Dr. Lawrence Angelo, a scientist at Virtual Space Industries (VSI), conducts experiments using psychoactive drugs and virtual reality to enhance cognitive performance in a program called "Project 5". Although Angelo's intentions are benevolent, VSI is funded by "The Shop", a clandestine organization seeking military applications for his research. One of his test subjects, a chimpanzee named Rosco, gains enhanced intelligence, warfare training, and increased aggression; he eventually escapes but is killed by the laboratory's security forces. In response, Angelo decides to recruit Jobe Smith, an intellectually disabled gardener, as a new test subject, promising him increased intelligence. Angelo redesigns the treatments to eliminate the "aggression factors" used in the chimpanzee experiments. Not only does Jobe's intelligence improve, but he also develops psychokinesis and telepathy. He continues his training at the lab until an accident forces Angelo to halt the experiment. Sebastian Timms, the project director, monitors the progress and secretly replaces Angelo's new medications with the original Project 5 formula. When Jobe invites his new lover Marnie to the lab for cybersex, he accidentally lobotomizes her. Undeterred, Jobe continues the treatments on his own and begins killing those who mistreated him in the past, as well as Harold Parkette, the abusive father of his 10-year-old friend, Peter. Angelo discovers the drug switch and confronts Jobe, who captures him and reveals his plan to achieve the ultimate stage of evolution by transforming into a being of "pure energy" within the VSI computer mainframe, intending to connect to all the world's computer systems. Jobe vows that his "birth" will be signaled by every phone on Earth ringing simultaneously. The Shop sends a team to capture Jobe, but he uses his newfound abilities to destroy them. Jobe then enters the VSI mainframe, abandoning his physical body and becoming a digital being. Angelo remotely accesses the VSI computer, encrypting its connections to the outside world, thereby trapping Jobe in the mainframe. As Jobe frantically searches for an unencrypted network, Angelo sets bombs to destroy the building. Feeling responsible for Jobe's fate, Angelo enters virtual reality, attempting to reason with him one last time, even if it means dying together. Jobe overpowers Angelo, crucifying his digital form. When Peter enters the building, Jobe realizes the boy is in danger from the bombs. Out of lingering care for Peter, Jobe allows Angelo to escape the mainframe to save the child. Jobe himself escapes through a maintenance line just before the building explodes. Later, Angelo is at home with Peter and his mother, Carla, when the telephone rings. Soon, another phone rings, followed by phones ringing worldwide—Jobe's signal that he has succeeded.

On July 2, 1996, an extraterrestrial mothership, entering Earth's orbit outside the Moon, deploys its flying saucers, each 15 mi (24 km) in diameter, over major cities worldwide. U.S. Marine Captain Steven Hiller and his unit, the Black Knights fighter squadron stationed out of MCAS El Toro, are called back from Independence Day leave; his girlfriend, Jasmine Dubrow, decides to flee Los Angeles with her son, Dylan. Retired combat pilot Russell Casse, now an alcoholic single father and crop duster, sees this as vindication of the alien abduction he has been claiming for 10 years. In New York City, technician David Levinson decodes a signal embedded within global satellite transmissions, realizing it is the aliens' countdown for a coordinated attack. Aided by his ex-wife, White House Communications Director Constance Spano, David and his father Julius reach the Oval Office in Washington, D.C. and alert President Thomas Whitmore. Whitmore orders evacuations of Los Angeles, New York City, and the District of Columbia, but it is too late. Each saucer fires a beam, incinerating every targeted city, killing millions. Whitmore, the Levinsons, and a few others barely escape aboard Air Force One while Jasmine, Dylan, and their dog Boomer take shelter in a tunnel's inspection alcove and escape the destruction of Los Angeles. On July 3, Earth's military retaliations against the invaders are thwarted by the alien warships' force fields. Each saucer launches shielded fighters, devastating the human fighter squadrons and military bases, including Steven's. Steven lures one fighter into the Grand Canyon before ejecting from his plane, blinding the fighter using his parachute and causing it to crash in the Mojave Desert. He subdues the downed alien and flags down the convoy of refugees Russel joined with, transporting the alien to Area 51, where Whitmore's plane has landed. U.S. Defense Secretary Albert Nimziki reveals that a government faction has been involved in a UFO conspiracy since 1947, when one of the invaders' fighters crashed near Roswell, New Mexico. Area 51 houses the refurbished ship and three alien corpses from the crash. Chief scientist Dr. Brackish Okun examines the alien captured by Steven, which awakens, telepathically invades Okun's mind, and psychically attacks Whitmore before the alien is killed by Secret Service agents and military personnel. Whitmore learns the invaders' plan from the psychic attack; they intend to annihilate Earth's inhabitants while harvesting its natural resources, as they have done to other civilizations. Whitmore reluctantly authorizes a trial nuclear attack against a saucer above an evacuated Houston, but while Houston is destroyed, the saucer's force field protects it from the blast. All subsequent nuclear attacks are aborted. Jasmine and Dylan, having commandeered a highway maintenance truck and rescued several survivors, including the badly injured First Lady, Marilyn Whitmore, reunite with Steven who takes them to Area 51, where Marilyn succumbs to her injuries after reuniting with her own family. On July 4, inspired by Julius, David devises a plan to write a computer virus on his laptop and, using the refurbished fighter to dock with it, upload the virus into the mothership's operating system to disable the alien's shields, then using a tactical nuclear weapon to destroy the mothership. Steven volunteers as the mission's pilot, and the U.S. military contacts the remaining airborne squadrons through Morse code to organize a united counterattack. Lacking pilots, Whitmore and General William Grey enlist volunteers with flight experience, including Russell, to fly the remaining jets. Steven marries Jasmine, with David and Constance present, during which the divorced pair reconciles before Steven and David leave on the mission. Entering the mothership, they upload the virus. With the shields down, Whitmore's squadron engages a saucer targeting the Area 51 base. They exhaust their ammunition, and as the saucer readies to fire, Russell sacrifices himself by crashing into its primary weapon, destroying the saucer. Grey orders notifications to resistance groups worldwide about the saucers' critical weakness, leading to their destruction. Steven and David launch the nuclear missile and narrowly escape the destruction of the mothership and all the aliens in it. As humanity celebrates its victory against the aliens, Steven and David are rescued after surviving the crash, and are reunited with their families.

