Catholic priest Sang-hyun volunteers at a hospital, providing ministry to the patients. He eventually volunteers to participate in an experiment to find a vaccine for the deadly Emmanuel Virus (EV). The experiment fails, and Sang-hyun is infected with EV, but makes a complete and rapid recovery after receiving a blood transfusion. News of his recovery spreads among the parishioners of Sang-hyun's congregation, and they begin to believe that he has a gift for healing. Soon, thousands flock to Sang-hyun's services. Among the new churchgoers are Kang-woo, Sang-hyun's childhood friend, and his family. Kang-woo eventually invites Sang-hyun to join the weekly mahjong night at his house. There, Sang-hyun finds himself attracted to Kang-woo's wife, Tae-ju. Sang-hyun later relapses into his illness and wakes in need of shelter from the sunlight, having become a vampire. Sang-hyun soon finds himself drinking blood from a comatose patient. Aghast, Sang-hyun attempts to commit suicide, but finds himself irresistibly drawn to human blood. EV's symptoms return and only seem to go away when he drinks blood. Trying to avoid committing a murder, Sang-hyun resorts to stealing blood transfusion packs from the hospital. Tae-ju, who lives with her ill husband and overprotective mother-in-law Mrs. Ra, eventually begins an affair with Sang-hyun. However, when she discovers the truth about Sang-hyun, she retreats in fear. When Sang-hyun pleads with her to run away with him, she turns him down, suggesting that they kill Kang-woo instead. When Sang-hyun's superior at the monastery requests vampire blood so that his eyes may heal and he may see the world before dying, a disgusted Sang-hyun flees from the monastery. He moves into Mrs. Ra's house so that he may secretly have sex with Tae-ju. Sang-hyun notices bruises on Tae-ju and assumes that Kang-woo is the cause, a suspicion that she confirms. Sang-hyun decides to kill Kang-woo during a fishing trip with the couple. He pulls Kang-woo into the water and claims to his superior that he placed the body inside a cabinet in a house at the bottom of the lake, putting a rock on the body to keep it from floating to the surface. When Sang-hyun's symptoms return, he kills his superior and drinks his blood. A police investigation ensues. Mrs. Ra drinks often after Kang-woo's death, sinking into a completely paralyzed state. Sang-hyun and Tae-ju are haunted by visions of Kang-woo's corpse. When Tae-ju lets slip that Kang-woo never abused her, Sang-hyun is enraged because he only killed Kang-woo to protect her. Distraught, she asks Sang-hyun to kill her and let her return to Kang-woo. Sang-hyun kills her, but after feeding on her blood, decides that he does not want to be alone forever and feeds her corpse his own blood. She awakens as a vampire. Mrs. Ra, knocked to the floor by a seizure, witnesses everything. Tae-ju soon starts killing indiscriminately to feed, while Sang-hyun acts more conservatively, only killing when necessary. Their conflicting ethics result in a chase across the rooftops and a battle. Mrs. Ra eventually manages to communicate to Kang-woo's friends that Sang-hyun and Tae-ju killed her son. Tae-ju kills two of the friends, and Sang-hyun appears to eliminate a third one. Realizing the gravity of the situation, Sang-hyun tells Tae-ju that they must flee or be caught. Sang-hyun then places Mrs. Ra in his car and drives into the night with Tae-ju. Before leaving town, he makes a visit to the camp of people who worship him. He makes it seem like he tried to rape a girl, leading the campers to chase him away, no longer idolizing him. At the house, the third friend escapes; whom Sang-hyun only pretended to kill to protect her from Tae-ju. Meanwhile, Sang-hyun drives to a desolate field with no cover from the imminent dawn. Realizing his plan to have them both burn when dawn breaks, Tae-ju tries to hide but Sang-hyun foils her every attempt. Resigning herself to her fate, she joins him on the car hood, and both are burnt to ash by the sun, as Mrs. Ra watches from the backseat of the car.

