In the early part of the 20th century, Iquitos, Peru, a small city on the Upper Amazon, is experiencing rapid growth due to a rubber boom. One incomer, an Irishman named Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald (known locally as "Fitzcarraldo"), is a lover of opera and a great fan of the internationally renowned Italian tenor Enrico Caruso. He dreams of building an opera house in Iquitos, but, although he has an indomitable spirit, he has little capital. The Peruvian government has parceled up the areas in the Amazon basin known to contain rubber trees. However, the best parcels having already been leased to private companies for exploitation, Fitzcarraldo has been trying and failing to make the money to bring opera to Iquitos by various other means, including an ambitious attempt to construct a Trans-Andean Railway. A rubber baron shows Fitzcarraldo a map and explains that, while the only remaining unclaimed parcel in the area is on the Ucayali River, a major tributary of the Amazon, it is cut off from the Amazon (and access to Atlantic ports) by a lengthy section of rapids. Fitzcarraldo notices that the Pachitea River, another Amazon tributary, comes within several hundred meters of the Ucayali upstream of the parcel. He leases the inaccessible parcel from the government, and his paramour, Molly, a successful brothel owner, funds his purchase of an old steamship, which he christens the SS Molly Aida, from the rubber baron. After fixing up the boat, Fitzcarraldo recruits a crew and takes off up the Pachitea, which is largely unexplored because of the hostile Indians who live on its banks. Fitzcarraldo intends to go to the closest point between the Pachitea and the Ucayali, pull his three-deck, 320 -ton steamship up the muddy 40° hillside, and portage it from one river to the next. He plans to use the ship to collect rubber harvested along the Ucayali and then transport the rubber over to the Pachitea and, on different ships, down to market at Atlantic ports. Soon after they enter Indian territory, the majority of Fitzcarraldo's crew, who are unaware of his full plan, abandon the expedition, leaving only the captain, engineer, and cook. The natives are impressed by the steamship and, once they make contact, agree to help Fitzcarraldo without asking many questions. After months of work and great struggles, they successfully pull the ship over the mountain using a complex system of pulleys aided by the ship's anchor windlass. The crew falls asleep after a drunken celebration, and the chief of the natives severs the rope securing the ship to the shore. Fitzcarraldo awakens as the boat is entering the rapids, and is unable to stop it. The ship does not sustain any major damage, but Fitzcarraldo is forced to abandon his quest. Before returning to Iquitos, he learns that the natives helped him move the ship in the belief that sending it over the Ucayali rapids would appease the spirits dwelling there. Despondent, Fitzcarraldo sells the steamship back to the rubber baron, but there is time before the title changes hands for him to send for a European opera company that he is told is in Manaus. Lacking an opera house, they construct their sets on the deck of the ship, and the entire city of Iquitos comes down to the riverbank to watch as Fitzcarraldo floats it by, managing to bring opera to the city after all.

