In the Welsh seaside city of Swansea, Oliver Tate is an eccentric, unpopular 15-year-old who is infatuated with his mischievous classmate, Jordana Bevan. After Oliver bullies another female classmate to impress Jordana, she invites him to meet secretly after school, before taking pictures of her and Oliver kissing. Jordana uses the pictures to make her ex-boyfriend Mark jealous, resulting in Oliver being beaten up by Mark at school for refusing to call Jordana a "slut". Jordana becomes Oliver's girlfriend and, after a couple of weeks, they lose their virginity to each other in his bedroom while his parents are out. Oliver begins to suspect that his mother Jill is having an affair with a previous lover, New Age motivational speaker Graham Purvis, who has moved in next door with his girlfriend Kim-Lin. Worried about his parents' marriage, he monitors their sex life by checking the dimmer switch in their bedroom, concluding that they have not had sex for seven months. After spotting Jill in town with Graham and overhearing her talk about him on the phone, Oliver tries to warn his depressed father Lloyd, who dismisses his suspicions. Oliver spies on Jill attending one of Graham's seminars, where Graham tells her that he has broken up with Kim-Lin. As Oliver's relationship with Jordana grows, she reveals that her mother has been diagnosed with a life-threatening brain tumour. At an awkward early Christmas dinner at Jordana's house, Oliver is welcomed by her parents but witnesses her father break down emotionally after a dimmer switch stops working. Despite agreeing to visit Jordana's mother at the hospital the day of her operation, Oliver loses his nerve and temporarily disappears from Jordana's life so he can focus on salvaging his parents' marriage, planning to resume his relationship with Jordana afterwards. On the night of New Year's Eve, Jill goes to the beach with Graham. While searching for Jill on the crowded beach, Oliver is stunned to see Jordana with another boy. He then spies on his mother entering the back of Graham's van and assumes the worst. Enraged, he goes home and takes several of Lloyd's antidepressants before breaking into Graham's house, where he gets drunk and commits minor acts of vandalism. Upon returning home, Graham finds an intoxicated Oliver, Graham later drops Oliver off at his doorstep and leaves. The next morning, Oliver awakes to see that his parents are not angry with him and are reconciling, though Jill admits that she gave Graham a handjob. Jordana breaks up with Oliver via a letter informing him that she is seeing someone else and that her mother's operation was successful; he becomes depressed over the next few months. At school, Oliver is commonly harassed by classmate Chips. Oliver later apologises to Jordana for not visiting her mother at the hospital, hoping she will leave her new boyfriend for him, but she rejects him. Oliver later encounters Jordana on the beach at sunset, learning that she does not actually have a new boyfriend. She declares that Oliver was horrible to her, and he admits that he made a mistake. Together, they walk several inches deep into the sea, smiling at each other as the sun shines at them.

Frank Darbo, a devoutly religious short-order cook, recalls his only two good memories from an otherwise disappointing life: marrying his wife Sarah and pointing a police officer in the direction of a man who snatched a woman's purse. He immortalizes these events in two crayon drawings hung on his wall for inspiration. Sarah, a recovering drug addict, has left him for Jacques, a charismatic strip club owner and drug lord who gets her hooked on drugs again. Frank sinks into depression and has a vision wherein he is touched by the finger of God and meets the Holy Avenger, a superhero from a Christian network TV show who tells Frank that God has chosen him for a very special purpose. Frank believes that God has chosen him to become a superhero and goes to a local comic book store for inspiration. His claim that he is designing a new superhero is met with enthusiastic appreciation from the young store clerk, Libby, and he creates a superhero costume before assuming the identity of the "Crimson Bolt". Lacking superhuman abilities, he deals with injustice in his own way, using a pipe wrench to savagely beat people such as thieves, drug dealers, child molesters, and a man who simply cuts in line at the movies. The Crimson Bolt soon becomes a media sensation, initially viewed as a violent psychopath, but he begins to gain public appreciation after the criminal backgrounds of many of his victims come to light. Frank later attempts to rescue Sarah at Jacques' house, but Jacques' thugs recognize him under the costume and shoot him in the leg as he flees while climbing over a fence. A wounded Frank goes to Libby for help. Libby persuades Frank to let her become the Crimson Bolt's "kid sidekick", calling herself "Boltie" and designing a costume of her own. She proves to be more unhinged than Frank, using her superhero guise to nearly kill a man who possibly vandalized her friend's car, and Frank decides to let her go but changes his mind when she rescues him from some of Jacques' thugs at a gas station. Libby soon becomes enamored with Frank, but he turns down her advances, insisting he is still married. Arguing that the rules are different when they are using their superhero identities, Libby rapes Frank while the two are in costume and later claims to have been suffering from sexsomnia. Frank runs to the bathroom and vomits, encountering a vision of Sarah in the toilet. He decides to rescue her from Jacques once and for all. Armed with guns, pipe bombs, and bulletproof vests, Frank and Libby sneak into Jacques' ranch and kill the first few guards they encounter. Frank is shot in the chest and saved by his bulletproof vest, but Libby is shot in the head and killed. Devastated, Frank furiously slaughters all of Jacques' thugs. Inside, Jacques shoots Frank, but Frank gains the upper hand and stabs Jacques to death as a horrified Sarah watches. Frank takes Sarah home and she stays with him for a few months, which Frank surmises is "out of a sense of obligation" for saving her life. One day, Frank returns home to find Sarah has left him again. This time, she overcomes her addiction and uses her experiences to help others with similar problems. She marries a man named Patrick and has four children. Frank is convinced that her children will change the world for the better. Frank, content and living alone with a pet rabbit, looks at his wall of happy memories. The wall is now covered with pictures of his experiences from his time spent with Libby and pictures of Sarah's children, who call him "Uncle Frank". He gazes at Libby's picture as a tear runs down his cheek.