After the Soviet invasion of Poland in World War II, Polish army officer Janusz Wieszczek is held prisoner and interrogated by the NKVD. Unable to force a confession of espionage from him, the Soviets torture his wife until she denounces him. He is sentenced to 20 years in a Gulag labour camp in Siberia. Janusz is imprisoned with Mister Smith, an American engineer; Khabarov, an actor; Valka, a hardened Russian criminal; Tomasz, a Polish artist; Voss, a Latvian priest; Kazik, a Pole suffering from night blindness; and Zoran, a Yugoslav accountant. Khabarov confides a plan to escape to Mongolia, passing Lake Baikal. Smith cautions Janusz that Khabarov discusses escape plans with newcomers only to maintain his morale, but nothing will come of it. Janusz intermittently hallucinates the front door of a country home and adjoining window ledge with plants and a rock he attempts to grab for but never quite reaches. Janusz escapes from the camp with Smith, Valka, Voss, Tomasz, Zoran, and Kazik during a severe snowstorm that covers their tracks. Kazik freezes to death two nights later after getting lost while looking for firewood. Several more days of hard travel through Siberian snow brings them to Lake Baikal where they meet Irena, a Polish girl. She tells them that Russian soldiers murdered her parents and sent her to a collective farm near Warsaw from which she escaped. Smith knows Warsaw to be occupied by the Germans, not the Soviets, but despite misgivings that she'll slow them down and tax their meager food supply, he agrees to let her accompany them. He confronts her about the lie and she admits her parents were communists who were killed, leaving her in an orphanage. The group reaches the unpatrolled border between the Soviet Union and Mongolia, and Valka, who idolizes Joseph Stalin, refuses to cross. The rest continue to Ulaanbaatar to discover that Mongolia is under communist control. Since China is at war with Japan, he convinces the group to take refuge in British India instead and they continue south across the Gobi Desert. Lack of water, sandstorms, sunburn, blisters, and sunstroke weaken the group. They find temporary relief at a well and then lose most of their water supply in a sandstorm. The group carries on; Irena dies a few days later followed by Tomasz. Smith nearly dies but Janusz, Zoran, and Voss motivate him until the severely dehydrated men reach a new water source. The group passes through the Great Wall into China and reach the Himalayas on the verge of death. A Tibetan monk takes them to a Buddhist monastery where they regain their strength. Smith decides to go to Lhasa with the help of one of the monk's contacts, who will smuggle him out through China so he can make contact with the US military and return to home. The remaining three reach India where villagers assist them, and the Indian government arranges their peaceful return home. Janusz walks around the world until 1989, when the communist regime in Poland is ousted from power. Fifty years after being taken captive, Janusz again envisions reaching for the rock by the door. This time he succeeds, and takes a key hidden underneath. He opens the door and is reunited with his wife.

A man calling himself Ryder and his accomplices – Bashkin, Emri, and former train operator Phil Ramos – hijack Pelham 123, a New York City Subway 6 train, at 77th Street. Uncoupling the front car of the train below 51st Street, they take its passengers hostage. Metropolitan Transportation Authority employee Walter Garber, working the Rail Control Center as a train dispatcher, receives a call from Ryder, demanding $10 million in cash to be paid within 60 minutes. Ryder warns that every minute he waits past the deadline, he will kill a hostage. He kills an intervening plainclothes New York City Transit Police officer. Garber reluctantly negotiates with Ryder as Ramos and Emri set up Internet access in the tunnel. On his laptop, Ryder watches the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunge nearly 1,000 points in response to the hijacking. A hostage's laptop also connects to the Internet, and its webcam allows the control center to observe Ryder and Ramos. Lieutenant Camonetti of the New York City Police Department Emergency Service Unit takes over negotiations, which infuriates Ryder, who kills the train's motorman to force Camonetti to bring Garber back. Camonetti learns that Garber is being investigated for allegedly accepting a $35,000 bribe over a contract for new subway cars. Ryder also discovers the allegations online and forces Garber to confess by threatening to kill a passenger. To save the hostage, Garber claims that he was offered the bribe while deciding between two companies, using the money to pay for his child's college tuition, and insists he would have made the same decision regardless. The mayor agrees to Ryder's ransom, ordering the police to bring it. En route, the police car crashes, failing to deliver the money in time. Garber attempts to bluff Ryder that the ransom has arrived, unaware he has been monitoring events on his laptop. Ryder threatens to execute a child's mother, but another hostage, a former soldier named Wallace, sacrifices himself and is killed. A brief gunfight erupts after an Emergency Service Unit sniper is bitten by a rat and discharges his weapon, killing Ramos. Based on clues from Garber's conversations, the police discover that Ryder is Dennis Ford, a manager at a private equity firm who was sentenced to prison for investment fraud. Ford had agreed to a plea bargain to serve three years, but received ten years instead. One of the mayor's aides mentions the extreme drop in the major stock indexes, and the mayor infers that Ryder is attempting to manipulate the market via put options. Ryder demands that Garber deliver the ransom money himself to avoid coming in contact with the police. Garber is flown to the terminal, where he is given a pistol for protection. Ryder brings Garber aboard and orders him to operate the train down the tunnel below 33rd Street, where Garber and the hijackers exit, rigging the train to go on without them. Garber manages to separate himself at a railway crossing and then follows Ryder to Track 61 underneath Waldorf Astoria hotel. Ryder parts from Bashkin and Emri, who are shot dead after being surrounded by police and provoking deadly force in an apparent suicide by cop. The train comes to a screeching halt safely just before Coney Island (West 8th Street-New York Aquarium), and the police discover that Ryder is no longer on board. Ryder hails a taxi, with Garber following him on-foot, and finds out that his scheme has amassed $307 million. Garber steals a car and pursues Ryder. After a brief chase, they reach the Manhattan Bridge 's pedestrian walkway, where Garber catches up with Ryder and holds him at gunpoint. Ryder gives him a 10-second ultimatum to pull the trigger, and in the final seconds, pulls out his own gun, forcing Garber to shoot him. Telling Garber in his final breath, "You're my goddamn hero", as Garber solemnly looks on and Camonetti observes approvingly from a helicopter. The mayor thanks Garber and assures him the city will "go to bat" for him over his bribery admission. The film concludes as Garber returns home to his wife with groceries he had promised to pick up.

