wife kicks him out. After learning about the paper, and enjoying helping others, Bernie decides to stay permanently.

Marissa is at school when Gary saves her college professor from being killed. Marissa soon has dinner and a study date with a fellow student she meets during the incident.

Gary's hotel room burns in an electrical fire. While wondering where he is going to live, Gary also finds out that a greedy businessman wants to purchase McGinty's and an orphanage in order to demolish them and build a parking lot. Gary and Chuck must save McGinty's and the orphanage, and Gary must find a new place to live.

Gary must help a Vietnam vet who has the Congressional Medal of Honor when a ceremony in his honor triggers feelings of guilt because of a mistake he made in Vietnam.

McGinty's is asked to cater the wedding of Gary's ex-girlfriend, his high school sweetheart. Her romantic feelings are still somewhat directed at Gary, and what's worse, her father has been under police's witness protection for three weeks and the paper warns of criminal and violent actions at the wedding.

Gary must help a young boy who is ill with leukimia, but is refusing treatment. Gary wants him to meet Jenny Sloane, Chicago's sweetheart who is ill with cancer. A Sun-Times columnist writes a column about Jenny Sloane.

Gary and Chuck must stop an old friend of theirs from their former job from having fatal plastic surgery to impress his girlfriend and enhance his career.

Sister Mary works with inner-city youths but begins to question her effectiveness and faith after witnessing too many young people ruin their lives through crime and violence. Gary tries to help her keep a young boy named Marcus on the straight and narrow path after his older brother, Kareem, is released from prison. Kareem has plans to tutor Marcus in the ways of crime and he has no patience for Gary's interference.

The newspaper arrives with an article written in Russian. Gary saves a cab driver in a seemingly unrelated article written in English. The cab driver is able to read the Russian article to Gary. Gary then must save a beautiful Russian violinist from being murdered and brings her together to her long lost father.

After learning that a leader of a racist movement will be assasinated during a march, Gary begans to debate whether he should save his life or let him die. Marissa manages to convince him to save him, but the dilemma is further compromised when the leader's comrades attack and vandalize McGinty's. Now Gary has to stop the sniper from killing the leader of the movement. The situation is further complicated when the leader's son befriends a young African-American kid.

Gary is stressed out and just wants a regular life. He is having recurring dreams about a psychiatrist who encourages him to take Sundays off from the paper. Gary decides to take that advice. However, he finds out that he needs to convince a famous quarterback to stop playing in order to avoid a serious injury.

Gary comes between his cook and an accident-prone librarian. Chuck turns truthful while dating a Rabbi.

Gary's search for a missing child makes him a suspect. When the police won't listen to him, he goes into the flooding underground sewer to try to rescue the little girl before it's too late.

Gary must deal with a stowaway princess who hid in his trunk.

Gary tries to use his nomination to a public job to get a light put at a dangerous crossroad.

Three weeks before he is due to retire, Detective Crumb comes under investigation by the city's District Attorney under suspicion that he may be corrupt.

Gary takes Marissa, who poses as an Egyptian princess, to gain admission to an exclusive museum exhibition so that he can save an archeaologist from being killed by an ancient Egyptian stone artifact. Gary pushes the man out of the way only to see that someone wanted the archeaologist killed. The day after, Gary reads in the newspaper that there'll be a fire in the museum, so he checks up on a journalist who was at the museum the night the archeaologist was almost killed. When the eyes are stolen from a cat mummy, a curse is released, causing everyone involved, including Marissa, to fall seriously ill.

After Gary is injured in a fall, he becomes housebound while his broken leg heals. In a "Rear Window" style plot, he watches people in the apartment building across the street and is attracted to a new neighbor who seems to have been the victim of a murder almost 50 years ago.

Gary's parents receive the paper when Gary is trapped in an absndoned theater trying to save a monkey. Gary's parents and Crumb accidentally bring together a family of Letonian trapeze artists in Chicago.

