In 1971 in Durham, North Carolina, Ann Atwater tries to get better housing conditions for poor black people, and is ignored by the all-white judge panel. Ann's daughter's school catches on fire, causing local Ku Klux Klan president C. P. Ellis to fear that the black children will come to the white schools. Bill Riddick sets up a meeting with them both, to arrange charrettes to discuss segregation and other issues. Both refuse at first as they hate each other, but are convinced. C.P. proudly refuses to sit with Bill and Ann, since they are black and he is white. They agree to pick some people randomly from the group to vote on the issues at the end of the meeting sessions. C.P tries to talk to these selected to vote, but is rebuffed. A black reverend asks Bill if he can play gospel music at the end of each session. C.P. refuses, saying that if the Black people want to sing gospel music at the charrette, he should be allowed to put out his KKK items on display. Ann refuses, but Bill agrees. At one meeting, a group of black teenagers tries to destroy the KKK items, but Ann stops them and tells them to instead understand what the KKK is. C.P. observes. Bill insists Black and White people in their group sit next to each other in the cafeteria as they eat. He makes C.P and Ann sit together alone. They eat in tense silence, then she asks him if he has a boy in Murdock. C.P. refuses to talk about his son. Murdock is a facility for disabled boys, and his son has Down syndrome. C.P. rushes to Murdock, as his son Larry has been put in the same room with another boy who is screaming, upsetting Larry. C.P. demands that his son be placed in a room of his own, but the nurses say he can't afford it. Ann visits Larry and convinces Bernadette, who works there, to put him in his own room. Bill takes Ann, C.P., and the rest of their group to visit the black school that was burned. C.P. is shocked by the damage. Ann's daughter says hi to Ann, but gives C.P the evil eye when she realises who he is. C.P.'s wife Mary, overjoyed with Ann's help, goes to thank her. Ann is told that C.P. has always been racist. Mary later calls C.P out when he tells her about his encounter with Ann's daughter, asking him what he expected. The encounter and Mary's words leave C.P shaken and start to question his beliefs. The night before the final vote, C.P.'s KKK troublemaking friends threaten the selected voters to vote for segregation. When C.P. finds out, he is dismayed. Especially since one of the targets is a Vietnam vet who C.P had talked to earlier and learned that the man's manager, a black man, is also a vet and had saved his life on several occasions. When Ann hears about it, she screams at C.P., calling him a coward. During the voting, all the issues pass, coming down to the final issue of desegregation. The voters give their vote one by one. Ann votes for it, and C.P. surprises everyone by doing the same, realizing the KKK is hateful. He also makes a speech and rips up his KKK membership card, to the fury of his watching KKK friends. They threaten him and try to set fire to his gas station but C.P. douses it. The white community shuns and boycotts his station. Ann and Bill bring in the black community to buy from him instead. The real life Ann and C.P. went around to different cities together, to talk about their experiences. They remained friends to the end of C.P.'s life, with Ann giving the eulogy at his funeral.

Jen and Mel run "The Breaker Upperers", an Auckland agency for people who need help breaking up with their partners. Using unorthodox means, such as impersonating police officers to inform a woman, Anna, that her husband has died and his body has gone missing, while in reality, he is hiding in their car. The two women have been friends since their twenties, after finding out that they shared a boyfriend, Joe. Although Mel has moved on, Jen is still obsessed with Joe, who has moved back to town with his wife and children. Mel and Jordan, a teenaged client afraid to break up with his fearsome girlfriend, Sepa, are mutually attracted, much to Jen's concern. The three meet with Sepa and her gang to break up the couple. Sepa ends up punching Jen in the face, and afterward, Mel and Jordan begin dating. One day, Jen and Mel meet Anna again. She still believes her husband's body is missing and that they are police officers. Anna and Mel soon become friends, having many shared interests. Jen is annoyed and feels left out. Anna begs them to reveal her husband's file. Jen and Mel, in their police costumes, continue the charade in the local police station. They are exposed when an officer mistakes them for strippers, requesting a lap dance. Afterwards, a shocked Anna storms out. Mel apologises, explaining that Anna's husband had hired them. Furious, she won't forgive them, declaring that what they do is wrong. Taking Anna's words to heart, Mel considers quitting, infuriating Jen, who doesn't find fault with what they are doing. Jen blames Mel for causing her breakup with Joe many years ago. Despite being reminded that Joe had hurt both of them, Jen cuts Mel from her life and the agency. Meeting Joe for dinner, Jen declares her longtime love for him, stating he is "the one". Initially believing she is joking, Joe laughs at her. He reveals that he had cheated on her with several other women as well. Joe rebuffs Jen by stating that although he was unfaithful in the past, he has since grown up. Meanwhile, Mel continues to see Jordan. Although he is kind and caring, she realises that due to his age, he remains naive and childish. He is also still in love with Sepa, who had been supportive of his budding rugby career. Jen runs into Mel at the shops, the latter revealing that she is pregnant. She wishes to keep the baby, but is unsure of things with Jordan. Jen enlists the help of Sepa, who is still in love with Jordan. At the local pub, Jordan is being publicly congratulated on his recent contract to play rugby with the Gold Coast Titans. Mel is also in attendance, and is worried when Jordan announces he will forfeit the contract to stay with her and the baby. Sepa and her gang arrive with Jen. Declaring her love for Jordan, she apologises for her past aggression, realising her need to change. She and her gang sing for Jordan, while Jen sings to Mel about their friendship. Mel then coaxes Jordan to go back to Sepa and accept the rugby contract, telling him she and the baby will visit him as often as possible. With her support, Jordan reunites with Sepa, and Jen and Mel make amends. In the end credits, Jen and Mel have rebranded their agency to help clients with "make-ups and break-ups". Anna has forgiven Mel, and they resume their friendship. Jordan has moved to the Gold Coast and is seen happily playing with his infant daughter.