Sometime in the 23rd century... the survivors of war, overpopulation and pollution are living in a great domed city, sealed away from the forgotten world outside. Here, in an ecologically balanced world, mankind lives only for pleasure, freed by the servo-mechanisms which provide everything. There's just one catch: Life must end at thirty unless reborn in the fiery ritual of carrousel. In the year of the city 2274, the remnants of human civilization live in a sealed city beneath a cluster of geodesic domes, a utopia run by computer. The citizens live a hedonistic lifestyle, but when they turn 30 must enter the "Carrousel", a public ritual that destroys their bodies, under the pretense they would be "Renewed" or reborn. Each person has embedded in their hand a "life-clock" crystal that changes color as they age, up to their "Last Day". Residents who attempt to flee the city are known as "Runners", and the team of huntsmen known as " Sandmen " are tasked to pursue and terminate them. Sandmen Logan 5 and Francis 7 attend a Carrousel ceremony until they are called to terminate a nearby Runner. Logan finds a pendant symbol among the Runner's possessions. That evening, Logan meets with Jessica 6, a young woman wearing the same symbol. Logan learns from the computer that the symbol is an ankh and related to a place called "Sanctuary", which the Runners appear to be seeking. There are 1,056 Runners not accounted for. The computer orders Logan to find the Sanctuary and destroy it, but must keep this mission secret from the other Sandmen. The computer changes the color of Logan's crystal to flashing red, essentially cutting his life span by four years and close to Last Day, but it does not respond when Logan questions whether he would get his years restored afterward. Logan tells Jessica he intends to be a Runner. In the Cathedral Plaza area, after they confront some hostile youths, Logan tries to help an escaping woman Runner there, but she is killed by Francis, who now considers Logan an enemy. After unsuccessfully trying facial cosmetic surgery, and evading Francis in a sex club, Logan and Jessica meet the underground group, who direct them towards the city gate. Near the surface, they encounter and defeat Box, a robot who was originally designed to capture and freeze marine life for city food, but has since frozen any Runners who have made it that far. Logan and Jessica escape the city, discovering that out of the computer's influence their crystals are now clear-colored. They enter the abandoned overgrown city that was once Washington, D.C. In the ruins of the United States Senate chamber, they encounter an elderly man living with many cats. The man shares what he knows about his life, including that he had biological parents. Logan realizes that Sanctuary does not physically exist, only the idea and concept to give people hope exists. Francis has followed them; he and Logan fight until Francis is mortally wounded. Logan, Jessica and the old man head back to the dome city, but the old man stays outside, while the two re-enter through the underwater tunnels. They shout at the people to stop entering the Carrousel but no one listens to them, and the two are subsequently captured. The computer overloads after scanning Logan's brain multiple times and only getting the message "there is no Sanctuary". Logan is freed and shoots the computer; the whole facility self-destructs and falls violently, causing everyone to panic and flee. Once outside, the people gather round an artificial waterfall pool and meet the old man.