Living in her rundown van while travelling around America, homeless teenager Tallulah and her boyfriend Nico survive the streets by stealing credit cards. When Nico decides it is time to go home to his mother, Tallulah expresses her dismay and argues with Nico about how she will not change her lifestyle. Tallulah is devastated to discover the next morning that Nico has left without saying goodbye. Desperate to be with him again, Tallulah drives to New York City, where Nico's mother, Margo, lives and finds her at her apartment. After informing Tallulah that she has not seen Nico in two years, Margo tells Tallulah to leave. With nowhere else to go, Tallulah steals from guests at a nearby hotel, only for the strange natured and intoxicated mother, Carolyn, to mistake Tallulah as housekeeping staff. To Tallulah's confusion, Carolyn lets her child wander around naked and play with dangerous objects and admits that she is not invested in being a mother. Carolyn leaves her toddler, Maddison (Maddy), in Tallulah's care, while she goes on a date with a man who is not her husband. Tallulah bonds with the young Maddy, bathing her and playing games, before a devastated Carolyn arrives back at the hotel, distraught that the man did not want her. After Carolyn drunkenly passes out, Tallulah prepares to leave, but impulsively decides to take a crying Maddy back to her van to spend the night until further notice. When Tallulah returns to the hotel with Maddy, she flees upon seeing the police, summoned by a panicked Carolyn, and goes to Margo's apartment. After Tallulah claims that the child is Nico's and that she is Margo's granddaughter, "Maggie," Margo reluctantly agrees to let them stay for one night. Unknown to Tallulah, Margo is struggling with her own marital problems after her ex-husband Stephen has left her for a man, Andreas, and is pressing Margo to finalize their divorce. While Tallulah and Maddy stay with Margo, the three of them bond; Tallulah reveals her fears of forming relationships and Margo admits to having trouble letting go. However, Tallulah becomes increasingly aware that the authorities are looking for her and Maddy. Meanwhile, a distressed Carolyn is questioned by a social worker, who notes that Carolyn has only expressed concern for herself so far instead of her missing child. Frustrated with their questioning, Carolyn leaves the hotel to distract herself and discovers that her husband has cancelled all her credit cards, much to her fury. During a lunch with Stephen and Andreas, Margo defends Tallulah when Stephen begins to aggressively question Tallulah's relationships with Nico and Maddy. Margo lashes out at Stephen about their marriage and the deceit involved, pointing out that when all their friends supported Stephen, Margo had been left alone to reconcile the changes in her life and losing the family she loved. On their way back to Margo's apartment, Tallulah and Carolyn notice one another as the latter goes by in a cab. Just before Carolyn catches up to them, Tallulah narrowly escapes with Maddy and Margo via the subway. When Margo demands to know why Tallulah ran, an argument ensues and Tallulah runs off with a feverish Maddy to a pier that Nico had once told Tallulah was his favorite place. Nico arrives, having finally returned to his mother in New York City. Taking Maddy to the hospital, Nico devises a plan to allow Tallulah to escape. At Margo's apartment, Carolyn and the police arrive after a tip from Stephen and Andreas, who recognized Tallulah from a newspaper article reporting Maddy's abduction. Carolyn admits to Margo that she did not want to be a mother and feels no maternal instinct, despite loving her daughter; Margo comforts her. At a subway station, Tallulah calls Margo to apologize for involving her, and the police trace the call. Tallulah tries to get on the subway in order to flee, but instead returns to Maddy and Nico at the hospital. The police, Carolyn, and Margo arrive at the hospital, where an emotional Tallulah accuses Carolyn of not wanting Maddy. After a tearful Carolyn tells her that she does want her child, Tallulah reluctantly hands Maddy back to her and is arrested by the police. As Tallulah is taken away, Margo promises to help her however she can. When Detective Richards facetiously asks Tallulah if she has a habit of taking children into protective custody, Tallulah says nothing and smiles ruefully. Some time later, Margo wanders through Central Park before lying in the grass, recalling her conversation with Tallulah about letting go. Margo starts floating away happily, but then appears frightened and grabs a tree branch.