In rural Centerville, police Chief Cliff Robertson and officer Ronnie Peterson respond to a report from farmer Frank Miller regarding a missing chicken. They briefly interact with Hermit Bob, a bearded eccentric, in the woods. On their way back to the station, Cliff notices there is still daylight after 8 p.m. and Ronnie's watch and cell phone stop working. Later, at a diner, hardware store owner Hank Thompson hears a radio report concerning polar fracking. Two corpses reanimate when night falls and kill the two diner employees, who are discovered by Hank the next morning. Ronnie believes zombies killed the employees. Young travelers Zoe, Jack, and Zack stop for gas and meet Bobby. At the Centerville Juvenile Detention Center, inmate Geronimo tells fellow inmates Olivia and Stella that polar fracking has altered the Earth's rotation. Cliff and Ronnie find open graves at the cemetery, while Hermit Bob spies on them. Cliff emphatically rejects Ronnie's suggestion of informing Farmer Miller of the general suspicion that zombies are on the loose. Ronnie teaches Cliff how to kill zombies, and Bobby and Hank prepare weapons. Motel owner Danny Perkins watches news about pets behaving strangely and then finds out his cats are missing. Other of Farmer Miller's animals have disappeared. That evening, more zombies rise, and Danny is attacked and transformed. Cliff and Ronnie bring supplies to the station and tell fellow officer Mindy Morrison about the zombies. The corpse of Mallory, a local alcoholic, reanimates in the police station and Ronnie decapitates her. Two corpses reanimate at the funeral home and are beheaded with a sword by Zelda Winston, who recently bought the funeral home. She goes to the police station, where the three officers leave her to operate communications. The cops drive through town and find the three travelers dead at the motel. Ronnie beheads the bodies, much to Mindy's distress, and takes Zoe's Sturgill Simpson CD. Zelda waves her hand over the police computer and it generates code. Ronnie begins playing the CD on the police car sound system, but Cliff throws the CD out the car window. Hank and Bobby face zombies at the hardware store. Each zombie says only one word, related to something from their past or an item they see as a zombie. Zombies maul Farmer Miller. Inmates Geronimo, Olivia, and Stella flee the detention center, again observed by Hermit Bob. When zombies overwhelm the patrol car at the cemetery, Officer Mindy sees her dead grandmother, and exits the car, only to be engulfed by zombies. Ronnie says he knew all would end badly because Jim gave him the entire script ahead of time, while Cliff only got the pages for his own scenes. Zelda drives Ronnie's car through town, stopping to behead one last Fashion Zombie, and then walks calmly through the cemetery with sword in hand. Zombies amble away from the patrol car as a spinning UFO appears over the cemetery. Cliff and Ronnie watch as it beams up Zelda and departs. The two leave the car, and kill zombies including Bobby, Miller, Danny, Hank, and Mindy. Hermit Bob watches from the woods through binoculars, lamenting how the world is a terrible place, as zombies overwhelm Cliff and Ronnie.