The paper sends Gary to save a man, John Hernandez, from getting killed in a road accident. After doing that, the paper changes and it states that Hernandez is going to kill Rachel Stone, the prosecutor who sent him to prison. Gary can't help but wonder why the paper sent him on such an errand. Gary then goes to the courthouse to stop Hernandez; Hernandez gets away and Gary is arrested and brought to Ms. Stone. When he tries to warn her about Hernandez; she doesn't believe him because Gary won't reveal the source of his information. Hernandez gets away by knocking Chuck out and taking his car. While Gary waits at the hospital, the paper now says that Hernandez is going to try again this time at her home. Gary goes there and gets him and Ms. Stone taken as hostage.

Gary learns that a British man who assisted him with a mission is actually a forger with many enemies.

Gary helps Renee, a woman who is being targeted by thieves.

Gary reads in the paper that a pylon at a construction site drops and knocks over a nearby building killing thousands. He goes to try and prevent it from happening only to get knocked out and wakes up 2 days before the Great Chicago Fire. He meets Morris, who looks like Chuck. He also meets Jesse, a young boy who is the brother of a woman, Elanor, who is a singer at a saloon, and looks exactly like Marissa, and is a victim of racism. Gary must help Jessee and Elanor, and try to stop the fire from happening.

Marissa sees a vision and thinks her sight is returning. Chuck witnesses a mob murder, and is in trouble. Gary, Chuck, and Crumb are taken hostage, and Marissa must save them.

During a blackout in Chicago, Marissa attempts to save two trapped teenagers.

Chuck has left McGinty's in financial chaos and Marissa announces for a pub manager in the paper without telling Gary who has hands full with the choice of preventing a major car crash or saving an 8-year-old.

After Henry witnesses Gary rescue a clown from a falling bucket, nothing can stop the child from finding out about the paper. However, Henry misuses the information contained within the paper, but things get worse when Henry's father sees his child's "gift" as a way to make a quick buck.

To stop an explosion, Gary poses as a Navy Lieutenant, but before he can get off the base, he attracts the attention of an admiral who wants Gary to take his daughter to a dance. However, things don't go as planned and Gary ends up imprisoned in a Naval Jail. Worse yet, Gary receives the paper while in jail and learns that McGinty's is going to blow up.

Erica reunites with a childhood friend, Nick Sterling, who seems to be the perfect guy. Gary is jealous of their relationship and reads in the paper that Nick is going to propose to Erica. Gary also reads that the hospital that Nick just got done building is going to catch on fire at the opening party so he goes to the party but the building still catches on fire and he has to save Nick and Erica.

Gary is abducted by two witches that he saved from a fire. The witches believe that Gary is a warlock, and that Gary can help them free their sister who has been locked up for close to 200 years.

A surprise visit from Chuck makes Gary suspect an ulterior motive.

Gary tries to clear the name of an innocent man on death row hours before his execution. Lucious Snow had failed to stop the murder, but left Gary some clues.

Gary is in danger after preventing a spa worker from being shot in the sauna. Turns out that the people who were going to kill him are mobsters and the spa worker is actually an FBI agent working on a case to bring the mobsters down.

To his surprise, Gary runs into his mother in the middle of Chicago. Later he shadows her and sees her drinking champagne with a strange man. Gary first suspects an affair, but learns that the stranger has tricked her into investing in a fictive company.

Gary is mistaken for a substitute teacher while attempting to stop a high school shooting.

Gary catches a snake that was going to bite a bingo player who faints and knocks her head. However, she's incapable of her next doings: babysitting Henry. Gary takes over, but Marissa warns him that he can't handle both the paper and Henry. While babysitting for Henry, Gary's intervention with one accident sets off a chain reaction of accidents.

An old ex-cop with an outdated driver's license starts his car and Gary crawls on it to stop him driving. Two Italian tourists are robbed by fake taxi drivers. The tourists charm Erica to show them old Chicago buildings, and Capone's last living major gang member is released from prison.

Gary decides to tell Erica about the paper but she does not believe him until she witnesses him saving the life of a little girl trapped in a refrigerator. Unfortunately, Patrick, who is looking for an apartment, accidently takes Gary's paper.