In AD 932, King Arthur and his squire Patsy, who bangs coconut shells together as Arthur mimes riding a horse, travel Britain searching for men to join the Knights of the Round Table. Along the way, Arthur debates whether swallows could carry coconuts, passes through a town infected with a plague, recounts receiving Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake to two anarcho-syndicalist peasants, and defeats the Black Knight. At an impromptu witch trial, he recruits Sir Bedevere the Wise, later joined by Sir Lancelot the Brave, Sir Galahad the Pure, Sir Robin the Not-Quite-So-Brave-as-Sir-Lancelot, and the aptly named Sir Not-Appearing-in-this-Film, along with their squires and Robin's minstrels. Arthur leads the knights to Camelot, but changes his mind after the knights in the castle perform a musical number, deeming it "a silly place". God then appears and orders Arthur to find the Holy Grail. Arthur and his knights arrive at a castle occupied by French soldiers, who claim to have the Grail and taunt the Britons, driving them back with a barrage of barnyard animals. Bedevere concocts a plan to sneak in using a Trojan Rabbit, but forgets to tell the others to hide inside it; the Knights are forced to flee when it is flung back at them. Arthur decides the knights should go their separate ways to search for the Grail. Meanwhile, a modern-day historian filming a documentary on the Arthurian legends is killed by an unknown knight on horseback, triggering a police investigation. Arthur and Bedevere are given directions by an old man and attempt to satisfy the strange requests of the dreaded Knights Who Say "Ni!". Sir Robin avoids a fight with a Three-Headed Knight by running away while the heads are arguing amongst themselves. Sir Galahad is led by a grail-shaped beacon to Castle Anthrax, which is occupied exclusively by nubile young women, all of whom attempt to woo him, but is "rescued" against his will by Lancelot. Lancelot receives an arrow-shot note from the nearby Swamp Castle. Believing the author is a lady being forced to marry against her will, he storms the castle and slaughters several wedding party members, only to discover the author is an effeminate prince. Arthur and his knights regroup and are joined by Brother Maynard, his monk brethren, and three new knights: Bors, Gawain and Ector. They meet Tim the Enchanter, a pyromancer who directs them to a cave where the location of the Grail is said to be written. The entrance to the cave is guarded by the Rabbit of Caerbannog. Underestimating it, the knights attack, but the Rabbit easily kills Bors, Gawain and Ector. Arthur uses the " Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch ", provided by Brother Maynard, to destroy the creature; the police officers investigating the historian's murder hear the explosion and begin pursuing them. Inside the cave, they find an inscription from Joseph of Arimathea, directing them to "the Castle of Aarrgh". They are interrupted by an attack from the animated "Legendary Black Beast" that lives in the cave, which devours Brother Maynard and pursues the others. Arthur and the knights escape after the film's animator unexpectedly suffers a fatal heart attack, erasing the Black Beast. The knights approach the Bridge of Death, where the soothsaying bridge-keeper demands they each answer three questions in order to pass or else be cast into the Gorge of Eternal Peril. Lancelot easily answers simple questions and crosses. An overly cocky Robin is defeated by an unexpectedly difficult question, and an indecisive Galahad fails an easy one; both are magically flung into the gorge. When Arthur asks for clarification on a question regarding the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow, the bridge-keeper cannot answer and is himself thrown into the gorge. Arthur and Bedevere cannot find Lancelot, unaware that he has been arrested by police investigating the historian's death. They find Castle Aarrgh occupied by the French soldiers from earlier in the film. After being repelled by showers of manure, they summon an army of knights and prepare to assault the castle. As the army charges, the police arrive, arrest Arthur and Bedevere on suspicion of the murder of the historian, and break the camera, abruptly ending the film.

In the year 2078, the planet Sirius 6B, once a thriving mining hub, has been reduced to a toxic wasteland by a war between the mining company the New Economic Block (N.E.B.) and "The Alliance", a group of former mining and science personnel. A fragile stalemate is in effect between the two exhausted, poorly-supplied, and undermanned armies. The vast empty areas between the two sides are patrolled by Autonomous Mobile Swords (AMS)— AI -powered robots developed by Alliance scientists. Nicknamed "Screamers" after their signature high-pitched noise, they target creatures with a heartbeat. Alliance soldiers wear "tabs" that disguise their heartbeats, rendering them invisible to the machines. An N.E.B. soldier carrying a message to the Alliance compound is killed by screamers. The message guarantees safe passage through N.E.B. territory to discuss a truce. Alliance commanding officer Joe Hendricksson reports this development to his Earth-based superiors, but is told to disregard it as peace negotiations are already underway on Earth. Private "Ace" Jefferson, the only survivor of a crash of a transport newly arrived from Earth, rebuts this claim. Hendricksson is not surprised; he has long suspected that both sides have simply written off Sirius 6B and abandoned their armies. Deciding the truce is their only chance of survival, Hendricksson, accompanied by Jefferson, sets out to meet the N.E.B. commander. While traveling through a ruined city they come upon David, a young boy clutching a teddy bear. Unwilling