At the end of their high school senior year, noble underachiever Lloyd Dobler is smitten with valedictorian Diane Court. He plans to ask her out, although they belong to different social groups. Lloyd's parents are stationed in Germany in the U.S. Army, so he lives with his sister Constance, a single mother, and still has no plans for his future. Diane comes from a sheltered academic upbringing, living with her doting divorced father Jim, who owns the retirement home where she works. She will take up a prestigious fellowship in England at the end of the summer. Lloyd offers to take Diane to their graduation party. She agrees, to everyone's surprise. Their next "date" is a dinner at Diane's, where Lloyd fails to impress Jim, and IRS agents arrive unexpectedly to inform the latter he is under scrutiny for tax fraud. Diane introduces Lloyd to the retirement home residents and he teaches her to drive her manual transmission Ford Tempo graduation gift. They grow closer and lose their virginity together in the car, to her father's concern. Lloyd's musician best friend Corey, who has never overcome her unfaithful ex-boyfriend Joe, warns him to take care of Diane. Jim urges Diane to break up with Lloyd, feeling he is not an appropriate match, and suggests she give him a pen as a parting gift. Worried about her father, Diane tells Lloyd she wants to stop seeing him and concentrate on her studies, giving him the pen. Devastated, he seeks advice from Corey, who tells him to "be a man" because it takes more to be a "man" rather than just being a "guy". Meanwhile, Jim discovers his credit cards are declined as the investigation continues. At dawn, Lloyd stands under Diane's open bedroom window and plays " In Your Eyes " by Peter Gabriel on a boombox, which played when they were intimate. The next day, she meets with an IRS investigator, who says they have evidence incriminating Jim with embezzling funds from his retirement home residents. He suggests she accept the fellowship as matters with her father will only worsen. Diane finds the cash concealed at home and confronts Jim, who tells her he took it to give her financial independence. He feels justified in doing so, insisting he provided better care of his residents than their families. Distraught, Diane reconciles with Lloyd at his kickboxing gym. At the end of the summer, Jim is incarcerated on a nine-month sentence after accepting a plea deal. Lloyd visits him at the prison, saying he is accompanying Diane to England. Jim reacts angrily when Lloyd gives him a letter from Diane, but she arrives to say goodbye and they embrace. She gives Jim the pen he had suggested she give to Lloyd, asking him to write to her in England. Lloyd supports and comforts Diane, who is afraid of flying, on their flight.

David "Dave" Lyons, a deaf man, and Wallace "Wally" Karew, a blind man, meet when Wally applies for a job in Dave's NYC concession shop. After a brief period of confusion and antagonism, they become close friends. Dave reads lips and guides Wally when they travel, and Wally tells Dave about invisible sources of sound and what people say behind his back. After being hired at the shop, Wally waits outside for the day's newspapers. Meanwhile, a bookmaker to whom Wally owes money walks into Dave's shop with a briefcase. When the man is approached by a woman named Eve, he hides a gold coin from his suitcase in a coin dish. Eve takes the briefcase and shoots the man while Dave’s back is turned. Dave does not see the shooting but notices Eve's legs as she leaves. Wally, who heard the gunshot, walks into the shop and trips over the dead body. Dave then rushes to help Wally and picks up the gun that Eve left behind. The police find them over the body with Dave holding the gun. As they are arrested, Wally picks up the day's collections from the coin dish and stashes them in his pocket. At the police station, Dave and Wally are interrogated by Detective Captain Emile Braddock and Lieutenant Gatlin, who make them the prime suspects after they are unconvincing as witnesses. When Eve and her accomplice Kirgo – hoping to recover the coin – pose as attorneys to bail them out, Wally recognizes Eve's perfume and Dave her legs, but Braddock ignores them when they insist that she is the killer. Dave and Wally escape from the police station, but the criminals soon find them. Eve takes the coin from Wally and calls her boss Mr. Sutherland for instructions, while Dave learns their plans by reading her lips. When Kirgo tries to kill them, they knock him unconscious. They then steal an unattended police car, and Eve, Kirgo, and Braddock chase them. Working together to guide the patrol car, Dave and Wally evade their pursuers but accidentally launch the car onto a waterborne garbage barge. After hiding the police car, they call Wally's sister Adele for help. The three then head for a resort mentioned in Eve's call to her boss. There, Wally impersonates a visiting professor. Meanwhile, Dave sneaks into Eve's room and steals the coin. Meanwhile, Adele distracts Kirgo by crashing her car into his. However, Kirgo and Eve discover the ruse, kidnap her, and take her to Sutherland's estate. Arriving at the Sutherland estate, Dave and Wally free Adele but end up captured. In his study, Sutherland – who is also blind – reveals that the coin is an outer disguise for a sample of an extremely valuable material called a superconductor. Kirgo and Sutherland are killed during an argument over sharing the profits, after which Dave and Wally rescue Eve. When the police arrive, Wally and Dave are cleared of the charges. Shortly thereafter, the two men reaffirm their friendship at a local park.