At a party, guests are waiting for the married couple Laura and Oliver Bradford to arrive. John Hillgrove, a blind pianist, proceeds to perform his tone poem titled "The Enchanted Cottage," which he wrote in their honor. Laura Pennington cycles to a seaside New England cottage where she meets Hillgrove and his young nephew Danny. Laura had heard fantastical stories about the cottage from her mother before her death. Feeling ostracized for her homely appearance, she is hired as a caretaker by Mrs. Abigail Minnett, a widowed tenant owner. She feels a mutual connection with Laura after losing her husband during World War I. Oliver Bradford, a soon to be called up Army Air Forces pilot, arrives, having rented the cottage with his new fiancée, Beatrice Alexander. Beatrice, however, is displeased with the cottage decor, but Laura reassures her that the cottage is magical, showing her the window where couples have written their names. Later that night, a honeymoon party is planned for the engaged couple, but Oliver sends a letter stating he will be unable to arrive. He has been called back into military service before his wedding. Beatrice subsequently cancels their leasing agreement. One year later, a telegram arrives stating Oliver's intention to rent the cottage indefinitely. Oliver arrives, hiding his face inside his trench coat, and locks himself in his room. During a stormy night, Laura enters his room where Oliver reveals his disfigurement from the war. His face is scarred, and his right arm and hand are disabled after his plane was shot down in the Battle of Java. The next morning, Laura develops a connection with Oliver in the garden. Hillgrove arrives and converses with Oliver, stating that when he became blind, he developed a new lease on life by appreciating music. By nighttime, Oliver receives a letter from his mother, Mrs. Price, but he refuses to see her and his stepfather due to how he looks with his war injuries. Laura finds Oliver by the seashore. In an attempt to keep distance from his mother, Oliver proposes to Laura, and she accepts. After their honeymoon, Laura and Oliver return to the cottage, both feeling transformed. A flashback to before their wedding dinner is shown in which the couple initially reflect on their sham marriage. Laura tries to declare her love for Oliver but is unable to do so. She runs to her bedroom in tears, but Oliver comforts her. He realizes his genuine love for Laura, seeing her as a beautiful, glamorous woman. Laura in return sees him as handsome and unscarred. At the cottage, Oliver's mother and stepfather arrive, and Hillgrove unsuccessfully attempts to notify them about Oliver and Laura's "transformations". However, Mrs. Price mentions Laura's "not being pretty" while complimenting her character before she leaves, which breaks the spell of their mutual illusion, and they're "transformed" back to their former selves. The couple turns to Mrs. Minnett, who gives them her validation of their love, telling them that her beloved late husband made her feel beautiful, because that's how people who are truly in love see each other—and that's the real enchantment of the cottage. She then leaves the room. Oliver and Laura hold hands, then proceed to write their names on the window. Back to the present, the couple arrives at the front door, where they happily embrace and kiss each other as their idealized selves before entering the house.

In the 1890s, a group of "Harvey Girls"—new waitresses for Fred Harvey 's pioneering chain of Harvey House restaurants—travels on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway to the town of Sandrock, New Mexico. On the trip, they meet Susan Bradley, who is traveling from Ohio to Sandrock to marry a man named H. H. Hartsey, whose beautiful love letters she received when she answered a "lonely-hearts" ad. Upon arrival, Susan is dismayed to find that Hartsey is a "mangy old buzzard" who does not at all meet her expectations. As Hartsey senses Susan's disappointment, the two eventually agree that they are mismatched and call off the wedding. Hartsey then reveals to Susan that his letters were actually written as a joke by Ned Trent, co-owner of the Alhambra Saloon, prompting Susan to confront Ned. Smitten with Susan, Ned offers to pay for her trip back to Ohio, but she instead vows to run him and his saloon out of town. Susan joins the Harvey Girls, and on the Harvey House's opening night, Ned visits the restaurant and orders a rare steak. Realizing that the meat has disappeared, Susan marches over to the Alhambra with two six-shooters, recovers the stolen meat and serves Ned a raw steak. Later that night, after someone shoots at a lamp in the Harvey Girls' dormitory, most of the women want to flee, but Susan and other waitresses decide to stay, unaware that Ned's business associate, Judge Sam Purvis, is determined to close the Harvey House in order to maintain his own thriving business running the Alhambra in town. The next day, Ned confronts Purvis about the shooting and demands that he apologize to the Harvey Girls. Instead, Purvis lies to Susan and another waitress, Deborah Andrews, claiming that Ned is not pleased to have the Harvey House in town. Determined to find the culprit behind the shooting, Susan seeks out Ned at the Alhambra and is confronted by Em, Ned's lead saloon singer who is in love with him; she reveals to Susan that it is actually Purvis, not Ned, who wants to run the Harvey House out of town. Susan later finds Ned alone in a remote valley, and as they discuss love letters and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 's poem The Courtship of Miles Standish, they kiss. Returning to town, they find Deborah trapped in the Harvey Girls' closet with a rattlesnake, which Ned shoots dead. Susan accuses Ned of placing the snake in their closet, prompting him to leave. Ned then tells Purvis to stop harassing the Harvey Girls. Some time later, Ned informs Susan that the Alhambra will be relocated to Flagstaff, Arizona, the next morning, and she cries as they say goodbye. Later that night, when Purvis and his henchmen set fire to the Harvey House, Ned fights them off, but the restaurant burns down. The next morning, Ned offers the Alhambra as a replacement for the Harvey House. Just before Em boards the train to Flagstaff, Ned tells her he is staying in Sandrock. Susan, thinking that Ned too is leaving, boards the same train and is spotted by Em. Realizing that Susan loves Ned so much that she is willing to become a saloon girl to be with him, Em pulls the emergency brake and points out Ned, riding toward the train on his horse. Ultimately, they wed in the desert, surrounded by the Harvey Girls.