to abandon a defenseless civilian, they bring him along. The following night, they are attacked by a new "Type 1" screamer model immune to the tabs, alarming Hendricksson. As the group nears the N.E.B. compound, two enemy soldiers, Becker and Ross, open fire on David, who explodes in a shower of bolts and gears. Alliance men are shocked to learn he was a "Type 3" screamer. Most of the N.E.B. contingent has been wiped out by another "David" screamer that a patrol unwittingly brought into the base. Becker, Ross, and a black marketeer named Jessica are the only survivors. The group heads to the N.E.B. command center but finds it abandoned. Locating the mainframe computer, Hendricksson learns that the N.E.B. truce offer was just as false as the Alliance message from Earth. Hendricksson sees a "type 1" downloading information from the mainframe. He attempts to query the mainframe for "type 2" but approaching "Davids" force them to retreat. Back at the N.E.B. bunker, the knowledge of Screamers creating new versions that are indistinguishable from humans make everyone paranoid. Becker becomes convinced that Ross is a screamer and kills him, only to discover that he was human. The four survivors retreat to the Alliance base, only to find that it has been taken over by "Davids". As dozens of "Davids" pour out of the bunker's entrance, Hendricksson wipes them out with a micro-nuclear missile. Jefferson rushes to help Becker, who was apparently injured in the blast. However, Becker revealed himself to be a "type 2" and kills Jefferson. After Hendricksson destroys Becker, only he and Jessica remain. Worrying that Jessica could be a screamer, Hendricksson cuts her hand and is relieved to see blood. The pair locate an emergency escape shuttle, but discover it only seats one. Hendricksson offers the spot for Jessica but a second "Jessica" arrives, revealing she is another even more human-like model of screamer. Hendricksson resigns himself to death, but to his surprise, Jessica shields him, battles her lookalike, and is fatally wounded. The spacecraft's engines kick on and destroy the second "Jessica". With her last breath, the original Jessica confesses her love for Hendricksson, who departs for Earth with the teddy bear carried by the first "David". As the screen fades to black, the bear slowly begins moving.

In a galaxy "very, very, very, very far away", the ruthless Spaceballs, led by President Skroob, have squandered their planet's atmosphere. Desperate for oxygen, Skroob hatches a plan to steal it from the neighboring planet Druidia by obtaining the code to its air shield, destroying Druidia in the process. On Druidia, the spoiled Princess Vespa flees an arranged marriage to the narcoleptic Prince Valium, having already rejected all other suitors in her search for true love. Meanwhile, mercenary Lone Starr and his half-man, half-dog companion Barf are contacted by crime boss Pizza the Hutt, who demands repayment of a one-million space buck debt. King Roland of Druidia offers Starr the same amount to rescue Vespa and her droid servant, Dot Matrix. Aboard their Winnebago RV spaceship Eagle 5, Starr and Barf rescue the pair just before they are captured by the Spaceball ship Spaceball One, commanded by Colonel Sandurz and Skroob's enforcer, Dark Helmet, who wields the mystical power of the Schwartz. However, Eagle 5 runs out of fuel, forcing Starr to crash-land on the desert moon of Vega. The four wander through the scorching landscape, with Starr and Vespa exchanging barbed remarks and mutual attraction. They cannot act on their feelings, however, as Vespa is duty-bound to marry a prince. They collapse from the heat, but are rescued by the Dink-Dinks, a group of robed, diminutive aliens, and taken to the hidden temple of Yogurt, a wise sage who breaks the fourth wall to advertise fictitious Spaceballs tie-in merchandise. Yogurt guides Starr in using the Schwartz and a ring to channel its power. He also deciphers Starr's medallion–found with him as an abandoned baby–but withholds its meaning. Meanwhile, Helmet, having tracked Vespa's location using an instant VHS of Spaceballs, uses the Schwartz to disguise himself as Roland to lure her out of Yogurt's temple for capture. Helmet extorts the shield code from Roland by threatening to reverse the plastic surgery on Vespa's nose. Starr and Barf infiltrate the Planet Spaceball prison, rescue Vespa and Dot, and escape in Eagle 5. With the shield code in hand, Spaceball One transforms into "Mega-Maid", a giant maid robot, and begins vacuuming Druidia's atmosphere. Starr reverses the vacuum by using the Schwartz, saving the planet, then pilots Eagle 5 into Mega-Maid's head, finds the self-destruct button, and battles Helmet in a Schwartz duel using ring-projected lightsaber -like beams. Helmet steals Starr's ring and drops it down a grate, but Starr hears a telepathic message from Yogurt that the Schwartz is in him, not the ring. Starr wields the Schwartz to reflect Helmet's energy blast with a mirror, sending him flying into the self-destruct button. As Eagle 5 escapes, Skroob, Helmet, and Sandurz are left behind when all the escape pods are launched, and Mega-Maid explodes. The trio crash-land in the ship's remains on a nearby planet populated by intelligent apes, who are horrified to witness their arrival. Lone Starr and Barf discover on the news that Pizza the Hutt has eaten himself to death, absolving them from their debt. The duo return Vespa and Dot to Roland, but take only a small portion of the reward money to cover their expenses. Later, Starr and Barf discover a final message from Yogurt that reveals Starr's medallion identifies him as a prince. Upon returning to Druidia just in time to stop Vespa's wedding to Valium, Starr reveals his royal lineage and he and Vespa are joyously married.

