Fujimoto, a misanthropic wizard who was once a human, lives underwater with his daughter Brunhilde and her numerous smaller sisters, who are goldfish-like creatures with human faces. While she and her siblings are on an outing with their father in his four-flippered submarine, Brunhilde sneaks off and floats away on the back of a jellyfish. After an encounter with a fishing trawler, she becomes trapped in a glass jar and drifts to the shore of a small fishing town where she is rescued by a five-year-old boy named Sōsuke. While shattering the jar with a rock, Sōsuke cuts his finger. Brunhilde licks his blood, healing the wound almost instantly. Sōsuke names her Ponyo and promises to protect her. Meanwhile, a distraught Fujimoto searches frantically for his lost daughter whom he believes to have been kidnapped. He calls his wave spirits to recover her, leaving Sōsuke heartbroken and confused by what happened. Ponyo refuses to let her father call her by her birth name, declaring her desire to be a human named Ponyo. She magically begins changing into a human, a power granted to her by Sōsuke's human blood that she licked. Fujimoto forces her back into her true form and leaves to summon Ponyo's mother, Gran Mamare. Meanwhile, Ponyo, with the help of her sisters, breaks away from her father and inadvertently uses his magic to make herself human. The huge amount of magic that she releases into the ocean causes an imbalance in nature, resulting in a tsunami. Ponyo goes back to Sōsuke, who is amazed and overjoyed to see her. His mother, Lisa, allows her to stay at their house. Lisa leaves after the tsunami subsides to check up on the residents of the nursing home where she works, promising Sōsuke that she will return home as soon as possible. Gran Mamare arrives at Fujimoto's submarine. Sōsuke's father, Kōichi, sees her traveling and recognizes her as the Goddess of Mercy. Fujimoto notices the moon appears to be falling out of its orbit and satellites are falling like shooting stars, symptoms of the dangerous imbalance of nature that now exists. Gran Mamare reassures him, and declares that if Sōsuke can pass a test, Ponyo can live as a human and the balance of nature will be restored. Fujimoto, still worried, reminds her that if Sōsuke fails the test, Ponyo will turn into sea foam. The next day, Sōsuke and Ponyo find that most of the land around the house has been covered by the ocean. Since it is impossible for Lisa to come home, the two decide to find her. With Ponyo's magic, they make Sōsuke's pop-pop boat bigger to traverse the waters, seeing marine life from the Late Devonian period and more people on boats. When they reach the forest, however, Ponyo tires and falls asleep, and the boat slowly reverts to its original size. Sōsuke drags Ponyo to the shore, where he finds Lisa's abandoned car. As they continue walking, Ponyo mysteriously reverts to her fish form. Meanwhile, Gran Mamare grants Lisa and the residents of the nursing home the temporary ability to breathe in water. Ponyo and Sōsuke encounter Fujimoto, who warns the boy about the imbalance of nature and begs him to return Ponyo to him. Despite their attempt to escape, Fujimoto captures them and transports them to the protected nursing home. Sōsuke reunites with Lisa and meets Gran Mamare, with whom Lisa has just had a long private conversation. Gran Mamare asks him if he can love Ponyo whether she is a fish or human; Sōsuke confirms that he does. She then informs her daughter that she must relinquish her magical powers if she decides to permanently transform into a human. Ponyo agrees, and she is encased in a bubble given to Sōsuke, who is instructed to kiss it to complete Ponyo's transformation, as the balance of nature is restored. The previously stranded ships head back to port. Fujimoto respects his daughter's choice, having decided he can trust Sōsuke. Ponyo then joyfully jumps high in the air and kisses Sōsuke, completing her transformation into a human.