In Montreal, scientist André Delambre is found dead with his head and arm crushed in a hydraulic press. His wife Hélène confesses to the crime but refuses to provide a motive, and begins acting strangely. In particular, she is obsessed with flies, including a supposedly white-headed fly. André's brother, François, lies and says he caught the white-headed fly. Thinking he knows the truth, Hélène asks François to bring the police inspector in charge of the case, Charas, so that she can explain the circumstances of André's death to them both. In flashback, André, Hélène, and their son Philippe are a happy family. André has been working on a matter-transporter device called the disintegrator-integrator. He initially tests it only on small, inanimate objects, such as a newspaper, before proceeding to living creatures, including the family's pet cat (which fails to reintegrate, but can be heard meowing somewhere) and a guinea pig. After he is satisfied that these tests are succeeding, he builds a man-sized pair of chambers. One day, Hélène, worried because André has not come up from the basement lab for a couple of days, goes down to find André with a black cloth draped over his head and a strange deformity on his left hand. Communicating only with typed notes and knocking (once for "Yes", twice for "No"), André tells Hélène that he tried to transport himself, but that a fly was caught in the chamber with him, which resulted in the mixing of their atoms. Now, he has the head and left arm of a fly, though he retains his human mind. Conversely, the fly has a miniature version of his head and left arm. André needs Hélène to capture the fly so that he can reverse the process. After she, her son, and their housemaid exhaustively search for it, she finds it, but it slips out of a crack in the window. André's will begins to fade as the fly's instincts take over his brain. Time is running out, and while André can still think like a human, he smashes the equipment, burns his notes, and leads Hélène to the factory. When they arrive, he sets the hydraulic press, puts his head and arm under, and motions for Hélène to push the button. André's arm falls free as the press descends, and trying not to look, she raises the press, replaces the arm, and activates the machine a second time. Upon hearing this confession, Inspector Charas deems Hélène insane and guilty of murder. As they are about to haul her away, Philippe tells François he has seen the fly trapped in a web in the back garden. François convinces the inspector to come and see for himself. The two men see the fly, with both André's head and arm, trapped on the web as Philippe told them. It screams, "Help me! Help me!" as a large spider advances on it. Just as the spider is about to devour the creature, Charas crushes them both with a rock. Knowing that nobody would believe the truth, François and Charas decide to declare André's death a suicide so that Hélène is not convicted of murder. In the end, Hélène, François, and Philippe resume their daily lives. Sometime later, Philippe and Hélène are playing croquet in the yard. François arrives to take his nephew to the zoo. In reply to his nephew's query about his father's death, François tells Philippe, "He was searching for the truth. He almost found a great truth, but for one instant, he was careless. The search for the truth is the most important work in the whole world and the most dangerous." The film closes with Hélène escorting her son and François out of the yard.

"Fast Eddie" Felson is accompanied by his partner, Charlie, at a pool room in a small town. Pretending to be salesmen on their way to a convention, Eddie and Charlie convince onlookers that Eddie is a drunk blowhard, and induce them to bet on Eddie to lose a trick shot. He wins and takes their money. Eddie and Charlie arrive in New York City, where Eddie challenges the legendary player Minnesota Fats to play straight pool for $200 a game at Ames Billiards in Manhattan. After initially falling behind, Eddie surges back to being $1,000 ahead and suggests raising the bet to $1,000 a game. Eddie gets ahead $11,000 and Charlie tries to convince him to quit, but Eddie insists the game will end only when Fats says it is over. Fats agrees to continue after a spectator, the professional gambler Bert Gordon, labels Eddie a "loser". After 25 hours and an entire bottle of bourbon, Eddie is ahead over $18,000, but loses it all along with all but $200 of his original stake. Fats declares the game over. At their hotel later, Eddie leaves a sleeping Charlie without saying goodbye. Eddie stashes his belongings in a locker at a bus terminal, where he meets Sarah Packard, an alcoholic. They begin a relationship and he moves in with her. Charlie finds Eddie at Sarah's apartment and tries to persuade him to go back out on the road. Eddie refuses and Charlie realizes he plans to challenge Fats again. Eddie learns that Charlie had money he could have used to rebound and beat Fats. Eddie dismisses Charlie as a scared old man and tells him to "lay down and die by yourself". Eddie joins a poker game where Bert is playing. Afterward, Bert tells Eddie that he has talent as a pool player but no character. He figures that Eddie will need at least $3,000 to challenge