A Russian peasant family is eating dinner when a truck stops in the front yard. The father opens the door of the truck to find a dead woman and two crying infants in the seat next to her. Marie Jones, an American woman, is seen in a Russian hotel room making a call to her daughter; she then goes to meet a local notary, who tells her that she has inherited some property, and that she should visit it. Having been taken to the wooded island, she finds that the house is dilapidated and inhabited by zombie-like creatures, one of whom looks like her. Having attempted to escape, she meets Nikolai, who tells her that they are fraternal twins, adopted separately following the murder of their mother. The house seems to change at random between dilapidation and domestication. Threatened by the zombie-like creatures, Nikolai shoots one of them in the leg, only to find that the wound appears on his own body. He deduces that they are his and Marie's doppelgängers, and that 'what happens to them happens to us'. When Nikolai falls into a hole in the floor while the house is dilapidated, Marie is unable to rescue him because the hole suddenly seals as the house changes to a domesticated state. Marie attempts to escape by rowing across the river. After a lengthy walk on the opposite bank, she happens upon a house, only to find that it is the house she has escaped from, with Nikolai inside. He explains that their father intended to kill them along with their mother when they were babies, and that they cannot leave until he has managed to reunite the family in death. The house reverts to its state on the night of the murder, and they see their father returning home. Nikolai tells Marie that they can escape in the truck along with their mother and their younger selves. While searching for the truck, Marie finds her father's now desiccated body in the barn, and is then pushed into a pseudo-past where she realizes her father and the notary are the same person. She flees his office in the present and runs into her past self as she comes up the steps, and continues fleeing into the sunlight until she finds herself back in the house, this time between the past and the present, where the apparition of her father explains that he has always loved his children and his wife, and could not let them leave him. Marie runs from him and finds Nikolai's body being eaten by boars. When her doppelgänger comes after her, Marie flees to the truck parked outside and drives away. Marie's father's voice comes over the radio, telling her to return and join the family he has created. The bridge that brought her there has been destroyed, and she plunges into the river, drowning. The film ends with Marie's daughter, Emily, explaining that she knew her mother would never return. It has been a long time since her mother left for Russia, and Emily has never had the desire to know what happened to Marie or her parents, breaking the cycle and leaving her abandoned.

Following the death of her mother, a young woman is framed for her sister's murder by their stepfather, who is infuriated after being excluded from the will, and is subsequently committed to a mental institute. Upon arrival, her stepfather bribes orderly Blue Jones to forge psychiatrist Vera Gorski's signature to have her lobotomized and she is given the nickname Babydoll. Babydoll slips into a fantasy world in which the asylum is a brothel owned by mobster Blue and she and the other patients are sex slaves. She befriends fellow patients Amber, Blondie, Rocket, and Rocket's sister, Sweet Pea, and imagines Dr. Gorski as their dance instructor. Blue intends to sell Babydoll's virginity to the High Roller; in reality, a doctor is scheduled to perform her lobotomy. Babydoll performs an erotic dance during which she fantasizes she is in feudal Japan, meeting the Wise Man. He tells her that she needs four items to escape: a map, fire, a knife and a key. There is a fifth unrevealed item that only she can find which requires "a deep sacrifice" and will bring a "perfect victory". She fights three samurai giants, then finds herself back in the brothel. Babydoll convinces the four other girls to join her in escaping. She dances as a distraction while the others obtain the necessary tools. During her dances, she fantasizes about adventures that mirror the escape efforts, such as infiltrating a bunker protected by World War I German soldiers to gain a map (as Sweet Pea copies a map of the building in Blue's office), storming an Orc -infested castle to retrieve fire crystals (as Amber steals a lighter from the mayor), and fighting robots on a train to disarm a bomb (as Sweet Pea steals a kitchen knife from the Cook). In the last fantasy, Rocket sacrifices herself, paralleled by the Cook fatally stabbing Rocket as she protects her sister. Blue overhears Blondie relaying Babydoll's plan to Gorski. He fatally shoots Amber and Blondie. Babydoll stabs him with the kitchen knife and steals his master key, then starts a fire to distract the orderlies as they seek an escape. Babydoll deduces that the fifth item is her own sacrifice, and that this is Sweet Pea's story. She distracts the men long enough to allow Sweet Pea to escape. In the asylum, the surgeon completes Babydoll's lobotomy. Gorski notes that during her short stay, Babydoll stabbed an orderly, started a fire, and helped another girl escape. The surgeon, who doesn't agree with the procedure, asks Gorski why she authorized it, and Gorski realizes that Blue has been forging her signature. The police apprehend Blue as he attempts to rape Babydoll. As he is being arrested, Blue incriminates Babydoll's stepfather. Sweet Pea is stopped by police as she tries to board a bus, but the driver (the Wise Man) misleads the police and lets her board.