In 1987, 16-year-old Claireece Precious Jones lives in New York City 's Harlem neighborhood with her unemployed mother, Mary, who subjects her to constant physical, sexual, and verbal abuse. Precious has also been raped by her now-absent father, Carl, resulting in two pregnancies. The family resides in a Section 8 tenement and survives on welfare checks. Precious often finds a way out of her traumatic daily life by escaping into daydreams in which she is loved and appreciated. Precious's first child, a daughter named "Mongo", short for Mongoloid, has Down syndrome and is being cared for by Precious's grandmother, though Mary forces the family to pretend that Mongo lives with her and Precious during social worker visits so she can receive extra welfare money from the government. When Precious's second pregnancy is discovered, her junior high principal, Mrs. Lichtenstein, arranges for her to attend an alternative school program called Each One Teach One, where she hopes Precious can change her life's direction. Despite her mother's insistence that Precious apply for welfare, Precious goes to the alternative school and enrolls. She meets her new teacher, Ms. Blu Rain, as well as several other girls who all come from troubled backgrounds and are looking to get their GED to advance their educations. Precious's life begins to turn around when she slowly starts to learn to read and write with the help of Ms. Rain and finds herself inspired by her. While she learns, she starts to meet with social worker Ms. Weiss, who learns about the sexual assault in the household when Precious accidentally reveals who fathered her children. One day, while telling a story in class, Precious's water breaks, and she is rushed to the hospital. She gives birth to a healthy son named Abdul and is acquainted with a kind nursing assistant named John McFadden. While in the hospital, Precious writes letters to Ms. Rain through her notebook that is taken to and from her by Joann, one of the girls in her class. Once discharged from the hospital, Precious returns home to find Mary waiting for her. Mary asks to hold Abdul, but deliberately drops him before furiously attacking Precious, as Precious's revelation about the abuse has resulted in the termination of welfare payments. Precious fights off Mary, retrieves Abdul, and after falling down the stairs and narrowly avoiding Mary dropping her television on them from the top of the stairwell, flees and eventually breaks into her school classroom for shelter. When Ms. Rain discovers Precious and Abdul sleeping the next morning, she frantically calls local shelters in search of a safe place for Precious and Abdul to live, but they end up staying with Ms. Rain and her live-in girlfriend for the holiday. The next morning, Ms. Rain takes Precious and Abdul to find assistance, and Precious is able to continue her schooling while raising Abdul in a halfway house. Mary returns to inform Precious of her father's death from AIDS. Precious later learns that she is HIV-positive, though Abdul is not. Feeling dejected, Precious distracts Ms. Weiss and steals her case file from her office. As she shares the details of her file with her fellow students, she begins to hope for the future. Later, Precious meets with her mother, who brings Mongo to Ms. Weiss's office. Ms. Weiss confronts Mary about her and Carl's abuse of Precious, going back to when Precious was a toddler. Mary tearfully confesses that she always hated Precious for "stealing her man" by "letting him" abuse her and for eventually "making him leave", and that she allowed the abuse to continue because she wanted "someone to love her". Precious tells Mary that she finally sees her for who she really is and severs ties with her, leaving with both Mongo and Abdul and telling her mother she will never see her or her children again. Mary begs Ms. Weiss to retrieve her daughter and grandchildren, but a shaken and disgusted Ms. Weiss silently rejects her and walks away, leaving Mary distraught. Planning to complete a GED test to receive a high-school diploma equivalency, followed by college, Precious walks into the city with her children, ready to start a new life with a brighter future.

In rural Texas, go-go dancer Cherry Darling runs into her mysterious ex-boyfriend El Wray at the Bone Shack, a restaurant owned by brothers J.T. and Sheriff Hague. Meanwhile, the demented Lt. Muldoon and his men make a transaction with chemical engineer Abby for mass quantities of DC2, a deadly biochemical agent. When Muldoon learns that Abby has an extra supply, he attempts to take Abby hostage, causing him to release the gas into the air, mutating most of the town's residents into deformed zombie -like creatures. The infected townspeople are treated at a local hospital by Dr. William Block and his bisexual anesthesiologist wife, Dakota, who is abused by him. Random attacks begin along the highway, causing El Wray and Cherry to crash. In the aftermath, several zombies tear off Cherry's right leg. At the hospital is Tammy, the former lover of Dakota, who Block recognizes. Upon realizing Dakota was about to leave him for Tammy, he stabs Dakota's hands with her anesthetic syringe needles repeatedly, rendering them useless, before locking her in a supply closet. El Wray is detained by Sheriff Hague based on past encounters between the two. As the patients mutate, El Wray leaves the station and arrives at the hospital, attaching a wooden table leg to Cherry's stump. As El Wray and Cherry fight their way out of the hospital, Dakota manages to escape in her car. Meanwhile, Block becomes infected along with others, while Cherry and El Wray take refuge at the Bone Shack. Dakota retrieves her son Tony and takes him to her estranged father, Texas Ranger Earl McGraw. Tony accidentally shoots himself while waiting in the car. (Following a "missing reel" segment) Dakota, Earl, Cherry's former boss Skip, and Tony's crazed babysitter twins arrive at the Bone Shack. With Hague badly injured, the group decides to flee to the Mexican border, before being stopped by a large mass of zombies. Muldoon's men arrive, killing the zombies before arresting the group. Abby tells them that the soldiers are stealing the gas supply because they are infected and constant inhalation of the gas delays mutation. They also learn that some of the population is immune, hinting at the possibility of a cure. As Cherry and Dakota are taken away by two soldiers, the others defeat the guards. J.T. sustains a gunshot wound in the process while the group searches for Muldoon. When he is found by El Wray and Abby, Muldoon explains that he killed Osama bin Laden before he and his men were infected and were ordered to protect the area before being killed by Abby and El Wray. Meanwhile, Cherry is held at gunpoint and forced to dance by a soldier who threatens to rape her. Eventually, she breaks her wooden leg across his face and stabs him in the eye. Dakota, after realizing that her hands have regained feeling, uses her syringe launcher to subdue another soldier. El Wray and Abby arrive to rescue Cherry and Dakota; El Wray replaces Cherry's broken wooden leg with an assault rifle and grenade launcher. J.T. decides to stay behind to detonate explosives to eliminate the remaining zombies while the others flee. The survivors make plans to escape by stealing helicopters after fighting through a large group of zombies, but Abby gets his head blown apart by a ballistic missile in the process. An infected Block attacks Dakota but is shot dead by Earl. While saving Cherry from a zombie, El Wray is fatally wounded. Cherry, now sporting a minigun leg, leads survivors to the Caribbean beach at Tulum, where they start a peaceful new society during a worldwide zombie outbreak. It is also revealed that Cherry has given birth to her and El Wray's daughter. In a post-credits scene, Tony is sitting on the beach at the survivor's "base" playing with his turtle, scorpion, and tarantula.

