Natha is a poor farmer from the village of Peepli in Mukhya Pradesh who struggles to earn enough money for his family. After taking a trip to the city with his elder brother, Budhia, Natha discovers that the banks will seize his farm if he does not pay off his outstanding loans. Meanwhile, the Mukhya Pradesh government has called a by-election where the opposition party believes they have a chance to form the government. The agricultural, poverty-stricken population has lost faith in the long-serving ruling party, whose Chief Minister, along with the Federal Agriculture Minister, believe in the industrialisation of rural areas. Natha and Budhia request financial help from the village headman, who mockingly suggests that they commit suicide, after which his family will receive monetary compensation for his death from the government. Budhia encourages Natha to do this for the sake of his family, but Natha is hesitant. While the two discuss at a tea stall, Rakesh, a local journalist, overhears the conversation and reports Natha's impending suicide on the news. The report quickly spreads to national news channels; one high-profile journalist, Nandita, joins Rakesh to interview Natha and his family. A rival channel also picks up the story, and each competes to report on Natha's suicide, increasingly intruding on his private life. The media at large soon descends on Peepli to await Natha's suicide, monitoring him at all hours. Natha becomes a celebrity, attracting visitors and businesses to the village. The ruling party tries to bribe Natha to prevent him from committing suicide, fearing it will galvanize the opposition. Conversely, the opposition encourages Natha to commit suicide, hoping to win the election while also using media attention to advance their own agendas. Rakesh, meanwhile, discovers a poor farmer in Peepli has died after his land was seized by a bank. He proposes writing a piece about the farmer to Nandita, who becomes frustrated and instructs Rakesh to concentrate on Natha's story. The village headman, allied with the ruling party, secretly kidnaps Natha and holds him ransom from the opposition parties. Rakesh tracks down Natha to a warehouse in Peepli and contacts Nandita, who rushes to the location; however, the rest of the media follow her there, suspecting she has a lead on Natha. In the resulting confusion, a spill from a Petromax lamp sets fire to the warehouse, which explodes, killing Rakesh. Government officials mistake Rakesh's badly burnt body for Natha's; after ruling that the death was an accident, the government refuses to compensate Natha's family, leaving them helpless. After Natha's death is reported, visitors and media depart from Peepli, leaving it decrepit. Before driving off, Nandita briefly wonders what happened to Rakesh. As the film ends, Natha is shown to have escaped to Gurgaon, where he works as a day labourer in the construction industry.

In 1985, promiscuous Dallas electrician and rodeo cowboy Ron Woodroof is diagnosed with HIV/AIDS and told that he has about 30 days to live. At first, he refuses to accept the diagnosis until he remembers having unprotected sex with a prostitute who was an IV drug user. Woodroof's family and friends ostracize him, mistakenly assuming he contracted AIDS from gay sex. He is fired from his job and evicted from his home. His doctor, Eve Saks, tells him an antiretroviral drug called AZT —the only drug yet approved for testing in human clinical trials by the FDA —is thought to prolong the life of AIDS patients. Saks informs him that half of the trial patients receive the drug and the other half receive a placebo, since this is the only way to determine whether the drug works. Woodroof bribes a hospital worker to get him AZT, which, exacerbated by his cocaine and alcohol abuse, causes his health to deteriorate. Recuperating in the hospital, he meets Rayon, a drug-addicted, HIV-positive trans woman, whom he is initially hostile toward. As his health worsens, he drives to a makeshift Mexican hospital to get more AZT. The facility is run by an American, Dr. Vass, whose medical license was revoked because his work with people with AIDS had violated US regulations. Vass warns Woodroof against AZT, calling it "poisonous." Instead, he prescribes a cocktail of drugs and nutritional supplements centered on ddC and the protein peptide T, which are not yet approved for use in the USA by the FDA. Three months later, Woodroof finds his health much improved and realizes he could make money by importing the drugs and selling them to other HIV-positive patients. He is able to get the drugs over the border by masquerading as a priest with cancer and