In 1501, a city in Italy was taken by a coup d'état while its rightful ruler, Arnolfini, was away. Arnolfini promises some mercenaries 24 hours of looting if they succeed in retaking the city, and they do so, raping and killing those who stand in their way. In their revelry, Arnolfini decides that he wants the mercenaries gone. Hawkwood, the commander of the troops, cares for a young nun he mistakenly attacked during the siege. Arnolfini promises to get medical attention for her, while Hawkwood leads Arnolfini's cavalry, betraying his former lieutenant, Martin. The cavalry ejects the mercenaries from the city without their loot. Martin's son is later stillborn. Burying the infant unearths a wooden statue of Saint Martin of Tours —a saint with a sword. The mercenaries' chaplain views this as a sign from God to follow Martin as their new leader. Arnolfini's son Steven is betrothed to Agnes. They meet for the first time and eat from a mandrake to magically fall in love, and later the entourage is attacked and robbed by Martin's band. Arnolfini is seriously injured; Kathleen, Agnes' lady-in-waiting, is killed; and Agnes is hauled away, concealed among her valuable dowry. Martin discovers Agnes that evening as they strip the caravan of valuables. The men desire to rape her but Martin decides to take her himself. He rapes Agnes in front of the caravan while she at first taunts him, and then begs Martin's protection when he is finished. Martin prevents the rest of the men from raping her. The mercenaries come upon a castle where, unknown to them, the inhabitants are infected with the plague. They capture the castle with the help of Agnes. She induces Martin to fall in love with her and works on the other mercenaries to accept her. She appears to have given up on her former life. Determined to rescue her, Steven turns to Hawkwood. Hawkwood only wants to live a quiet life, married to the former nun. Steven, becoming as ruthless as his father, seizes her to force Hawkwood to help his pursuit of Martin. Steven's party locates Martin and the mercenaries. They do not have sufficient force to take the castle and lay siege to it. In the castle, Martin asks Agnes where her true loyalty lies; she is noncommittal, hinting that the winner takes all. Outside, the plague spreads among Steven's forces and infects Hawkwood. Steven builds a siege tower to storm the castle, and Martin destroys it with something Steven had tried earlier: gunpowder. Steven's soldiers are killed as Steven scales the tower's ladders, and falls into the castle grounds. The mercenaries capture Steven and shackle him in the courtyard; Agnes joins in his abuse. Using a new medical technique Steven learned (cutting the buboes on the infected body), Hawkwood cures his plague. He cannot continue the siege alone but, before leaving for additional troops, he and the physician, Father George, catapult pieces of an infected dog into the castle. One chunk lands near the chained Steven; he initially warns Martin of the danger of the dog, but flings it into the castle's water well after seeing Agnes acquiesce to Martin's sexual demands. Steven says that she can decide whether to tell the mercenaries. The mercenaries wish to leave the castle, fearing the plague, but Martin persuades them to stay. At the next meal, Agnes watches as they drink infected water. As Martin begins to drink, she slaps the cup from his hand, just as the mercenaries begin to show signs of the plague. The party blame Martin, and hurl him into the well. Agnes then joins in the abuse of Martin. After the throng departs, Steven needs Martin's key to escape from the shackles, and Martin needs Steven to get out of the well. The two cooperate, but upon seeing that Hawkwood and Arnolfini recovered from their wounds and returned with an army, Martin flees to the belfry. Using a lightning storm to strike the chain, Steven frees himself and, as the battle rages, races to find Agnes. During the fighting, the belfry catches fire. All the mercenaries, save Martin, Polly, Anna, and Little John, end up dead. Martin confronts Agnes, who claims that she loves him. He prepares to murder her rather than allow her to return to Steven. As Martin is strangling Agnes, Steven attacks. Martin overpowers Steven and almost drowns him, but Agnes strikes Martin on the head, and she and Steven flee the blazing castle and reunite with Hawkwood. As Agnes and Steven embrace, Agnes sees Martin over Steven's shoulder, escaping from the castle, a sack of loot on his shoulder. She says nothing.