Robin "Rob" Feld is a reclusive truffle -forager who was once a renowned chef in Portland. Living in a cabin deep in the Oregon forests, he hunts for truffles with the help of his prized foraging pig. Rob sells the truffles exclusively to Amir, a young and inexperienced supplier of luxury ingredients to high-end restaurants. One night, Rob is attacked by unidentified assailants who beat him down before stealing his pig. He contacts Amir, who helps him locate a pair of bedraggled drug addicts suspected by another truffle hunter. The pair admit to the theft but say they did it only for the money and that the pig was taken to Portland. After his old friend Edgar refuses to help, Rob leads Amir to an underground fighting ring for restaurant people below the defunct Portland Hotel, saying certain names carry cachet. Rob identifies himself to the crowd before purposelessly throwing a fight (sustaining heavy injuries in the process) so Edgar can collect on a large bet in exchange for information. Shocked to learn his identity, the following morning Amir reveals that his parents had such a miserable marriage that the only happy time he remembers is a night when they had dinner at Rob's restaurant, before his mother died by suicide. Rob asks Amir to secure reservations at Eurydice, a trendy haute cuisine restaurant Amir's father does business with. Rob visits the house he used to live in with his wife Lori, whose death compelled Rob to withdraw to the woods. At Eurydice, Rob asks to meet with its head chef, Derek, a former prep cook at Rob's restaurant. Rob pointedly yet empathetically criticizes Derek for opening a contemporary restaurant rather than the pub he always wanted to run. Overwhelmed by the memory of his dream and the reality of his current circumstances, Derek confesses that Amir's wealthy father, Darius, was behind the theft of Rob's pig, having learned of its existence from Amir. Rob angrily ends his partnership with Amir before going to confront Darius at his home. Darius offers Rob $25,000 in exchange for the pig and threatens to kill it if Rob continues his pursuit. Rob leaves, finding Amir waiting outside, having just left his comatose mother in a care facility, revealing she is still alive. Rob admits he does not need his pig to hunt truffles, because the trees tell him where they are; he wants to find her simply because he loves her. He gives Amir a list of items and tells him to use Rob's name to obtain them. Rob visits his former baker for a salted baguette and a few pastries he shares with Amir before they go back to Darius's house. Rob guides Amir as they prepare the same meal for Darius that Rob served to him and his wife, including a rare wine from Rob's personal collection, which Amir obtained from the woman caring for the mausoleum containing Lori's ashes. All three men sit down to eat together, despite Darius's resistance. An emotional Darius leaves the table after just a few tastes. When Rob follows and confronts him, Darius asks why he is doing this, and Rob says he remembers every meal he ever cooked and every person he ever served. Darius tearfully confesses that the junkies he hired for the theft mishandled the pig, resulting in her death. Rob collapses in tears, and a remorseful Amir drives him back to a diner near Rob's home in the forest. Despite Amir's foolishness, Rob says he will see him next Thursday. Returning to his forest, Rob washes his bloody face in the lake, before returning to his cabin to play a tape Lori recorded of herself singing Bruce Springsteen 's " I'm on Fire " to him for his birthday.

