In early April 1923, near the end of the Irish Civil War, on the fictional isle of Inisherin (lit. ' the island of Ireland '), fiddler Colm Doherty abruptly begins ignoring his lifelong best friend and drinking buddy Pádraic Súilleabháin. When a hurt Pádraic presses Colm for an explanation, he says that Pádraic is too dull, and he would rather spend the remainder of his life composing music and doing things for which he will be remembered. Pádraic is devastated and refuses to accept the situation, while Colm only becomes more resistant to his old friend's attempts to make amends, eventually giving Pádraic an ultimatum: every time Pádraic talks to him, Colm will cut off one of his own fingers. The local Garda, Peadar Kearney, beats his troubled son Dominic severely for drinking his poitín, and Pádraic and his sister, Siobhán, take Dominic in for a night. While delivering milk to the market, Pádraic is insulted by Peadar and retaliates by making public the fact that Peadar abuses his son. Peadar punches him to the ground. Having witnessed this, Colm drives Pádraic home; the two do not speak. Siobhán and Dominic try to defuse the pair's feud, to no avail. Pádraic drunkenly confronts Colm and berates him for throwing away their friendship, as well as for drinking with Peadar, whom he publicly accuses of molesting Dominic. After Siobhán leads Pádraic away, Colm says that this is the most interesting Pádraic has ever been, which Dominic overhears. The next morning, not remembering what he has said, Pádraic attempts to apologise to Colm, but the conversation goes badly. Colm responds by cutting off his left index finger and throwing it at Pádraic's door. Pádraic later sees Colm meeting with Declan, a fiddler from the mainland. Jealous, Pádraic tricks Declan into returning home by lying that his father was hit by a bread van. As the tensions worsen, local elder Mrs McCormick warns Pádraic that death will come to the island soon. Dominic tells Pádraic what Colm said about him in the pub; encouraged, Pádraic tells Dominic what he did to Declan, but Dominic, disappointed, rejects him as mean and refuses to speak to him anymore. Thereafter, Siobhán sympathetically rejects Dominic's romantic advances. Pádraic gets drunk and starts another confrontation with Colm at Colm's house; Colm says he has finished composing his song ("The Banshees of Inisherin") and seems finally open to renewing their friendship, but Pádraic drunkenly reveals what he did to Declan. Instead of meeting Pádraic at the pub, Colm cuts off all four of his remaining left fingers and throws them at Padraic's door. Fed up by the feud and long bored with life on the island, Siobhán moves to the mainland for a job in a library. Devastated, Pádraic comes home to find his pet donkey Jenny has choked to death on one of Colm's fingers. He confronts Colm at the pub; Colm offers a truce, but an embittered Pádraic informs him that he will burn his house down the next day at 2 pm. At the promised time the next day, Pádraic does so; he looks in a window and sees Colm calmly sitting inside. Pádraic takes Colm's dog Sammy with him to save him from the fire. Peadar watches Pádraic burn down the house, and as he rushes to Pádraic's house to confront him, he encounters Mrs McCormick, who leads Peadar to Dominic's corpse in the lake. After returning home, Pádraic writes a letter to Siobhán that says Jenny is doing well and glosses over his lonely, friendless life. The next morning, Pádraic takes Sammy back and finds Colm, who survived the fire, standing on the beach beside his burnt-out house. Colm apologises for the donkey's death and suggests destroying the house has ended their feud; Pádraic replies that it would have ended only if Colm had stayed inside. Colm wonders whether the Civil War is coming to an end; Pádraic replies he is sure the fighting will begin again soon because "some things there's no moving on from", adding that he thinks that is "a good thing" before leaving. Unbeknownst to either, Mrs McCormick silently watches them from the remains of Colm's house.