Fritz Knobel (a fictionalized version of real-life forger Konrad Kujau) supports himself by faking and selling Nazi memorabilia. He sells a portrait of Eva Braun and one volume of what he alleges to be Hitler's diaries (but which he actually wrote himself) to factory owner Karl Lenz. Lenz shows off the diary to his guests during a "birthday party for the Führer ", among whom is sleazy journalist Hermann Willié. Willié works for the magazine "HH Press"; the letters HH are a licence plate abbreviation for Hamburg where the real-life Stern magazine is located, but are also the common abbreviation for " Heil Hitler " among neo-Nazis. Knobel, in need of material to produce more diaries, turns to his own life for inspiration; after he meets Martha and she becomes his lover (he is already married to Biggi), Martha becomes the inspiration for the diary version of Eva Braun. Rumors about the diaries cause a major Nazi craze in high society, allowing former Nazi officials to flaunt their old ranks (e.g. Obergruppenführer). Willié becomes even more obsessed, buying Hermann Göring 's old yacht Carin II and starting an affair with his (fictional) grandniece Freya von Hepp, who is based on Hermann Göring's daughter Edda Göring. Towards the end, the plot has developed its own dynamics, putting more and more pressure on Knobel to deliver the remaining volumes while in constant fear that his forgery will be discovered. The volumes are convincing enough to fool the enthusiastic journalists, who are willing to overlook some oddities, especially a false monogram "FH" instead of "AH" on one of the volumes. They invent alternative facts to explain away the discrepancy (the term " Führerhauptquartier " instead of "Adolf Hitler" for instance). Later, Knobel manages to manipulate a forensic graphoanalysis to his advantage, but it seems only a matter of time until the truth is discovered. The constant fear, and the struggle against developing a too-close identification with the person he is writing about, eventually make Knobel collapse. Biggi and Martha take charge of the situation, forcing him to pull himself out of the forgery business just in time, while (similar to the end of World War II) the Nazi-enthusiasts fall – more or less hard according to their personal level of belief.

Two months before his graduation, high school senior Ferris Bueller fakes illness to stay home from school, regularly breaking the fourth wall to describe his senioritis. While his sister Jeanie sees through the ruse, he fools their parents, Katie and Tom. After learning Ferris has been absent nine times that semester, the school's dean, Edward R. Rooney, and his secretary Grace become determined to expose Ferris's chronic truancy. Ferris hacks into the school's computer system and reduces his absence count to two, making it appear that he attends school regularly. To excuse Ferris's girlfriend Sloane Peterson from school, he persuades his hypochondriac best friend Cameron Frye to impersonate Sloane's father and call the school with claims that her grandmother died. Knowing Sloane is dating Ferris, Rooney feels suspicious and responds dismissively. Ferris simultaneously calls the school to confirm his absence, fooling Rooney into believing he offended Sloane's father. When picking up Sloane, Ferris disguises himself as her father and borrows the prized possession of Cameron's father, a 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder. However, Rooney becomes suspicious upon seeing Sloane kiss Ferris. Fearing his father's wrath, Cameron becomes paranoid when Ferris takes the car on a day trip into Chicago, even with assurances of preserving its condition and original odometer mileage. Ferris, Cameron, and Sloane leave the car with two parking attendants, who promptly take it on a long joyride. The three visit the Sears Tower observatory, eat lunch at an upscale restaurant, visit the Chicago Stock Exchange and the Art Institute of Chicago, go to a Chicago Cubs baseball game, and attend the Von Steuben Day Parade, where Ferris jumps on a float and lip syncs to " Danke Schoen " by Wayne Newton and " Twist and Shout " by the Beatles. They