Paige Collins and her husband Leo come out of a movie theater on a snowy evening. On their way home, at a stop sign, Paige unbuckles her seatbelt to lean over and kiss Leo. At that very moment, a salt truck rams their car from behind and Paige crashes through the windshield. Both of them are rushed to a hospital. As Leo, in a voice-over, talks about how "moments of impact help in finding who we are," his relationship with Paige is explored – their courtship, engagement, and wedding at the Art Institute of Chicago, all interwoven with the present. Paige is put into an induced coma, and later regains consciousness to discover she has lost all of her memories. Paige's parents, Bill and Rita Thornton, learn about this and visit her, meeting Leo for the first time. Paige does not understand how Leo could be married to her, yet not have met her own parents. She finds it even stranger that he does not know either. Nor does Paige understand why she left law school, broke off an engagement with her previous fiancé, Jeremy, and lost contact with her family and friends. Needing evidence of her relationship with Leo, he plays her a voice message as proof. Paige is against the idea of moving back in with her parents, so decides to return to Leo, hoping it will help her regain her lost memories. She is welcomed home with a surprise party thrown by her friends, none of whom she can recall, so she feels overwhelmed. The next day, Paige ventures out to a café she regularly visited, but loses her way back. Paige calls Rita for help and returns to Leo. That evening, Bill and Rita invite the couple to dinner; later, Paige's sister Gwen and her fiancé invite them out to a bar. Leo comes to feel that he doesn't fit in with Paige's family. Paige later meets Jeremy again at the bar. Realizing that she is becoming infatuated with Jeremy, Leo persists in trying to help her regain her memory. Paige secretly meets Jeremy at his office, and asks him about their broken engagement. His answer is ambiguous; he is still clearly attracted to her. While Leo gives Paige a tour of her own studio, she suddenly lashes out at him. With Gwen's wedding approaching, Paige decides to stay with her parents. Leo asks Paige out on a date and spends the night with her, but the relationship is further strained when Bill attempts to persuade him to divorce her. When Jeremy begins taunting Leo, he eventually loses his temper and punches Jeremy. Paige rejoins law school and a heartbroken Leo reaches an epiphany that her memory may never return. At a Trader Joe's, Paige meets Diane, an old friend who is unaware of Paige's amnesia. It's revealed that Diane had an affair with Bill, thus explaining why Paige has been estranged from her family. When Paige angrily confronts Rita about this, she tells Paige that she decided to stay with her father for everything he had done right instead of leaving him for one transgression. Reuniting with Leo, Paige learns that he wanted to earn her love instead of driving her away from her family. While in class, Paige starts to take up sketching. Despite Bill's misgivings about quitting law school, Paige reassures him that she will always be his daughter no matter what. Paige continues her interest in art, eventually returning to sculpting and drawing. Jeremy confesses he broke up with his girlfriend in hopes of winning Paige back, but she turns him down, stating that she needs to know what life would be like without him. As the seasons change, Leo again reflects on "moments of impact," whose potential for change has ripple effects far beyond what can be predicted. Back in her room, Paige finds a menu card on which she had written her wedding vows. She later meets Leo at the cafe and, despite admitting the end of their relationship, they agree to have dinner together and walk off arm in arm.