While in town to discuss a major deal with the Chicago Cubs, star ball player Andy Miller escapes serious harm when Gary saves him from being severely injured in a freak accident. Andy does bruise his shoulder during the incident, however, and Gary takes him to the hospital where Andy winds up falling in love with his physician, Dr. Suzy Pietro. Andy decides to accept the Cubs lucrative offer so he can stay in Chicago and be with Suzy. Unfortunately, Andy's agent doesn't want him to sign with the team and he soon learns that Suzy is contemplating a marriage proposal from another man. When Gary reads that Andy is going to choose a different ball club, he rushes to keep Andy with the Cubs and reunite him with Suzy.

Marissa's old friend, Julius aka C-Roc, is in town for a cd signing and Gary has to prevent him from being killed.

A couple is fighting with each other over their lingerie company, and Henry befriends their daughter.

A homeless man plummets to his death while Gary tries to save him. Gary is rattled by his inability to prevent the tragedy and questions his involvement with the paper. When Gary refuses to prevent the next day's bad news, he winds up being forced to confront his own fate when he reads his obituary in the paper and must figure out what he's done wrong so he can save his life.

Crumb is about to publish a manuscript about police corruption in Chicago, when he becomes the target of someone who doesn't want the book to come out. Gary and Crumb then narrowly escape a drive-by shooting, and Federal Agent Brigatti, who recently transferred to the Chicago detective squad, takes on the case and attempts to track down Crumb's potential killer.

Gary tries to prevent an accident involving a rare monkey, but he gets bitten by the animal and is forced into quarantine until it can be determined whether or not he has contracted a rare disease. In the meantime, Gary enlists Marissa's help in preventing the elderly man from being injured in a variety of dangerous mishaps. With the help of her new boyfriend, Emmet, she attempts to save the man.

While Gary is able to prevent a robbery attempt by the dangerous criminals, he is unable to convince the local sheriff that the convicts are hiding out in his little town. It turns out that Joe is an envious old high-school classmate of Gary's who decides to throw him in jail for causing a raucous. While behind bars, Gary reads in the paper that his mother will be killed by the convicts. When he's unable to convince Joe to stop by his parents house to prevent the impending tragedy, Gary's dad, Bernie, comes to his rescue and they both rush to save Gary's mom.

Gary does his usual routine to help others, and finds himself involved with the robbery of an ancient Chinese helmet that was stolen from LA. Detective Sammo Law from the Los Angeles police department is in Chicago looking for the missing helmet. After investigating Gary's involvement with the case, Sammo and Gary find out Gary accidentally bought the helmet as a piece of an art decoration object. Unfortunately the helmet is stolen again, forcing Sammo and Gary to team up to get it back, while trying to stop the man who stole it and his niece from being murdered by international smugglers who want the helmet.

Gary saves a woman from drowning in a pool at a women-only gym, who turns out to be Detective Armstrong's wife. The Armstrongs invite Gary and Erica to dinner at their house; Det. Armstrong is suspicious about Gary saving his wife, and accuses him of trying to kill her. Erica decides to end her relationship with Gary, and leave Chicago. Meanwhile, Gary has to prevent two places from blowing up after a manifesto is sent to the Sun Times and the TV station, both of which refuse to read or publish it, and then are targeted by the people who wrote it.

Gary meets a man, Sam Cooper, that also receives tomorrow's paper (the New York Daily). However, unlike Gary, Sam hires others to complete the rescues and uses the paper's knowledge to make money.

After Gary reads that Pedro Mendoza, a rookie pitcher for the Chicago Cubs, is going to pitch a no-hitter. Chuck convinces him to attend the game. But when Chuck inadvertently changes the course of the day's events by taking a cab meant for the ballplayer, the story is replaced by an item about the pitcher being injured while on his way to Wrigley Field. After preventing Pedro's impending accident, Gary races to protect a restaurant owner from being seriously injured by a loan shark. When it turns out that the man is Pedro's brother, Gary and Chuck find themselves in the middle of another potential tragedy. They read that the brother will be killed and the ballplayer's arm will be broken by the menacing thugs. With only a few hours left, the duo must try to save the day so Pedro can pitch the game and still make the history books.

