An army of the Teutonic Order invades and conquers the city of Pskov with the help of the traitor Tverdilo, and massacres its population. Novgorod is their next intended target. Despite resistance from the boyars and merchants of Novgorod (urged on by the monk Ananias, Tverdilo's henchman), an appeal is made to Alexander Yaroslavich Nevsky, to again become their prince and defend Novgorod. To do so he rallies the common people of the Novgorod area. In the decisive Battle of the Ice, on the surface of frozen Lake Chudskoe, the Teutonic forces are defeated. Pskov is retaken, and there Nevsky passes judgment: the surviving Teutonic foot-soldiers are set free, while the surviving Teutonic knights will be held for ransom. Tverdilo the traitor, together with a Catholic priest who blessed the burning alive of Pskov children, disappear as they are mobbed by the onlookers. A subplot throughout is the rivalry and friendship of Vasili Buslai and Gavrilo Oleksich, two famous (and historic) warriors of Novgorod. Both become commanders of the Novgorod forces, and are engaged in a contest of courage and fighting skill in order to decide which will win the hand of Olga Danilovna, a Novgorod maiden whom both are courting. At the same time Vasilisa, daughter of a boyar of Pskov killed by the Teutons, joins the Novgorod forces as a soldier. She and Vasili wind up fighting side by side; she throws him a weapon when he is surrounded and weaponless, and it is she who finds and slays Ananias. Gavrilo and Vasili are seriously wounded and are found by Olga, who retrieves them from the battlefield. Though they defer to each other, in the end Vasili publicly states that neither was the bravest in battle: that honor goes to Vasilisa, followed by Gavrilo. Thus Gavrilo and Olga are united while Vasili chooses Vasilisa as his bride-to-be (with her unspoken consent).

Manor Farm is mismanaged by its drunken owner, Mr. Jones. Prize pig Old Major encourages the farm animals to rebel against Jones and take over the farm, teaching them the revolutionary song "Beasts of England" before he dies from a heart attack. When Mr. Jones forgets to feed the animals the next morning, Major's successor Snowball leads the animals into the storehouse for food, before leading them into chasing away Jones, who returns later with neighbouring farmers in attempt to retake the farm. The animals defeat the invaders, rename the farm "Animal Farm" and destroy the tools of oppression that had been used against them. They decide against living in the farmhouse, though Saddleback boar Napoleon is interested and begins to secretly raise an orphaned litter of puppies as attack dogs while helping himself to Jones's jam storage. The Seven Commandments of Animalism are written on a barn wall, the most important being "All animals are equal". The animals cooperate to run the farm and produce plenty of food, but the pigs, led by Napoleon and his second-in-command Squealer, avoid physical labor yet claim leadership and special foods such as milk "by virtue of their brainwork". As the winter causes work to slow, Snowball holds a meeting where he promises electric power at the cost of harder work and rationing in the meantime, which Napoleon opposes. When the animals decide to proceed in favour of Snowball, Napoleon has his dogs chase Snowball from the farm and killed before declaring himself leader of Animal Farm and denouncing Snowball as a traitor. He promptly abolishes farm policy meetings, appropriates all decision-making, and advances Snowball's plan for a windmill as his own. Work begins on the windmill, spearheaded by Boxer the workhorse and Benjamin the donkey who work overtime, while the pigs consume more food and appropriate more luxuries for themselves. When Boxer and Benjamin find the pigs sleeping on beds in the farmhouse, the pigs alter the Commandment "No animal shall sleep in a bed" to "No animal shall sleep in a bed WITH SHEETS". Napoleon starts trading some of the hens' eggs for jam from local businessman Mr. Whymper without their consent, prompting the hens to revolt against the pigs before Napoleon's dogs intervene. To impose his will through fear, Napoleon holds a show trial of the hens, where a sheep and a duck also confess to dissenting; they are all executed by the dogs, and the victims' blood is used to change one of the Commandments into "No animal shall kill another animal WITHOUT CAUSE". Fearful of a potential counter-revolution, Napoleon also bans "Beasts of England" under penalty of death, declaring the revolution complete and the dream of Animal Farm realised. Later, farmers jealous of Mr. Whymper's profits attack Animal Farm. The animals ambush and repel the farmers at the cost of numerous casualties, while Jones drunkenly blows up the windmill with himself inside. The animals are forced to rebuild the windmill, including Boxer, whose injuries and age cause an accident that forces him to retire. Napoleon calls a van to take Boxer away, which Benjamin recognises as being from Whymper's glue factory; he and the other animals try to save him, but to no avail. Squealer delivers a sham eulogy in which he claims Boxer's last words were to glorify Napoleon. The animals see through the propaganda but are driven away by the snarling dogs. That night, the pigs toast to Boxer's memory with whisky they traded for his life. Several years later, Napoleon rules Animal Farm under a cult of personality and has expanded its influence into neighbouring farms owned by pigs who now act almost identically to humans, walking upright on two legs and wearing clothes. During one pig ceremony, Benjamin and the animals, now famished after constant harsh labour and rationing, are horrified to learn that the pigs have reduced the Commandments to one single phrase: "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others". Benjamin spies on the pigs' dinner party, where Napoleon is congratulated for having the hardest-working and lowest-consuming animals in the country, and the pigs toast to a future of similar pig-owned farms everywhere. Benjamin has a hallucination of Napoleon and the pigs all turning into Jones. Realizing the only thing the revolution accomplished was trading one dictator for another, Benjamin rallies the farm animals and others from nearby farms to storm the farmhouse while the dogs are too drunk to respond. The animals smash through the house and kill Napoleon and his followers as Benjamin stands with triumph.