In the aftermath of a financial crisis in the European Union and the weakening of NATO, collaborative dealings have occurred between a progressively militant North Korea and an ultranationalist Russia. The American mainland has become largely undefended from the increased deployment of U.S. troops abroad, and American infrastructure is increasingly vulnerable to cyberattacks. U.S. Marine Jed Eckert is on home leave in Spokane, Washington, where he reunites with his father, Spokane Police Sergeant Tom Eckert, his brother, Matt Eckert, and his childhood friend Toni Walsh and her cousin Erica Martin, Matt's girlfriend. Matt, the quarterback for his football team, blew a playoff game because of his cowboy antics. After the city suffers a blackout, Jed and Matt witness North Korean paratroopers and transport aircraft invading the town. Their father tells them to escape to their cabin in the woods while he helps the townspeople. They're joined by Matt's friends Robert Kitner, Daryl Jenkins, Danny Jackson, siblings Julie and Greg Goodyear, a stranger named Pete, and his buddy. After Erica is captured, Toni joins them as well. As the group debates whether to surrender or resist, Pete and his buddy steal their supplies, inadvertently betraying their position. Captain Cho and his soldiers order Daryl's father, the mayor, to convince the group to surrender. Sergeant Eckert refuses to cooperate and is executed by Cho after encouraging them to resist, and the cabin is then torched to the ground. Jed is determined to fight back, and the group joins him. Under Jed's training, the group learns to hunt for survival, use weapons, and establish a base in an abandoned mine. The group, naming themselves the Wolverines after their school mascot, stage guerrilla attacks on soldiers and collaborators, including Pete, who is killed in a bombing. During a plot to eliminate the leadership during a rally, Jed soon finds Russian Spetsnaz working with the North Korean army. However, Cho discovers their bomb, compromising their mission. Matt recklessly strays from the plan to free Erica, who was on a prison transport, but Greg is killed in the process. The North Koreans find their location and retaliate with artillery fire, destroying their base, and killing Danny and Julie. The surviving Wolverines later encounter U.S. Marines Sergeant Major Andrew Tanner, Corporal Smith, and Sergeant Hodges, who reveal that a Russian-backed North Korean forces used a EMP weapon to disable the U.S. electrical grid and crippled the military forces, immediately followed by landings along the east and west coasts. American counterattacks eventually halted their advances, leaving a large area stretching from the Rocky Mountains to the Appalachians as "Free America" while pockets of resistance continue to oppose the invasion. The Wolverines learn that Captain Cho's suitcase contains an EMP-resistant radiotelephone, and if they can steal it, the U.S. command could use it to their advantage in a counter-offensive. The Wolverines help the Marines infiltrate the police department, which is being used as the North Koreans' operation center, and steal the suitcase. Jed kills Cho, though Hodges is killed in the firefight. The Wolverines and Marines regroup at a safe house with the suitcase, but Jed is killed in an ambush by Russian Spetsnaz. As Matt and the group escape with the suitcase, Robert discovers that Daryl was tagged by the Russians with a subcutaneous tracking device during the police station raid. Knowing he cannot go with them, Daryl stays behind to buy time for the others as they head to the Marines' extraction point. Tanner and Smith depart with the suitcase, while the remaining Wolverines stay to continue fighting under Matt's leadership.

Early 19th century England is besieged by zombies; the Bennet sisters—Elizabeth, Jane, Kitty, Lydia, and Mary—have all been trained in the art of weaponry and martial arts in Qing Dynasty-era China at their father's behest so they can defend themselves. Mrs. Bennet only wants to see her daughters married off to wealthy suitors. The Bennets attend a country dance also attended by newcomers Colonel Darcy, his good friend the amiable Charles Bingley and Bingley's snobbish sister Caroline. There, the young and handsome Bingley falls for lovely, sweet natured Jane. Charles Bingley has inherited £ 100,000 (£ 6 million today) - attracting Mrs. Bennet's attention as a desirable suitor for her daughter. When zombies attack the ball, the Bennet sisters fight them off, and Colonel Darcy, a skilled zombie killer who was trained in Japanese martial arts - with property that pays him £10,000 annually (£ 600,000 today) - becomes attracted to Elizabeth after seeing her fighting skills, although his behavior is outwardly aloof. During the ball, Darcy is disgusted to overhear Mrs. Bennet's mercenary delight that Jane has attracted a rich man. On the way to the Bingleys' some days later, Jane is attacked by a zombie and catches a fever. Darcy orders her confined in fear that she may have been bitten, but her illness is not zombie-related, and she recovers. The Bennets are visited by a cousin, the overbearing Parson Collins, who, as the only surviving male heir in the family, will inherit the Bennet home upon Mr. Bennet's death. Collins proposes to Elizabeth but states that she must give up her life as a warrior, something she refuses to do. Elizabeth meets a charming soldier named George Wickham and arranges to meet him at another ball. She travels with him to a church that is filled with zombies who feed on pig brains instead of human brains, keeping their behaviour relatively normal. Wickham believes that humans can coexist with these new "civilized" zombies. He informs Elizabeth that Darcy convinced the Bingleys to leave the county to keep Bingley away from Jane and then asks her to elope with him, but she refuses. When Darcy proposes to Elizabeth, having fallen in love with her despite his apparent coldness, she expresses outrage at his actions concerning Jane and fights him. Darcy later writes Elizabeth a letter to apologize. He regrets that he separated Jane and Bingley, fearing that Jane only wanted to marry Bingley for his wealth. He also exposes Wickham's true nature. He and Wickham were childhood friends, but Wickham may have murdered Darcy's father, squandered his inheritance, and tried to elicit additional money from Darcy's estate. When that fails, Wickham tries to elope with Darcy's young sister, Georgiana, for her fortune. Elizabeth learns that Wickham has run off with Lydia and London has been overrun with zombies. Darcy saves Lydia and learns that Wickham is using the "civilized" zombies to create a zombie army, which has overrun London based on Wickham's plan to rule the country. He stops him by giving the zombies human brains, which turns them savage. While fighting, Darcy stabs Wickham's chest, revealing him to have been undead all along, like the other supposedly tame zombies. Elizabeth saves Darcy from being killed by Wickham, who escapes (though Elizabeth has chopped off his right arm). As the two ride across a bridge, the human army destroys it to keep the zombies from crossing over from London. Darcy is injured in the explosion, and Elizabeth tearfully admits her love for him. After Darcy recovers, he proposes to Elizabeth again, and this time, she accepts. The two have a joint wedding with Bingley and Jane. In a mid-credits scene, Wickham arrives with his zombie army, along with the four horsemen, to crash the wedding, leaving everyone's fate unknown.