manage to hide from his father, who works in the city. Meanwhile, Rooney prowls the Bueller home for Ferris, becoming victim to some pratfalls and pursued by the family's pet Rottweiler. When Jeanie skips class and returns home to confront Ferris, she discovers a dummy in his bed, and finds Rooney there. Mistaking him for a burglar, she knocks him unconscious by kicking him in the face and calls the police. Rooney regains consciousness and leaves the house upon noticing his car being towed. The police arrest Jeanie, believing she prank called the police station. While detained, she befriends a young delinquent who advises her to worry less about Ferris's exploits and more about her own life. Upon collecting the Ferrari and heading home, Ferris and Cameron discover that the car's mileage has significantly increased. Cameron enters semi-catatonic shock, later almost drowning in a pool before a worried Ferris helps him. At Cameron's house, Ferris jacks up the car and puts it in reverse gear to unsuccessfully attempt to rewind the odometer. Angry toward his domineering father, Cameron kicks the car's bumper until the jacks collapse and it crashes backward through the garage wall, suffering severe damage. Ferris offers to take the blame, but Cameron declines and insists on standing up to his father. After walking Sloane home, Ferris runs through the neighborhood to return home before his family does. He is nearly hit by Jeanie's car as she and Katie drive home from the police station. Ferris escapes Katie's notice, but Jeanie spots him and tries to beat him home, only to be pulled over and given a speeding ticket. Ferris arrives home first, but Rooney confronts him before he can return indoors. Seeing both of them through the window, Jeanie has a change of heart and allows Ferris to come inside before their parents do, claiming that he was at the hospital for his illness. She also shows Rooney his wallet that had fallen from his pocket in the kitchen earlier, tosses it into a nearby puddle, and shuts the back door loud enough to wake up the Rottweiler, who attacks and chases Rooney away. Upon seeing Ferris in bed, Katie and Tom believe he has been home all day. Meanwhile, a humiliated Rooney reluctantly accepts a ride on a school bus filled with students who act derisively toward him.

In 1987, Carol White is a housewife living in an affluent suburb of Los Angeles with her husband Greg and stepson Rory. She spends her days gardening, doing aerobics, and meeting friends. Her marriage and family life appear stable but sterile, and her friends are polite but distant. After the family's home is renovated, Carol begins experiencing physical symptoms in everyday situations: She coughs uncontrollably when exposed to exhaust fumes from a nearby truck while driving, suffers a panic attack at a baby shower, and has a nosebleed while getting a perm at a hair salon. As her symptoms worsen, she becomes convinced that they are triggered by exposure to chemicals. Finally, she collapses while at her dry cleaners, which is being fumigated with pesticides. Doctors are unable to diagnose or treat Carol and state that she is physically healthy. She attends psychotherapy sessions, but her symptoms do not improve. She finds herself very alone with her condition, as her community remains indifferent to her suffering. While hospitalized, Carol watches an advertisement for Wrenwood, a new-age desert community for people with " environmental illnesses." The commune is led by Peter Dunning, an author who encourages residents to use self-help techniques. Realizing that she can no longer function in her current life, she leaves everything behind and moves to Wrenwood. Even in a community of people who are friendly towards her and suffer from similar health problems, Carol becomes increasingly isolated despite claiming that she is getting better. Lesions appear on her face and she increasingly relies on an oxygen tank. Eventually, she moves into an insulated dome separated from the rest of the community. There, as a "treatment" suggested by others in the commune, she looks into a mirror and repeats, "I love you" to herself.