Sleep Dealer is set in a future, militarized world marked by closed borders, virtual labor, and a global digital network that joins minds and experiences, where three strangers risk their lives to connect with each other and break the technology barriers. Memo Cruz works at a factory, one of several sleep dealers. Workers in these factories are connected to robots across the border, so they may control them. The story is told as a flashback, as Memo remembers his home in Santa Ana Del Rio, Oaxaca. His father wants him to participate in growing crops on the meager family homestead. Memo's passion, however, is electronics and hacking. Memo and his father must trek on foot to buy water by the bag while monitored by security cameras armed with machine guns. The media on American hi-def TV shows glimpses of a technological dystopia, although in a positive light with superficial spin-doctoring. Memo is building an electronic receiver that can tap into communications as a hobby. As he continues to work on it, its range increases to faraway cities. One summer, a remote-controlled military aerial vehicle operated by the security forces of Del Rio Water catches Memo monitoring a frequency used by the drones. This act warrants a brutal attack. He disconnects in time before the drone can locate him with certainty. On another occasion, he and his brother watch a live TV broadcast about a drone action that is about to destroy a building known to be intercepting drone communication. They quickly realize that the building is their own home, where Memo has his equipment, and run to save their father, whose life is in danger. However, they are too late, and the vehicle launches a rocket at the father, wounding him. The drone pilot then faces their father, seeing him through the drone’s camera, before killing him. The drone pilot is a Mexican-American named Rudy Ramirez. After the tragedy Memo boards a bus to Tijuana to find work in order to help sustain his family. On that same bus Memo meets Luz Martínez. Memo notices that Luz has nodes on the wrist for interfacing with the digital network and asks her where he can get them for free. She tells him that he can find someone, known as a coyotek, to connect him by asking around in a certain alley. Luz has loans and may default. She makes a living by uploading memories to an online memory trading company, TruNode, where viewers pay for content. Luz uploads her memory of meeting Memo to TruNode expecting nothing to come out of it. Memo is robbed of his money during his first attempt to seek a coyotek. He finds an abandoned shack in which to stay at the edge of the city, where other node workers live. Luz gets a sale for her memory of Memo and a prepaid offer for her next memory of him. Luz finds him and learns he is out of money. She helps him get a node job at a bar that has the equipment. She is the coyotek, having learned from her ex-boyfriend, and she does him a favor. Luz tries to upload more experiences. TruNode makes her reveal feelings rather than just the story. The person who requested the information is revealed to be Ramirez working for Del Rio Water. Luz and Memo open up to each other and have connected sex. Upon receiving the next upload, Ramirez has his doubts confirmed that his work made him kill a good man. Memo discovers that Luz has been paid to upload her memories of him, and so he leaves her feeling betrayed. He works overtime at the sleep dealer, risking exhaustion. Luz writes to him and mails him a recording of her memories as a parting gift. In the meantime, Ramirez has crossed the fortified US-Mexican border to meet Memo. As Ramirez explains himself, Memo tries to run, perceiving danger. Ramirez catches up and explains he was under orders and offers to help. Memo rejoins Luz and recruits her help to connect Ramirez to the network. He accesses the Del Rio Water security network to control one of the company's drones. Upon discovery that Ramirez is not heeding orders, other drones pursue Ramirez. After heated aerial dogfighting, Ramirez manages to blast a hole in the dam, directly where Memo's father had once tossed a pebble in helpless frustration. Memo receives news from his home and neighboring subsistence farms, celebrations of returning ancestral waters, albeit not necessarily a permanent one. Ramirez goes farther south in Mexico as he can no longer return to his family in the US. Memo moves on with his life in Tijuana.