The film takes place in Edo in the year 1630. A rōnin called Tsugumo Hanshirō arrives at the estate of the Iyi clan and says that he wishes to commit seppuku within the courtyard of the palace. To deter him, Saitō Kageyu, the daimyō ' s senior counselor, tells Hanshirō the story of another rōnin, Chijiiwa Motome — formerly of the same clan as Hanshirō. Saitō scornfully recalls the practice of rōnin requesting the chance to commit seppuku on the clan's land, but in fact hoping to be turned away and given alms. Motome had arrived at the palace a few months earlier and made the same request as Hanshirō. Infuriated by the rising number of "suicide bluffs", the three most senior samurai of the clan—Yazaki Hayato, Kawabe Umenosuke, and Omodaka Hikokuro—persuaded Saitō to force Motome to follow through and kill himself, ignoring his request for a couple of days delay. Upon examining Motome's swords, his blades were found to be made of bamboo. Enraged that any samurai would "pawn his soul", the House of Iyi forced Motome to disembowel himself with his own bamboo blade, making his death slow, agonizingly painful, and deeply humiliating. Despite this warning, Hanshirō insists that he has never heard of Motome and says that he is sincere in wanting to commit seppuku. Just as the ceremony is about to begin, Hanshirō is asked to name the samurai who shall behead him when the ritual is complete. To the shock of Saitō and the Iyi retainers, Hanshirō successively names Hayato, Umenosuke, and Hikokuro — the three samurai who coerced the suicide of Motome. When messengers are dispatched to summon them, all three decline to come, with each claiming to be too ill to attend. While waiting for the messengers to return, Hanshirō recounts his life story to the assembled samurai, starting with the admission that he did know Motome. In 1619, his clan was abolished by the Shōgun. His lord decided to commit seppuku and, as his most senior samurai, Hanshirō planned to die alongside him. To prevent this, Hanshirō's closest friend took his place instead, leaving Hanshirō responsible for his teenage son, Motome. In order to support Motome and his own daughter Miho, Hanshirō rented a hovel in the slums of Edo, taking up work as a fan and umbrella craftsman while Motome became a teacher. Realizing the love between Motome and Miho, Hanshirō arranged for them to marry. Soon after, they had a son, Kingo. When Miho became ill with tuberculosis, Motome could not bear the thought of losing her and did everything to raise money to hire a doctor. When Kingo also fell ill, Motome left one morning, saying he planned to take out a loan from a moneylender. Later that evening, Hayato, Umenosuke, and Hikokuro brought home Motome's mutilated body, and described and mocked his death before leaving. It is now clear that Motome had requested a delay so he could visit his family and put his affairs in order. A few days later, Kingo died, and Miho lost the will to live and died, leaving Hanshirō with nothing. Finishing his story, Hanshirō explains that his sole desire is to join Motome, Miho, and Kingo in death. He explains, however, that they have every right to ask him whether justice has been exacted for their deaths. Therefore, Hanshirō asks Saitō if he has any statement of regret to convey to Motome, Miho, and Kingo. He explains that, if Saitō does so, he will die without saying another word. Saitō refuses, calling Motome an "extortionist" who deserved to die. After provoking Saitō's laughter by calling the samurai moral code bushido a facade, Hanshirō reveals the last part of his story. Before coming to the Iyi estate, he tracked down Hayato and Umenosuke and cut off their topknots. Hikokuro then visited Hanshirō's hovel and, with great respect, challenged him to a duel. After a brief but tense sword fight, Hikokuro suffers a double