Capricorn One—the first crewed mission to Mars—is on the launch pad. Just before liftoff, astronauts Charles Brubaker, Peter Willis, and John Walker are suddenly ordered out of the spacecraft by a NASA official. Bewildered, they are flown in secret to an abandoned military base in the desert. The launch proceeds on schedule, with the public unaware the spacecraft is empty. At the base, NASA head Dr. James Kelloway informs the astronauts that a faulty life-support system would have killed them in-flight. He says they must help counterfeit the televised footage during the flight to and from Mars. Another failed space mission would result in NASA's funding being cut and private contractors losing billions in profits. Kelloway threatens their families to force their cooperation. The astronauts are held captive during the spaceflight and appear to be filmed after landing on Mars, although they are actually inside an elaborate set at the base made to look like the surface of Mars. At the command center, only a few officials know about the conspiracy until an alert technician, Elliot Whitter, notices that ground control receives the crew's televised transmissions before the spacecraft telemetry arrives. Whitter reports this to his supervisors, including Kelloway, but is told it is due to a faulty workstation. Whitter partially shares his concerns with a TV journalist friend, Robert Caulfield. Whitter suddenly vanishes, and when Caulfield goes to Whitter's apartment the next day, he discovers someone else living there and that all evidence of Whitter's recent life has been erased. As Caulfield leaves, he survives a car crash into a river after his car had been tampered with. Upon returning to Earth, the empty spacecraft burns up during atmospheric reentry due to a faulty heat shield, which would have killed the astronauts had they been on board. The astronauts realize officials will need to kill them to keep the hoax a secret. They escape in a small jet which quickly runs out of fuel, forcing a crash-landing in the desert. They split up on foot to increase their chances of finding help and exposing the plot. Kelloway sends helicopters after them. Willis and Walker are found and killed, while Brubaker evades capture. Caulfield interviews Brubaker's "widow", Kay, after reviewing a televised conversation between the astronauts and their wives. Kay Brubaker had seemed confused when her husband mentioned their last family vacation. She explains that the family had actually gone to a different location, where a western movie was being filmed. Brubaker was intrigued by how special effects and technology made it seem real. Caulfield believes Brubaker would never make such a mistake and may have been sending his wife a message. Caulfield goes to the deserted western movie set and is shot at. As he investigates further, federal agents break into his home, arresting him for possessing cocaine that they planted there. His exasperated boss bails Caulfield out, then fires him. A reporter friend tells Caulfield about an abandoned military base located 300 miles (about 480 km) from Houston. The base is now deserted, but Caulfield finds a medallion belonging to Brubaker, confirming the astronauts were there. Caulfield hires a crop-dusting pilot named Albain to search the desert. They spot and follow two helicopters to a closed isolated gas station where Brubaker is hiding. They rescue him as he attempts to escape his pursuers. The helicopters chase their plane through a canyon but crash when Albain blinds them with crop spray, allowing the plane to get away. Caulfield and Brubaker arrive halfway through a memorial service being held for the three astronauts, where they are seen by Kelloway, Kay Brubaker, all assembled service attendees, and the television cameras that were present and covering the service for live broadcast.

On a public holiday, a young boy watches a travelling fair arrive in his village of Sainte-Sévère-sur-Indre, near the centre of France. Among the locals is François, the amiable and bumbling mailman, whom everybody likes but nobody takes seriously. Marcel and Roger, the two men running the fair, make him their butt and get him drunk. In the cinema tent, people watch a spoof documentary that contrasts the unbelievable efficiency of the US post office with the antiquated French PTT. They decide that François must get up to date and, although he only has a bicycle, must start using transatlantic dash in his delivery. In the end, exhausted by his frantic efforts, he stops to help a family pitchfork their new-mown hay into a horse-drawn cart, while the boy from the opening scene completes the deliveries on François's route.