In January 1994, the U.S. Ohio -class submarine USS Montana has an encounter with an unidentified submerged object, and sinks near the Cayman Trough. With Soviet ships moving in to try to salvage the sub, and a hurricane moving over the area, the U.S. government sends a SEAL team to Deep Core, a privately owned, experimental underwater drilling platform near the Cayman Trough, to use it as a base of operations. The platform's designer, Dr. Lindsey Brigman, insists on going along with the SEAL team, even though her estranged husband, Virgil "Bud" Brigman, is the current foreman. During the initial investigation of Montana, a power cut in the team's submersibles leads to Lindsey seeing a strange light circling the sub, which she later calls a "non-terrestrial intelligence", or "NTI". Lt. Hiram Coffey, the SEAL team leader, is ordered to accelerate their mission, and takes one of the mini-subs, without Deep Core ' s permission, to recover a Trident missile warhead from Montana, just as the storm hits above, leaving the crew unable to disconnect from their surface support ship in time. The cable crane is torn from the ship and falls into the trench, dragging Deep Core to the edge before it stops. The rig is partially flooded, killing several crew members, and damaging its power systems. The crew waits out the storm so they can restore communications and be rescued. As they struggle against the cold, they find the NTIs have formed an animated column of water to explore the rig, which they equate to an alien version of a remotely operated vehicle. Though they treat it with curiosity, Coffey is agitated and cuts it in half by closing a pressure bulkhead on it, causing it to retreat. Realizing that Coffey is experiencing paranoia as a result of suffering from high-pressure nervous syndrome, the crew spies on him through an ROV, finding him, along with another SEAL, arming the warhead to attack the NTIs. To try to stop him, Bud fights Coffey, but Coffey escapes in a mini-sub with the primed warhead. Bud and Lindsey give chase in the other sub, damaging both. Coffey is able to launch the warhead into the trench, but his sub drifts over the edge and implodes from the pressure, killing him. Bud's mini-sub is inoperable and taking on water. With only one functional diving suit, Lindsey opts to drown and hopefully enter deep hypothermia when the ocean's cold water engulfs her, with hopes of being able to be resuscitated. Bud swims back to the platform with her body; there, he and the crew use a defibrillator and administer CPR, and they revive her. It is decided that they need to disarm the warhead, which is more than 2 miles (3.2 km) below them. One SEAL, Ensign Monk, helps Bud use an experimental diving suit equipped with a liquid breathing apparatus to survive to that depth, though he will only be able to communicate through a keypad on the suit. Bud begins his dive, assisted by Lindsey's voice to keep him coherent against the effects of the mounting pressure, and he reaches the warhead. Monk guides him in successfully disarming it. With little oxygen left in the system, Bud explains that he knew it was a one-way trip, and he tells Lindsey he loves her. As he waits for death, an NTI approaches Bud, takes his hand, and guides him to a massive alien city deep in the trench. Inside, the NTIs create an atmospheric pocket for Bud, allowing him to breathe normally. The NTIs then play back Bud's message to his wife and look at each other with understanding. On Deep Core, the crew is waiting for rescue when they see a message from Bud that he met some friends and warns them to hold on. The base shakes, and lights from the trench herald the arrival of the alien ship. It rises to the ocean's surface, with Deep Core and several of the surface ships run aground on its hull. The crew of Deep Core exits the platform, surprised they are not dead from the sudden decompression. They see Bud walking out of the alien ship, and Lindsey races to hug him.

Nick Naylor is a Big Tobacco spokesman using "research" from an institution of which he is vice-president, a tobacco lobby called the "Academy of Tobacco Studies". It claims there is no link between tobacco and lung disease. Naylor and his friends, firearm lobbyist Bobby Jay Bliss and alcohol lobbyist Polly Bailey, meet for lunch every week and jokingly call themselves the "Merchants of Death" or "The MOD Squad". As anti-tobacco campaigns mount and numbers of young smokers decline, Naylor's boss, B.R., sends Naylor to Los Angeles to bargain for cigarette product placement in upcoming movies. Naylor takes along his young son, Joey, in hopes of bonding with him. The next day, Naylor is sent to meet with Lorne Lutch, the cancer -stricken man who once played the Marlboro Man in cigarette ads and is now campaigning against cigarettes. As his son watches, Naylor successfully convinces Lutch to take a suitcase of money for his silence by playing on Lutch's principles and need to provide for his family. Senator Ortolan Finistirre, one of Naylor's most vehement critics, promotes a bill to add a skull and crossbones POISON warning to cigarette packaging. As Naylor is about to appear before a U.S. Senate committee to fight the bill, he is kidnapped by a clandestine group and covered in nicotine patches. Awakening in a hospital, he learns he has survived due to his high nicotine tolerance from heavy smoking, but he is now hypersensitive to nicotine and can never smoke again. Meanwhile, Naylor is seduced by a young reporter named Heather Holloway into revealing secret information about his life and career. She makes it public via an exposé, criticizing his business activities and accusing him of training his son Joey to follow his amoral example. This results in negative PR for Naylor, which costs him his job. After he hides out in his home for a few days, Naylor is visited by Joey who uses some of the debating skills his father taught him, which reminds Naylor of his own principles. Naylor apologizes to his friends in the MOD Squad and is inspired to take a new tactic. Naylor laments to the press about Holloway's ethics of using his private conversations with him after sex and goads Finistirre into allowing him to testify before the Senate committee. During the hearing, Naylor surprises everyone by admitting to the dangers of smoking but argues that public awareness is already high enough without extra warnings. He emphasizes consumer choice and responsibility and claims that if tobacco companies are guilty of tobacco-related deaths, then perhaps Finistirre's state of Vermont, as a major cheese producer, is likewise guilty of cholesterol -related deaths. When Finistirre attempts to regain control by demanding what Naylor would do when his son was 18 and wanted to smoke, Naylor simply replies that if his son wants to smoke then he'd buy him his first pack. Although B.R. insists in a live interview that Naylor is still their chief spokesman, Naylor rejects the job on camera. It turns out to be a good move as Big Tobacco is settling claims of liability and the Academy of Tobacco Studies shuts down. Naylor also mentions Heather was humiliated upon being terminated by the paper for her article and has been reduced to a cub reporter handling weather on a local news station. Naylor supports his son's newfound interest in debating and opens a private lobbying firm. The MOD Squad continues to meet with new members who represent the fast-food, oil, and biohazard industries. Now Naylor runs an agency called Naylor Strategic Relations and consults for cellphone industry representatives concerned about claims that cellphones cause brain cancer. He narrates: " Michael Jordan plays ball. Charles Manson kills people. I talk. Everyone has a talent."