In 1979, Deputy Sheriff Jack Lamb of Lillian, Ohio and his 14-year-old son Joe mourn the death of wife and mother Elizabeth in a workplace accident. Jack blames Elizabeth's co-worker Louis Dainard for the accident, as Dainard had a hangover, resulting in Elizabeth having to cover his shift. Joe clings to his mom's memory in the form of a locket. Four months later, Joe's friend Charles is making a zombie movie for a Super 8 film competition. He enlists Joe's help along with friends Preston, Martin, and Cary, as well as Dainard's daughter, Alice. Though their fathers are opposed to their friendship, Joe and Alice become close. One night while they film at a train depot, a pickup truck rams an approaching train head-on, derailing it (which they capture on film) and destroying the depot. After being scattered by the fiery chaos, the kids regroup and find crates of strange white cubes amid the wreckage, and discover the truck driver to be their biology teacher Dr. Woodward. Gravely injured, he warns them at gunpoint to forget what they have seen. They flee, as a convoy from the local Air Force base, led by Col. Nelec, arrives. Nelec finds an empty Super 8 film box. In the following days the town experiences strange events: dogs run away, several townspeople go missing, the electrical power fluctuates, and electronic items are stolen. Jack approaches Nelec, but Nelec arrests him. Nelec orders flamethrowers to start a wildfire as an excuse to evacuate the residents to the base. Watching their footage, Joe and Charles notice a large creature escaping the train. In a military hospital, Nelec questions Woodward about the creature. After Woodward rebukes him, Nelec has him killed with a lethal injection. Louis and Alice get into a fight and she attempts to flee on her bike, Louis chases after her in a car but gets into an accident, as Alice is fleeing, the creature abducts her. Louis, while in recovery from his car accident, tells Joe the creature has abducted Alice. Joe, Charles, Martin, and Cary persuade Jen, Charles's older sister, to flirt with Donny so he can get them into town to rescue Alice. Breaking into Dr. Woodward's trailer, they learn of his work as a former government researcher. In 1963, the Air Force captured a crash-landing alien. Its spacecraft, composed of the white cubes, allowed it to shape-shift. While being experimented on, the alien established a psychic connection with Woodward, convincing him to help it escape Earth. His effort was sabotaged by Nelec who discredited, and discharged Woodward. Nelec captures the kids, but the alien kills Nelec and his airmen, allowing them to escape. Jack escapes and agrees with Louis to put aside their differences to save their kids. The military attacks the alien, but their hardware goes haywire in its presence, resulting in significant collateral damage. Joe and Cary find a massive tunnel system under the town. The missing townsfolk, including Alice, are hanging unconscious from the ceiling of a cavern. Here, the alien is creating a device, constructed from the missing electronics, and attached to the base of the water tower. Using firecrackers as a distraction, Joe frees Alice and the others. The alien grabs Joe, who quietly speaks to it, convincing that it could "still live" while bad things happen. Establishing an emotional connection between the two of them, the alien realizes that not all humans are as bad as Nelec and spares him, allowing them to return to the surface. Everyone watches as metal objects from the town are pulled to the top of the tower by an unknown force. The white cubes reassemble to create a spaceship and, as the alien enters it, Elizabeth's locket is drawn toward the tower. Joe lets it go, completing the ship. As the ship rises into space, he takes Alice's hand. The short film the children were making in Super 8 runs at the end of the movie beside the credit roll. In it, Charles's character asks for his short film "The Case" to be picked for a local film festival before being attacked by a zombie played by Alice.

In LaGrange, Ohio, construction worker Curtis LaForche has apocalyptic dreams and visual and auditory hallucinations of rain "like fresh motor oil," swarms of menacing black birds, and being harmed by people close to him. He hides all of this from his wife, Samantha, and their deaf daughter, Hannah. He instead channels his anxieties into a compulsive obsession to improve and enlarge a storm shelter in his backyard; however, his increasingly strange behavior – including a tendency to cut ties with anyone in his life that has harmed him only in his dreams – strains his relationship with his family, friends, employer, and the close-knit town. He also puts his job in jeopardy as he borrows heavy equipment from the company for personal use to build his shelter. To deal with his increased insomnia and apocalyptic visions, Curtis sees a counselor at a free clinic, with whom he talks about his family's psychological history. His mother, Sarah, has paranoid schizophrenia that surfaced in her at about the same age that Curtis is now. He's worried that he may also have the disorder. In order to have the remodeled storm shelter completed, Curtis gets a home improvement loan he can't afford to start building the shelter – all without telling his wife. Samantha becomes angry when she discovers the project. After Curtis takes more than the prescribed dose of a sedative and has a seizure, Samantha calls an ambulance. He recovers, then finally explains the truth to her, including his dreams. Curtis is increasingly absent from work, causing tension with his boss, as he and Samantha make preparations for the cochlear implant surgery for Hannah in six weeks' time. Having been informed of the borrowed work equipment, Curtis's boss fires him and gives him only two weeks' worth of medical insurance benefits, after placing Dewart, the close friend and coworker whom Curtis asked to help him start construction of the shelter, on two weeks' unpaid administrative leave. Curtis buys gas masks for his family and extends his previous employer's health