In Gothenburg a gang of five Swedish-Somali teenage boys act out an elaborate scheme for taking the belongings of three teenage boys, in which the gang members play good cop/bad cop which is previewed at the very start of the film with an earlier theft from two different boys. First, they ask the time. When one of the victims checks the time on his mobile phone they claim it looks like one which was stolen from a brother of one of them. The three boys are seeking help in a coffee shop, and the owner offers shelter but does not feel the need to call the police, as requested. The 3 are ultimately intimidated to come along with the 5 to verify this with "the brother". The film is interspersed with scenes of adults traveling in a comfortable, uncrowded train. At one point the conductor announces that a cradle has been found and should be picked up lest it would be removed for safety and fire precautions - the travelers chuckle. When the conductor removes it at one station the station manager brings it back into the train, because the message had merely been announced in Swedish, and is then repeated in English. In the tram, a gang of 3 adults are beating them up, as per a woman, searching for a stolen phone. Two boys get separated from the other six. A man witnesses the scene but does not interfere, but slips a note with his name to one of the boys, saying he would stand witness in trial if need be. Eventually, the one boy offers the other boy to make a call, then calls his mother and leaves a message. It is not her, but the rest of the group calling him back, telling them their location so they reunite. After some moving around, and the boy being forced to play The Entertainer on his clarinet, one boy of the gang wants to quit; the gang questions him and the eldest /leader responds by beating him up in the bus, and kicking him. An older man tries to interfere, but is intimated by one of the boys. None of the adults help the boy even though he is injured. The four remaining gang members proceed with the three boys. The group exits past a building site with large machines and a couple of security guards safeguarding the building site. They walk into meadow at a lake under a tree. The four force the three to participate in a running contest, with one of the three against one of the four, where the group of the winner gets all valuables of all the boys. The two walk along a curved path to the starting point from where they have to run back to the others. The three lose due to a trick of the four: the boy from the group of three thought they had to run along the path, but the other boy ran straight. The 5 argue about the bounty, justifying their share according to the roles one saying "I played good cop" another "I played bad cop". The three are free to go. Without phone to contact their parents and without money for the tram, they travel without a ticket; they do not explain the circumstances to the 2 conductors, get fined 1200 Kronas each and scolded for fare evasion.Later the gang is seen in a restaurant when the mother of one of the other boys calls. They make fun of her and him. Half a year later the father of one of the victims walks in a park with his son and a friend with his son. The victim recognizes the gang member sitting on a bench with the wooden cradle. The father and his friend ask for the phone and pull him when he does not comply. A pregnant female bystander disapproves but is told to stand clear. After the boy forks out the phone, the two adults leave him alone but get confronted by two female witnesses.