In an unnamed large city with multiple daily newspapers, star reporter Hildebrand "Hildy" Johnson and his Morning Post editor, Walter Burns, hope to cash in on a big story involving an escaped convicted murderer, Earl Williams. Williams is scheduled to go to the gallows at 7 o'clock the following morning for an anarchist-related murder of a black policeman. Esteemed newspaperman Johnson is about to quit the journalism trade and is on his way to marry his sweetheart Peggy Grant and relocate to New York City where an advertising job awaits him. Not surprisingly, his unscrupulous boss Burns does not want him to quit. He wants Johnson to remain on his staff so he can cover the major news story for the Morning Post. Although he is an avowed anarchist, it is revealed that Williams is likely an innocent man who has been wrongly convicted of the policeman's murder due to rising anti-red sentiments in his city. Accordingly, Burns will do anything to make sure Johnson works on that angle of the story — including delaying his wedding trip. Hours before Williams' scheduled execution, while being interviewed by an Austrian alienist and reenacting the murder, Williams manages to escape custody with the help of Sheriff Pinky Hartman's gun which the inept lawman had carelessly loaned to the doctor. With the assistance of Johnson and Burns, the newspapermen hide the fleeing Williams in a rolltop desk in a room usually occupied by a bevy of newspaper reporters gathered to cover Williams' execution. Johnson's soon-to-be mother-in-law, Mrs. Grant, sees Johnson and Burns hide Williams in the desk. To silence her, Burns has some of his cronies roughly escort her out of the building. Sheriff Hartman and the mayor of the city get a missive from the governor. It is a reprieve for Williams. However, Williams' execution would be a political boon for the two men in an upcoming election, so they refuse to accept it. Instead, they send the messenger away with a bribe and the address of a house of ill repute. Johnson's future mother-in-law eventually returns to the press room and Williams is found in the desk. The reporters all rush to call bulletins into their editors, each with widely varying and greatly exaggerated details about how the fugitive Williams was re-arrested. Johnson and Burns are about to be arrested by Sheriff Hartman for aiding a fleeing criminal and kidnapping Mrs. Grant when the messenger from the governor reappears. Saying he is happily married and his conscience cannot let him accept the bribe, he tells the reporters about the politicians' refusal to accept the governor's pardon for Williams. The politicians quickly agree to drop their charges against the reporters in exchange for them not mentioning their own wrongdoings in the newspapers. Despite offers of a promotion at the Morning Post from Burns, Johnson says he is retiring from the newspaper business to go on his wedding trip. Burns seems to accept Johnson's career decision gracefully, even giving Johnson his prized gold watch as a thank-you gift for his services as a star reporter for the Morning Post. However, moments after Johnson and Mary depart for the railroad station, Burns arranges for the police to arrest Johnson at the train's first stop on the pretense that Johnson has stolen his watch.

Howard Roark is an individualistic architect who follows his own artistic path in the face of public conformity. Ellsworth Toohey, the architecture critic for The Banner newspaper, opposes Roark's individualism and volunteers to lead a print crusade against him. Wealthy and influential publishing magnate Gail Wynand pays little attention, approving the idea and giving Toohey a free hand. Dominique Francon, a glamorous socialite who writes a Banner column, admires Roark's designs, and opposes the paper's campaign against him. She is engaged to an architect, the unimaginative Peter Keating (Kent Smith). She never has met or seen Roark, but she believes that he is doomed in a world that abhors individualism. Wynand falls in love with Francon and exposes Keating as an opportunist. Roark is unable to find a client willing to build according to his vision. He walks away from opportunities that involve any compromise of his standards. Broke, he takes a job as a day laborer in a quarry that belongs to Francon's father and is near the Francon summer home. The vacationing Francon visits the quarry on a whim and spots Roark, and they share a mutual attraction. Francon contrives to have Roark repair some white marble in her bedroom. Roark mocks her pretense, and after the first visit, he sends another worker to complete the repair. Francon is enraged and returns to the quarry on horseback. She finds Roark walking from the site. He again mocks her, and she strikes him across the face with her horsewhip. He later appears in her open bedroom, forcefully embracing and kissing her passionately. In his room, Roark finds a letter offering him a new building project. He immediately packs up and leaves. Francon later goes to the quarry and learns that Roark has quit. She does not know that he is Howard Roark, the brilliant architect whom she had once championed in print. Wynand offers to marry Francon, though she is not in love with him. Francon demurs and soon learns Roark's true identity when she is introduced to him at a party opening the Enright House, a new building that Roark has designed. Francon goes to Roark's apartment and offers to marry him if he gives up architecture, saving himself from public rejection. Roark rejects her fears and says that they will face many years apart until she alters her thinking. Francon finds Wynand and accepts his marriage proposal. Wynand agrees and commissions Roark to build him a lavish but secluded country home. Wynand and Roark become friends, which drives Francon to jealousy. Keating, employed to create an enormous housing project, requests Roark's help. Roark agrees, demanding that Keating must build it exactly as designed in exchange for permitting Keating to take all of the credit. With prodding from the envious Toohey, the firm backing the project alters the Roark design presented by Keating into a gingerbread monstrosity. Roark, with Francon's help, rigs explosives to destroy the buildings and is arrested at the site. Toohey pressures Keating into privately confessing that Roark had designed the project. Roark goes on trial and is painted as a public enemy by every newspaper apart from The Banner, in which Wynand now publicly campaigns on Roark's behalf. However, Toohey has permeated The Banner with men loyal to him. He has them quit and uses his clout to keep others out. He leads a campaign against The Banner ' s new policy that all but kills the newspaper. Faced with losing, Wynand saves The Banner by bringing back Toohey's gang, joining the rest in publicly condemning Roark. Calling no witnesses, Roark addresses the court on his own behalf. He makes a long speech defending his right to offer his own work on his own terms. He is found innocent of the charges against him. A guilt-stricken Wynand summons the architect and coldly presents him with a contract to design the Wynand Building, destined to become the greatest structure of all time, with complete freedom to build it however Roark sees fit. As soon as Roark leaves, Wynand pulls out a pistol and kills himself. Months later, Francon enters the construction site of the Wynand Building and identifies herself as Mrs. Roark. She rises in the open construction elevator, looking upward toward the figure of her husband. Roark stands triumphant, his arms akimbo, near the edge of the tall skyscraper as the crosswinds buffet him atop his magnificent, one-of-a-kind creation.