insurance policy for a few extra weeks. After he finds out that his counselor at the free clinic has suddenly transferred and been replaced with a new one, he walks out. Tensions linger between Curtis and Samantha over the loss of his job at such a crucial time for their family. Samantha gets Curtis to see an actual psychiatrist and demands that they attend a social function so she can restore some sense of normalcy to their strained, increasingly isolated life. At a Lions Club community gathering, a bitter Dewart, who has been spreading gossip that Curtis is crazy, is angrily provoked and punches him. Enraged, Curtis knocks Dewart to the floor, overturns a table, and unleashes a frightening verbal tirade upon everyone present. He prophetically shouts that a devastating storm is coming, insisting that none of them are prepared. Later, a tornado warning sends him and his family into the shelter. After they awaken, Curtis reluctantly removes his gas mask, prompted by Samantha. They go to open the shelter doors, but he still hears a storm outside. His wife implores him, insisting that there's no storm and that he needs to open the door. After a tense standoff, Curtis throws open the doors into the blinding sun; a strong but bearable storm has passed, and neighbors are cleaning up broken tree limbs and other yard debris as power company trucks restore electricity along the street. A psychiatrist advises the couple to go through with their planned, annual beach vacation but that Curtis will need to get psychiatric care in a facility away from his family upon their return. At Myrtle Beach, while Curtis is building sandcastles with Hannah, she signs the word "storm.” As Samantha exits their beach house, the thick, oily rain that Curtis spoke of begins to fall, staining her outstretched hand. Samantha looks up to a bigger version of the ominous storm clouds Curtis had seen, massing over the ocean; multiple waterspouts reach down to the ocean's surface, and the tide pulls back as a tsunami looms in the distance. Samantha and Curtis exchange glances as Samantha whispers "okay.”

In prehistoric times, a meteor crashed into Earth and killed all the dinosaurs. In the present day, industrialist John Greystoke funds an expedition to Uganda to locate the meteor and harness its energy. Aided by scientist James Porter, the expedition is a failure and John decides to leave with his wife and their son John Jr. While flying over a semi-active volcano, the Greystokes' helicopter's instruments go haywire. Forced to land on the meteor, John explores a cave and discovers glowing rock formations. Using his pickaxe, John collects a sample, only to cause a chain reaction that awakens the volcano. While trying to escape, their helicopter crashes, with only John Jr. surviving. The boy is discovered by the Mountain gorilla Kala, who recently lost her child. Adopted into the troop, John chooses to be called "Tarzan," a name he made up meaning "Ape with no fur." Tarzan grows up learning the ways of the animals. After the Greystokes' disappearance, Dr. James Porter funds his expeditions by acting as a jungle guide for wealthy tourists. During a routine safari, a client wanders away from the group, attracting the attention of a cassowary. Dr. Porter's daughter Jane saves him by putting herself in danger, as she is bitten by a viper. Infatuated with the girl, Tarzan carries Jane to a shelter and cures her. The next day, she returns to her father's camp with only vague memories of the night before. Confused by exposure to humans after so long, Tarzan decides to leave his gorilla family. He wanders to the site of the helicopter crash, finds the meteor stone his father took, and builds a shelter. Years later, Tublat, the apes' abusive leader, noses around Tarzan's shelter and accidentally activates the helicopter's emergency beacon. The transmission is received by Greystoke Energies. William Clayton, the current CEO, knowing what John senior was looking for, sees a chance to make money. He promises Jane, who now works for a conservation group, to fund her organization if she accompanies him to Africa to speak with her father. In Africa, Jane is disgusted by Clayton's greed. She leaves the party, wanders into the jungle, and finds Tarzan, now a man. Astounded, he brings her to his refuge. As a mark of love, Tarzan chips off a piece of the meteor rock and gives it to her. The rest of the group tracks Jane down there, where Clayton is shocked to find the Greystoke heir alive. Seeing him as a threat to his power, Clayton starts to shoot. The couple flees and is forced to enter a valley affected by the meteor, which causes unique mutations in the local flora and fauna, turning them into monsters. Surviving many dangers, the couple reaches the meteor, where Tarzan recognizes his father's long-abandoned pickaxe. Jane realizes Tarzan's true identity as John's son. Tarzan returns to his ape tribe, where he introduces Jane to Kala and challenges Tublat for the right to lead. In the ensuing fight, Tarzan defeats Tublat and exiles him from the troop. That night, Jane and Tarzan admit to their love. Meanwhile, Clayton transforms Dr. Porter's base into an armed base filled with mercenaries. A conflict later ensues between the couple and Clayton's men. Kala runs in to protect Tarzan and Jane, getting shot in the process. Tarzan is attacked from behind and locked in a cage. Aided by his gorilla friends, he escapes, moves Kala into the jungle, and treats her wound, determined to get his revenge. Clayton moves his resources to the meteor and rigs it with explosives. Tied up there and left to die, Jane and her father are rescued by Tarzan. Dr. Porter decides to stay behind and try to stop the blasting. In the ensuing battle, Tarzan summons his animal friends with a scream, the meteor awakens the volcano and the mountain begins to give way. While Clayton and his crew fall to their demise, Jane and Tarzan escape. The couple reunites with Tarzan's family and vows to protect the forest. Meanwhile, Dr. Porter climbs up the cliff where he has gotten a piece of the meteor.