In the Arizona desert, truck driver Martin "Rubber Duck" Penwald is passed by a woman in a Jaguar XK-E, escapes being given a citation by the Arizona Highway Patrol thanks to the Jaguar, then runs into fellow truck drivers Pig Pen/Love Machine and Spider Mike. Another "trucker" had informed them over the CB radio that they are okay to increase their speed. The "trucker" turns out to be Sheriff "Dirty" Lyle Wallace, a long-time nemesis of the Duck, who extorts them for $70 each. The truckers head on to Rafael's Glide-In where the Duck's sometime girlfriend, Violet, works as a waitress. Melissa, the driver of the Jaguar, is also there; her car broke down and she had to sell it and some of her belongings in an effort to reach Dallas, as she is on her way to look for a job. The Duck offers Melissa a ride; Violet is unimpressed and ushers him away to give him a special birthday present. While they are away, Wallace shows up at the Glide-In checking plates. Pig Pen and Spider Mike start making fun of Wallace over the diner's base-station CB radio, leading to Wallace attempting to falsely arrest Spider Mike for vagrancy. The Duck enters and tries to smooth things over, but Mike punches Wallace when he makes a crack about the father of the baby that Mike's pregnant woman is expecting. This leads to a brawl in the diner when some AHP state troopers arrive to assist Wallace. The assorted truckers prevail and decide to head for the state line to avoid prosecution while messing with the police cars while the cops are knocked out. The truckers drive across Arizona and New Mexico, with Wallace in pursuit. Duck angers Wallace even further when he accidentally pushes him off the road and causes him to crash. When Wallace calls for reinforcements from the state police, Duck leads the truckers off the main highway and down a rough dusty desert trail, causing several of the police cars to crash, while Wallace's state police vehicle is crushed between Pig Pen and Spider Mike's rigs. As the rebellious truckers evade and confront the police, Rubber Duck becomes a reluctant hero. The Governor of New Mexico, Jerry Haskins, meets Rubber Duck at his request, after being told that the Governor has ideas of using the National Guard on the convoy after Rubber Duck and his convoy manage to avoid a New Mexico State Police roadblock and then get their escort through town due to Rubber Duck carrying hazardous materials. About the same time, Wallace and a brutal Texas sheriff arrest Spider Mike (who had left the convoy to be with his wife after she gave birth to their son) in Alvarez, Texas. Wallace's plan is to use Mike as bait to trap Rubber Duck. A janitor at the jail, aware of the plan, sends messages by CB radio that Spider Mike has been wrongfully arrested and beaten. Various truckers relay the message to New Mexico. Rubber Duck ends the meeting with Haskins and leaves to rescue Spider Mike. Several other truckers join him in heading east to Texas. The truckers eventually destroy half of the town and the jail and rescue Spider Mike. Knowing they will now be hunted by the authorities, the truckers head for the border of Mexico. On the way, Rubber Duck gets separated from the rest of the convoy when the others get stopped by a minor traffic accident involving Pig Pen/Love Machine. In a showdown near the United States-Mexico border, Rubber Duck is forced to face Wallace, the Texas Highway Patrol, and a National Guard unit stationed on a bridge. Firing an M60 machine gun, Wallace, the Texas DPS troopers, and the Guardsmen cause the truck's tanker trailer to explode, while Rubber Duck deliberately steers the tractor unit over the side of the bridge, plummeting into the churning river below, presumably sending Duck to his death. Melissa witnesses this from the shoreline once she realized Duck's intention after he had her get out of his truck and tossed out her luggage as well so she wouldn't be harmed, while Pig Pen/Love Machine and the other members of the convoy blare their horns in mourning. Even Wallace looks remorseful over the demise of his long-time adversary. A public funeral is held for Rubber Duck. A distraught Melissa is led to a school bus with several "long-haired friends of Jesus" inside that had joined the convoy earlier. There she finds Rubber Duck in disguise sitting in the back - revealing that he had swum from the wreckage after the tractor sank into the river. The convoy takes to the road with the coffin in tow, presumably heading for Washington, D.C.. As the bus passes Wallace, he spots the Duck and bursts into laughter over seeing that his adversary survived.

The story involves four teenagers: Petr, the main narrator (Josef Lukáš); Toník, who also narrates (Petr Herrmann); Jenda (Zdeněk Husták); and Jirka (Vladimír Bejval). The teens want to find a living trilobite. During a break from school, they undertake a journey in a rowing boat on a "river of time" that flows through a mysterious cave, emerging on a strange, primeval landscape. As they make their way upstream, they realize that they are travelling progressively farther back in time. On their journey, the boys face various perils and learn about prehistoric life.