disgrace: his sword is broken and his topknot is taken as well. As proof, Hanshirō removes their labelled topknots from his kimono and casts them upon the palace courtyard. He mocks the Iyi clan, saying that if the men he humiliated were true samurai, they would not be hiding out of shame. He also questions the clan's honor and bushido itself, pointing out that they should not have ignored Motome's request for a delay to his seppuku without investigating the reason why he asked, but they were too preoccupied with their supposed honor to care. Having badly lost face, an enraged Saitō calls Hanshirō a madman and orders the retainers to kill him. In a fierce battle, Hanshirō kills four samurai, wounds eight, and contemptuously smashes into pieces the antique suit of armor which symbolizes the glorious history of the House of Iyi. Finally, the clan corners Hanshirō and prepares to kill him not with swords, but with three matchlock guns. As Hanshirō commits seppuku, he is simultaneously shot by all three gunmen. Terrified that the Iyi clan will be abolished if word gets out that "a half starved rōnin" killed so many of their retainers, Saitō announces that all deaths caused by Hanshirō shall be explained by "illness". At the same time, a messenger returns reporting that Hikokuro had killed himself the day before, while Hayato and Umenosuke are both faking illness. Saitō angrily orders that Hayato and Umenosuke be forced to commit seppuku as atonement for losing their topknots. Those three deaths are also to be attributed to "illness". As the suit of armor is cleaned and re-erected, a new entry in the official records of the House of Iyi is read by a voiceover. Hanshirō is declared to have been mentally unstable, and he and Motome are both listed as having died through harakiri. The Shōgun is said to have issued a personal commendation to the lord of the Iyi clan for how his councilors handled the suicide bluffs of Motome and Hanshirō. At the end of his letter, the Shōgun praises the House of Iyi and their samurai as exemplars of bushido. As workers scrub the blood from the ground of the clan's estate, one of them finds a severed topknot and places it in his work bucket.

Ali Hassan works for Danka TV in Karachi, Pakistan, and dreams of migrating to the United States, but his visa applications are rejected for seven years straight in the aftermath of September 11 attacks. While covering a local event for his channel, he discovers Noora, a poultry farmer and Osama bin Laden lookalike, and hits upon an idea to make a fake Osama tape. He recruits his assistant Gul, colleague Lateef, makeup artist Zoya and radio jockey Qureishi in his scheme, and tricks Noora into shooting the tape under false pretenses. He then sells the tape to Majeed, the owner of Danka TV, hoping to raise money for the elusive US visa. However, the US government and Pakistani Intelligence get involved once it releases, thwarting his plans and starting a war in Afghanistan. A CIA and Pakistani team, led by Ted Wood and Usman, is formed to investigate Osama's location in Pakistan. Ali decides to defuse the situation by making another tape in which Osama declares a ceasefire with the US, and somehow manages to convince Noora and Qureishi who disapprove of his actions. During the shooting, Noora unwittingly detonates a grenade, which kills his beloved rooster. Depressed, he runs away from the studio with the Osama makeup still on, forcing Ali and the others to follow suit. Meanwhile, Ted Wood and Usman track them down and arrest the entire team. However, during their interrogation, the truth is revealed, and to save Ted's face, Ali convinces him to make his planned tape of Osama declaring a ceasefire. When the second fake tape releases, the United States accepts the offer of a ceasefire, and Ali is at last able to make it to America.