The story of the film is presented in documentary format, with footage of the events punctuated by interviews with people related to them. In the early 1970s, Dr. Henry West (William Mapother) founded the Atticus Institute in rural Pennsylvania, hoping to find evidence that proves supernatural abilities such as ESP are real. Despite the best work of West and his aides, however, every subject that comes to the institute seeming to display such abilities are ultimately proven to be frauds. The team is demoralized in their work by the time Judith Winstead (Rya Kihlstedt) is brought to the institute by her sister Margaret, who is troubled by her disturbing behavior. The tests immediately proves to be no challenge for Judith's incredible power, the team gradually introduces new tests that show her to possess even greater abilities than first imagined. Judith's behavior grows more unstable as her abilities evolve, disturbing West's staff. Bizarre events begin to happen to the aides and their families outside of the institute, which they suspect Judith is somehow influencing, and many of them resign from their positions to escape from her. As the situation escalates, the team seeks help from the United States military; under the influence of military advisors, they conduct new tests that lead to Judith manifesting new abilities such as telekinesis and pyrokinesis. One day, Judith experiences a violent reaction to a spectral photography experiment, and when the images are checked, a cloud-like entity is observed temporarily leaving Judith's body during her convulsions. This leads the team to realize that Judith's powers are the result of demonic possession. With this discovery, the military seizes full control of the institute under a pretext of national security, and the situation spirals completely out of control. Soon, the military decides that Judith's abilities can be utilized as a weapon against the Soviet Union in the Cold War, and they begin conducting increasingly inhumane experiments on Judith against West's objections. Using methods such as electroshock therapy, the military try to tame the demon and force it to cooperate in exercises such as identifying the location of enemy bases, ignoring the effects these tests have on Judith. As these experiments ultimately prove fruitless, the military decides to try removing the demon from Judith by having a priest perform an exorcism while a soldier is connected to Judith. The process shows promise at first, but Judith suddenly lashes out and gravely injures the priest, disconnecting the electrodes attached to her before passing out. As the staff try to reattach the electrodes, Judith experiences a violent seizure while the demon attacks West through the body of the soldier connected to her. An unseen force blasts through the facility, knocking out all present. As the cameras come back online, Judith is now free of the demon's control and restored to her true self, but still tied to a chair in an observation cell. She panics when she sees the carnage around her. The demon enters the room in West's body, having fully consumed his soul, and stands before Judith's cell as she pleads for help. West kills Judith by telekinetically bursting her heart, then calmly exits the room and disappears. The film concludes with a note revealing that Judith's body was buried in an undisclosed location following an autopsy, and her case "remains the only instance of possession officially recognized by the United States government". Dr. West, having "disappeared on October 23, 1976" is revealed to have been declared legally dead in 1982 and his whereabouts unknown for over forty years.

The nine-year-old Bernadette, known as “Benni”, is considered aggressive and wayward. If anyone but her mother touches her face, she lashes out – a consequence of a childhood trauma in which, according to the social worker, nappies were pressed into her face; this prompts other children to provoke her and set off an outburst of rage. She has been repeatedly suspended from her special school and no foster family or residential group can tolerate her for long. As a so-called “system crasher” she seems likely to fall through the framework of the German support system for children and youths. Benni just yearns to live with her mother again. However, it is also too much for Bianca, who is afraid of her own daughter. She is also mother to two more young children and is living with the abusive Jens, from whom she is unable to part. In one scene Benni runs away and hitch-hikes home to find her small siblings alone, unsupervised and watching horror films. Showing she can be caring, she switches over to a children’s channel against the wishes of her brother and prepares some food. When her mother returns with her current partner, whom she has for some time wanted to leave, Benni is at first overjoyed to see her but then explodes and with a vase attacks first Jens and then her mother who calls the police. Jens strikes Benni and shuts her in a wardrobe until the officers arrive. In another effort, the dedicated Frau Bafané from youth services hires an anger-management trainer for Benni. Michael Heller, a boxing fan who has worked with male delinquents, is engaged to accompany her to school. After further violent outbursts, at his own suggestion, he takes her away to a lodge in the woods where he has previously taken the young offenders. This may be stretching “outdoor education”, but Benni goes along with him and he is able to engage with her. Benni sees him as a father figure, at one point even calling him “Papa”, which Micha will not allow, lest he lose his professional distance. At the end of the visit, Benni clings to Micha and wants to stay with him. Micha, however, has his own family and would like to give up the case, but Frau Bafané persuades him to continue, as there are so few people on Benni’s side. Benni’s mother tells her and the social workers that she has left her belligerent partner for good and will take Benni back home, but when she arrives at one of the few case meetings she actually attends, she tells Frau Bafané that she is scared of Benni and doesn't want her at home influencing her other two children. She then runs away from the meeting without saying goodbye to Benni. Frau Bafané breaks down in tears as she has to tell Benni of yet another disappointment, and Benni, oblivious to this, comforts her. Placement with a previous foster mother also fails when Benni seriously injures a foster child already there after the child unwittingly touches her face. As a short-term measure, Benni is returned to the emergency accommodation where she had previously been. There are no specialist boarding schools for children as young as Benni and a stay abroad in Kenya is suggested as a last resort. Benni flees to Micha and his family, who are prepared to let her stay for one night. In the morning, while the parents are still sleeping, Benni goes into their bedroom and lifts the baby from his cot, takes him downstairs and carefully gives him breakfast. When the baby unwittingly touches Benni’s face, she makes no objection. On waking and coming to the kitchen, Elli, the baby’s mother, tries to take him back and Benni becomes aggressive. She refuses to let the baby go and locks herself in the bathroom. Micha breaks the door open, but Benni has fled through the window, leaving the baby unharmed. She runs in her socks and nightclothes into the nearby wood, where she collapses into confused dreams. Hours later she is found hypothermic and taken to hospital. She is to be sent to Kenya, but at the airport she runs out of security. The last shot of the film is of Benni as she leaps into the air, smiling. The frame freezes and then cracks like broken glass.