claiming they are for personal use. Dr. Saks starts to notice the adverse effects of AZT, but her supervisor, Dr. Sevard, tells her the trials cannot be discontinued. Woodroof starts selling the drugs in Dallas on the street, at gay nightclubs, and discotheque bars. He reluctantly partners with Rayon since she can bring in more customers. The pair establishes the Dallas Buyers Club, charging $400 per month for membership and giving away the drugs to members to circumvent the laws that made it illegal to sell the drugs. The club is extremely popular, and Woodroof gradually begins to respect Rayon as a friend. When Woodroof is hospitalized for a heart attack caused by an overdose of recently acquired interferon from Japan, Dr. Sevard learns of the club and its alternative drugs and is angry that the buyers' club is interfering with his trial. The FDA confiscates the interferon and threatens to have Woodroof arrested. Dr. Saks agrees that there are benefits to clubs for HIV drugs, but feels powerless to change anything. The process the FDA uses to research, test, and approve drugs is considered flawed and part of the problem for people suffering from AIDS. At that time, the USA and the FDA were particularly conservative by international standards in testing and approving anti-AIDS drugs. They were hostile to imported drugs to the point that they were made contraband. Dr. Saks and Woodroof begin a friendship. The FDA gets a warrant to raid the Buyers Club, but can do nothing but fine Woodroof. The FDA changes its regulations in 1987, making any unapproved drug illegal. With the club strapped for cash, Rayon begs her father for money and tells Woodroof that she has sold her life insurance policy to raise money. Woodroof travels to Mexico to get more peptide T. Upon his return, he finds that Rayon has died in the hospital and is extremely upset by her death. Dr. Saks is asked to resign when the hospital discovers she has been sending patients to the buyers club, but she refuses, insisting they will have to fire her instead. After Rayon's death, Woodroof begins to show more compassion toward LGBT members of the club, and making money becomes less of a concern; his priority becomes providing the drugs as peptide T gets increasingly challenging to acquire. Woodroof files a lawsuit against the FDA in late 1987, seeking the legal right to take the protein, which has been confirmed as nontoxic but is still not FDA-approved. The judge is sympathetic toward him and admonishes the FDA, but lacks the power to do anything. The FDA later allows Woodroof to take peptide T for personal use. He dies of AIDS in 1992, seven years later than his doctors had initially predicted.

Zoya Lowe is a quantum physics textbook author with only one week left to live. She is diagnosed with a black hole growing in her chest. To avoid her death, Zoya enters a time loop. She takes a time travel pill that allows her to travel back in time 5 days. She found these mysterious pills when she was 12 years old and had used them to improve her life, but stopped for many years before her diagnosis. Frustrated with repeating the same sad loop with her husband, adult daughter and son-in-law, she decides to take action and resume her past research on the pills. She meets Paula, a research assistant studying time at a local community college, and enlists her help. Zoya hopes to find a way to travel back to gain years and potentially alter her past. Once Zoya begins working with Paula, she spends every cycle sneaking out of the hospital and hiding from her worried family. As the research continues unsuccessfully, Zoya is upset, but refuses to reach out to past colleague and ex Mark Harrison. When Zoya, in a last ditch effort, tracks him down, she finds that he died four months before. His son, now living in his dad's house, invites her in and says he wishes that his dad hadn't spent his last days working. After this, Zoya listens to the voicemails her family have been leaving every cycle and breaks down in tears, resetting her week one final time. This time she is happy to be in the loop repeating things she's done with her family while still creating new memories. She also stops by Paula's to give her a copy of all the research they had done together and the time travel pills. Zoya says that maybe Paula is the one to figure it all out. As the loop is coming to a close, Zoya's family bring her out a birthday cake, but unlike any loops in the past Zoya opens her gift. She is shocked to find a photo of her daughter's sonogram. Zoya is going to be a grandmother. She smiles and tells her family how much she loves them before the black hole consumes her.