Dylan (Dan Futterman) and Jez (Stuart Townsend) are two orphans who meet in their twenties and vow to achieve their shared childhood dream of living in a stately home. In pursuit of this dream, they spend their days living in a disused gas holder, spending as little money as possible and conning the upper classes out of their riches. During one of their cons, they encounter Georgie (Kate Beckinsale) who is a medical student who can type. Georgie becomes aware that the two are con-artists. But they manage to convince her that they are modern day Robin Hoods, taking from the rich and giving to the poor. When a con goes wrong, the two find themselves jailed. They later learn that their entire fortune is to be rendered useless as the Royal Bank of England is recalling the notes. Jez and Dylan decide they need to somehow escape and retrieve their money or risk losing it. Jez contacts Georgie and appeals to her to help. Georgie, unbeknownst to the guys, needs money to save the Down syndrome foundation's mansion that her brother currently attends. She organises for Jez and Dylan to get released on compassionate leave under the guise of attending the cremation of a relative. While the ceremony is ongoing, they sneak out and retrieve the money and return before the prison warders suspect a thing. With the money hidden in the coffin they accidentally send it to be cremated and are returned to prison completely despondent. It turns out to be a double con as Georgie retrieves the money and buys her ex's "champion" horse only to learn that the horse is a dud. When the guys get out she comes clean and they hatch another plan which will see the horse win a big race allowing them to charge stud fees. Everything works out and the horse romps to victory (thanks to inserting helium in the jockeys outfit). Georgie agrees to sell the now champion horse back to her ex. With the proceeds all three agree to save the foundation and as they drive to the foundation broke, Jez and Dylan realise they have finally found their stately home.

During the first ice age, a caveman attempts to make fire with his cavewoman girlfriend. An earthquake causes a cave-in that buries them. In 1992, an earthquake awakens Dave Morgan, an Encino teenager who strives to attain popularity in high school. Stoney Brown is an unpopular student who is Dave's best and only friend. Dave is in love with Robyn Sweeney, who was his best friend in grade school. Her boyfriend, Matt Wilson, is a jock who humiliates Dave and Stoney. One day, while digging a pool in his backyard, Dave discovers the caveman, who is frozen in a gigantic block of ice. He leaves the ice block unattended in the garage before leaving for school the next morning and space heaters cause the ice to melt, releasing the caveman. When Dave returns home with Stoney, they find hand paint covering the walls and the house in disarray. A beeping smoke alarm leads them to Dave's bedroom, where they discover the caveman attempting to start a fire. He panics upon seeing them and hearing a telephone, but Stoney uses the flame of a lighter to calm him. After bathing and trimming him, Dave names him Linkovich "Link" Chomovsky. Dave and Stoney get Link some clothes and fool Dave's parents Betty and Larry and sister Teena into thinking he is an Estonian exchange student sent to live with them. They enroll him in school, where Link's bizarre behavior and supreme athletic skills make Dave and Stoney popular by association, allowing Dave to get closer to Robyn, stoking Matt's anger. Soon, Stoney's eccentric attitude influences Link's mannerisms, which causes a rift between Dave and Stoney. Matt starts a fight with Link at a skating rink and becomes more enraged after Robyn leaves him. During a school field trip to the La Brea Tar Pits, Link grieves after realizing that the cavepeople he knew are all dead. Stoney and Dave reassure Link that he is not without friends. During a driver's ed lesson, Link drives away in a car with Dave, Stoney and Robyn before stopping at a dance club. Dave and Link are arrested after the police follow them. Dismayed by Link's antics and Robyn's desire to go to the prom with Link, Dave tries to abandon him but Stoney reprimands him, leading to a fight between the two. This causes Link to return and break up the fight, leading Dave to apologize. On prom night, Link is a hit at the party with Robyn as his date, while Dave stays home. Matt breaks into Dave's bedroom and steals photographic evidence that Link is a caveman. As Dave and Stoney pursue Matt and his friends, another earthquake happens. Matt exposes Link as a caveman in an attempt to destroy Dave and his reputations but the student body accepts Link's status. Matt is humiliated, Dave and Robyn make up and the three boys lead the entire prom in an impromptu caveman-like dance with Infectious Grooves providing the music. After the prom, some of the students visit Dave's house for a pool party, where Dave and Robyn kiss. Meanwhile, Stoney and Link discover breast prints on the slider and paint covering the walls of Dave's home. They follow muddy footprints to the bathroom and find Link's girlfriend, who also survived the earthquake during the ice age. He joins her in the bathtub and embraces her happily. She is also made to look like a modern human.