In 1855, Edward Pierce, a member of London 's high society, is secretly a master thief. He plans to steal a monthly shipment of gold from the London-to- Folkestone train that is meant as payment for British troops fighting in the Crimean War. Two heavy safes in the baggage car guard the gold, each of which has two locks, requiring a total of four keys. Pierce recruits pickpocket and screwsman Robert Agar. Pierce's mistress Miriam and his chauffeur Barlow join the plot, and train guard Burgess is bribed into participation. To hide the robbers' intentions, wax impressions are to be made of each of the keys. Pierce ingratiates himself with Edgar Trent, the bank's president, by feigning a shared interest in ratting. He also begins courting Trent's daughter, Elizabeth, and learns from her the location of her father's key. Pierce and Agar break into Trent's home at night, locate the key and make a wax impression before making a getaway. Pierce targets Henry Fowler, the bank's manager, through his weakness for prostitutes. Miriam poses as "Madame Lucienne", a courtesan in an exclusive bordello, meets with Fowler and asks him to undress, forcing him to remove the key worn round his neck. While Miriam distracts Fowler, Agar makes an impression of his key. Pierce then stages a phony police raid to rescue Miriam, forcing Fowler to flee to avoid a scandal. The two remaining keys are locked in a cabinet at the offices of the South Eastern Railway at the London Bridge railway station. After a daytime diversionary tactic with a child pickpocket fails, Pierce decides to try again at night. The officer guarding the railway office at night leaves his post only once, for seventy-five seconds, to go to the toilet. Pierce plans to use cat burglar Clean Willy to climb the station's wall, climb down into the station, enter the office via a skylight in the ceiling, and open the key cabinet from within. Because Clean Willy is incarcerated at Newgate Prison, Pierce and Agar first have to arrange for him to break out, using a public execution as a distraction. With Willy's help, the criminals make impressions of the keys without detection. Clean Willy is subsequently arrested after being caught pick-pocketing and informs on Pierce. The police use Willy to lure Pierce into a trap, but the latter eludes capture. Clean Willy escapes from his captors, but Pierce finds him in a bar and murders him. The authorities, now aware of the upcoming robbery, increase security by having the baggage car padlocked from the outside until the train arrives at its destination and forbidding anyone but the guard to travel in the baggage van. Any container large enough to hold a man must be opened and inspected before it is loaded on the train. Pierce smuggles Agar into the baggage car disguised as a corpse in a coffin. Pierce plans to reach the car across the coach roofs while the train is under way, but he and Miriam encounter Fowler, who is riding the train to Folkestone to accompany the shipment. After arranging for Miriam to travel in the same compartment as Fowler to distract him, Pierce travels down the roof of the train and unlocks the baggage van's door from the outside. He and Agar replace the gold with lead bars and toss the bags of gold off the train at a prearranged point. However, soot from the engine's smoke has stained Pierce's skin and clothes, and he is forced to borrow Agar's suit, which is much too small for him. The jacket splits across the back when he disembarks at Folkestone. The police become suspicious and arrest him before he can rejoin his accomplices. Pierce is put on trial for the robbery. While exiting the courthouse, he receives the adulation of the crowds, who consider him a folk hero for his daring act. In the commotion, a disguised Miriam kisses him, slipping a key to his handcuffs from her mouth to his. Agar is also present, disguised as a police van driver. Before he can be put into the wagon, Pierce frees himself and escapes with Agar, to the jubilation of the crowd and the chagrin of the police.