In 1918, a young Jiro Horikoshi longs to become a pilot, but his nearsightedness prevents it. Inspired by a magazine, he begins having recurring dreams of flying with his idol, Italian aircraft designer Giovanni Battista Caproni, aboard Caproni's aircraft. Caproni tells him that he has never flown a plane in his life, and that building planes is better than flying them. Five years later, following the failure of the Caproni Ca.60, Jiro is an aeronautical engineering student at Tokyo Imperial University. While travelling home from a visit with family, he meets a young girl, Nahoko Satomi, travelling with her maid Kinu. The Great Kantō earthquake suddenly hits, and Kinu's leg is broken. Jiro helps Nahoko carry her to Nahoko's family home, leaving without exchanging names. In 1925, Jiro graduates with his friend Kiro Honjo, and both are employed at aeroplane manufacturer Mitsubishi amidst the Great Depression. They are assigned to perfect a fighter plane, the Mitsubishi 1MF9, for the Imperial Army. During a test, it breaks apart in midair while attempting to pass 200 knots and is rejected. Pivoting their plans, Mitsubishi sends Jiro and Honjo to the Weimar Republic in 1929 to obtain a production licence for a Junkers G.38, intending to build a bomber. Although Hugo Junkers welcomes them, the two men are blocked from obtaining complete plans by the Sicherheitspolizei. With them and their coworkers discouraged by how far back Japan's aeronautics technology is from the rest of the world, Jiro returns to Japan, while Honjo stays and eventually develops the Mitsubishi G4M. In early 1932, Jiro is promoted to chief designer for a fighter plane competition sponsored by the Imperial Navy, but his design, the Mitsubishi 1MF10, fails testing in 1933 and is rejected. Disappointed, he takes a vacation at a summer resort in Karuizawa. There he reunites with an adult Nahoko, who has been searching for him since they first met. The two quickly develop a romance, assisted by a German tourist he calls Castorp. Critical of Nazi Germany, Castorp privately tells Jiro that Adolf Hitler has apprehended Junkers for resisting Nazism, and that Germany must be stopped from declaring another world war, this time allied with Japan. He then flees arrest from the Special Higher Police. Later, Nahoko is diagnosed with tuberculosis, so Jiro asks Nahoko's father for his blessing to marry her, and the two are engaged. However, Nahoko wishes to wait until she recovers to marry, and moves back in with her family. Wanted in connection with Castorp, Jiro hides at his supervisor Kurokawa's home while he works on a new fighter project for the Imperial Navy. Jiro briefly leaves when Nahoko suffers from a pulmonary haemorrhage. After Jiro briefly tends to her, Nahoko decides to check into a mountain sanatorium to recover, but cannot bear being apart from Jiro and returns to be with him. Kurokawa and his wife marry the two and allow the couple to stay in their home with Nahoko's father's permission. Jiro's sister Kayo, a doctor, warns Jiro that his marriage to Nahoko will end tragically as tuberculosis is incurable. Though Nahoko's health deteriorates, she and Jiro enjoy their fleeting time together. Jiro leaves for the test flight of his new prototype aeroplane, the Mitsubishi Ka-14. Knowing that she will die soon, Nahoko leaves farewell letters for Jiro, her family, and friends and discreetly leaves the house in a vain attempt to return to the sanatorium. At the test site, Jiro is distracted from his success by a gust of wind, suggesting Nahoko's passing. In 1945, after Japan has lost World War II, Jiro dreams of Caproni again, regretting that his plane was used for war. Caproni comforts him, saying that Jiro's dream of building beautiful aeroplanes was nonetheless realised, in the form of his masterpiece—the A6M 'Zero' fighter. Nahoko's spirit also appears, encouraging her husband to live on. After her spirit departs, Jiro and Caproni walk together into their shared kingdom of dreams.

In 1963, Stephen Hawking, a postgraduate astrophysics student at the University of Cambridge, begins a relationship with literature student Jane Wilde. Although Stephen is intelligent, both his friends and fellow academics are worried about his lack of a thesis topic. After attending a lecture by Roger Penrose on black holes with his advisor, Prof. Dennis Sciama, Stephen speculates that these might have been part of the universe's creation and decides on his thesis. However, soon Stephen's muscles begin to fail, causing him to lose coordination. After a bad fall, he is diagnosed with early-onset progressive degenerative motor neurone disease (MND) that will eventually leave him unable to move, swallow, or even breathe. With no treatment options, he is given approximately two years to live. The doctor assures Stephen that his brain will not be affected, so his thoughts and intelligence will remain intact, but eventually, he will be unable to communicate with them. Stephen develops severe depression, becoming reclusive and focusing on his work. Jane confesses she loves him and that she intends to stay, even as his condition worsens. They marry and have their first son, Robert. Once his walking ability deteriorates, he begins using a wheelchair. Inspired by Penrose's work on spacetime singularities at the centre of black holes, Stephen presents his doctoral thesis viva, extrapolating that a black hole created the universe in a Big Bang and it will end in a Big Crunch. After the Hawkings have their daughter Lucy, Jane becomes frustrated having to focus on the children, as well as Stephen's slowly degenerating health while his fame increases, all at the expense of her academic work. Stephen tells her he will understand if she needs help. In the 1970s, Jane joins a church choir, where she meets and becomes close friends with Jonathan, a widower. She employs him as Robert's piano teacher, and Jonathan befriends the entire family, helping Stephen with his illness, supporting Jane, and playing with the children. When Jane gives birth to another son, Timothy, Stephen's mother asks her if the baby is Jonathan's. This causes outrage and Jonathan is appalled, but when he and Jane are alone, they admit the depth of their feelings for one another. He distances himself from the family, but Stephen tells him that Jane needs him. As the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge, Stephen goes on to develop a theory of the visibility of black holes that emit radiation, becoming a world-renowned physicist. In the 1980s, while on holiday in Bordeaux, Stephen falls ill and is rushed to a hospital. The doctor informs Jane that he has pneumonia and the tracheotomy he needs to survive will leave him mute. She agrees to the surgery. Stephen learns to use a spelling board and uses it to communicate with his new nurse, Elaine Mason. He receives a computer with a built-in voice synthesizer and uses it to write a book, A Brief History of Time, which becomes an international best-seller. In the late 1980s, Stephen tells Jane he has been invited to the United States to accept an award and will take Elaine with him. Jane faces the fact that the marriage has not been working, saying she "did her best", and they agree to divorce. While Stephen has fallen in love with Elaine, Jane and Jonathan reunite. Stephen goes to deliver a public lecture where he sees a student drop a pen. He imagines getting up to return it, almost crying at the reminder of how his disease has affected him. He then gives a speech telling audiences to pursue their ambitions despite the harsh reality of life: "While there is life, there is hope." On being made a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in 1989, Stephen invites Jane to go with him to meet Queen Elizabeth II, where they share a happy day together with their three children. An extended closing series of select moments from the film, shown in reverse, back to the moment Stephen first saw Jane – the reversal is reminiscent of Stephen's research methodology of reversing time to understand the beginning of the universe. An epilogue reveals that A Brief History of Time has sold over ten million copies worldwide; Stephen declined an offer of a knighthood and has no plans to retire; Jane earned her PhD in medieval Spanish poetry and married Jonathan; and both Stephen and Jane remain friends, sharing three grandchildren.