Manni, a bagman responsible for delivering 100,000 marks, frantically calls his girlfriend Lola. Manni says that he was riding the U-Bahn to drop off the money and fled upon seeing ticket inspectors, before realizing that he left the money bag behind; he saw a homeless man examining it as the train pulled away. Manni's boss Ronnie will kill him in 20 minutes unless he has the money, so he is preparing to rob a nearby supermarket to replace the funds. Lola implores Manni to wait for her and decides to ask her father, a bank manager, for help. Lola runs down the staircase of her apartment building past a man with a dog. At the bank, her father is conversing with his mistress, who discloses her pregnancy. When Lola arrives, her conversation with her father turns into an argument. He tells her that he is leaving her mother and that Lola is not his biological daughter. Lola runs to meet Manni but arrives too late and sees him entering the supermarket with a gun. She helps him steal 100,000 marks but they find the place surrounded by police. Surrendering, Manni throws the money bag into the air, which startles a police officer who accidentally shoots Lola dead. Events restart from the moment Lola leaves the house. This time, the man with the dog trips her, and she runs with a limp and arrives late to the bank, allowing her father's mistress to add that he is not the father of her unborn child. A furious Lola overhears, grabs a security guard's gun, holds her father hostage and robs the bank of 100,000 marks. When police mistake her for a bystander, she is able to leave and meet with Manni in time and stop him from robbing a supermarket, but a speeding ambulance that Lola distracted moments earlier runs him over. Events begin again. Lola leaps over the man and his dog, arriving at the bank earlier but not triggering an auto accident as she did the first two times. Consequently, her father's customer arrives before her and leaves with her father. Lola wanders aimlessly before entering a casino, where she hands over all her cash and plays roulette with a 100-mark chip. She bets it on the number 20, which wins. Roulette pays 35 to 1, so she wins 3,500 more marks, which she immediately adds to her original chip on 20. The 20 comes up again. She leaves with a bag containing 129,600 marks and runs to Manni's rendezvous. Manni spots the homeless man from the underground train passing by on a bicycle with the money bag. Manni steals back the bag at gunpoint, exchanging his gun. A dishevelled and perspiring Lola arrives to witness Manni handing over the money to Ronnie. As the pair walk along, Manni casually asks Lola about her bag.

On November 5, 1975, in Snowflake, Arizona, logger Travis Walton, and his five co-workers—Mike Rogers, Allan Dallis, David Whitlock, Greg Hayes and Bobby Cogdill—head to work in the White Mountains. Driving back towards town that night, the loggers see unearthly red light in the distance through the treeline. Investigating, they encounter an unidentified flying object. Curious, Walton gets out of the truck to examine more closely, but is struck by a bright beam of light and is thrown several feet backwards. Fearing Walton has been killed, the terrified loggers flee. Rogers decides to go back to retrieve Walton, but he is nowhere to be found. In reporting the incident in town, the loggers are met with skepticism by investigators Sheriff Blake Davis and Lieutenant Frank Watters. Watters, learning that there was a great deal of tension between Dallis and Walton and that Dallis has a criminal record, suspects foul play. That suspicion spreads in town and the loggers become social outcasts. After a large search party turns up no sign of Walton, the police offer the loggers the chance to take a lie detector test. They take the test in the hopes of proving their innocence. Watters says that the tests were inconclusive and that they will have to return the next day to retake it. Rogers is outraged and angrily declines, the other loggers follow suit. The test's administrator reveals to Watters and Davis that, with the exception of Dallis (whose test results were inconclusive), the loggers seem to be telling the truth. Five days later, Rogers receives a call from someone claiming to be Walton. He is found at a Heber gas station, alive but naked, dehydrated and severely traumatized. A