Set in San Francisco, Play It Again, Sam begins with the closing scenes of Casablanca, with Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. Allan Felix watches the film in a cinema. He leaves the cinema depressed that he will never be like Bogart. Apart from apparitions of Bogart, Allan also has frequent flashbacks of conversations with his ex-wife, Nancy, who constantly ridiculed his sexual inadequacy. His best friend, Dick Christie, and Dick's wife, Linda, try to convince him to go out with women again, setting him up on a series of blind dates, all of which end badly. Throughout the film, he is seen receiving dating advice from the ghost of Bogart, who is visible and audible only to Allan. Nancy also makes fantasy appearances, as he imagines conversations with her about the breakdown of their marriage. On one occasion, the fantasy seems to run out of control, with both Bogart and Nancy appearing. When it comes to women, he attempts to become sexy and sophisticated, like his idol, Bogart, only to end up ruining his chances by being too clumsy. He eventually develops feelings for Linda, around whom he is more relaxed and does not have the need to put on the mask. At the point where he finally makes his move on Linda (aided by comments from Bogart), a vision of his ex-wife appears and shoots Bogart, leaving him without advice. He then makes an awkward move. Linda runs off, but then returns, realizing that Allan loves her. However, their relationship is doomed, just as it was for Rick and Ilsa in Casablanca. Dick returns early from Cleveland and confides to Allan that he thinks Linda is having an affair, not realizing her affair is with Allan. Dick expresses to Allan his love for Linda. The final scene is an allusion to Casablanca' s famous ending. Dick is catching a flight to Cleveland, Linda is after him, and Allan is chasing Linda. The fog, the aircraft engine start-ups, the trenchcoats, and the dialogue are all reminiscent of the film, as Allan nobly explains to Linda why she has to go with her husband, rather than stay behind with him. Bogart says that he has learned how to be himself and no longer needs him for advice. The music from the scene in Casablanca resumes the theme, "As Time Goes By", and the film ends.

Sam Makin is a tough Brooklyn, New York City street cop and Vietnam-era Marine Corps veteran. He is unwillingly recruited as an assassin for a secret United States organization, CURE. The recruitment is through a bizarre method: his death is faked and he is given a new face and a new name. Rechristened "Remo Williams" (after the name and location of the manufacturer of the bedpan in Makin's hospital room), his face is surgically altered and he is trained to be a human killing machine by his aged, derisive and impassive Korean martial arts master Chiun. Though Remo's training is extremely rushed by Chiun's standards, Remo learns seemingly impossible skills such as dodging bullets and running on water and wet concrete. Chiun teaches Remo a Korean martial art named Sinanju (the "Sun Source" of all martial arts). Remo's instruction is interrupted when he is sent by CURE to investigate a corrupt weapons procurement program within the U.S. Army.

In 1982, an extraterrestrial mothership arrives and hovers over the South African city of Johannesburg. Inside, an investigation team finds over a million starved insectoid and crustacean -like aliens and the South African government voluntarily relocates the asylum seekers to a refugee camp called District 9. 28 years later, District 9 becomes both a ghetto and a shanty town, and humans come to view the aliens — derogatorily called " Prawns " — as filthy, violent animals who bleed resources from them. The Prawns have been systematically reduced to second-class citizens there and have been known to consume canned cat food. Following unrest between the aliens and humans, the government hires the Multinational United (MNU), a large defense contractor, to forcibly relocate the extraterrestrials to a labour camp outside the city. Piet Smit, an MNU executive, appoints his son-in-law and MNU bureaucrat, Wikus van de Merwe, to lead the forced relocation. Meanwhile, three aliens, Christopher Johnson, his young son CJ, and Paul search a District 9 refuse dump for Prawn technology; Christopher has spent the last 20 years synthesizing fuel from their contents. They finally fill an entire container in Paul's shack as the relocation begins, but when Wikus comes to serve Paul a notice, he finds the hidden container and accidentally sprays some fuel into his face. Koobus Venter, a cruel MNU mercenary who is speciesist against the Prawns, kills