The film opens with an informational prologue by Lincoln Maazel, who explains how society constantly overlooks and undervalues the elderly. He tells the viewer that they are about to watch a film that acts as a metaphorical description of how the elderly are mistreated. An elderly man, played by Maazel, sits in a white room, bandaged, bloodied and with his once nice white suit dirtied. Another man, also played by Maazel, enters looking clean and in good spirits. He attempts to communicate with the tired version of himself and tells him that he is going to the park despite him telling him that "there is nothing out there." The cleaner man walks through the door and is immediately in the park. On the outside the door is not connected to anything. The man walks about and happily examines his surroundings before coming across a ticket taker who swindles other septuagenarians out of their things with low pay. He buys some tickets from him which take the form of money in the park. The man gets on a rollercoaster with strange signage, rides a train where one of the older passengers supposedly dies and is ignored once in a coffin and witnesses a man's license get revoked due to poor eyesight. While playing in the bumper cars, an "accident" occurs complete with a police officer and lawyer arriving on the scene. The man tries to offer assistance, but it becomes apparent that he needs to wear glasses and therefore cannot be seen as a reliable alibi. He goes to eat at a food stand, lampooned as a restaurant, as waiters ignore him and several other elders for a wealthy individual. When the man finally gets his food, he sympathetically gives it to the other elders. The man buys groceries, but cannot carry them all so he simply takes some crackers and a jar of peanut butter. As he sits to eat, he beckons some children to come and converse with him, but a younger man accuses him of being a "degenerate" and he leaves in shame. The man is beckoned into a building by younger people who tell him that he will have fun, but upon entering, it is a claustrophobic room where elders are forced to perform in uncomfortable exercise machines. He leaves, but breaks his glasses in the process. He comes upon a fortune teller and witnesses a young couple enter and ask what their future will be like. The fortune teller shows them that they will be living in a soon-to-be-built apartment building where they will have little support from their personal doctor and neighbors. Angry, the young man leaves and punches the older man who collapses. When the man comes to his senses, the park is empty save for three bikers who beat him and then take his tickets. As people suddenly appear, they all ignore him. With very little money, he goes to get first aid. The medical center, set up like a store, is full of various elders equipment and the doctors and nurses hastily rush everyone through. The man finds himself simply getting a band aid on his head and a cane and is ushered out. He comes upon some men trying to sell retirement homes and ends up getting pick-pocketed. The pick-pocket is revealed to run a freak show, which simply consists of elders dressed in casual clothing. Everyone is upset and as the man gets up to leave, he is suddenly chased by the patrons who accuse him of trying to escape the freak show. He finds "sanctuary", but it closes upon his arrival. The man finally gets some solace when a little girl offers for him to read The Three Little Pigs to her and have some chicken. The mother apathetically takes her and the book away as he finally breaks down into tears. He leaves the piece of chicken behind and walks back to the white room; resigned and defeated. Moments later, a cleaner optimistic version of himself enters as the scene from the beginning repeats. The man sits tired and powerless over not being able to stop his younger self. Maazel appears one last time to tell the viewer that they can help the elderly through already established programs. He signs off with "I'll see you in the park... someday."