American actor Phillip Vanderploeg lives in Tokyo and constantly searches for work following his success in a toothpaste commercial seven years earlier. He is stuck taking minor roles until he is hired by Rental Family, a company that provides actors to play stand-in family members and friends for strangers. Initially reluctant due to its absurd premise, Phillip, desperate for funds, takes more jobs after the company's owner, Shinji, insists that they need a " token white guy ". Phillip is hired to act as the fiancé of Yoshie, who wants to perform a traditional wedding for her parents. Phillip nearly bails, reluctant to lie to Yoshie's family, but his co-worker Aiko convinces him to commit. Phillip later discovers that Yoshie is a closeted lesbian who is already married and is planning to depart to Canada with her wife. They profusely thank him for his help, giving him a different perspective on the job. Phillip takes on two long-term jobs - in one, he acts as the estranged father of a young half-Japanese girl named Mia, whose single mother, Hitomi, believes that presenting Phillip as Mia's real father will help Mia enroll in a private school. In another, Phillip is hired by a woman named Masami to act as a journalist profiling her father Kikuo Hasegawa, a retired actor with dementia; Masami hopes Phillip will make Kikuo feel remembered. Phillip forms strong bonds with Kikuo and Mia, who initially resents her "father" for abandoning her but eventually warms up to him. Phillip's agent informs him that he has landed a highly coveted role, which he declines for Mia's sake. Hitomi warns Phillip against getting too close to Mia and is offended when he criticizes her for planning Mia's whole life for her. At Masami's insistence, Phillip reluctantly declines Kikuo's request to take him to his abandoned childhood home in Amakusa. He also learns that some of Aiko's jobs involve her pretending to be a mistress apologizing to the wives of unfaithful husbands, often resulting in her being physically assaulted. Phillip is reluctant to lose the connections he has made, but Shinji asserts that parting ways with clients is a brutal but inevitable part of the job. Following the successful school interview, Phillip is forced to tell Mia that he must return to the United States. His time with her inspires him to take Kikuo to Amakusa. There, Kikuo finds a time capsule containing pictures of himself with his first wife, who died of an illness shortly after he left her to pursue his acting career in Tokyo; he breaks down upon seeing the photos and tearfully thanks Phillip for bringing him. Shinji calls Phillip and berates him for "kidnapping" Kikuo, but Phillip accuses him of using Rental Family to soullessly fill empty holes rather than make genuine connections. Kikuo collapses from exhaustion and is rushed to the hospital by Phillip, who is arrested for Kikuo's abduction. Mia discovers Phillip's true identity when her friend recognizes him on television. She is initially upset with her mother for lying to her, but later forgives her. During another session where Aiko acts as a man's mistress, she breaks character, informs the man's wife of the truth, and makes an oral resignation to Shinji. At home, a perplexed Shinji dismisses his "wife" and teenage "son," revealing them to be rented actors. Aiko and her co-worker Kota pretend to be lawyers interviewing Kikuo in an attempt to exonerate Phillip. Shinji also arrives, posing as a police detective. They convince Masami not to press charges against Phillip. Some time later, Kikuo dies in his sleep. Aiko, Shinji, Kota, and Phillip attend his funeral, where Phillip lays the photos from the time capsule on his body. Phillip visits Mia, who was accepted into the school. He reintroduces himself to her with his real name, and the two continue to spend time together as friends. Phillip and Aiko continue working at Rental Family, which discontinues the "apology services" that led to Aiko's abuse. Phillip returns to the Shinto shrine he once prayed at with Kikuo; having previously declined Kikuo's invitation to see what he was praying to, he looks inside, sees his reflection in a mirror, and smiles.

Wilee is a disenchanted Columbia Law School graduate who has put off taking the bar exam, dreading the humdrum life of the legal profession. He enjoys working as a New York City bicycle messenger, despite arguments with his girlfriend and fellow bike messenger, Vanessa, who insists that he should make something of himself. Vanessa's roommate Nima exchanges her savings of $50,000 to Mr. Leung, a Chinese hawaladar, for a ticket. The ticket is to be given to Sister Chen as payment for Chen's gang smuggling her son and mother into the United States. Robert Monday, a gambling addict, learns of the ticket, which can be returned to Mr. Leung for the money. He approaches Nima, who already hired Wilee to deliver it to Sister Chen. He attempts to trick Wilee into giving him the ticket, but Wilee refuses. Wilee rides off, with Monday in pursuit. Wilee heads to the police station only to find out Monday is a police detective. Thinking he is delivering something illegal, Wilee informs his dispatcher Raj that he cancels the delivery. Returning to Nima's college, Wilee leaves the envelope, which is picked up by his rival, Manny. With the delivery receipt stolen from Nima, Monday calls the dispatch to redirect the delivery to a different address. Wilee runs into Nima and confronts her about the ticket, and she reveals the truth. Wilee catches up to Manny, who refuses to give Wilee his drop. They race each other and are chased by a bike cop who had earlier tried to arrest Wilee. Near Monday's address, the bike cop tackles Manny off his bike and arrests him. Vanessa, who had learned of Monday's trickery and raced over gives Manny's bag to Wilee. As they are about to escape, Wilee is hit by a taxi, and fractures several ribs. He is put in an ambulance with Monday, while his damaged bike is taken to an impound lot, with the envelope hidden in the handlebars. Monday tortures Wilee, who asks for his bike back. Wilee tells Monday that the envelope is in Manny's bag, and Monday leaves to search for it, while Wilee meets with Vanessa in the impound lot. She gives him the envelope, which she had retrieved, and he escapes on a stolen bike. Monday, realizing Wilee has tricked him, pursues Wilee to Sister Chen's place. Meanwhile, Nima calls Mr. Leung for help. He deploys his enforcer, the Sudoku Man, to help her. As Wilee reaches Chinatown, Monday confronts and threatens to kill him, but Vanessa arrives with a mob of messengers, dispatched by Raj, who distract Monday. Wilee delivers the ticket to Sister Chen, who tells the captain of her ship to allow Nima's family aboard. Monday is confronted by Chinese and Italian mobsters and doesn't notice Sudoku Man, who shoots Monday in the back of his head using a Sudoku book to silence the pistol. Dying and feeling faint, Monday tries to get in his car but dies before he can do so. Nima's mother calls her and confirms that she and Nima's son have gotten on the ship. Nima meets with Wilee and Vanessa while they are finally reunited. Sometime later, Wilee is back on his job stating while one day he might settle in a firm job but does not feel ready.