Fats again. Bert calls him a "born loser" but nevertheless offers to stake him in return for 75% of his winnings; Eddie refuses. Eddie goes back to hustling to get the money he needs to play Fats. After hustling a local player at a pool room near the waterfront, Eddie is attacked after winning and his thumbs are broken. After Sarah helps Eddie convalesce, and when he's ready to play, he agrees to Bert's terms, deciding that a "25% slice of something big is better than a 100% slice of nothing". Bert, Eddie and Sarah travel to the Kentucky Derby, where Bert arranges a match for Eddie against a wealthy local socialite named Findley. The game turns out to be three-cushion billiards, not pool. When Eddie loses badly, Bert refuses to keep staking him. Sarah pleads with Eddie to leave with her, saying that the world he is living in and its inhabitants are "perverted, twisted, and crippled"; he refuses. Seeing Eddie's anger, Bert agrees to let the match continue at $1,000 a game. Eddie comes back to win $12,000. He collects his $3,000 share and decides to walk back to the hotel where he discovers that Sarah has committed suicide, because of Bert's sadism. Eddie returns to challenge Fats again, putting up his entire $3,000 stake on a single game. He wins game after game, beating Fats so badly that Fats is forced to quit. Bert demands half of Eddie's winnings and threatens to have him beaten unless he pays. Eddie says he will come back to kill Bert if he survives, shaming Bert into giving up his claim by invoking Sarah's memory. Instead, Bert orders Eddie never to walk into a big-time pool hall again. Eddie and Fats compliment each other as players, and Eddie walks out.

During World War II, Allied POWs who have repeatedly escaped from camps in Germany are moved to a new camp under the command of Luftwaffe Colonel von Luger. He warns the senior prisoner, Group Captain Ramsey, that escapees will be shot. Several POWs unsuccessfully attempt to escape on the first day. Hilts, a notoriously prolific American escapee, finds a blind spot at the fence and gives himself up to the guards without revealing the discovery to them. He is placed in a cell next to Ives in "the cooler", and the two become friends. Squadron Leader Roger Bartlett re-establishes the escape-planning committee from their former camp, and proposes breaking out 250 men to divert Germans away from the front. The POWs work on three tunnels: "Tom", "Dick", and "Harry". Preparations are widespread and elaborate. Welinski and Dickes lead the digging, Sedgwick makes equipment such as picks and air bellows, Ashley-Pitt conceals the excavated dirt in plain sight, while Cavendish surveys the tunnels’ routes and leads a choir to mask the sounds of any escape-related activities. MacDonald gathers intelligence, Griffith sews civilian disguises, Blythe forges documents, and Hendley secures supplies on the black market. Aware that Hilts is planning his own escape, Bartlett asks him to allow himself to be recaptured so he can draw maps of the surrounding area but Hilts refuses. When "Tom" nears completion, Bartlett orders "Dick" and "Harry" sealed off. Meanwhile, Hilts, Hendley, and Goff brew potato moonshine and celebrate the Fourth of July with the camp. However, the guards find "Tom" during the celebration. Ives snaps, climbs the fence, and is shot dead. Hilts, shaken, agrees to Bartlett's proposal, and Bartlett orders "Harry" reopened. Welinski's claustrophobia is triggered after a tunnel collapse, but Dickes offers to guide him. Bartlett objects to Blythe's participation on discovering his progressive myopia but Hendley offers to guide him. On the night of the escape, "Harry" is dug to the surface but the exit has come up 20 feet (6.1 m) short of the woods, increasing the danger of detection. Hilts then uses 30 feet of rope to signal the prisoners to exit the tunnel. The escape is also briefly aided by a fortuitous air raid blackout, which allows more to escape. Dozens flee before Cavendish unintentionally draws suspicion by slipping, and an impatient Griffith rushes, alerting the guards. In all 76 escapees make it through the tunnel. Welinski and Dickes steal a boat and board a ship for Sweden, while Sedgwick heads to France, where the Resistance smuggles him to Spain. The rest are captured: Cavendish is betrayed by a truck driver. Hendley and Blythe crash a stolen plane short of Switzerland when the engine fails; Blythe is shot and Hendley is recaptured. Hilts rides a stolen motorcycle for the Swiss border with soldiers in pursuit who capture him when he fails to jump the cycle over the frontier fence. Ashley-Pitt sacrifices himself when he kills a Gestapo officer before he can expose Bartlett: however, Bartlett and MacDonald are still arrested after another Gestapo officer tricks MacDonald into speaking English while boarding a bus. With Ashley-Pitt and Blythe killed, 48 of the 50 escapees, including Bartlett, MacDonald, and Cavendish, are executed. Ramsey informs Hendley and other returning survivors of the murders, and says that Bartlett's plan to create havoc was a success. Hendley questions whether it was worth the price. Von Luger, ashamed of the murders, is relieved of command. Hilts is returned to the cooler and resumes his solo game of catch.