In August 2010, a group of 33 miners from Copiapó, Chile, work in the San José Mine when the mine collapses due to the owner's negligence in ignoring warning signs of instability. The collapse blocks the only path into the mine, leaving the miners trapped. They manage to make their way to a rescue chamber, but soon realize they are ill-prepared for a long stay. The radio is not working, the medical kit is empty, and there is very little food. Mario Sepúlveda emerges as a leader among the miners, taking charge of rationing food and keeping the group from spiraling into violence and despair. The mine company does not attempt to rescue the miners, and their families gather outside the gates of the mine. The Chilean government intervenes and orders the use of drilling to reach the trapped miners. The first few boreholes miss their target, but eventually, a successful one reaches the rescue chamber. The miners attach a note to the drill bit to let the surface know they are alive. The government sends in food, clothing, and establishes television communication with the surface. A second drilling system is prepared to retrieve the miners one by one. Over the next several weeks, there is much drama and tension as the rescuers work to free the miners. Finally, after more than two months of being trapped, all 33 miners are successfully rescued. The rescue becomes a source of inspiration and hope for people around the world.

During the summer of 1958, greaser Danny Zuko and straight-laced Australian girl Sandy Olsson fall in love at the beach. As Sandy prepares to return home, she worries that she will never see Danny again, but he comforts her by saying that the summer is "only the beginning" for them. On the first day of his senior year at Rydell High School, Danny reconnects with the members of his greaser gang the T-Birds: Sonny, Putzie, Doody, and his best friend Kenickie. Sandy arrives at Rydell and is introduced to girls' gang The Pink Ladies—Marty, Jan and leader Betty Rizzo—by mutual friend Frenchy. At lunch, Danny and Sandy each separately describe their summer, unaware of the other's presence until Sandy mentions Danny's name, which the Pink Ladies recognize. At a pep rally, Sandy, now a cheerleader, flirts with Tom, a football player. Kenickie arrives in "Greased Lightnin ' ", a heavily used car he plans on restoring in order to drag race it at Thunder Road. Rizzo and the Pink Ladies surprise Sandy by reuniting her with a shocked Danny. Sandy is thrilled, but Danny makes fun of her to maintain his tough image. Frenchy invites her to a sleepover with the other Pink Ladies that night to make her feel better. At the sleepover, Rizzo makes fun of Sandy's good-girl image, and Frenchy announces she is dropping out of Rydell to go to beauty school. The T-Birds crash the party, and Rizzo leaves with Kenickie to have sex in Greased Lightnin' at a nearby make-out spot. While the couple is there, rival greasers Leo and Cha-Cha interrupt them. Danny motivates the T-Birds to work on the car by saying it will win them both girls and races. Later, he sees Sandy on a date with Tom and tries to apologize for his attitude at the pep rally, but she is unconvinced. Danny tries several sports in order to impress Sandy, eventually succeeding at track and field. Sandy, bored with Tom, agrees to be Danny's date to an upcoming dance at which the television show National Bandstand will do a live broadcast from the Rydell gym. Rizzo and Kenickie break up after a fight. After a disastrous beauty class, Frenchy reluctantly decides to return to Rydell to complete her high school education. At the dance, Rizzo and Kenickie bring Leo and Cha-Cha as their respective dates out of spite. In a ribald dance contest that ends with the T-Birds mooning the cameras, Danny begins the contest with Sandy before Sonny pushes Sandy off the floor and Cha-Cha cuts in. Danny and Cha-Cha win as Sandy storms off. To make it up to her, Danny takes Sandy to a drive-in movie and asks her to wear his ring. She accepts, but when he tries to make out with her, she flees the drive-in, leaving Danny hurt. Meanwhile, Rizzo fears that she may be pregnant, and tells Marty. When word reaches Kenickie, he offers to help, but she denies that he is the father. At Thunder Road, Kenickie's head collides with his own car door, leaving him concussed. Danny takes his place behind the wheel and beats Leo in the race. Sandy decides to change her image and asks Frenchy for help. At Rydell's graduation carnival, Rizzo discovers that she is not pregnant, and she and Kenickie get back together. Danny shocks the T-Birds by becoming a letterman, and Sandy shocks everyone with a new leather, "greaser"-style outfit. She and Danny reconcile and the whole gang vows to "always be together". Danny and Sandy drive off into the sky while their friends wave goodbye.