King Acrisius of Argos imprisons his daughter Danaë, jealous of her beauty. When the god Zeus impregnates Danaë, Acrisius banishes her and her newborn son Perseus to sea in a wooden chest. In retribution, Zeus kills Acrisius and orders Poseidon to release the last of the Titans, a gigantic sea monster called the Kraken, to destroy Argos. Danaë and Perseus safely float to the island of Seriphos, where Perseus grows to adulthood. Calibos, the malevolent son of the treacherous sea goddess Thetis, is betrothed to Princess Andromeda, daughter of Queen Cassiopeia of Joppa; but for committing several atrocities, including destroying Zeus' sacred flying horses (except for Pegasus), Calibos is transformed into a deformed monster to fit the ugliness of his evil heart. In revenge, Thetis transports an adult Perseus to an abandoned amphitheater in Joppa, where he befriends a soldier, Thallo, and an elderly poet named Ammon. Perseus learns that Andromeda is under a curse and cannot marry unless her suitor successfully answers a riddle concocted by Calibos. Zeus sends Perseus a god-crafted helmet which is from Athena which makes its wearer invisible, a magical sword which is from Aphrodite, and a shield which is from Hera. After capturing Pegasus, Perseus follows Calibos's giant vulture carrying off Andromeda's spirit during her sleep to learn the next riddle. Perseus is discovered and nearly killed by Calibos. In the ensuing fight, Calibos loses his left hand, and Perseus loses his helmet. The next morning, Perseus presents himself as a suitor and correctly answers the riddle—the answer is the ring given to Calibos by his mother which is still attached to the amputated hand—winning Andromeda's hand in marriage. Finding out that Thetis cannot act directly against Perseus, Calibos instead demands that she take vengeance on Joppa by unleashing the Kraken upon it. At the wedding in Thetis' temple, Cassiopeia declares that Andromeda's beauty is greater than Thetis'. Thetis, using the statue's head to speak through, declares that Cassiopeia will pay for her boasting and for the injury inflicted on Calibos and demands that Andromeda will be sacrificed to the Kraken on pain of Joppa's destruction. Perseus seeks a way to defeat the Kraken. However, Pegasus is captured by Calibos and his men. Zeus commands Athena to give Perseus her owl Bubo, but she refuses. Instead, she orders Hephaestus to build a mechanical replica that leads Perseus, Andromeda, Ammon, Thallo, and some soldiers to the Stygian Witches. By taking their magic eye, Perseus forces them to reveal that the only way to defeat the Kraken is by using the head of the Gorgon Medusa, whose gaze can turn any living thing into stone. Medusa lives on an island in the River Styx at the edge of the Underworld. The next day, Perseus and the soldiers continue on their journey while Andromeda and Ammon return to Joppa. Thallo stays behind, but gives Perseus a coin as a fee for the skeletal ferryman, Charon. On the Gorgon's island, the three soldiers traveling with Perseus are killed. Perseus fights and kills Medusa's guardian, a two-headed dog named Dioskilos. At the Gorgon's lair, Perseus uses the reflective underside of his shield to deceive Medusa, decapitate her, and collect her head. However, Perseus's shield is dissolved by her caustic blood. As Perseus and his fellow soldiers set to return, Calibos enters their camp and punctures the cloak carrying Medusa's head, causing her blood to spill and produce three giant scorpions, which attack the soldiers. One soldier is killed by a scorpion, but Perseus and Thallo kill all three scorpions. Thallo is then killed by Calibos, who attacks Perseus with his whip, but Perseus manages to overcome and kill him. Alone and weakened by his struggle, Perseus sends Bubo to rescue Pegasus from Calibos' henchmen. After reaching the amphitheater in Joppa, Perseus collapses from exhaustion. Andromeda is shackled to the sacrificial rock outside Joppa, and the Kraken is summoned. Bubo distracts the beast until Perseus, whose strength was secretly restored by Zeus, appears on Pegasus. Using Medusa's head, Perseus petrifies the Kraken, causing it to crumble to pieces. Perseus tosses the head into the sea, frees and marries Andromeda. The gods predict that Perseus and Andromeda will live happily, rule wisely, and produce children, and Zeus forbids the other gods to pursue vengeance against them. The constellations of Perseus, Andromeda, Pegasus and Cassiopeia are created in their honor.

