We consider the Cauchy problem
\begin{alignat*}{2}
& u_t=u_{xx}+f(u), &\qquad & x\in
\mathbb R,\ t>0,\\
& u(x,0) =u_0(x), && x\in \mathbb R,
\end{alignat*}
where $f$ is a locally Lipschitz function on $\mathbb R$ with
$f(0)=0$, and $u_0$ is a nonnegative function in $C_0(\mathbb R)$, the space
of continuous functions with limits at $\pm\infty$ equal to 0.
Assuming that the solution $u$ is bounded, we study its large-time
behavior from several points of view. One of our main results is a
general quasiconvergence theorem saying that all limit profiles of
$u(\cdot,t)$ in $L^\infty_{loc}(\mathbb R)$ are steady states. We also prove
convergence results under additional conditions on $u_0$. In the
bistable case, we characterize the solutions on the threshold
between decay to zero and propagation to a positive steady
state, and show that the threshold is sharp for each increasing
family of initial data in $C_0(\mathbb R)$.