ufologist questions Walton but is sent away and Walton is taken to a hospital. Rogers visits Walton while he's in the emergency room. He says that the team left but Rogers returned to try to retrieve Walton. Apparently enraged, Walton turns away from Rogers. He in turn chastises Walton for getting out of the truck in the first place. During a welcome home party, Walton suffers a mental breakdown and flashback to the abduction by the extraterrestrials. In his flashback, he awakens inside a slimy cocoon. Breaking out of its membrane, a bewildered Walton finds himself adrift in a zero-gravity alien environment inside a cylindrical enclosure, whose walls contain other similar cocoons. Struggling in the low gravity, he accidentally breaches a nearby cocoon, horrified to discover that it contains decomposing human remains. Exploring further, he drifts towards a neighbouring area, seeing several humanoid figures below him. Drifting uncontrollably towards them, he investigates, surmising that the immobile figures are spacesuits, one of which is still occupied by an extraterrestrial creature. Walton attempts to escape, but is apprehended by two aliens who drag him down corridors full of terrestrial detritus such as shoes and keys before arriving in an examination chamber. The aliens hold the struggling Walton to a platform in the centre of the chamber, stripping him of his clothes and covering him with an elastic material that completely restrains him. Despite Walton's terrified screams, the aliens clinically subject him to a torturous experiment in which a gelatinous substance is forced into his mouth, a tube is inserted down his throat, his jaw is locked open and a device is stabbed into his neck. Overhead equipment then begins lowering towards him. As a needle-like ocular probe extends towards his exposed eye, Walton suddenly reawakens from his flashback in a doctor's office. While interviewing Walton, Lieutenant Watters expresses his doubts about the abduction, dismissing it as a hoax. He notes that Walton's new celebrity status resulted from the tabloids' attempts to profit from his tale. He believes that Walton faked the abduction. Given that the investigation is officially closed, Watters is forced to abandon his pursuit and leaves town. Two and a half years later, Walton visits Rogers, now a hermit, and the two men reconcile. The closing titles inform that in 1993, Walton, Rogers, and Dallis were resubmitted to additional polygraph examinations, which they passed, apparently corroborating their innocence.

After the arrest of Tuleyev, Soviet counterintelligence begins a radio game with the enemy. Messages signed "Nadezhda" continue to be sent to the Western intelligence center. KGB counterintelligence officer Pavel "Snipe" Sinitzyn, who feels genuine sympathy for Tuleyev, tries to persuade him to switch sides. He takes Tuleyev around the country and arranges a meeting with Maria and his son, whom Tuleyev sees for the first time. Tuleyev learns that his father, Count A. I. Tuleyev, did not die peacefully but under mysterious circumstances, likely murdered. Elsewhere, at an international scientific conference, a young Soviet scientist named Borkov, carried away by enthusiasm, shares slightly too much about his work and immediately comes under the scrutiny of foreign intelligence. Apparently, Sinitzyn discovered this while stationed in a Western intelligence center in the previous film. Tuleyev's superiors conduct a recruitment operation against Borkov, blackmailing him over immoral behavior abroad and pressuring him into espionage. After some hesitation, Borkov reports the incident to the KGB. General Sergeyev's department then gains the opportunity to dismantle an espionage network in Moscow led by the diplomat Klotz. Western handlers begin to suspect that "Nadezhda" may have been compromised and conduct a series of tests. Thanks to General Sergeyev's keen insight, these are successfully passed, including disguising a peaceful construction site as a strategic military facility. Tuleyev gradually reconsiders his views and makes a conscious decision to work for the USSR. He is recalled, and in his place, the renowned Leonid Krug from the first film arrives from abroad. Tuleyev heads to the West as a Soviet resident, while Krug, just off the ship in Odessa, comes under the watchful eye of Sinitzyn.