The Case Kitty Genovese was murdered at about 3:20 am on March 13, 1964, in the Kew Gardens neighborhood of Queens, New York. The lede of the initial article in The New York Times about her death, written by Martin Gansberg, read: " For more than half an hour 38 respectable, law-abiding citizens in Queens watched a killer stalk and stab a woman in three separate attacks in Kew Gardens. " The film argues that although "absolutely riveting", most of that statement was inaccurate: Journalist Jim Rasenberger tells Bill Genovese in the film: "If the story had been reported more accurately, it still would have been a two or three day—maybe a four-day story; but it would not have been a 50-year story. We would still not be talking about it today." Bill Genovese's Investigation William "Bill" Genovese was 16 when his older sister Kitty was murdered. For many years, Kitty’s family found it too painful to look into the facts of her death. Starting in March 2004, however, Bill began his own investigation into whether it was true that 38 witnesses failed to help his sister. With leads from prosecutor Charles Skoller, he obtained the police interviews and the transcript of Winston Moseley's trial, and set about finding the witnesses or informants who were still alive. His findings, which are documented in the film, include the following: Only 5 of the "38 witnesses" were called to the testify at Moseley's trial, among them: According to defense attorney Sydney Sparrow (as reported by his son), Moseley was bright and manipulative. Moseley told the story of killing Kitty in a cold "conversational tone", and also confessed to murdering Annie Mae Johnson two weeks before Kitty. He shot Annie Mae four times as she was getting out of her car at night, then raped her in her house while her unknowing family members were upstairs, then set the house on fire. Moseley was sentenced to death for the murder of Genovese, but his sentence was reduced to life imprisonment on appeal. In 1968, he escaped from prison and terrorized Buffalo, New York, for 4 days, breaking into houses, raping a woman at gunpoint, and taking hostages before being captured by the FBI. He went on to complete a sociology degree from prison in 1977, and later claimed to be reformed. Bill attempts to interview Winston Moseley, who refuses, saying he was "tired of being exploited." Moseley's son Steven, a minister, does agree to meet with Bill, however. He says his father told him that Kitty had hurled racial slurs at Moseley, who "snapped" and killed her, but a dubious Bill points out that Moseley had previously killed Annie Mae Johnson, who was African American. Steven then states that he was scared to meet with Bill because the story in his family is that Kitty was related to the Genovese crime family, which Bill denies. Later, Bill receives a letter from Winston Moseley, which makes the "bizarre claim" that Moseley had just been an unwitting getaway driver the night Kitty was killed, and "an Italian mobster named Dominick" killed Kitty over an unpaid debt, threatening Moseley and his family if he revealed the truth. Bill concludes: "I've come to realize that the whole truth about Kitty's death will never be known, but maybe that's why the story continues to fascinate people…but I know she'd want me to move on."