Three returning World War II veterans meet on a flight to their midwestern hometown of Boone City. USAAF bombardier captain Fred Derry had been a drugstore soda jerk who lived with his father and stepmother on the wrong side of the tracks. Before shipping out, Fred married gold-digger Marie after a whirlwind romance. Marie has since been working in a nightclub to fill her time (and her nightlife) in spite of Fred's generous combat pay as an Air Force officer. U.S. Army sergeant Al Stephenson is a bank executive; he, his wife Milly and their children Peggy and Rob live in a luxury apartment. U.S. Navy petty officer Homer Parrish was a star high school athlete living with his middle-class parents and younger sister, and dating his next-door neighbor Wilma, whom he intended to marry upon his return from the war. Each man faces challenges integrating back into civilian life. Homer lost both hands in the war; he is reluctant to return home and face his well-meaning parents and their friends, who have a hard time seeing past his disability. Homer can deftly use his mechanical hooks, but hesitates to display affection for Wilma as he cannot believe she will still want to marry him. Al, tired and jaded, returns to the bank and is given a promotion, but wrestles with alcohol. Fred suffers from PTSD flashbacks by night. Fred arrives home and cannot locate his party girl wife, who does not expect him. The Stephensons and Peggy invite Fred to go out with them, bar-hopping to celebrate Al's return. An inebriated Fred keeps asking Peggy who she is; she humorously reminds him she's "Al's daughter." When Fred can't get into his apartment, the Stephensons offer him a bed for the night. Later, Peggy calms Fred during a nightmare, and they develop a mutual attraction. When Peggy and her boyfriend invite Fred and Marie out to dinner, Peggy realizes how shallow and materialistic Marie is and determines to break up Fred's marriage. Homer is frustrated and often depressed by his loss of independence. Concerned that Wilma doesn't fully understand the difficulties of being married to him, Homer demonstrates how she'll need to assist him when he removes his prosthetic hands at bedtime, leaving him helpless. Wilma reaffirms her love and vows her commitment to a grateful and emotional Homer, who finally embraces her. Widely respected by the bank's senior management for his past business acumen, Al is admonished after approving an unsecured loan to a farmer and fellow veteran without collateral. With inhibitions lowered by excessive drinking, Al gives a speech at a work banquet that satirizes requiring a veteran to provide collateral before risking his life to take a hill in battle. With little work experience and unable to find a better job than soda jerk, Fred returns to the same drugstore and is now supervised by his former protege. Fred and Peggy's attraction grows stronger, increasing tensions with Al. When Homer visits Fred at the drugstore, another customer criticizes US involvement in the war, telling Homer his injuries were unnecessary. Homer responds angrily, and Fred punches the customer, for which he's fired. Marie, frustrated with Fred's lack of financial success and missing her past nightlife, seeks a divorce. Bitter and seeing no future in Boone City, especially with Al telling him to stay away from Peggy, Fred decides to catch the next plane out. While waiting at the airport, Fred walks into an aircraft graveyard, climbing into the bombardier's seat of a decommissioned B-17 bomber. He's roused from a painful flashback by a work crew foreman, who tells him the planes are being demolished for use in the growing prefab housing industry. Fred asks if they need help in the budding business and is hired. Al, Milly, and Peggy attend Homer and Wilma's wedding, where Fred is best man. Now divorced, Fred reunites with Peggy after the ceremony and expresses his love but says things may be financially difficult if she stays with him. Peggy's smile expresses her joy and she and Fred kiss.

The boss of a black market ring (known only as "The Chief") wants to smuggle a batch of jewelry from a foreign state into the Soviet Union by hiding it inside the orthopedic cast of a courier. The Chief sends a minor henchman named Gennadiy 'Gesha' Kozodoyev (played by Mironov) to serve as the courier. Kozodoyev travels to Turkey via a tourist cruise ship. The local co-conspirators do not know what the courier looks like; they only know that he is supposed to say a code word to identify himself. The code word is a simple swear such as "Oh darn", after a slip and "fall". After Kozodoyev's fellow passenger from the cruise ship, the "ordinary Soviet citizen" Semyon Gorbunkov (played by Nikulin), accidentally falls and says the code phrase, they mistake him for the courier. They place a cast around his arm and put the contraband jewels inside the cast. Upon the cruise ship's return to the Soviet Union, Gorbunkov lets the police know what happened, and the police captain, who is working undercover as a taxi driver, uses Gorbunkov as bait to catch the criminals. Gesha and Lyolik (another of Chief's henchmen, played by Papanov) attempt to lure Gorbunkov into situations where they can quietly, without a wetwork, remove the cast and reclaim the contraband jewels. On one such occasion, Gesha invites Gorbunkov to a fancy restaurant with the intention of getting Gorbunkov drunk enough for Lyolik to subdue him. However, both Gesha and Gorbunkov become drunk and Gorbunkov is taken home by the police after he and Gesha cause a scene. Gorbunkov's wife, begins to suspect either that he has been recruited by foreign intelligence after finding a large amount of money and a gun loaded with blanks in Gorbunkov's possession (previously given to him by the police), or that he is having an affair. Gorbunkov explains that he is working with the Soviet police on a secret mission, but cannot divulge any details. The Chief sends Anna Sergeyevna, a female operative, to help retrieve the cast. Anna Sergeyevna invites Gorbunkov to her hotel room under the pretense of wanting to sell Gorbunkov a gown and spikes his drink with a sleeping pill. As Gorbunkov is about to pass out, his building's nosy superintendent who had followed Gorbunkov brings his wife into the hotel room before either Lyolik or the police can get to him. Gorbunkov awakens the next morning to find that his wife has assumed that his story was all a cover up for an affair, and has left with the children. The police in the meantime have deduced that Gesha is involved with the smuggling scheme surrounding the cast, and ask Gorbunkov to mention to Gesha that he is planning to travel to another city and will have his cast removed there. Gesha reports this to the Chief, who sends Lyolik disguised as a taxi driver to pick up Gorbunkov. Gorbunkov assumes that Lyolik is also an undercover policeman, and gives away the fact that he has been in contact with the police the entire time. Lyolik plays along and tells Gorbunkov that he has been authorized to remove the cast a day early at a safehouse along the way to Dubrovka. As Lyolik is about to remove the cast, Gorbunkov deduces that Lyolik is actually a criminal and attempts to escape. Lyolik and Gesha chase Gorbunkov and with the help of the Chief himself, they capture Gorbunkov. Upon removing Gorbunkov's cast, they realize that the police had removed the diamonds in the cast a long time ago. The criminals kidnap Gorbunkov and attempt to flee as the police track them down in a helicopter and capture them. Gorbunkov is reunited with his family, with the police having explained the situation to his wife. Gorbunkov goes on vacation with his family, albeit now with a broken leg as a result of the kidnapping.