Through her friend Annie, call center intern Mae Holland secures a customer support position at The Circle, a tech and social media company. Mae takes the job, hoping to support her parents, particularly her father who suffers from multiple sclerosis, while her longtime friend Mercer is less supportive. At a company meeting, CEO Eamon Bailey introduces SeeChange, which uses small cameras placed anywhere to provide real-time high-quality video. Mae rises in The Circle, embracing social networking and meeting Ty Lafitte, who displays suspicion of other, more enthusiastic employees. At an outdoor company rally emphasizing the need for accountability in politics, The Circle's Chief Operating Officer, Tom Stenton, introduces Congresswoman Olivia Santos, who has agreed to open her daily workings to the public through SeeChange. Ty subsequently shows Mae the area containing the cloud server where all information collected by SeeChange is to be stored. Ty is the creator of TrueYou, the Circle's social network. Ty says that TrueYou has grown out of his control, and its current utilization is not what he intended. Later, Mae's mother shows Mae a picture of a chandelier Mercer made from deer antlers. She photographs it and shares it on her Circle profile. The image attracts negative attention to Mercer, with people accusing him of killing the deer. Mercer confronts Mae at work and tells her to leave him alone. Distressed, Mae goes kayaking at night and the rough waters cause her kayak to capsize, requiring rescue by the Coast Guard, who were alerted to the emergency through SeeChange cameras, which recorded her acquiring the kayak and capsizing it. At the next meeting, Eamon introduces Mae to the crowd and they discuss her experience of the rescue, which moves her to become the first "Circler" to go "completely transparent," which involves wearing a small camera and exposing her life to the world twenty-four hours a day. This damages her relationships with her parents and Annie, as Mae accidentally exposes private aspects of their lives, and they distance themselves from her as a result. At a board meeting, Eamon announces support from almost all fifty states for voting through Circle accounts. Mae takes it a step further, and suggests requiring every voting citizen to have a Circle account in order to do so. Eamon and Tom approve, but the suggestion upsets Annie. At the next company-wide meeting, Mae says that The Circle believes it can find anyone on the planet in under twenty minutes and introduces a program to find wanted felons. The program identifies an escaped child murderer within ten minutes, which prompts the Circlers in the audience to erupt in applause. Mae uses this successful test to suggest transparency can be a force for good. Mae says that the program can find anyone, and someone suggests Mercer. Mae is initially hesitant to use the program to locate Mercer, but Eamon persuades her to continue. Mercer is located in an isolated cabin. Startled by Circle users descending upon his home, he flees in a car, though a Circle user places a small camera on his car window without his knowledge. They pursue him via automobile and a flying drone, which causes Mercer to swerve uncontrollably off a bridge and die. Days later, Mae calls Annie, who has left The Circle and returned to Scotland, which has improved her well-being. Mae, however, finds that connection with others helps her cope with Mercer's death. Mae returns to The Circle, despite her parents' pleas. Mae calls Ty to ask for a favor and Ty reveals something that he has discovered. At the next company-wide meeting, Mae explains how connection has helped her recover. She speaks with Eamon, and invites Tom onstage, then invites Eamon and Tom to go fully transparent. She explains that Ty has found all their email accounts and exposed them to the world, as no one should be exempt. Eamon and Tom, upset, try to save face before Tom leaves the stage. Her superiors cut power to her presentation, and the stage goes dark, but the audience activates their mobile devices, illuminating Mae, who reiterates her advocacy of transparency. She later returns to kayaking, untroubled by the drones that shadow her.