Paul. Wikus begins mutating into a Prawn, starting with his left arm that was injured after the exposure. He is taken to an underground MNU lab, where researchers discover his hybrid DNA grants Wikus the ability to operate Prawn weaponry, which is biologically restricted from humans. When there, Wikus discovers the grisly medical experiments, including vivisections the scientists were performing on the Prawns. Seeing the potential for profitable weapons research, Smit orders Wikus's organs to be harvested for genetic material. Wikus, however, overpowers the lab personnel and escapes. While Venter's forces hunt him, a fake news story is broadcast claiming Wikus is a wanted fugitive, who has contracted a contagious disease from copulating with extraterrestrials. Wikus takes refuge in District 9, finding Christopher and the spaceship's command module dropship concealed underneath his shack. Christopher explains that the confiscated fuel is needed to reactivate the dropship, which can then dock with the mothership. This would allow Christopher to rescue his species and return home, and cure Wikus with the equipment onboard. Encouraged by a phone call from his wife, Tania, Wikus steals powerful alien weapons from Obasanjo, a Nigerian crime lord who believes that eating Wikus' alien arm will grant him alien abilities. Wikus and Christopher attack the MNU and retrieve the fuel from the underground lab, where Christopher is horrified by the vivisections and other brutal medical experiments the MNU has performed on his species. Returning to the shack, Christopher decides that he must leave Earth immediately and return with help, therefore he must postpone curing Wikus's condition for up to three years. Unsatisfied with that answer, Wikus knocks Christopher unconscious and attempts to fly the module to the mothership, but Venter has it shot down. Venter captures Wikus and Christopher, but Obasanjo's gang ambushes them and abduct Wikus. CJ, who remained hidden in the dropship, remotely activates the mother ship and a mecha alien battle suit in Obasanjo's base. The mecha suit guns down the Nigerian gangsters; Wikus enters the mecha suit and attempts to escape on his own. However, when he overhears Venter's order to kill Christopher, Wikus has a change of heart and returns to rescue Christopher from the mercenaries. Heading towards the dropship, the two come under heavy fire; Wikus decides to stay behind and fend off the mercenaries, buying time for Christopher and CJ to escape. Christopher promises to return and cure Wikus. After all of the other mercenaries are killed, Venter finally cripples the mecha suit, but several Prawns kill and dismember him before he can summarily execute Wikus. Christopher makes it into the dropship with CJ, and the dropship is levitated via a tractor beam back into the mothership, which finally leaves Earth. Wikus disappears, the MNU's medical experiments are exposed to the public, and the aliens are moved to a concentration camp called District 10. Tania finds a handcrafted metal flower on her doorstep, giving her hope that Wikus is still alive. Wikus, now fully transformed into a Prawn, is shown in a wrecking yard crafting more flowers for his wife.

"Smiling" Jack Casey is a young floor trader on the Pacific Exchange who loses all of his company's and family's savings on a risky trade. Deflated and disenchanted with his profession, he quits his job and becomes a bicycle messenger in San Francisco. Casey has to deal with his parents and his girlfriend, who are disappointed with his new job. Along with the colorful characters that work with him, he saves a troubled young woman named Terri from a gang. Although frustrated, Casey enjoys the freedom that comes with his lower responsibility. He also uses his education and business acumen to help his coworkers. When some of them are involved in dangerous or difficult matters, Casey must decide whether he should become involved. Those matters lead to a sinister web of murder and intrigue. Casey returns to the floor of the exchange for a day, buying shares of a plummeting penny stock and holding on until it recovers. He thus restores his family's fortune and enables his bike-messenger friend, Hector, to afford the hot dog stand he has dreamed of. Terri is again menaced by drug dealer Gypsy but is rescued by Casey's fellow bike messengers. In retaliation against Gypsy, Casey engages in an extended car-versus-bike car chase that ends with Gypsy driving off the end of an uncompleted highway. The film flashes forward to Casey applying for 'normal' jobs and Terri deciding to become a paramedic, and the pair buying hot dogs from Hector.