Ex-soldier Ryan Reeve wakes up in the back of a moving van next to a young tied-up boy, Alex, who is being held prisoner. Strangely, the boy seems to think Reeve is the kidnapper though he has no memory of ever having seen the boy before, and looking at his watch, he last remembered it being six months previously. After freeing the boy, making a run for it, and attempting to figure out what has happened to him, all he remembers is being at a facility treating his severe PTSD. As one of their pursuers catches up to them, suddenly he blacks out again and awakes in a room with a mysterious young man (same as before) named Harkin Langham, who seems to think he is someone else. When Langham discovers who he really is, he disables Reeve and knocks him out. Reeve then wakes up in a mysterious bedroom having sex with a beautiful young woman. She identifies herself as a prostitute named Dana, who seems to remember meeting and engaging in sexual activity with a much more violent and sociopathic version of Reeve. He tries to explain his predicament, but she remains skeptical. He asks her to come with him, but she says she cannot leave as she is the "property" of a Russian gangster named Sergio. Reeve offers to free her if she will help him solve the mystery that his life has become. The two manage to escape, but Reeve again loses consciousness when the mind control system reboots and again Langham catches up to him. He must work out what is happening in bursts of exactly nine minutes and forty-seven seconds, as the control and conscious awareness of his body are repeatedly being hijacked and shuffled through different scenarios by person/s unknown. He teams up with Dana as he battles a conspiracy in mind control known as "Anomaly" led by Langham. Langham, meanwhile, urges him to stop fighting it, as it has nothing to do with him, however, he is convinced otherwise.

A satellite, just launched from a Space Shuttle orbiter, collides with an unidentified object, which, after being spotted on radar moving at great speeds, had positioned itself just over the ship. The collision kills an astronaut in the launch bay. The events are witnessed by Bancroft and Price, the astronauts aboard. After returning to Earth, they are stonewalled when they try to discuss what happened. Harry Forbes, deputy director of NASA, simply tells them that "everything is going to be all right". After it makes a controlled landing in the Arizona desert, the damaged alien spacecraft is taken to Wolf Air Force Base in Texas and installed in Hangar 18, where scientists and other technicians, headed by Harry Forbes, can study it. Due to an impending presidential election, government officials are anxious to prevent any public knowledge of the event. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Forbes, the Air Force puts out a news story blaming Bancroft and Price for the death of their colleague and for the destruction of the satellite. The men know that they can prove their innocence by viewing the telemetry tapes which recorded the UFO; but when they view them, all evidence of the object has been erased. Through a friend who works at a remote tracking station, they see the real telemetry and discover where the alien craft landed. They set out to expose the cover-up and clear their names. In the hangar, investigators enter the ship and find its two crew members dead. They determine that, during the collision with the satellite, chemicals were released in the craft that produced a short-lived toxic gas. They find a human woman in a stasis chamber, who later wakes up, screaming. They realize that symbols on the control panels match those used by ancient Earth civilizations. Video on the ship's computer shows extensive surveillance of power plants, military bases, industrial plants and major cities worldwide. Autopsies performed on the aliens show that they and humans had similar evolutionary processes. A scientist deduces that the ship could not have reached Earth on its own, but must have been launched from a much larger, faster and more long-ranged mother ship. In their pursuit of the truth, Bancroft and Price get closer to Hangar 18 but are targets of government agents. They elude one team, who are killed during a high-speed chase. Later, they find that the brakes on their rental car have stopped working, and after careening along roads, they come to rest on the grounds of a gas refinery. Agents begin shooting at them, so they drive off in an oil tanker. With the agents in pursuit, Price climbs onto the tanker, lets some gas out of the truck, lights an emergency flare, and tosses it. Their pursuers crash and are killed, but Price is fatally shot. When Forbes learns of Price's death, he demands the Air Force to take Bancroft to Hangar 18, or he will go to the press with the truth. Their cover-up and careers now threatened, government officials decide to remotely fly an explosives-filled plane into Hangar 18 to destroy all evidence of the event. The researchers have determined that the aliens have been to Earth before and that human beings are, in fact, their descendants. Further examination of the video footage reveals that the industrial and military sites are "designated landing areas", suggesting that the aliens are preparing to return. When Bancroft arrives at the base, he crashes through the base's security gate and, hiding in a warehouse, is discovered by Forbes, who takes him to Hangar 18 and the alien craft. Just as a researcher reveals that a translation of the aliens' language indicates that they are about to return, the plane crashes into Hangar 18, creating a huge explosion. The next day, a news report says that Bancroft, Forbes and their group of technicians survived the blast, shielded inside an alien spacecraft. Forbes schedules a press conference for that afternoon.