Kiichi Nakajima (Toshiro Mifune) is an elderly foundry owner who is convinced he and his loved ones will all be killed in an imminent nuclear war if they stay in Japan, so he resolves to move them to perceived safety in Brazil. He does not care that no one else wants to go or that it might make things awkward that he wants to bring his three illegitimate children and two surviving mistresses along with his wife and the four children they have together, saying that nothing is more important than their continued survival. Kiichi's three oldest children convince his wife to try to have him ruled incompetent in order to keep him from wasting their inheritance on his plan, and they bring him before a three-man arbitration panel that includes Dr. Harada (Takashi Shimura). Harada, a dentist who volunteers with the family court, sympathizes with Kiichi's concerns and points out that the fear of nuclear weapons is present in every citizen of Japan. He wonders aloud whether it may be wrong to rule someone incompetent simply for being more worried than the average citizen, but the panel eventually decides that Kiichi's irrational behavior justifies removing his ability to make the financial decisions for his family by himself. After this, Kiichi tries to find a way to move forward with the move anyway, but his efforts fail, and his mental state begins to deteriorate more rapidly once he no longer feels as though he is doing anything to save himself and his family from the nuclear holocaust he is sure is coming. Growing increasingly desperate, he decides that his family will be willing to go with him to South America if they no longer have jobs or a source of income tying them to Japan, and he burns down the foundry. When this is discovered, his distress reaches a breaking point after some of his employees point out that his actions indicate he is unconcerned about their lives and his son-in-law argues that there are already more than enough nuclear weapons to destroy all life on this planet and nowhere is really safe. Harada goes to visit Kiichi at the psychiatric facility to which he has been sent. While waiting to be shown to his room, Harada talks with a psychologist, who remarks that he has found Kiichi's case particularly troubling personally, since it has made him wonder whether it may be more insane to ignore the nuclear threat than it is to take it too seriously. Harada discovers that Kiichi believes he has escaped to another planet and that he has become severely withdrawn from his surroundings. During the visit, however, Kiichi becomes agitated when he sees the Sun through his window and thinks it is the Earth burning.

A blacksmith forges a sword and shows it to his young son, Conan, as he tells him of the "Riddle of Steel", an aphorism on the importance of steel to their people, the Cimmerians. A band of raiders led by cult leader Thulsa Doom massacres the Cimmerian village, killing Conan's parents. The children are taken as slaves to work a large mill, the Wheel of Pain. Conan survives into adulthood, becoming a powerfully muscled gladiator and eventually gaining his freedom. He is chased by wild dogs and seeks refuge in an Atlantean warrior's tomb, from which he takes an ancient sword. Conan wanders the world, bedding a prophetic witch and befriending Subotai, a Hyrkanian thief and archer. Following the witch's advice, Conan and Subotai go to the city of Zamora to seek out Doom. There they meet Valeria, a female brigand. The three raid the Tower of Serpents, slaying a giant snake and looting the jewels and other valuables it guarded. After escaping with their loot, the thieves celebrate, and Conan has sex with Valeria. The city guards capture the trio and bring them to King Osric, who offers them a reward if they will rescue his daughter, Princess Yasmina, who has become a cultist of Doom. Subotai and Valeria demur, but Conan, who already desires vengeance against Doom, sets off for the villain's Temple of Set. Disguised as a priest, Conan infiltrates the temple, but is discovered, captured, and tortured. Doom lectures him on the power of flesh over steel, which he demonstrates by hypnotically commanding a young woman cultist to leap to her death. He then has Conan crucified on the Tree of Woe. Subotai and Valeria rescue the near-dead Conan and bring him to Akiro, the Wizard of the Mounds (and also the film's narrator), who lives on a burial site of warriors and kings. The wizard summons spirits to heal Conan and warns that they will "extract a heavy toll", which Valeria is willing to pay. The spirits try to abduct Conan, but he is restored