Note: The film lacks a conventional narrator, and assumes (or at least benefits from) familiarity with the story of Christ. In Roman Galilee, the local Jewish community lives in poverty. Although the Romans are formally in charge, the Jewish upper class—including King Herod and the Pharisee religious elite—dominates the locals on a day-to-day basis. The pregnant Mary has a troubled relationship with Joseph, who worries she cheated on him. Joseph reconciles with Mary after an angel tells him that God caused Mary's pregnancy. After Mary bears Jesus Christ, the magi visit the baby Jesus. The angel tells the family to flee to Egypt. Herod—who fears a prophecy that Jesus will become king of the Jews —brutally massacres the region's infants. The family return to Judea after Herod dies. Many years later, John the Baptist preaches a brazenly anti-establishment message to the commoners of Galilee. Jesus visits John to be baptized, and God appears to them. Satan offers Jesus wealth and power, but Jesus declines. Jesus recruits a band of disciples. He warns them that "I came not to bring peace, but a sword" and that they will suffer on his behalf. He travels around the country with his disciples, healing the blind, raising the dead, exorcising demons, and proclaiming the arrival of the Kingdom of God and the promised salvation. The film rapidly canvasses his parables and sayings, including the Sermon on the Mount, in a series of montaged monologues. Meanwhile, the new king imprisons John the Baptist before capriciously executing him to impress his stepdaughter. Jesus is generally uncomfortable showing his divine power in public (with the exception of the miracle of the loaves and fishes). He prefers to preach radical messages to working-class crowds and children. The wealthy are alienated by Jesus's socially conscious teachings, the religious elite are threatened by his contempt for their legalism and hypocrisy, and even commoners are concerned with his asceticism. Matthew is wounded when Jesus chooses Peter over him to lead the church, but accepts Jesus's decision. Although the public—which wants to see the supernatural— initially ignores Jesus, he attracts a large following and triumphantly enters Jerusalem to cheering crowds. The Roman army is called in for crowd control and beats several followers of Jesus. After Jesus claims to be the Jews's prophesied Messiah, the chief priests plot to murder him. Judas Iscariot betrays Jesus after Jesus scolds him in front of the other disciples. During the Agony in the Garden, Jesus accepts his fate, which he has long known. The chief priests organize a mob to arrest Jesus. The apostles rise to defend him, but Jesus insists on surrendering peacefully. The chief priests hand Jesus over to the Romans. Fearing a similar fate, Peter denies Jesus three times. After escaping, he breaks down crying. Judas commits suicide after realizing even the priests are disgusted by his treachery. The Roman governor, Pilate, declares Jesus innocent but executes him anyway to placate the chief priests. Mary buries her son. After three days, Jesus rises from the dead and instructs his disciples to spread the gospel throughout the world.

Frank Towns is the pilot of a cargo plane flying from Jaghbub to Benghazi in Libya; Lew Moran is the navigator. Passengers include Capt. Harris and Sgt. Watson of the British Army; French physician Dr. Renaud, German aeronautical engineer Heinrich Dorfmann, and oil company accountant Standish. There are also several oil workers, including Trucker Cobb, a foreman suffering from mental fatigue; Ratbags Crow, a cocky Scot; Carlos and his pet monkey; and Gabriele. A sandstorm disables the engines, forcing Towns to crash-land in the Sahara. As the aircraft comes to a stop, two workers are killed and Gabriele's leg is severely injured. The radio is unusable, and they are too far off course to be found by searchers. Aboard the plane is a large quantity of pitted dates, but only enough water for 10 to 15 days if rationed. Captain Harris sets out to find an oasis. When Sgt. Watson feigns an injury to stay behind, Carlos volunteers, leaving his pet monkey with Bellamy. Harris and Towns refuse to allow the mentally-unstable Cobb to go along, but Cobb defiantly follows anyway and dies of exposure. Days later, Harris returns to the crash site alone and barely alive. Sgt. Watson discovers and ignores him, although others find him later. Dorfmann proposes a radical idea to build a new aircraft from the wreckage. The C-82 has twin booms extending rearwards from each engine and connected by the horizontal stabilizer. Dorfmann wants to attach the outer sections of both wings to the left engine and boom, discarding the center fuselage and both inner wing sections. The men will ride atop the wings. Towns and Moran believe that he is either joking or delusional. The argument is complicated by a personality clash between Towns, a proud traditionalist aviator who flew for the Allied Forces during the Second World War, and Dorfmann, a young, arrogant German engineer. Moran struggles to maintain the peace. Towns initially resists Dorfmann's plan, and is incensed when he learns that it anticipates Gabriele's death before the plane is ready to fly. Renaud sways his opinion, saying activity and hope will help sustain the men's morale. Dorfmann supervises the reconstruction, while Towns remains skeptical. The mortally-injured Gabriele dies by suicide, depressing the men; they consider abandoning construction of the new plane. Dorfmann, caught exceeding his water ration, justifies it, saying that only he has been working continuously. He promises to not do it again, but demands everyone work equally hard from then on. Standish dubs the aircraft " Phoenix ", after the mythical bird that is reborn from its own ashes. When a band of Arabs and Berbers camp nearby, Harris and Renaud leave to make contact, while the others remain hidden with the aircraft. The two men are found murdered the next day. In a dramatic clash that begins in a quiet moment, Captain Towns and Moran are stunned to learn details about Dorfmann's career as