In spring 1978, in the Northland town of Kaitaia, nineteen-year-old Gerry Austin (a.k.a. 'Blondini') steals a lost wallet and uses the cash and driver's licence to rent a yellow Mini. With no particular aim in mind, he drifts down to Auckland. Meanwhile in Auckland, the middle-aged John fails to convince Sue, his girlfriend of six years, to stay with him. After a night of drinking, John decides to travel to Sue's sister's home in Invercargill to win her back. Searching for transport, John saves Gerry from receiving a ticket for failing to wear a seat belt. As thanks, Gerry offers John a lift part of the way. The duo stop for petrol in northern Waikato but accidentally drive off without paying, drawing police attention to the car. Further down the road, Gerry and John pick up Shirl, another drifter heading to Wanganui. After Shirl informs the duo that she is a virgin, Gerry makes a bet that this will change before reaching Wanganui. After purposely stealing petrol in the central North Island, they are pursued by a motorcycle officer, and avoid arrest by driving into a car wrecker. After Shirl leaves, Gerry and John travel onward to Wellington and meet with Mulvaney, an old associate of John's. Mulvaney supplies them with money and drugs in return for parts of the car; while staying over at Mulvaney's garage, Gerry reunites with Shirl. As the trio leave for the Interislander ferry the next morning, Gerry runs a red light and is pursued by the police through central Wellington. The trio avoid the police by driving through the Wellington railway station and stowing the Mini in an empty boxcar being shunted onto the ferry. In Picton on the South Island, the boxcar is attached to a train bound for Christchurch. Gerry, John, and Shirl ride it south, decorating the inside of the boxcar with Gerry's nickname "Blondini" and various items found in the other wagons. After a night of partying, Gerry finally wins his bet with Shirl. The trio arrive in Christchurch in the morning and learn that the wagon is not leaving for the West Coast until that night. Gerry and John spend the day on the town and return to the train. As it leaves, they notice Shirl hasn't returned, and are forced to continue without her. Stopping at a tearoom further down the coast, John and Gerry find out from a television that Shirl has been arrested for shoplifting, and that a national manhunt has been launched for the "Blondini Gang." The Mini is pursued down the Lake Hāwea shoreline by a determined policeman who almost catches Gerry and John before swerving off the road to avoid a combine harvester. Gerry stops to make sure the officer is all right and mocks the other police over the car's radio. The duo sell more parts off the car at Cromwell. At Dunedin, they meet the unhinged Snout, who helps them avoid a police roadblock and offers to buy the set of flags Gerry has gathered for the Mini's antenna. Gerry initially refuses, superstitious that the flags have kept them safe so far, but relents at John's urging. After Gerry and John leave, Snout tips the police off that they are heading for Invercargill. At the Southland town of McNab, John is spotted by police and drives off in the Mini, not realising Gerry is underneath the car. Gerry is arrested, but escapes from the police car and jumps on top of the fleeing Mini. The police attack the Mini with a PIT; Gerry falls off and is hit by the pursuing police car. John bids farewell to the injured Gerry, then takes the car and proceeds to Invercargill. A trucker at the scene refuses to move aside for the police out of respect for Gerry, whose ultimate fate is not shown. At Invercargill, John is met by a throng of admirers who have been following the Blondini Gang's cross-country journey. Members of the Armed Offenders Squad arrive. A disrespectful bystander goads them into firing at the Mini, shooting a hole in John's petrol can. While his supporters distract the officers, John diverts through a cemetery, making it to Sue's house just as the leaking petrol ignites an explosion that finally destroys the Mini. John reunites with Sue, and the two have sex while police surround the house. Bidding farewell to Sue, John surrenders, cracking jokes for the admiring onlookers as the police take him away.