James flees from a farmhouse and escapes into the woods. A screaming woman tries to follow, but is wounded by a gunshot. Lying on the ground, she is doused with gasoline and set on fire by Vincent and Simon. Deputy Sheriff Daniel Carter is on duty, sitting in his patrol car when he finds James crawling along the road and rushes him to the local hospital, which has been largely abandoned following a fire, where his estranged wife Allison Fraser works as a nurse. At the hospital are Dr. Richard Powell, nurse Beverly, intern Kim, pregnant patient Maggie, her grandfather Ben, and patient Cliff; with the staff at the hospital working as a skeleton crew. Daniel discovers an entranced Beverly murdering Cliff, her face flayed of skin. Beverly moves toward Daniel who shoots her dead. Daniel collapses due to a seizure and experiences a strange vision. State trooper Mitchell enters the hospital to collect James after discovering the bloody scene at the farmhouse. Daniel goes outside to call in Beverly's death from his patrol car but is tackled and stabbed by a robed cultist. He manages to return to the hospital as cultists surround the building. James, Daniel, and Mitchell find that Beverly's corpse has transformed into a tentacled creature. Vincent and Simon enter the lobby and hold the group at gunpoint, demanding to get to James. James takes Maggie hostage to protect himself and stabs Powell, who falls to the floor and dies. The Beverly-Creature appears and takes Mitchell, its tentacles penetrating his body. Vincent and Simon kill the Beverly-Creature and regroup with the others in the lobby, setting Mitchell's body on fire. Vincent and Simon accompany Daniel to retrieve a shotgun from a patrol car, while Allison ventures into the basement to collect medical supplies for delivering Maggie's baby. Powell, no longer dead, manages to capture Allison. Daniel and Vincent go to search for her and find photographs and files indicating Powell was the cult's leader. Powell phones Daniel from the in-house morgue, taunting him and mentioning the vision Daniel experienced while unconscious. Kim and Ben stay with Maggie while Daniel, Vincent, and Simon interrogate James. James explains that Powell has the power to transform people. The three men force James to come with them downstairs. Allison regains consciousness on an operating table where Powell explains he has found a way to defy death after the loss of his daughter Sarah. Having flayed off his face, Powell shows Allison that something now grows inside her belly. Daniel, Vincent, Simon, and James find a hidden area in the basement and end up surrounded by deformed corpses brought back to life. One of the creatures kills James as the other three men are separated. As Maggie enters labor, Kim hesitates to perform a C-section. As Ben pleads with Kim, Maggie stands and slits his throat, revealing she is carrying Dr. Powell's child. Kim hides as cultists enter the building and Maggie leaves to join Powell. Daniel finds Allison in the operating room pregnant. He sees a tentacled creature extending from her body. Powell's voice speaks to Daniel, who attacks his wife's mutated remains with an axe. Daniel is transported to a morgue room with a glowing triangle on the wall. Powell's voice tells Daniel that he found the ability to conquer life and death through a rite that enabled him to contact entities older than time itself. Powell promises that Daniel can have his child back if he is willing to die first. Maggie appears and stabs Daniel who is injured but alive. Powell appears skinless and partly mutated in front of the triangle as Maggie kneels before him. Powell recites an incantation before the triangle as a now frightened Maggie's torso explodes, giving birth to the Sarah-Creature. Vincent and Simon arrive and battle it. The Sarah-Creature overcomes Vincent, but he covers it in isopropyl alcohol, allowing Simon to set them both on fire with a flare. Powell tells Daniel he can be with Allison if he stops resisting and "let go". Daniel refuses and tackles him, leading both men to tumble into the void. Meanwhile, the Sarah-Creature pursues Simon, who escapes and is teleported back to the hospital to reunite safely with Kim. Daniel and Allison are shown holding hands in another world beneath a black pyramid while Powell's fate is left unknown.

Christian is the curator of the X-Royal art museum in Stockholm, formerly the Royal Palace. He is interviewed by journalist Anne, struggling to explain museum parlance. Later, Christian is pulled into a confrontation at a pedestrian zone, after which he notices that his smartphone and wallet are missing, along with his cufflinks, presumably stolen in a confidence trick. Christian is able to track the position of his phone on his computer, which he and his assistant Michael trace to a large apartment block. They write a threatening anonymous letter demanding the return of the phone and wallet by depositing them at a nearby 7-Eleven. Christian puts a copy of the letter through each apartment mailbox that night. Several days later, a package for him is deposited at the store, containing the phone and the completely untouched wallet. Euphoric after the success of his plan, Christian goes to a party where he meets Anne again, before ending up in her apartment. After the two have sex, Anne offers to throw away a used condom but he steadfastly refuses to hand it over to her. They argue over the situation, as she believes he does not trust her to dispose of the semen rather than take it. Several days later, Anne meets Christian in the museum and states she is looking for more than casual sex. She asks him if he feels the same, but Christian is evasive. When Anne later tries to call him, he does not pick up the phone. The day after picking up the package, Christian is informed that a second one has arrived for him at the 7-Eleven. Suspicious, he sends Michael to pick it up. In the store, Michael is confronted by a young Arab boy who states that his parents believe that he is a thief because of the letter and demands that Christian apologizes to him and his family. Otherwise, the boy threatens to create "chaos" for him. Later, the boy visits Christian's home and confronts him, along with his two young daughters, on the staircase. Christian tries to send him away but the boy begins to knock on doors and screaming for help. In a fit of frustration, Christian pushes the boy down the stairs, though no one comes to his aid. Disturbed, Christian desperately searches the trash outside the house for a note which contains the boy's phone number. After finding it and unsuccessfully trying to call him, Christian records an apologetic video message. In the midst of these troubles, Christian has to manage the promotion of a new exhibition centered on an art piece called The Square by Lola Arias, which is described in the artist's statement: "The Square is a sanctuary of trust and caring. Within it we all share equal rights and obligations." The advertising agency commissioned by the museum to promote The Square states that they need to harness social media attention with something other than the uncontroversial and bland artist's statement. Advertising agency representatives consider a depiction of violence contradicting The Square ' s message, developing a promotional clip showing an impoverished girl entering The Square and being killed in an explosion. The video is published on the museum's website and YouTube channel after a distracted Christian gives his approval without viewing it. The clip goes viral, quickly reaching 300,000 YouTube views, but receives an extremely hostile response from the media, religious leaders and the general public. The museum arranges a press conference, where Christian states he violated protocol and is stepping down as curator in mutual agreement with the board. Several journalists then attack him for stirring up cheap controversy with a tasteless clip, while others attack him for self-censorship because of his resignation. Feeling guilty about wronging the boy, Christian drives to the apartment block several days later and tries to find him and his family. Christian talks to a neighbour who states that he knew the boy but that his family has moved away.