Moscow City Police officers Ivan Danko and Yuri Ogarkov lead a sting operation against Georgian mafia kingpin Viktor Rostavili, who manages to evade capture and in the ensuing firefight kills Ogarkov, before fleeing to the United States. There, Rostavili is arrested for a minor traffic violation in Chicago and Danko is subsequently dispatched to America to retrieve the felon, under strict orders not to reveal the true nature of Rostavili's extradition. Upon arriving in Chicago, Danko is met by Chicago Police Department detectives Art Ridzik and Max Gallagher. As he is interrogating Rostavili, Danko confiscates a mysterious key from him. While Rostavili is being transported to the airport, the group is ambushed by several men, and Gallagher is shot and killed, allowing Rostavili to escape. Against the wishes of the American authorities, Danko remains in Chicago to apprehend Rostavili, and Ridzik is assigned to be his minder. Through an informant, Danko and Ridzik learn that Rostavili is working with local drug dealers called The Cleanheads under the guidance of imprisoned criminal kingpin Abdul Elijah, to purchase and smuggle cocaine into the Soviet Union. The duo confront Rostavili's American wife, dance school instructor Cat Manzetti, but are led into an ambush where Rostavili demands that Danko return his key, forcing the pair to retreat. Danko and Ridzik go to the hospital to interrogate one of Rostavili's henchmen who was injured during the earlier ambush, but he is killed by another one of Rostavili's accomplices disguised as a nurse. Danko subsequently shoots and kills the assassin. Ridzik's superior, Commander Lou Donnelly, confiscates Danko's gun, as he is not licensed to carry one in the United States, and orders him to cease the investigation. Ridzik, who still wants to avenge his partner's murder, secretly gives Danko his spare gun. Manzetti is then murdered by Rostavili. Returning to his hotel, Danko is attacked by Rostavili's men. While Danko kills them off, Rostavili sneaks into his room and steals the key. Ridzik takes Danko to visit a locksmith, where they match the key to ones produced for lockers at a bus terminal. Rostavili uses the key to retrieve his drug shipment, and steals an empty bus just as Danko and Ridzik arrive. Chasing him in another bus, Danko and Ridzik cause Rostavili to crash into an oncoming freight train. As Rostavili crawls out of the wreckage, he kills the engineer, and is killed by Danko in the process. Later, Ridzik takes Danko to the airport. As a token of their new friendship, they exchange wristwatches. Danko tells Ridzik they are policemen, not politicians, so it is okay for them to like each other. The scene closes with Danko saluting while in Red Square in Moscow.

Peter Highman, a successful architect, is due to fly home from Atlanta to Los Angeles to be with his wife Sarah, who is about to give birth. On the way to the airport, he has a chance encounter with Ethan Tremblay and his dog Sonny, who is going to Los Angeles to be an actor and is planning to scatter his recently deceased father's ashes at the Grand Canyon. When Ethan misuses the words " terrorist " and "bomb" while talking to Peter, they are both escorted off the plane. Peter, now on the No Fly List and missing his wallet, agrees to drive with Ethan to Los Angeles. Ethan stops to buy marijuana, and Peter discovers that they are nearly out of money. Since Peter has no I.D., he gets his wife to wire money to Ethan through Western Union, but discovers he had the money wired to his stage name instead of his legal name. When employee Lonnie refuses to accept Ethan's "stage name I.D.", it leads to a violent altercation. After a night at a rest stop, Peter impulsively drives off to abandon Ethan, but realizes that he has forgotten to unload the ashes of Ethan's father when he left. This causes him to wrestle with his conscience, before deciding to return, and covering for his absence by saying he had gone to buy breakfast. Ethan takes over driver duty so Peter can get some rest after a sleepless night, but he falls asleep at the wheel and crashes the car. Peter calls his friend, Darryl, for assistance and decides to part with Ethan, but Darryl persuades Peter otherwise. They arrive at Darryl's house for rest. During their conversation, Ethan discovers hints that Sarah may have been unfaithful, triggering Peter to question Sarah's timely pregnancy. Darryl throws both of them out after mistakenly drinking some of Ethan's father's ashes, which were stored in a coffee tin. Darryl lets them use his Range Rover to make the rest of the trip. Ethan and Peter get high and begin to bond, but Ethan then mistakenly drives to the Mexico–United States border. Despite assuring Peter that he will handle the situation, Ethan flees, and Peter is arrested for possession of marijuana. The Mexican Federal Police lock Peter up, but Ethan steals a truck and breaks him out, causing several car crashes in the process. Peter decides to stop at the Grand Canyon for Ethan, who finally scatters his father's ashes. Peter then confesses that he tried to leave Ethan at the rest area. Ethan makes a confession of his own: he has had Peter's wallet and I.D the entire time. Peter seemingly forgives him but then attacks Ethan in a rage, but is interrupted by a call from Sarah, who has just gone into labor. Peter and Ethan leave for California. Ethan finds a gun in the truck and accidentally shoots Peter. Arriving at the hospital where Sarah is in labor, Peter passes out from loss of blood. Sarah delivers the baby safely, and Peter expresses his discomfort at his new daughter being named Rosie Highman. Ethan leaves to meet with a Hollywood agent while telling Peter to call him. At the end, Ethan guest stars on an episode of his favorite television program, Two and a Half Men, with Peter and Sarah watching it in bed with their daughter. Ethan texts Peter during the episode, indicating that the two have become friends.