Taxi portrays director Jafar Panahi as he courses through the streets of Tehran while pretending to be a share taxi driver. He wants to hear a piece of his passengers' lives and declines any payment for the services. His earliest passengers include a conservative-minded man who supports capital punishment and a woman supporting its abolition, a pirated video vendor named Omid who once lent foreign films not available in the country to Panahi, an injured man and his wife who insist on recording a last will due to their panic, and a pair of superstitious old women wanting to release their goldfishes to a holy spring. Eventually, Panahi picks up his niece, Hana, at her school. She discusses film-making and wants Panahi's advice on creating a short film for a school project; her teacher has talked about several rules on creating films in Iran, including the avoidance of siahnamayi, or portraying a dark image about the country. However, Hana's teacher also stated that people should create films as they see fit. The two stop near a coffeehouse where Panahi meets with a family friend he has not seen for seven years. The latter inquires about a burglary he recently experienced and his dilemma of not informing the authorities about the thieves, whom he personally knows, as they are poor and have nothing else to lose. Meanwhile, Hana films a case of siahnamayi herself when she spots a boy who picks up money that had been dropped on the road by a couple of newlyweds and initially refuses to return it. Finally, Panahi and Hana meet with Nasrin Sotoudeh, a human rights lawyer about to see the imprisoned Ghoncheh Ghavami and possibly convince her to give up her hunger strike. While adjusting her seat, Hana stumbles upon a purse belonging to one of the old women with the goldfishes. Sotoudeh decides to leave early so Panahi can deliver the purse, but not before giving him a rose as a goodwill for filmmakers. Panahi and Hana proceed to the springs and are able to return the purse; at the same time as this happens, a pair of thieves (or government agents) ransack the taxi, before the film cuts off.

After Columbia University parapsychology professors Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, and Egon Spengler experience their first encounter with a ghost at the New York Public Library, the university dean dismisses the credibility of their paranormal -focused research and fires them. The trio responds by establishing "Ghostbusters", a paranormal investigation and elimination service operating out of a disused firehouse. They develop high-tech nuclear-powered equipment to capture and contain ghosts, although business is initially slow. Following a paranormal encounter in her apartment, cellist Dana Barrett visits the Ghostbusters. She recounts witnessing a demonic dog-like creature in her refrigerator utter a single word: "Zuul". Ray and Egon research Zuul and details of Dana's building while Peter inspects her apartment and unsuccessfully attempts to seduce her. The Ghostbusters are hired to remove a gluttonous ghost from the Sedgewick Hotel. Having failed to properly test their equipment, Egon warns the group that crossing the energy streams of their proton pack weapons could cause a catastrophic explosion. They capture the ghost and deposit it in an ecto-containment unit under the firehouse. Supernatural activity rapidly increases across the city and the Ghostbusters become famous; they hire a fourth member, Winston Zeddemore, to cope with the growing demand. Suspicious of the Ghostbusters, Environmental Protection Agency inspector Walter Peck asks to evaluate their equipment, but Peter rebuffs him. Egon warns that the containment unit is nearing capacity and supernatural energy is surging across the city. Peter meets with Dana and informs her that Zuul was a demigod worshipped as a servant to "Gozer the Gozerian", a shapeshifting god of destruction. Upon returning home, Dana is possessed by Zuul; a similar entity possesses her neighbor, Louis Tully. Peter arrives and finds the possessed Dana/Zuul claiming to be "the Gatekeeper". Louis is brought to Egon by police officers and claims that he is "Vinz Clortho, the Keymaster". The Ghostbusters agree that they must keep the pair separated. The next morning, Peck returns with law enforcement and city workers to have the Ghostbusters arrested and their containment unit deactivated, causing an explosion that releases the captured ghosts. Louis/Vinz escapes in the confusion and makes his way to the apartment building to join Dana/Zuul. In jail, Ray and Egon reveal that Ivo Shandor, leader of a Gozer-worshipping cult in the early 20th century, designed Dana's building to function as an antenna to attract and concentrate spiritual energy to summon Gozer and bring about the apocalypse. Faced with supernatural chaos across the city, the Ghostbusters convince the mayor to release them. The Ghostbusters travel to a hidden temple located on top of the building as Dana/Zuul and Louis/Vinz open the gate between dimensions and transform into demonic dogs. Gozer appears as a woman and attacks the Ghostbusters, then disappears when they attempt to retaliate, with its disembodied voice demanding the Ghostbusters "choose the form of the destructor". Ray inadvertently recalls a beloved corporate mascot from his childhood, and Gozer reappears as a gigantic Stay Puft Marshmallow Man that begins destroying the city. Against his earlier advice, Egon instructs the team to cross their proton energy streams at the dimensional gate. The resulting explosion destroys Gozer's avatar, banishing it back to its dimension, and closes the gateway. The Ghostbusters then rescue Dana and Louis from the wreckage and are welcomed on the street as heroes.