A mysterious Japanese man arrives in Gokseong, a small village in the mountains of South Korea. Soon after, a bizarre infection breaks out, causing villagers to become deranged and violently kill their families. Officer Jong-goo's daughter, Hyo-jin, becomes one of the infected. Jong-goo then meets a mysterious young woman named Moo-myeong, who claims the Japanese stranger is an evil spirit. A local hunter reports seeing the stranger with glowing red eyes eating a deer carcass. After a series of disturbing events and violent deaths, Jong-goo enlists the help of a Japanese-speaking deacon, Yang I-sam. They investigate the stranger's house, discovering a shrine with photos and belongings of the murdered villagers, including Hyo-jin's shoe. As Hyo-jin's condition worsens, Jong-goo confronts the stranger, ordering him to leave the village. Jong-goo's family discovers a dead goat hanging at their gate, and Hyo-jin stabs their neighbor to death. A shaman named Il-gwang is consulted, who claims the stranger is a demon and performs a death-hex ritual. Jong-goo stops the ritual midway, instead taking Hyo-jin to the hospital. The next day, Jong-goo and his companions hunt down the stranger but are attacked by the reanimated corpse of another victim, giving the stranger time to flee. They eventually kill him, and Hyo-jin's health improves. Il-gwang encounters Moo-myeong and vomits blood. After his ritual fails, he leaves town in terror but a swarm of flying insects stops him. He calls Jong-goo, warning that Moo-myeong is the real demon, and the stranger was a shaman who was trying to kill her. Meanwhile, Yang I-sam receives news that his uncle Oh Seong-bok has killed his family. Jong-goo goes home and finds that Hyo-jin has disappeared. While looking for Hyo-Jin, Jong-goo runs into Moo-myeong, who he confronts about Hyo-jin's whereabouts. Moo-myeong claims his daughter is possessed by the stranger, who is consuming her life force. She also tells him his daughter is still alive, has just returned and will kill his family. She reveals that she has set a trap for the demon, and that all Jong-goo has to do is remain there and wait. Jong-goo replies that he is not sure if he believes her. The shaman phones him and says he must not let Moo-myeong tempt him. Moo-myeong instructs him to simply wait until the third crow of the rooster. Meanwhile, Hyo-jin returns home possessed and while eating with her hands, eyes a knife in the kitchen. While Jong-goo is engaged with Moo-myeong, Yang I-sam returns to the stranger's house armed with a sickle and finds him alive inside a cave. Yang promises to leave if the stranger reveals his true form. The stranger chuckles at this. Jong-goo notices Moo-myeong is wearing items of the victims and sees his daughter's hairpin on the ground. Believing this to be proof that she is responsible for the infection, he returns home before the rooster's third crow. Upon returning home, Jong-goo discovers that Hyo-jin has slaughtered his wife and mother-in-law; she then attacks him. Meanwhile, the stranger repeatedly photographs Yang I-sam. He then assumes his true appearance—that of a red-eyed demon, bearing stigmata. Il-gwang returns with a camera in his hand and finds Jong-goo's dead family as Hyo-jin sits in a trance and Jong-goo lies dying. Il-gwang photographs the dead family members, then returns to his car and retrieves a box which he drops, revealing photos of other families and victims of the demon. Jong-goo reminisces about the happy times with his daughter as he dies.