"August, 1962 was a stormy time for France. Many people felt that President Charles de Gaulle had betrayed the country by giving independence to Algeria. Extremists, mostly from the army, swore to kill him in revenge. They banded together in an underground movement and called themselves the OAS." The far-right Organisation armée secrète ("Secret Army Organisation") plots to assassinate President de Gaulle. The first attempt on 22 August fails, leaving de Gaulle and his entourage unharmed. Within six months, OAS leader Jean Bastien-Thiry and several members are captured, and Bastien-Thiry is executed. With their initial plot foiled, the remaining OAS leaders, now hiding in Austria, hatch a new plan. They enlist the services of an apolitical British assassin given the code name "Jackal," a figure already credited with the assassinations of Patrice Lumumba and Rafael Trujillo. Aware that targeting de Gaulle is extremely risky and demanding a final retirement in anonymity, the Jackal insists on a fee of $500,000, half to be paid upfront into his Swiss bank account. To raise the money, the OAS uses its extensive network to execute a series of bank robberies. Preparing for his mission, the Jackal travels to Genoa where he commissions a custom single-shot rifle from a skilled gunsmith and secures fake identity papers from a forger—a man he later kills when the criminal attempts to extort him. In Paris, the Jackal duplicates a key to a sixth-floor flat overlooking a historically significant square, setting the stage for the planned assassination. Meanwhile, the OAS leadership has relocated to Rome, although their activities continue to draw the attention of French security forces. French intelligence makes a breakthrough when they kidnap the OAS's chief clerk, Viktor Wolenski. Although Wolenski dies during interrogation, he reveals crucial details of the plot, including the term "Jackal". In response, the Interior Minister convenes a secret meeting with top security officials. Police Commissioner Berthier recommends his deputy, Claude Lebel, to lead the investigation under the constraints of secrecy with Lebel being granted special emergency powers despite de Gaulle's insistence on maintaining his public schedule. Complicating matters further, Colonel St Clair—de Gaulle's personal military aide and a cabinet member—divulges classified details to his new mistress, Denise, an OAS agent. At the same time, Lebel is informed by Special Branch that a British national, Charles Harold Calthrop, might be connected to the assassination plot and travelling under the alias Paul Oliver Duggan. Despite learning that his plot is compromised, and he can walk away keeping his down payment, the Jackal decides to stay in France and presses forward. While staying in a hotel in Nice, he meets and seduces the aristocratic Colette de Montpellier, but narrowly evades capture as Lebel and his team close in. After surviving a severe vehicular accident, the Jackal flees to Madame de Montpellier's country estate. There, when she reveals that the police have already questioned her and probes for more details from him, he kills her. Dyeing his blonde hair brown and donning spectacles, he assumes the identity of a Danish schoolteacher, Per Lundquist, then boards a train for Paris. The discovery of Madame de Montpellier's murder allows Lebel to drop all secrecy constraints and launch a public manhunt. The Jackal temporarily hides at the flat of a man he picks up in a Turkish bath, killing him when the man learns of Montpellier's murder. At a subsequent cabinet meeting, Lebel predicts that the Jackal will try to shoot de Gaulle during the upcoming Liberation Day ceremony marking the commemoration of Paris's liberation during World War II. Despite Lebel's efficient and successful leadership of the investigation, he is dismissed from the case as the Minister assumes command directly for the final part, only to be reinstated less than 24 hours later when the Minister draws a blank and Lebel's expertise is recognised as indispensable. On Liberation Day, the Jackal disguises himself as an elderly French veteran, André Martin, and conceals his rifle within crutches. Using the previously duplicated key, he accesses an upper story room of a building overlooking the ceremony. When de Gaulle unexpectedly leans forward while presenting a medal to a veteran, the Jackal's shot narrowly misses. While the Jackal is reloading for a second attempt, Lebel and a gendarme storm the room. The Jackal kills the policeman before being fatally shot by Lebel. Back in London, the real Charles Calthrop arrives at his flat, interrupting the policemen as they sift through his belongings. Ultimately, the assassin is interred in an unmarked grave, leaving the true identity behind his many disguises an enduring mystery.