In 1980, the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz departs Naval Station Pearl Harbor for naval exercises in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The ship takes on a civilian observer, Warren Lasky — a systems analyst for Tideman Industries working as an efficiency expert for the U.S. Department of Defense — on the orders of his reclusive employer, Mr. Tideman, whose secretive major defense contractor company designed and built the nuclear-powered warship. Once at sea, the Nimitz encounters a mysterious electrically-charged vortex. While the ship passes through it, radar and other equipment become unresponsive. Unsure of what happened to them and without radio contact with U.S. Pacific Fleet Command at Pearl Harbor, Captain Yelland, commander of the aircraft carrier, fears there may have been a nuclear strike on Hawaii or the continental United States. He orders general quarters and launches a RF-8 Crusader reconnaissance aircraft. The aircraft photographs Pearl Harbor, revealing an intact row of U.S. Pacific fleet battleships, of which several were destroyed during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. When a surface contact is spotted on radar, Yelland launches two ready alert Grumman F-14 Tomcat fighter jets from VF-84 to intercept. The patrol witnesses the sinking of a civilian yacht by two Imperial Japanese Navy Mitsubishi A6M "Zero" fighters. The F-14s are ordered to drive off the Zeros without firing, but when the Zeros inadvertently head towards the Nimitz, Yelland gives clearance to shoot them down. The Nimitz rescues survivors from the yacht: U.S. Senator Samuel Chapman, his aide Laurel Scott, her dog Charlie, and one of the two downed Zero pilots. Commander Owens, an amateur historian, recognizes Chapman as a politician who could have been Franklin D. Roosevelt 's running mate (and potential successor) during his final re-election bid, had Chapman not disappeared shortly before the Pearl Harbor attack. When a Grumman E-2 Hawkeye scouting aircraft discovers the Japanese fleet task force poised to launch its attack on Pearl Harbor, the Nimitz crew realizes they've been transported in time to the day before the attack. Yelland has to decide whether to destroy the Japanese fleet and alter the course of history or to stand by and allow history to proceed as they know it. The American civilians and the Zero pilot are kept isolated. While being questioned, the Japanese pilot takes an M-16 rifle from one of the guards, kills two U.S. Marine guards, and takes Scott, Owens, and Lasky hostage. He demands access to a radio to warn the Japanese fleet about the Nimitz. Lasky tells Commander Owens to recite the secret plans for the Japanese attack; the dumbfounded Japanese pilot is overcome, shot, and killed by the other U.S. Marines. In the aftermath, Scott and Owens develop an attraction for each other. Chapman is outraged that Yelland hasn't told anyone about the impending Japanese attack, and rebuffs Yelland's claim that the Nimitz is capable of handling any attack. An attempt to warn Pearl Harbor by radio fails when the Navy considers it a prank. Chapman demands to be taken to Pearl Harbor to warn the naval authorities in person. Yelland agrees in front of Chapman, but then orders Owens to fly the civilians and sufficient supplies via helicopter to an isolated Hawaiian island (Niʻihau), assuming they will eventually be rescued. When they arrive, Chapman realizes he has been tricked and uses a flare gun to force the pilot to fly to Pearl Harbor. During a struggle with another crew member, the flare gun discharges, destroying the craft and stranding Scott and Owens on the island. The Nimitz launches a strike force against the Japanese fleet, but the time vortex returns. After a futile attempt to outrun the storm, Yelland recalls the strike force, and the ship and its aircraft return to 1980, leaving the future relatively unchanged. Upon the return of the Nimitz to Pearl Harbor, Pacific Fleet admirals board the ship to investigate its unexplained disappearance. Lasky leaves the ship with Scott's dog, Charlie, and encounters the mysterious Mr. Tideman, whom he recognizes as a much older Owens. He and his wife, Laurel Scott, invite Lasky to join them as they have "a lot to talk about".

During the second year of the Iraq War, a U.S. Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal team with Bravo Company identifies and attempts to destroy an improvised explosive device (IED) with a robot, but the wagon carrying the trigger charge breaks. Team leader Staff Sergeant Matthew Thompson places the charge by hand, but is killed when an Iraqi insurgent uses a cell phone to detonate the charge. Squadmate Specialist Owen Eldridge feels guilty for failing to kill the man with the phone. Sergeant First Class William James replaces Thompson. He is often at odds with Sergeant J. T. Sanborn because he prefers to defuse devices by hand and does not communicate his plans. He blocks Sanborn's view with smoke grenades as he approaches an IED and defuses it only moments before an Iraqi insurgent attempts to detonate it with a 9-volt battery. In another incident, James insists on disarming a complex car bomb despite Sanborn's protests that it is taking too long; James responds by taking off his headset and flipping off Sanborn. Sanborn is so worried by his conduct that he openly suggests fragging James to Eldridge while they are exploding unused ordnance outside of base. On their return to base, they encounter five armed men in Iraqi garb by an SUV which has a flat tire. After a tense encounter, James learns they are friendly British private military contractors. While fixing the tire, they come under sniper fire. Three of the contractors are killed before James and Sanborn take over counter-sniping, killing three insurgents. Eldridge kills the fourth who attempts to flank their position. During a raid on a warehouse, James discovers a " body bomb " he believes is Beckham, an Iraqi boy who sells DVDs and plays soccer outside of base. During the evacuation, Lieutenant Colonel John Cambridge, the camp's psychiatrist and Eldridge's counselor, is killed in an explosion; Eldridge is further traumatized. James sneaks off base with Beckham's apparent associate at gunpoint, telling him to take him to Beckham's home. He is left at the home of an unrelated Iraqi professor, and James flees. Called to a tanker truck detonation, James decides to hunt for the insurgents responsible nearby. Sanborn protests, but when James begins a pursuit, he and Eldridge follow. After they split up, insurgents capture Eldridge. James and Sanborn rescue him, although Eldridge is shot in the leg. The following morning, James is approached by Beckham, alive and well, whom James ignores and walks by silently. Before being airlifted for surgery, Eldridge angrily blames James for his wound. The day before their deployment ends, they are called to disarm a bomb vest strapped to a man against his will. James cannot cut the locks off before the timer expires, and they are forced to abandon the man. Sanborn is distraught at the near-death experience, and lamenting that no one other than his parents would have been sad at his death, tells James that he wishes to leave the service in order to have a son. After Bravo Company's rotation ends, James returns to his ex-wife Connie and their infant son. However, he is unfulfilled by routine civilian life at home. James confesses to his son there is only one thing he knows he loves. He starts another year-long tour of duty with Delta Company.