Scientist and police captain Dr. Barrett C. Coldyron develops a prototype police robot he dubs R.O.T.O.R. (for "Robotic Officer Tactical Operations Research/Reserve") as part of his vision for preserving peace in a chaotic future. He is pressured by his superior, the corrupt Division Commander Earl Buglar, to rush R.O.T.O.R.'s development so Senator Donald Douglas, the project's financial sponsor, can use it to campaign for President. Coldyron refuses Buglar's demands to have R.O.T.O.R. ready within sixty days and resigns rather than be fired, leaving control of the project in the hands of his incompetent assistants, Dr. Houghtaling and his robot, Willard. Following Coldyron's departure, a lab accident results in R.O.T.O.R. activating and going on duty. While on patrol, it stops a motorist for speeding and, lacking higher brain functions in its programming, executes him. His fiancée, Sonya, becomes R.O.T.O.R.'s target because it views her as her boyfriend's accomplice, and the robot begins relentlessly pursuing her. Coldyron learns of the murder and discovers that R.O.T.O.R. has been activated, finding that it is operating under its prime directive, "to judge and execute". He saves Sonya from R.O.T.O.R. at a gas station and helps her escape, informing her that the robot will continue to pursue her and that she must therefore keep moving. Devising a plan to stop R.O.T.O.R.'s rampage, Coldyron contacts Dr. Corrine Steele, who developed the robot's combat chassis from a unique, self-teaching alloy, for assistance. They realize that as long as R.O.T.O.R. remains focused on pursuing Sonya, it will not kill anyone else unless they get in its way. At Coldyron's instruction, Sonya leads R.O.T.O.R. to a fishing camp. Coldyron and Steele arrive soon afterward, and Steele sacrifices herself to rip open R.O.T.O.R.'s chest, exposing its power core. Coldyron manages to lasso R.O.T.O.R.'s limbs with Primacord ropes to restrain it, and the robot's electrical discharge detonates the explosives, finally destroying it for good. Coldyron files a final report on the incident and leaves the police building. However, he is ambushed outside by Buglar, who murders him to cover up the corruption and embezzlement involved in funding the project. His nephew, Brett Coldyron, subsequently inherits his research and money. Deciding to continue and perfect his uncle's work, Brett creates a new R.O.T.O.R. model, upgraded with the higher brain functions necessary to make it capable of mercy and modeled after Dr. Steele's physical appearance.

The story concerns the tribulations of Martin, a blind photographer. Through a series of flashbacks, Martin is shown as a child, distrustful of his own mother. She describes to him the garden outside his bedroom window. She tells him that someone is raking leaves, but he cannot hear the sound and angrily decides she is lying to him. This childhood experience strongly affects Martin as an adult, as he anticipates that sighted people will take advantage of his blindness to lie to him, or worse yet, pity him. He has become a resentful, vaguely bitter person who spends his days taking some photographs of the world around him, then having various people describe them. He uses these photographs and the Braille descriptions before he stamps on them as "proof" that the world around him really is as others describe it to him. He also takes secret pleasure in rebuking the romantic advances of Celia, his housekeeper. Celia harbours a deep-seated and obsessive crush on Martin, as evidenced by the scores of photographs of him adorning the walls of her flat, and takes out her frustration at her unrequited love by tormenting Martin in small ways, such as rearranging the furniture in his house. Martin keeps Celia around because her love and hatred of him means he knows she cannot pity him. One day Martin encounters Andy, and is pleased with the depth and detail with which Andy describes his photos. The two fast become close friends, and Martin soon comes to trust him implicitly. The jealous Celia is threatened by Andy's increasing presence in Martin's life. She seduces Andy, and Martin catches the two in the act, before Andy reluctantly lies to him about it. Celia recognizes this opportunity to foil Martin yet again, and sets up a series of events leading Martin to discover Andy's dishonesty. Martin is devastated and plunged into a deep despair, and breaks off his friendship with Andy. Later on, Andy confronts him, and tries to convince him that everyone has flaws, and should not be judged on such simple terms. "People lie," he tells Martin, "but not all the time. And that's the point." Martin does not respond, but is swayed by Andy's impassioned words. Near the story's conclusion, Martin decides to fire Celia, but acknowledges his own role in purposely antagonizing her in their love-hate relationship. Despite his openness she is extremely angry that her efforts have gone to waste, and when asked to return her key to Martin's house, she throws it in a sink full of water. Finally, Martin asks Andy to describe one last photo for him, one he has kept locked away for years. Martin had previously told Andy that this was the first and most important photo he had ever taken. It is a photo of the garden from Martin's childhood, taken moments after his mother described it on that fateful day. However, Andy's detailed description includes the iconic man raking leaves Martin's mother told him about, that he had rejected for all these years. This revelation provides Martin with his proof and emotional release.