After some footage of four inebriated soldiers filmed by PFC Juan Sebastián Restrepo a week before deployment, text is displayed that reads: "In May 2007, the men of Second Platoon, Battle Company began a 15 month deployment in the Korengal Valley of eastern Afghanistan. It was considered one of the most dangerous postings in the U.S. Military." The Korengal flows north to the Pech, which then flows east to the Kunar River Valley on Afghanistan's porous border with Pakistan. American soldiers and supplies were ferried into the remote Combat Outpost (COP) Korengal by Chinook helicopters. As an example of the ever-present dangers faced by the soldiers in the area, the first scene in the film that takes place in Afghanistan depicts a fire-fight after a military Hummer is disabled on a narrow mountain road by an IED. The remainder of the film chronicles the lives of the men of Second Platoon from a few months after their arrival in the Korengal Valley to the time of their return home. Early in their deployment, Pfc. Timothy R. Vimoto, 19, was killed in action, and the unit lost PFC Restrepo, their medic, shortly after. When Capt. Dan Kearney decided to construct an advanced outpost, the men chose to call it "OP Restrepo" in honor of their fallen comrade Juan Restrepo who so many have come to build a strong relationship with, which is where most of the film takes place. At Restrepo, the men came under fire almost daily, and often multiple times in a single day, from shifting enemy positions in the surrounding landscape. In addition to interrupting the flow of Taliban troops and weapons through the Korengal Valley, a major goal for the American troops was to provide security for the construction of a road and gain the trust of the populace. The film portrays negotiations and interactions between the soldiers and local leaders and citizens, some of which are congenial, and some of which are more antagonistic. A significant portion of the second half of the film consists of a depiction of Operation Rock Avalanche, which took place in October 2007. During the dangerous mission to hunt Taliban fighters in the Korengal Valley, Battle Company lost Staff Sergeant Larry Rougle during an ambush by a large number of enemies. SSG Rougle was at point and took the brunt of the attack, allowing his soldiers to secure a position and fight. A recipient of the Purple Heart who served two tours in Iraq and three in Afghanistan, SSG Rougle was subsequently buried in Arlington National Cemetery. According to Junger, Restrepo is a film, not just about the events of combat, but also about "brotherhood", and it shows the soldiers' dedication to their duty, as well as their commitment to one another. Interspersed throughout the film are excerpts from interviews recorded with some of the soldiers after Second Platoon returned to the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team 's base near Vicenza, Italy, in which the men candidly reflect on their experiences, feelings about those who were wounded or killed, and the emotional distress they will carry with them. Before the credits roll, text is displayed that reads: "In April 2010, the United States withdrew from the Korengal Valley. Nearly 50 American soldiers died fighting there."

Dave Brown, a 24-year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), patrols the Rampart Division. While training a new officer, he roughs up a suspect to find the location of a meth lab. After work, he goes home to his two daughters and two ex-wives, who are also sisters. After dinner, he goes to a piano bar where he picks up a stranger and has a one night stand. The next day, Brown is t-boned in his patrol car. When the other driver attempts to flee, Brown brutally beats him and the assault is captured on video by a bystander. The video creates another controversy for the LAPD, which is already besieged by the recent Rampart scandal. The assistant district attorney pressures Brown to retire, but he refuses and outlines his defense. Over the course of the film, it is revealed that although Brown failed the bar exam, he remains extremely knowledgeable about case law. Back at the piano bar, Brown picks up a lawyer named Linda after first determining that she is not surveilling him. Later he meets with ex-cop Hartshorn, who suggests that Brown was set up to distract from the Rampart scandal. As the LAPD exerts more pressure on Brown, he retains legal counsel. Soon after, his ex-wives ask him to leave their houses so that they can sell them. Brown meets Hartshorn again and mentions his need for cash. Hartshorn tips him off to a high stake card game happening later that night at the Crystal Market. While Brown surveils the card game, it is knocked off by two armed men. Brown pursues the gunmen, killing one and letting the other go. He then stages the scene to make it look like he was shot at. Brown realizes that a homeless man nicknamed "General" witnessed the whole thing from his wheelchair. As another investigation into Brown heats up, he goes to a hotel and blackmails the concierge into giving him a room. Next, he blackmails a pharmacist into giving him an assortment of drugs. When Brown next meets Hartshorn to give him a cut of the money from the card game, he asks for the source of Hartshorn's tip, suspecting he was set up again. Hartshorn refuses to name his source. Brown then meets with General in a parking lot to make sure that he will not testify about witnessing the shooting. The next day, an investigator with the district attorney, Kyle Timkins, surveils Brown, who confronts him. Brown insists that he is not a racist, merely a misanthrope. Brown grows increasingly paranoid and reliant on drugs as the pressure on him mounts. He pulls a gun on Hartshorn and accuses him of setting him up. The elderly man scuffles with Brown until he has a heart attack. Instead of calling an ambulance, Brown leaves him to die. Back at the hotel, Brown's two daughters drop off some dry cleaning at his room, and he confesses to his younger daughter that everything she has heard about him is true. Brown summons Timkins to a meeting and tapes a confession in front of him. He admits that he has been a dirty cop, and that in 1987 he killed a business acquaintance. He justified the murder because he knew the man was a serial rapist, which is why he got away with the extrajudicial killing. Timkins refuses the confession, insisting that he will arrest Brown for his most recent murder. The film ends with Brown revisiting his family and staring at his elder daughter on the front porch before disappearing into the night.