The story opens in 2010, with the release of the Afghan War Logs. It then flashes back to 2007, where journalist Daniel Domscheit-Berg meets Australian journalist Julian Assange for the first time, at the Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin. Daniel's interest in online activism has led him to Assange, with whom he has corresponded by email. They begin working together on WikiLeaks, a website devoted to releasing information being withheld from the public while retaining anonymity for its sources. Their first major target is a private Swiss bank, Julius Baer, whose Cayman Islands branch has been engaged in illegal activities. Despite Baer's filing of a lawsuit and obtaining an injunction, the judge dissolves the injunction, allowing Julian and Daniel to reclaim the domain name. As their confidence increases, the two push forward in publishing information over the next three years, including secrets on Scientology, revealing Sarah Palin's email account, and the membership list of the British National Party. At first Daniel enjoys changing the world, viewing WikiLeaks as a noble enterprise and Assange as a mentor. However, the relationship between the two becomes strained over time. Daniel loses his job and problems arise in his relationship, particularly concerning the BNP membership leak, which also revealed the addresses of the people involved, and caused several to lose their jobs. Assange openly mocks Daniel's concerns about these issues, implying his own life has been more troubling. Assange's abrasive manner and actions, such as abandoning Daniel at his parents' house after having accepted their dinner invitation, only deepen the strain further. Interspersed throughout the film are flashbacks hinting at Assange's troubled childhood and involvement in a suspicious cult, and that Assange's obsession with WikiLeaks has more to do with childhood trauma than wanting to improve the world. Daniel begins to fear that Assange may be closer to a con man than a mentor. He also notices that Assange constantly gives different stories about why his hair is white. Assange at first tells Daniel that WikiLeaks has hundreds of workers, but Daniel later finds out that Daniel and Assange are the only members. Most importantly to Daniel, Assange frequently says that protecting sources is the website's number one goal. However, Daniel begins to suspect that Assange only cares about protecting sources so people will come forward and that Assange does not actually care who gets hurt by the website, though Assange says that the harm the website may cause is outweighed by good the leaks create. Daniel's girlfriend tells him that she believes in his cause, but that it's his job to prevent Assange from going too far. The tensions come to a head when Bradley Manning (later known as Chelsea Manning) leaks hundreds of thousands of documents to WikiLeaks, including the "Collateral Murder" video of an airstrike in Baghdad, the Afghan and Iraq War Logs, and 250,000 US Diplomatic Cables. Assange wants to leak the documents immediately, but Daniel insists that they review the documents first. Later, several major newspapers agree to cooperate with WikiLeaks in releasing the documents while spinning WikiLeaks positively. However, both Daniel and the newspapers require the names in the documents be redacted both to protect sources and to assist in the media spin, to which Assange reluctantly agrees. Daniel realizes that Assange has no intention of following through on this promise and is grooming a right-hand man to replace Daniel. The newspapers release the redacted documents. The resulting media and public uproar forces informants to flee from their countries of residence and many U.S. diplomats to resign. Before Assange can go further, however, Daniel and the other members of the original WikiLeaks team delete the site and block Assange's access to the server. Daniel later talks with a reporter from The Guardian, and the two fear that giving Assange such a large platform was a mistake. The reporter tells Daniel that while Assange may be untrustworthy, he had done a good thing by uncovering secret dealing in the government and business world and attempting to protect sources. Daniel also reveals the real reason for Assange's hair colour—that it had been a custom of the cult he had been part of in Australia—and reports that he once accidentally discovered Assange dyeing it that colour. It is revealed that WikiLeaks is continuing to leak information (with Assange implied to have either regained the site or rebuilt it), and the Manning documents were released with no redactions. Daniel has written a book on his involvement with the organization on which this film was based, and Assange has threatened to sue in retaliation. Assange is shown to be living in the Ecuadorian embassy in London to avoid arrest on an outstanding warrant for alleged sex crimes. In an interview, he denounces the two upcoming WikiLeaks films, stating that they will be factually inaccurate (having been partly based on Daniel's book). He says that all institutions are fallible but that hiring Daniel was the one mistake he made.