In 2015, an alien race known as "Mimics" lands in Germany and swiftly conquers much of continental Europe, killing millions. By 2020, humanity has formed a global military alliance, the United Defense Force (UDF), to combat the Mimics. However, victory remained elusive until the recent Battle of Verdun, which was secured by the celebrated war hero Sergeant Rita Vrataski. In Britain, the UDF amasses forces for a major invasion of France. General Brigham orders public affairs officer Major William Cage to cover the offensive from the front line, but the inexperienced and cowardly Cage attempts to blackmail Brigham into rescinding the order. Brigham has Cage arrested, demoted to Private and sent to the military base at Heathrow Airport to join the invasion as infantry, where he is assigned to Master Sergeant Farell and the misfit J-Squad, who dislike and belittle him. The following day, the invasion forces land on a French beach but are ambushed and massacred by Mimics. Cage uses a Claymore mine to kill a larger "Alpha" Mimic. Bathed in the Mimic's blood, Cage dies during the ensuing explosion. Cage suddenly awakens at Heathrow, realizing he is reliving the previous morning. He makes failed attempts to warn against the invasion, and experiences multiple loops in which he dies on the beach only to awaken again at Heathrow. With each loop, his combat skills and knowledge of the battlefield improve. He tries to save Rita's life so she can lead them but, after recognizing his apparent prescience, she allows herself to die, ordering Cage to find her on his next loop. Cage quickly convinces Rita of the reset because she gained the same power after exposure to an Alpha's blood. Her loops enabled her, an initially inexperienced soldier, to win at Verdun, but a later blood transfusion removed the power. Rita takes Cage to Mimic expert Dr. Carter, who explains the creatures are a superorganism controlled by a single, gigantic "Omega" Mimic. Whenever the Alpha Mimics are killed, the Omega restarts a loop and adjusts its tactics until the Mimics win. Rita realizes the Mimics allowed the UDF victory at Verdun to make them overconfident in their new exoskeletons and lure them into overcommitting their forces in retaking Europe, allowing the Mimics to exterminate most of the resistance. Cage spends many loops training with Rita so they can reach the Omega, but he begins to care for her and struggles after seeing her repeatedly die. He experiences a vision of the Omega hidden in a German dam, and he and Rita seek it out. During the journey, the pair bond, but Rita remains distant, having seen someone she cared about die hundreds of times at Verdun. She eventually determines that this is not the first loop in which they approached the Omega. Cage reveals that she always dies before reaching the dam, regardless of his actions, and he is unwilling to kill the Omega and end the loops if she remains dead. Upset, Rita attempts to leave but is killed by a Mimic. Despondent, during the next loop, Cage travels to the dam alone. He discovers the vision was a trap and is ambushed by an Alpha, and Cage drowns himself before it can remove his power. To find the Omega, Cage and Rita sneak into General Brigham's office and pressure him into handing over a prototype transponder designed by Carter. Having used it to locate the Omega beneath the Louvre Pyramid in Paris, Cage is knocked unconscious during their escape and given a blood transfusion for his injuries, removing his power. Rita frees Cage, who then uses his detailed knowledge of J-Squad to convince them to help destroy the Omega. They fly to Paris, where the squad members sacrifice themselves to ensure Cage and Rita reach the Louvre. Cornered by an Alpha, Rita kisses Cage, lamenting that she does not have more time to get to know him. The Alpha kills Rita and mortally wounds Cage, but he drops several grenades that destroy the Omega, which not only kills the Mimics, but also bathes Cage in its blood. Cage reawakens before his first meeting with General Brigham, and witnesses a news announcement that all Mimics are dead following a mysterious energy surge in Paris, before returning to Heathrow and finding Rita. Oblivious to his identity, she inquires what he wants; Cage chuckles.