In a dystopian 2045, people seek to escape from reality through the OASIS (Ontologically Anthropocentric Sensory Immersive Simulation), a virtual reality entertainment universe created by James Halliday and Ogden Morrow of Gregarious Games. After Halliday's death, a pre-recorded message left by his avatar Anorak announces a contest, granting ownership of the OASIS to the first to find the golden Easter egg within it, which is locked behind a gate requiring three keys players can obtain by accomplishing three challenges. The contest has lured several egg hunters, or "Gunters", and the interest of Nolan Sorrento, the CEO of Innovative Online Industries (IOI) who seeks to control the OASIS and insert intrusive online advertising. IOI uses an army of indentured servants and employees called "Sixers" to find the egg. Wade Watts, an avid orphaned Columbus, Ohio -based Gunter using the avatar Parzival, participates in the first challenge, an unbeatable race, along with his best friend Aech, and Art3mis, a female avatar whom Parzival has a crush on. Parzival regularly visits Halliday's Journals, a simulated archive of Halliday's life and hobbies, run by the Curator. Wade receives the Copper Key from Anorak after he wins by driving backward, while Art3mis, Aech, and his friends Daito and Sho, all win the race afterward, later being collectively named the High-5 on the OASIS' scoreboard. Sorrento hires the mercenary i-R0k to learn Wade's true identity, intent on bribing him to win the contest on IOI's behalf. Wade and Art3mis discover from the Journals that Halliday once dated Morrow's wife Karen "Kira" Underwood. Wade and Art3mis visit the Distracted Globe night club to look for clues, where Wade confesses his love and true name to Art3mis. They survive an IOI raid in which Art3mis abandons Wade, explaining that her father died in debt to IOI. i-R0k, who was eavesdropping on their conversation, informs Sorrento of his findings. Sorrento contacts Wade with his offer. When rejected, Sorrento attempts to kill Wade by bombing his house, killing Wade's aunt Alice among others. Art3mis' player Samantha Cook takes Wade in. Together, they realize the second challenge relates to Halliday's regret of not pursuing a relationship with Kira. Along with Aech, Daito, and Sho, Parzival and Art3mis search for the Overlook Hotel 's recreation. Art3mis asks Kira to dance and wins the Jade Key. Sorrento's subordinate F'Nale Zandor storms the Gunters' hideout, taking Samantha to an IOI Loyalty Center to pay off her father's debt. Wade escapes with the help of the other High-5 users, Helen Harris (Aech), Toshiro (Daito), and Zhou (Sho) in Helen's truck. Samantha escapes confinement after Wade and others hack Sorrento's OASIS rig. The third challenge is found in Castle Anorak on Planet Doom, where players must guess Halliday's favorite Atari 2600 game to earn the Crystal Key. iR0k places a forcefield around the castle using the Orb of Osuvox, but Art3mis eventually disables it. The High-5 lead an army of OASIS players against the Sixers. Sorrento fights back but Aech, Daito, and Art3mis destroy his avatar. Parzival destroys Samantha's avatar, allowing her to flee IOI while the High-5 pick her up, and reaches the console, but Sorrento uses the Cataclyst bomb to wipe out every avatar on Planet Doom including himself. Parzival survives using an extra life coin given to him earlier by the Curator in a bet. He plays the 1980 game Adventure and wins the Crystal Key by locating Warren Robinett 's Easter egg. He uses the three keys to enter a treasure room where Anorak offers him a contract. Parzival recognizes it as the one Morrow signed when Halliday forced him out of Gregarious Games and refuses to sign it. Anorak transforms into Halliday, who expresses his regrets in life and hands over the Easter egg. Sorrento and F'Nale are arrested in the aftermath of the bombing. Ogden Morrow appears, revealing he is the Curator. Wade decides to run the OASIS with the High-5, inviting Morrow to join them as a consultant. As the IOI Loyalty Centers shut down, the High-5 make the controversial choice to close the OASIS every Tuesday and Thursday, so people can spend more time in the real world.