Jane, an operative for private intelligence firm Hiller Brood, is assigned by her boss, Sharon, to infiltrate The East, an underground activist, anarchist and environmentalist organization that has launched a vandalistic attack against a corporate leader and threatens two more as retribution for ecological crimes. Calling herself Sarah, she joins drifters in hitching train rides. When one drifter, Luca, helps her escape from the police, she identifies the symbol of The East hanging from Luca's car mirror. Sarah self-inflicts an arm injury that she tells Luca was caused in the escape so he can get her medical attention. He takes her to a seemingly abandoned house in the woods where members of The East live and one of them, Doc, treats her. Sarah is given two nights to recover before she must leave. At an elaborate dinner involving straitjackets, Sarah is tested and fails, exposing how selfishly she and many others live their lives. Sarah is caught spying one night by Eve (a group member who is deaf) and signs to her she is an undercover agent, threatening Eve with jail if she stays; Eve leaves the next morning. Sarah is recruited to fill the missing member's role on a " jam ", a term for protest by subversive means. Sarah reluctantly participates in The East's next jam and learns that the group's members have all been damaged by corporate activities. For example, Doc was poisoned by a fluoroquinolone antibiotic and his neurosystem is degenerating. The East infiltrates a party for the antibiotic company's senior executives and adds the antibiotic to the champagne. The East announce this via YouTube: one executive's health begins to fail, revealing the drug's side effects. After seeing the jam's effectiveness, compounded by her attraction to charismatic Benji, Sarah questions the morality of her job. Another member, Izzy, is the daughter of a petrochemical CEO. The group uses this connection to gain access to him and forces him to bathe in the waterway he has been using as a toxic dumping ground. This goes wrong when security arrives and shoots the fleeing Izzy. At the squat, Doc's hands tremble too much for him to perform surgery. Working under his guidance, Sarah manages to remove the bullet but Izzy dies. This is the catalyst for Sarah and Benji's romance and they have sex. Sarah implores Benji to leave, but he insists they participate in a fourth and final jam. Sarah initially refuses but gives in. When she awakens after sleeping in the car, she realizes that Benji is driving her to Hiller Brood's headquarters. He reveals that he has always suspected her of being a spy, as did Luca, who brought her in as a test. Benji wants Sarah to obtain a non-official cover (NOC: unofficial espionage agents) global list of Hiller Brood agents, to "watch" them. Having copied the list onto her cell phone's memory card, Sarah runs into Sharon and confronts her about the firm's activities, revealing her new allegiances. Sharon has Sarah's cellphone confiscated as she leaves. As Hiller Brood had been sharing information with the FBI, The East's hideout is raided and Doc is arrested but sacrifices himself to ensure that the remaining members can escape. Sarah tells Benji she has failed to get the NOC list, which Benji reveals he meant to use to expose the undercover agents, even though that meant they could be killed. Sarah chooses not to go on the run and they part as Benji heads out of the country. In truth, Sarah still has the list because she had swallowed the memory card. The film ends with an epilogue of her contacting her undercover former coworkers and informing them of the corporate crimes Hiller Brood's clients want to protect, peacefully furthering The East's goals.

Jim Bennett is a Los Angeles literature professor who uses gambling as a way of self-destruction. He ends up owing $260,000 to Lee, the proprietor of an exclusive, high-stakes underground gambling ring, and another $50,000 to Neville Baraka, a loan shark. Lee gives Jim seven days to pay off his debts or be murdered. During one of his classes, Jim begins an awkward discussion of literary excellence using Shakespeare as an example, arguing how almost all aspiring writers fail to accomplish literary excellence. He singles out exemplary athletes in his class for discussion, including Dexter, an emerging tennis star. Jim later confronts a collegiate basketball star, Lamar Allen, who pays no attention in class but intends to play in the NBA. Jim expresses his extremist view on achieving excellence in one's field or vocation: if you cannot be exemplary, he reasons, then you might as well not try. He tells them that only Amy Phillips, a quiet student, is capable of a career in literature. He identifies her as a potential writing prodigy based on her work in his class, as well as having previously encountered her working secretly as a waitress at the underground gambling house. They develop a mutual interest in each other. After class, Jim visits his mother Roberta at the family's luxury estate, but she says that she will not give him any more money. Jim considers borrowing money from Frank, another loan shark, to consolidate his debts and buy himself some time, but refuses to do so when Frank first demands Jim admit, "I am not a man." Jim convinces Roberta to give him enough to pay off his debts, expressing no gratitude, then gambles it all away in a casino with Amy. Neville kidnaps Jim, has him tied up and tortured, confronting him with an ultimatum —convince Lamar to win his college basketball semifinal by seven points or less, or he will kill Amy. Jim goes to Frank, who advises him to change his version of a "fuck you" attitude towards life by getting enough money to build a safe house and make reliable low yield investments for protection against his severe gambling losses. Frank lends him $260,000 to pay his debt to Lee but also threatens to kill everyone in Jim's personal life if he is not repaid. Lee's men assault Jim when he comes to ask Lee to stake him $150,000, saying the only way he can pay the full $410,000 debt to Lee and Frank is to gamble and win. Jim uses the $150,000 to bribe Lamar into doing the point shaving. He sends Dexter to Las Vegas to bet on the game with the $260,000 he got from Frank. Lamar succeeds, so Jim uses his winnings to pay his debt to Neville, denying he knows anything about the large bet made in Vegas. Jim then convinces both Lee and Frank to meet him in a neutral gambling den, where he wagers enough money to pay both men off—if he wins—on a single roulette spin. Successful, he leaves the money at the club for Lee and Frank saying, "I am not a gambler." The payment to Frank is more than he owed; Frank finds Jim and offers to give back the "cream", but to Frank's amusement, Jim responds "Fuck you." On an apparent adrenaline rush, Jim runs miles through the city to arrive at Amy's apartment; he is broke, but free from debt.