Struggling inventor Randall Peltzer visits a Chinatown antique store to find a Christmas present for his son, Billy. In it, Randall uncovers a small and furry creature called a mogwai (Cantonese: 魔怪, 'devil'). The owner, Mr. Wing, refuses to sell it to him, but his grandson secretly does, warning Randall to remember three important rules concerning its care – keep the creature away from light, especially sunlight, which will kill it; do not let it come in contact with water; and above all, never let it eat after midnight. In Randall's hometown of Kingston Falls, Billy works at its local bank, but fears that his dog Barney will be put down by widowed miser Ruby Deagle. His father returns and offers him the mogwai, now named "Gizmo", as a pet and informs him of the rules. Gizmo is friendly and docile, but when Billy's friend, Pete Fountaine, accidentally spills water on him, five more mogwai spawn from him – a more mischievous sort led by the aggressive Stripe, named after the mohawk -like tuft of white fur on his head. Billy shows one of the mogwai to his former elementary school science teacher, Roy Hanson, spawning another mogwai, whom the latter experiments on. Back home, Stripe and his fellow mogwai trick Billy into feeding them after midnight by sabotaging his bedside clock. They form cocoons, as does Hanson's mogwai, which soon hatch, emerging as destructive and reptilian imp-like monsters called "gremlins". Hanson is murdered by his gremlin, while those at the Peltzer house torture Gizmo and assault Billy's mother, Lynn. The duo are able to dispatch all the gremlins sans Stripe, who escapes to the local YMCA where he jumps into its swimming pool, spawning an army of gremlins that wreak havoc on Kingston Falls. Many locals are injured or outright killed during their rampage, including Deagle. The police are helpless in the ordeal, as they too fall victim to the gremlins' mischief. After Billy rescues his co-worker and girlfriend, Kate Beringer, when the gremlins attack the bar she works at, and they seek refuge in the bank, the latter discloses that her father went missing on Christmas Eve when she was nine years old, but was then found dead in their house's chimney several days later. Planning to surprise his family while portraying Santa Claus, he inadvertently slipped and broke his neck while climbing down the chimney. Still suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder due to the incident, Kate confesses how this led to her dislike of the holidays. The trio find the gremlins gathered in the local movie theater due to morning approaching and set off a natural gas explosion, killing them all except for Stripe, who left the theater earlier to retrieve candy at a Montgomery Ward store across the street. They follow Stripe into the store, where he attempts to use a fountain to spawn more gremlins, but Gizmo then opens a nearby skylight, exposing Stripe to sunlight and killing him. In the aftermath, Mr. Wing arrives at the Peltzer house to reclaim Gizmo as he scolds the family for their negligence and criticizes Western society for its carelessness with nature. However, as he turns to leave, Gizmo, having bonded with Billy, bids him goodbye. A compassionate Wing then concedes that Billy may be ready to properly care for him one day.