an airplane designer. Dorfmann readily tells them that he works for a model airplane company designing radio controlled model airplanes. When asked if he ever worked on the "real thing", Dorfmann calmly tells them no and proudly shows Captain Towns the biggest airplane he ever worked on in his company's sales catalog, which has less than a 2m meter wingspan. When Towns and Moran incredulously question how a toy designer believes he can design a real airplane and make it fly, Dorfmann suddenly becomes angry hearing the word "toy" and vehemently exclaims that toy airplanes and the model airplanes he designs are not the same thing. Dorfmann goes on to bitterly explain that the aerodynamic principles of model airplanes are the same as "the real thing", and in fact many model planes require more exacting designs than full-size aircraft because they don't have the advantage of a pilot flying them. With water and time running out, and having no other choice but to die of dehyration or die trying to fly the cobbled together airplane, Towns and Moran forge ahead without telling the others about Dorfmann's credentials even though they suspect Dorfmann is crazy. Phoenix is completed. Only seven starter cartridges are available to ignite the engine. The first four startup attempts are unsuccessful. Over Dorfmann's objections, Towns fires the fifth cartridge with the ignition off to clear the engine's cylinders. The next startup attempt is successful. The men pull Phoenix to a hilltop, and climb onto the wings. When Towns guns the engine, Phoenix slides down the hill and over a lake bed before taking off. After successfully landing at an oasis with a manned oil rig, the men celebrate, and Towns and Dorfmann are reconciled.

In Marseille, a man is shadowing Alain Charnier, who runs a heroin-smuggling syndicate. Charnier's hitman, Pierre Nicoli, murders the man. Charnier plans to smuggle US$ 32 million (equivalent to $ 189 million in 2025) worth of 89% pure heroin into the United States by hiding it in the car of his unsuspecting friend, television personality Henri Devereaux, who is traveling to New York City by ship. In Brooklyn, police detectives Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle dressed as Santa Claus and Buddy "Cloudy" Russo stake out a bar known for drug trafficking. They later go out for drinks at the Copacabana. Popeye observes Salvatore "Sal" Boca and his wife, Angie, entertaining mobsters involved in narcotics. They tail the couple and establish a link between the Bocas and Joel Weinstock, a financier in the narcotics underworld. Popeye learns that a shipment of heroin will arrive soon. The detectives convince their supervisor to wiretap the Bocas' phones. Popeye and Cloudy are joined by federal agents Mulderig and Klein. Devereaux's vehicle arrives in New York City. Boca is in a hurry to make the purchase, but Weinstock urges patience, knowing they are being surveilled. Charnier realizes he is being surveilled as well, identifies Popeye as a detective, and escapes on a departing subway shuttle at Grand Central Station. To evade Popeye, he has Boca meet him in Washington, D.C., where Boca asks for a delay to avoid the police. Charnier wants to conclude the deal quickly. On the flight back to New York City, Nicoli offers to kill Popeye, but Charnier says Popeye would just be replaced by another policeman. Nicoli insists, however, saying they will be back in France before a replacement is assigned. Soon, Nicoli attempts to snipe Popeye in Brooklyn but hits a bystander. Popeye chases Nicoli, who boards an elevated subway train. Popeye shouts to a policeman on the train to catch Nicoli and then commandeers a passing car. He gives chase, crashing into several vehicles on the way. Realizing he is being pursued, Nicoli shoots the policeman who tries to intervene and hijacks the train at gunpoint, shooting the conductor while forcing the motorman to drive through the next station. The motorman suffers a heart attack, and the train stop engages before it rear ends another train, hurling Nicoli to the floor. Popeye arrives and sees Nicoli descending from the platform. Nicoli sees Popeye and turns to run, but Popeye shoots him dead. After a long stakeout, Popeye impounds Devereaux's Lincoln. In a police garage, mechanics tear the car apart in a search for drugs, initially coming up empty-handed. Cloudy discovers that the car's weight was recorded at 120 pounds over its standard, implying that the contraband must still be in the car – packages of heroin are finally discovered beneath the rocker panels. The car is reassembled, despite being nearly destroyed, and returned to Devereaux who delivers it to Charnier. Charnier drives to an old factory on Wards Island, where Boca's brother Lou works, to meet Weinstock and deliver the drugs. After Charnier has the rocker panel covers removed, Weinstock's chemist tests one of the bags and confirms its quality. Charnier removes the drugs and hides the money inside the rocker panels of another car purchased at a junk car auction, which he plans to take back to France. Charnier and Sal drive off in the Lincoln, but a large contingent of police led by Popeye blocks their path. The police chase the Lincoln back to the factory, where Boca is killed by Cloudy during a shootout. Most of the other criminals surrender. Charnier escapes into a nearby abandoned bakery with Popeye and Cloudy in pursuit. Popeye sees a shadowy figure in the distance and opens fire too late to heed a warning, killing Mulderig. Undaunted, he tells Cloudy he will get Charnier. He reloads his gun and runs into another room. A single gunshot is heard. Title cards describe various characters' fates: Weinstock was indicted, but his case was dismissed for "lack of proper evidence"; Angie Boca received a suspended sentence for a misdemeanor; Lou Boca received a reduced sentence for conspiracy and possession of narcotics; Devereaux served four years in a federal penitentiary for conspiracy; Charnier was never caught and is believed to be living in France. Popeye and Cloudy were transferred out of the Narcotics Bureau and reassigned.