In 1950s Cayuga, New Mexico, teenage disc jockey Everett helps prepare for a high-school basketball game. He and his friend Fay test her new tape recorder before Everett walks her to her job as a switchboard operator and begins his shift at WOTW radio station. While listening to Everett's broadcast, Fay hears a mysterious audio signal interrupt the program. A woman calls to report a large object hovering over her property, though the static weakens her voice. Fay alerts Everett, who asks listeners to call in with information about the signal. A man named Billy phones the station, and Everett broadcasts the conversation live. Billy says he served in the military and was transported to a secret desert facility, where he and other personnel constructed a vast underground bunker to contain an enormous unidentified object. During a flight away from the site, he heard the same strange signal over the aircraft radio. Billy later developed a lung condition that he attributes to his work there and learned of similar military operations involving buried cargo accompanied by the same signal. He believes the sound functions as a communication signal, sometimes transmitted from altitudes beyond the reach of human aircraft. After the call is briefly disconnected, Billy phones again and explains that all personnel involved in the projects were either Black or Mexican, which he suspects was intended to make their testimony easier to dismiss. He says a friend secretly recorded the signal and distributed copies to former workers, including a deceased United States Air Force member from Cayuga. Realizing the tapes were donated to the local library, Fay retrieves them. Everett and Fay locate the recording and broadcast it, but the station suddenly loses power. They rush to the switchboard office, where Fay receives numerous reports of "something in the sky". On the way, they encounter Gerald and Bertsie, who have been pursuing the same object. An elderly woman named Mabel then calls, offering further information. Everett and Fay visit Mabel's home and find her reciting phrases in an unknown language. While Everett records the conversation, Mabel claims the phenomena are spacecraft operated by "the people in the sky", who communicate with and abduct humans. She believes the beings target isolated individuals while the town attends the basketball game and are responsible for encouraging conflict among humanity. Mabel asks them to take her to the ship so she can reunite with her son, who she says was abducted years earlier, or at least deliver a written message. Skeptical, Everett refuses and leaves with Fay, who returns home to collect her baby sister Maddie. Gerald and Bertsie pick them up, but when Everett plays Mabel's recorded speech, the two men fall into a trance and nearly crash the car. Frightened, Everett and Fay flee with Maddie into the woods. There, they discover charred trees and branches, convincing Everett that the visitors are real and nearby. Reaching a clearing, they witness a spacecraft rejoin a massive mothership, which sends powerful winds swirling around them. After the basketball game ends, the townspeople emerge to find Everett, Fay, and Maddie missing. Only their footprints and tape recorder remain.

In December 2022, biology teacher and former Green Beret Dan Forester fails to land a job at the United States Army Research Laboratory. While he watches the televised 2022 FIFA World Cup final, soldiers from the year 2051 arrive on the playing field through a time portal to warn that future humanity is near extinction due to alien invaders: the White Spikes. In response, the world's military forces are sent to the future, but less than 20% survive, prompting a global draft. Dan, conscripted for a seven-day tour, is fitted with an electronic vambrace that tracks him and will automatically return him to his own time following his seven days. Dan's wife, Emmy, encourages Dan to seek out his estranged engineer father, James Forester, to remove the vambrace so the family can go on the run. Dan meets with James; angry over his father having abandoned the family, he instead leaves with the vambrace intact. During orientation, one recruit, Charlie, notices the draftees are mostly older adults: Dan deduces that they were all people known to have died before 2051. Dan and the other draftees are deployed to Miami Beach, Florida in the future but are dropped at the wrong coordinates, high above the city, and most fall to their deaths. Romeo Command orders the remaining recruits to rescue staff at a nearby laboratory. The lab staff are dead, but the team recovers their research data before the area is bombed. Dan and the survivors make it to a military camp in Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic, where Dan discovers that Romeo Command is headed by his now-adult daughter, Colonel Muri Forester. After a strained reunion, the two embark on a successful mission to capture a female White Spike, which are rarer than the males. Muri later reveals that Dan became disillusioned after losing the research job, which caused her parents' divorce and estrangement from his daughter, just as James did when Dan was a child. Dan also learns he died in a car crash when Muri was 16. Dan and Muri, along with the captured female, are transported to the Jumplink site on a fortified ocean oil platform. They work on a toxin that targets the female, but the arrival of an enormous White Spike swarm quickly overwhelms the base. Muri is severely injured and tells Dan to take the toxin to the past and mass produce it, believing that humanity will not survive in this timeline. Before Muri dies, the two reconcile, and Dan is successfully returned to the past with the toxin. He attempts to deliver it to the military so it can be returned to the future, but the Jumplink has been destroyed by the aliens. After Dan tells Emmy about the future, they suspect that the White Spikes may have arrived much earlier than 2048. This is supported by finding volcanic ash traces from the Changbai Mountains and the 946 AD Millennium Eruption using a claw that Dan brought back. They conclude that the aliens were already on Earth, trapped under the polar ice cap. When global warming melted the ice in the future, it released them. The military are unable to support Dan without proof, so he asks James to use his para-military connections to transport an eight-man team to Severnaya Zemlya, in northern Russia, to search for evidence. There, they find an alien spaceship that crashed into an ice sheet centuries ago. Once inside, they realize that the White Spikes are actually bio-weapons created by another alien species. The alien crew was killed in the crash, but the White Spikes have survived in suspended animation. The team inject the toxin into the dormant creatures, instantly killing them, but the remaining ones awaken. Team members Dorian and Hart sacrifice themselves by manually detonating the alien ship and eliminating the remaining males. A female escapes, but Dan and James track it down and kill it, preventing the future war from occurring. Returning home, Dan introduces a young Muri to James.