" For 20 years, Stalin's NKVD security forces have imposed The Great Terror. Those on Stalin's list of 'enemy' names are arrested, exiled or shot. " –Opening caption On the night of 1 March 1953, Joseph Stalin demands the director of Radio Moscow provide a recording of a live recital of Piano Concerto No. 23 after the show has concluded. The director recalls the audience and orchestra and records the recreated concert. Pianist Maria Yudina, who hates the cruel dictator, only complies after being bribed and slips a note into the recording before it is couriered to Stalin. Stalin is hosting a tense, but rowdy, gathering of Central Committee members at Kuntsevo Dacha. As Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov leaves, NKVD head Lavrentiy Beria reveals to Nikita Khrushchev and Deputy Chairman Georgy Malenkov that Molotov is to be part of the latest purge. The concert recording arrives and Maria's note, admonishing Stalin and wishing him dead, causes him to suffer a cerebral haemorrhage as he laughs at the note. Stalin's guards hear him fall in his office but fear disturbing him. Stalin's housemaid discovers him unconscious the next morning and members of the Central Committee rush to the dacha. Beria finds Maria's note but only after Malenkov, Khrushchev, Lazar Kaganovich, Anastas Mikoyan, and Nikolai Bulganin arrive, does the Committee finally decide to send for medical help. The best doctors in Moscow have been arrested after the " Doctors' plot ". When Stalin dies under the care of mediocre doctors, Beria orders the NKVD to relieve the Soviet Army of control of Moscow. Beria and Khrushchev vie for the support of Molotov and Stalin's children, Svetlana and her unstable, alcoholic brother Vasily. Beria removes Molotov's name from the impending purge and releases Polina Zhemchuzhina, Molotov's wife, from prison. The Committee names Malenkov, a puppet of Beria, as chairman. He hijacks Khrushchev's proposed reforms, such as releasing political prisoners and loosening clerical restrictions, relegating Khrushchev to planning Stalin's funeral. Beria threatens Khrushchev with Maria's note, and Krushchev reverses Beria's order to halt all transport into Moscow. When 1,500 arriving mourners are killed, the Committee wants to blame junior NKVD officers. In an effort to deflect blame, Beria threatens his colleagues with documents detailing their involvement in various purges. Angered by the NKVD's takeover of security from the Army, Marshal Georgy Zhukov supports Khrushchev in launching a coup against Beria after Stalin's funeral. Khrushchev gets support from the rest of the Committee save Malenkov, and on Zhukov's orders the Army reclaims its posts from the NKVD. Zhukov, Kiril Moskalenko and Leonid Brezhnev storm a meeting of the Committee and arrest Beria. Malenkov reluctantly signs Beria's death warrant. At Beria's emergency trial, Khrushchev finds him guilty of counter-revolutionary activities, sexual assault, and paedophilia. Beria is summarily executed and Zhukov has his body burned. Krushchev sends Svetlana to Vienna under protest, keeps Vasily in Russia, where he can be watched, and concurs with Kaganovich that Malenkov is too weak to lead. In 1956, Krushchev has defeated his rivals on the Committee to become the new leader of the Soviet Union, and is in the audience as Maria once again performs the Mozart concerto. Brezhnev, who will succeed Khrushchev in 1964, eyes Khrushchev from his seat.

After salesmen Billy McMahon and Nick Campbell's employer goes out of business, Billy applies for Google internships for them both. They are accepted due to their unorthodox interview answers, despite a lack of relevant experience and not being of traditional collegiate age. They will spend the summer competing in teams against other interns in a variety of tasks, with only members of the winning team guaranteed jobs with Google. Billy and Nick's team is led by Lyle, a manager at Google who constantly tries to act hip to hide his insecurities, and its other members are seen as rejects: the smartphone-addicted Stuart, the tiger-parented Filipino Yo-Yo, and Indian American nerd-related kink enthusiast Neha. Although Stuart, Yo-Yo, and Neha find Billy and Nick useless in the initial tasks, Billy rallies the team in a comeback that unifies them in a game of quidditch. However, the team loses after an intern of the opposing team, Graham, cheats. When teams are tasked with developing an app, Billy and Nick convince their teammates to indulge in a wild night out, which includes going to a strip club. Lyle's drunken antics inspire them to create an app that guards against reckless phone usage while drunk, and win the task by earning the most downloads. Meanwhile, Nick has been flirting with a Google executive Dana with little success. When he begins attending technical presentations to impress her, he develops an interest in the material. Dana agrees to go on a date with Nick, and she invites him in at the end of the evening. While the teams prepare to staff the technical support hotline, Billy is offered technical information by an introvert named "Headphones", which helps him. However, the team loses because Billy fails to log his calls for review. Dejected, he leaves the Google campus and pursues a job selling mobility scooters. In the final task, which is a sales challenge, teams must sign the largest possible company to begin advertising with Google. Nick approaches Billy with an inspiring speech, encouraging him to return and help the team for the last challenge. Reinvigorated, Billy leads them to convince a local pizzeria owner how Google can help him interact with potential customers and thereby expand his business, while remaining true to his professional values. Chetty is about to announce that Graham's team has won, when Billy, Nick, and their team arrive to give a dynamic presentation about their new client. Chetty recognizes that, although the pizzeria is not a large business, its potential is limitless because it is expanding via technology. Graham protests and is dressed down by Headphones, who turns out to be the head of Google Search. Nick and Billy's team win the challenge and the guaranteed jobs, while Graham, after berating his team members, is punched by Zach, an overweight member of his team whom he has constantly bullied. As the students depart, Nick and Dana are still seeing each other, as are Lyle and Google's dance instructor Marielena. Stuart and Neha have formed a romantic connection as well with Stuart promising to see her in person rather than texting her, and Yo-Yo asserts himself to his mother.