Three bank robbers – Eddie, Jojo and Sammy - plan what they think is a perfect bank heist. As they exit the bank one of them throws the money in the trunk of what looks like their car but is just identical. Dejected, the leader of the crew, Eddie, muses that the human factor is what goes wrong with his plans and that what he needs is robots – something that he can control and that will follow orders exactly. The three part ways, and Eddie is left to come up with his next plan. Eddie finds his inspiration as he watches some Doberman Pinschers chase off a couple of boys who were chasing some boys who were trying to rob a junkyard. He poses as a journalist doing a story about trained military dogs, and he convinces an Air Force dog handler named Barney to work with him in a dog training business. At the same time, Eddie reconnects with Jojo and Sammy to come up with a plan to rob a payroll from a bank, including building a replica of the bank. When Barney is discharged from the Air Force, he comes to work with Eddie and is surprised when Eddie has Dobermans for Barney to train instead of German Shepherds, which is what Barney is accustomed to training. Barney, unaware that Eddie is planning to use the dogs in his heist, reluctantly agrees to train the six Dobermans, to which Eddie bestows the names of famous bank robbers (Dillinger, Bonnie, Clyde, Pretty Boy Floyd, Baby Face Nelson and Ma Barker). They are accompanied by a bulldog that Eddie names J. Edgar, after J. Edgar Hoover. As Barney trains the dogs, he becomes suspicious and figures out the bank robbery plot on his own. Barney confronts Eddie, who tells Barney that he is free to leave and not to worry about the dogs. Eddie reveals that if Barney leaves, he’ll kill the dogs. Barney has also become close with Eddie’s girlfriend, June, and she convinces Barney to stay and finish the job. Eddie outlines the specifics of the plan to Barney, which, if successful, will net the crew $600,000 if all of the dogs come back successfully. For his part Barney wants half of the take, but he agrees to a one-fourth share after some convincing by Sammy. June is left out of the arrangement but gets a promise from Eddie to receive $15,000 out of his share. June realizes that Eddie sees her as disposable, and she and Barney get even closer behind Eddie’s back. On the day of the bank robbery, all six dogs do exactly what they are trained to do and enter the bank one at a time, lying down and waiting for the command to start the robbery. Dillinger is the last to enter and carries the note giving the instructions to the tellers. Just before he’s supposed to blow the dog whistles corresponding to each dog, Barney has second thoughts (because June, looking for a bigger share, tells him the dogs will be killed afterwards to get rid of evidence) and leaves the command post across the street. Eddie and June are left to finish the operation and blow the whistles. While Sammy and Jojo head back to the training ranch, sprinkling dirt from the ranch along the way as a sort of trail of breadcrumbs, June picks up where Barney left off. The operation goes off exactly as planned, and the dogs collect the money and head home. One of the Dobermans is hit by a car, and another dog collects that dog’s saddlebag and continues on its way. Another dog is distracted by a white Husky in a backyard and stops to make friends with it. Eddie connects with Sammy and Jojo at the ranch, but June goes to a different spot and blows the whistles again, giving the command to the dogs to attack the bank robbers. She blows the whistles again, and the dogs collect the bags of money and run to June’s location, where she hopes to get the money, but the dogs will not let her have it. They're not robots—only Barney had any feeling for them, so they feel no connection to anyone else. She tries to get the whistles to signal to the dogs one more time, but J. Edgar takes the whistles and runs off as the Dobermans follow him. June runs after the dogs but can’t catch them. As June watches, J. Edgar and the five remaining Dobermans run into a valley carrying the bags of money.