Lucas is a member of a close-knit rural Danish community and works at a local kindergarten, where he gets along well with the children. He misses his teenage son, Marcus, who lives with his ex-wife after their recent divorce. However, Lucas' fortune seems to take a turn after Marcus states he would prefer to live with his father and Lucas starts dating Nadja, a co-worker at the kindergarten. Klara, the daughter of Lucas' best friend Theo and a pupil at the kindergarten, has a tendency to wander off on her own when her parents argue; Lucas occasionally happens upon her when she is alone and helps her out. He accommodates her aversion to stepping on cracks and says she can walk his dog, Fanny, whenever she wants. Over time, Klara develops a crush on Lucas; when she kisses him on the mouth and gives him a small gift, he gently rebuffs her, leaving her dejected. Using details from a pornographic picture shown to her by her older brother's friend, Klara makes comments that lead Grethe, the director of the kindergarten, to believe Lucas indecently exposed himself to her. Grethe informs Lucas of the allegation but is unable to tell him of the details; she then invites an acquaintance to interview Klara, and after she nods in response to the man's leading questions, Grethe, who does not believe that children lie about such things, alerts the authorities and informs the parents of the children who attend the kindergarten. Klara later contradicts her initial story, but the adults see this as stemming from denial of her ordeal. Lucas subsequently loses his job, his friendship with Theo, and is shunned by the community. Due to the vague language used and the secrecy around the investigation, he does not know specifically what he is accused of, but eventually hears he may have been accused of abusing multiple children. The strain of this revelation leads him to end his relationship with Nadja, as Lucas believes she doubts his innocence. Marcus runs away from his mother to be with Lucas. After a trip to the grocery store, where he is told that neither he nor his father are welcome, he sees Lucas being arrested by the police. Locked out of the house, Marcus goes to ask Theo for a spare key but ends up fighting with several adults for confronting Klara, having asked why she lied about his father. He is taken in by Bruun, one of Lucas' friends who believes him to be innocent. Bruun tells Marcus that Lucas has a hearing in the morning and he is hopeful the case against him will be dropped, since he has heard that the fabricated accounts of many children mention a "basement" in Lucas' house, which does not have one. Lucas is released from custody and reunites with Marcus. An unseen man murders Lucas' dog, Fanny, and throws a large stone through his window. Lucas sends Marcus back to his ex-wife for his safety and buries his dog. While shopping for groceries on Christmas Eve, the staff assault Lucas and throw him out; however, the latter returns and headbutts the butcher to get his groceries back. Theo and his wife notice Lucas limp out of the store, bleeding from his head. During a Christmas church service, Lucas attacks Theo in front of the congregation and challenges him to look in his eyes for a sign he is lying about his innocence; Theo had previously stated he "could always tell" if Lucas was lying. When Theo visits Klara in her bedroom that night, she admits that Lucas did not do anything bad to her. Theo then brings Lucas food and alcohol, as the two men sit together and talk. By the next fall, tensions in the community seem all but gone, Lucas's friends greet him as before, and he and Nadja have reconciled. Marcus receives his first rifle at a ceremony at Bruun's house. Afterwards, Lucas and Klara reunite and he carries her in his arms so she can avoid stepping on cracks. The adult men go hunting on the surrounding estate; when Lucas is by himself, a bullet barely misses him and hits a tree. He turns and watches as the shooter, silhouetted against the sun, reloads his rifle and points it at Lucas for a moment before fleeing. Lucas, shaken, stands in silence.