As Brigatti carries out her plan to entice the thief with an expensive diamond pendant, her relationship with Gary grows more personal since they are forced to spend several days and nights together. When it appears that the case has been solved, Gary reads that the diamond will turn out to be a fake -- putting Brigatti's career in jeopardy. Armed with tomorrow's news, only Gary can save Brigatti's job by finding the true thief and returning the diamond to its owner.

While covering the opening of a local pickle factory, Miguel winds up in the middle of one of Gary's saves, when he falls head first into a barrel of kosher dills. After Miguel's pickled puss winds up in all the papers, he loses his job and must take a position at a museum, where he's forced to photograph uncooperative school children. When Gary reads that one of the kids at the museum will be injured, he races to prevent the tragedy - only to cost Miguel another job. To make matters worse, while at the museum, Miguel inadvertently takes a photo of Bruce Bryce a vicious criminal thought to be dead. When he realizes he has evidence that could potentially get him his newspaper job back, Miguel heads over to the Sun Times with the film. But Bryce tracks him down and threatens him with bodily harm if he doesn't hand over the photos. With Miguel's life in jeopardy, Gary must figure out how to save him before his days as an inquiring photographer are over.

While struggling to find a way to tell his boss that he's leaving McGinty's for good, Patrick thoroughly frustrates Gary by following him around all day and triggering a host of potential disasters. When Patrick's actions culminate in an explosion at a Halloween rave party, Gary instructs him not to move a muscle - a directive that backfires when Patrick attempts to help and winds up in a life-threatening situation.

When Frank Scanlon, a Chicago Sun Times columnist famous for his exposes, meets Gary during one of his daily saves, Gary piques the interest of the reporter, who believes that the rescues are more than coincidental. Intent on investigating Gary further, Scanlon demands that Sun Times cameraman Miguel Diaz hand over the confidential file he's been collecting on Gary. Meanwhile, when Gary reads in the paper that Scanlon is about to be murdered, he rushes to save him but the paper lists the wrong time of death - leading Gary to be found at the scene by police and subsequently arrested. Mounting circumstantial evidence even has Detective Toni Brigatti convinced of Gary's guilt. After escaping his arraignment, with Marissa's help, Gary becomes a fugitive desperate to find Scanlon's murderer.

When Gary's own investigation leads him to one of Scanlon's informants, he learns that at the time of Scanlon's death, the reporter was about to break a story on a murder-for-hire ring. With the help of Sun Times photographer Miguel Diaz, Gary obtains a printout of Scanlon's notes for his story that identifies six murders that were made to look like accidents. Meanwhile, Detective Brigatti uncovers some evidence of her own, which proves Gary's innocence and implicates someone with whom she works closely in the department. When Brigatti is subsequently taken hostage and about to be murdered, Gary must save her before the real killer sets him up a second time.

With Gary as her guide, Rebecca becomes renowned for her accurate forecasts, until the paper shows up at his doorstep one morning without a trace of the next day's weather. Searching for a way to save his budding relationship, Gary reads a story in the paper about a group of construction workers who are killed when a gale force wind knocks over a Christmas tree they're trying to put up. Racing to the television studio, Gary attempts to get Rebecca to warn the workers about the potential disaster. Meanwhile, Gary's old friend Uncle Phil (guest star Fyvush Finkel, reprising the role) winds up in a series of jobs and disasters that Gary must prevent.

When Gary ignores Marissa's repeated requests to help her manage the workload at McGinty's, the paper plays a dangerous trick on him: he reads that his friend will be struck and killed by a car. Gary finds himself in a daily replay of the same 24 hours, � la the film Groundhog Day, when, unable to save her the first time around, he awakens to find history repeating itself -- twice. Failing to prevent the accident a second time, Gary is given one more chance to learn from his mistakes so he can save Marissa's life.

Although Crumb cautions Gary that Rose may appear sweet and innocent but is probably trouble, Gary ignores his warning, even when evidence surfaces that she has a criminal record. When he believes her explanation that an old boyfriend is after her, Gary agrees to loan Rose $25,000 to get rid of him and is stunned when she suddenly runs off with his money.