Under the project called Bio-com, the Earthtek Corporation has locked 6 scientists in a deep underground vault to study the effects of isolation. The experiment has been ongoing for almost two years. Unknown to everyone except one of the scientists, the fake isolation experiment hides Earthtek's real purpose: to use drug(s) to create super-soldiers. A creature escapes the lab and kills a mouse and the base's cat. The creature can take over the body of whatever it inhabits.

Guido Anselmi, a famous Italian film director, is suffering from " director's block ". Stalled on his new science fiction film that includes thinly veiled autobiographical references, he has lost interest amidst artistic and marital difficulties. While attempting to recover from his anxieties at a luxurious spa, Guido hires a well-known critic to review his ideas for his film, but the critic blasts them. The film portrays Guido ambiguously floating in and out of surrealistic dreams and flashbacks to his childhood. Guido has recurring visions of an Ideal Woman, whom he sees as key to his story. His mistress Carla comes to visit him, but Guido puts her in a separate hotel. The film production crew relocates to Guido's hotel in an unsuccessful attempt to get him to work on the film. Guido admits to a cardinal that he is not happy. The cardinal offers little insight. Guido invites his estranged wife Luisa and her friends to join him. They dance, but Guido abandons her for his production crew. Guido confesses to his wife's best friend Rosella that he wanted to make a film that was pure and honest, but he is struggling with something honest to say. Carla surprises Guido, Luisa, and Rosella outside the hotel, and Guido claims that he and Carla ended their affair years earlier. Luisa and Rosella call him on the lie, and Guido slips into a fantasy world where he lords over a harem of women from his life, but a rejected showgirl starts a rebellion. The fantasy women attack Guido with harsh truths about him and his sex life. When Luisa sees how bitterly Guido represents her in the film, she declares that their marriage is over. Guido's Ideal Woman arrives in the form of an actress named Claudia. Guido explains that his film is about a burned-out man who finds salvation in this Ideal Woman. Claudia concludes that the protagonist is unsympathetic because he is incapable of love. Broken, Guido calls off the film, but the producer and the film's staff announce a press conference at which the filming will commence. Guido attempts to escape from the journalists and eventually imagines shooting himself in the head. Guido realizes he was attempting to solve his personal confusion by creating a film to help others, when instead he needs to accept his life for what it is. He asks Luisa for her assistance in doing so. Carla tells him that she figured out what he was trying to say: that Guido cannot do without the people in his life. As the production crew and cast begin to troop onto the set, Guido's passion revives and he begins to direct. The men and women of the cast and crew start holding hands and walk briskly around in a circle with Guido and Luisa joining them last. The production set is dismantled, Guido salutes the last of the crew members, and the set fades to black.

There are four main story arcs, listed in approximate order below. In typical Wong fashion, they are presented in non-chronological order. Knowledge of Days of Being Wild and In the Mood for Love is assumed, but not necessary to understand 2046.

Bradley Morahan (played by Mason) is an Australian artist who feels he has become jaded by success and life in New York City. He decides that he needs to regain the edge he had as a young artist and returns to Australia. He sets up in a shack on the shore of a small, sparsely inhabited island on the Great Barrier Reef. There he meets young Cora Ryan (Mirren), who has grown up wild, with her only relative, her difficult, gin -guzzling grandmother 'Ma' (Carr Glyn). To earn money, Cora sells Bradley fish that she has caught in the sea. She later sells him a chicken which she has stolen from his spinster neighbour Isabel Marley (Katsos). When Bradley is suspected of being the thief, he pays Isabel and gets Cora to promise not to steal any more. To help her save enough money to fulfil her dream of becoming a hairdresser in Brisbane, he pays her to be his model. She reinvigorates him, becoming his artistic muse. Bradley's work is disrupted when his sponging longtime "friend" Nat Kelly (MacGowran) shows up. Nat is hiding from the police over alimony he owes. When Bradley refuses to give him a loan, Nat invites himself to stay with Bradley. After several days Bradley's patience becomes exhausted, but Nat then focuses his attention on romancing Isabel, hoping to get some money from her. Instead, she unexpectedly ravishes him. The next day, he hastily departs the island, but not before stealing Bradley's money and some of his drawings. Ma subsequently catches Cora posing nude for Bradley and accuses him of carrying on with her underage granddaughter. Bradley protests that he has done nothing improper. Finally, he gives her the little money he has left to get her to go away. When Cora discovers that Ma has found her hidden cache of money, she chases after her. In the ensuing struggle, Ma falls down a hill, breaks her neck, and dies. The local policeman sees no reason to investigate further, since the old woman was known to be frequently drunk. Later that night Cora goes to Bradley's shack, but is disappointed when he seems to view her only as his model. When she runs out, Bradley follows her into the water, and he finally comes to view her as a desirable young woman.

The story is set in Japan, beginning in the early 1990s up until the present day (2008), with each act centered on a boy named Takaki Tōno.