While driving through the Alps, thief Roger Beckerman is murdered by the local Mafia and his body disposed of in the river below. In the United Kingdom, his friend and fellow thief, Charlie Croker, is released from prison. After reuniting with his girlfriend, Lorna, to celebrate his freedom, Croker goes to meet Beckerman to discuss a heist, but is shocked to find only his widow. She insists that Croker continue with Beckerman's final masterpiece: an ambitious heist of $4 million in gold bullion, from a convoy transport in the city of Turin, Italy. Croker breaks back into prison to request financial backing from British nationalist crime lord Mr. Bridger. Initially unconvinced, Bridger soon offers support after confirming the scheme's potential. With Bridger's right-hand man, Camp Freddie, Croker recruits a crew of specialists, including Lorna, professional drivers, and lecherous computer expert Professor Simon Peach. With preparations complete, Bridger stages a funeral ceremony to meet the team in person. He discloses that the Mafia are expecting them, as they killed Beckerman over his planned heist and see the prospect of foreigners stealing Italian gold as an insult to their pride. Travelling through the Alps, Croker splits the team up to avoid raising suspicion. However, Croker's group are confronted by Mafia boss Altabani and his men, who destroy their backup escape cars and warn against continuing the plan. Croker and his men narrowly avoid being killed by threatening Bridger's reprisal against Italians living in the United Kingdom. Undeterred, the team continue to Turin. That night, the team infiltrate the Turin traffic control centre and Peach replaces a magnetic-tape data storage reel with a duplicate designed to sabotage the traffic control system. On the day of the heist, as the gold arrives at Turin airport, Croker sends Lorna to Geneva to keep her safe, promising to meet her there later. Meanwhile, Peach is arrested for molesting a woman on a tram. The convoy begins its journey through Turin, followed by Altabani. One of Croker's men sabotages the city's CCTV surveillance while the traffic control system malfunctions, disabling traffic lights and causing city-wide traffic jams that eventually force the convoy to stop outside the Museo Egizio. The crew intercept the convoy, subdue its police escort, and tow the armoured van carrying the gold into a building. While police ram the door, the crew breach the van and divide the gold between the boots of three Mini Coopers. The remaining crew escape disguised as British football fans, while Croker leads the Mini Cooper drivers out of the city, evading the police and the Mafia using an ingenious route designed by Beckerman that avoids the stalled traffic by taking them over stairs, pedestrian streets, rooftops, and through sewers. Mr. Bridger receives word of the successful heist and celebrates with his fellow inmates and prison staff, as the crew escapes Turin and conceals the Minis in the back of a modified coach. Driving through the Alps, they unload the gold and dispose of the Minis before collecting the remaining crew. During a reckless celebration, the coach driver loses control of the vehicle, resulting in the rear of the coach teetering precariously over a cliff. The crew stands at the front of the coach in an attempt to counterbalance the weight of the gold at the rear. Croker slowly crawls towards the gold which slides ever further from him. Finally, he turns to the crew and declares: "Hang on a minute lads. I've got a great idea."

Navin Johnson, a homeless person sleeping in a stairwell in Los Angeles, addresses the camera directly to tell his life story. The white adopted son of black sharecroppers in Mississippi, Navin grows to adulthood naïvely unaware of these circumstances. He is unable to dance in rhythm to the spirited folk songs played by the family, but finds that he can do so perfectly to a champagne-style song on the radio. Seeing this moment as a calling, he excitedly decides to leave home and travel to St. Louis, where the broadcast originated. Along the way, he adopts a dog and names it "Shithead" after angering the guests at a motel by waking them up in the middle of the night, having misinterpreted the dog's barking at his door as a warning of a fire. Navin finds a job as a gas station attendant, where he attempts to detain some thieves but accidentally destroys a nearby church. Later, a madman chooses his name at random from the telephone book and decides to kill him. As the gunman waits for an opportunity, Navin solders a brace to a customer's eyeglasses to stop them from slipping down his nose. The customer, Stan Fox, is an inventor who promises to try to market the device and split any profits with Navin. The gunman opens fire at Navin but misses, and Navin flees to the grounds of a traveling carnival. Navin is hired as a weight guesser and is brusquely seduced by Patty Bernstein, an intimidating daredevil motorcyclist. Later, while operating a miniature railway, he meets a cosmetologist named Marie Kimble and arranges a date with her. When a jealous Patty interrupts and starts to beat Navin, Marie easily knocks her unconscious. The two begin a relationship, and Navin decides to ask Marie to marry him. Before he can do so, though, she leaves him because he cannot provide financial security. Devastated, Navin takes Shithead and travels to Los Angeles. There, the gunman who tried to kill him—now sane and working as a private investigator —tracks him down and gives him a letter from Stan requesting a meeting. Stan has been able to market Navin's device, now branded as the Opti-Grab, and gives him a check for $250,000 as the first installment on his share of the profits. Navin finds and marries Marie, and the two adopt a life of extravagant spending as his wealth continues to grow. However, Navin is soon named as defendant in a class action lawsuit brought by director Carl Reiner and millions of other Opti-Grab customers who have become permanently cross-eyed after using the device. Navin loses the suit and is ordered to pay $10 million in damages, leaving him broke, and he storms out into the street after an argument with Marie. Having finished his story, Navin resigns himself to living in poverty, only to be found by his adoptive family, who have brought Marie and Shithead with them. The family has become wealthy by investing the money Navin sent them from time to time, and they take him and Marie home to live in their new house, which is nearly identical to their old shack but larger and sturdier. Once again Navin dances on the porch to folk songs, this time with perfect rhythm.