to health after Valeria and Subotai fend them off. Subotai and Valeria agree to help Conan complete King Osric's quest and infiltrate the Temple of Set. As the cult indulges in a cannibalistic orgy, the thieves attack and flee with the princess, but Doom shoots Valeria with a magical snake arrow and escapes Conan by transforming into a large serpent. Valeria dies in Conan's arms, acknowledging the toll that the wizard warned would be exacted in exchange for Conan's life. Conan cremates her at the Mounds and prepares with Subotai and the wizard to battle Doom. Conan asks Crom, the Cimmerian God, to grant him revenge. By using booby traps and exploiting their terrain, they manage to slay Doom's warriors. Just when Doom's lieutenant Rexor is about to overcome Conan, Valeria reappears for a brief moment as a Valkyrie to save him from the mortal blow. Doom shoots another snake arrow at the princess to deny the heroes a successful rescue, but Subotai blocks the shot with his shield and Doom retreats to his temple. Conan kills Rexor and recovers his father's sword, now broken by his Atlantean sword. Doom calls upon his cultists to take up fire and burn the world that oppressed them. With the aid of the princess, now freed from Doom's sway, Conan sneaks back to the temple and confronts Doom in front of his cultists. Doom attempts to entrance him, but the barbarian resists and uses his father's broken sword to behead his nemesis. With Doom's spells broken, the disillusioned cultists douse their torches and disperse. Conan burns down the temple and leaves to return the princess to her father.

As Claude Ridder is leaving a Belgian hospital after attempting suicide by shooting himself in the heart, he is approached by two men, who ask him to participate in a mysterious experiment in time travel being conducted by a private research body. They take him to Crespel Research Center, a secret location in the countryside, where the researchers explain to Claude that they are confident they have succeeded in sending mice back in time, and are now ready to send a human back, since a human can confirm they really did revisit the past. Claude, who does not seem particularly concerned about whether or not he will survive the experiment, agrees, but instead of reliving one minute from one year earlier and returning to the present, as the mice had supposedly done, he re-experiences many episodes from his past in a highly disjointed and fragmented manner, each scene lasting just seconds or minutes. While some of the moments Claude revisits are mundane, many others catalog the highs and lows of his seven-year relationship with the beautiful, morbid, melancholic Catrine, which ended recently. Gradually, it is revealed that Claude seems to have been responsible for Catrine's death on a trip to Glasgow when the flame of a gas heater in their room went out while she was asleep, as he noticed this on his way to a meeting, but chose not to wake her, as she was smiling in her sleep, and, for once, looked happy and peaceful. However, after admitting this to his friend Wiana, Claude immediately says he was lying, and the flame went out after he left. Regardless, after Catrine's death, Claude comes to the painful realization that, not only could he not live with her, he cannot live without her, and attempts suicide. After an hour, the researchers conclude they have lost Claude for good. When they leave the lab, however, they find his body on the grass at Crespel—shot through the heart. Seemingly, reliving his suicide attempt broke the chaotic loop in which he was stuck and freed him from the time machine. The researchers carry his mortally wounded body inside, and Claude struggles to speak, a single teardrop falling down his cheek. (Whether or not Claude's "second" suicide attempt resulted in his death is left ambiguous.)

In 1957, at an automobile factory in Detroit, a red 1958 Plymouth Fury slams its hood shut by itself on a worker's hand, while another worker is found dead inside the car after dropping cigar ash on its seats. In 1978 Rockbridge, California, nerdy high school senior Arnold "Arnie" Cunningham is bullied on the first day of school by classmate Buddy Repperton and his gang. Arnie's only friend, Dennis Guilder, intervenes with help from a teacher, who sends Buddy and his gang to the principal's office. Buddy is expelled for possession of a switchblade. After school, Arnie and Dennis see the same 1958 Plymouth Fury—now in a dilapidated state—for sale at the home of George LeBay, the brother of the recently deceased original owner, who tells them the car's name is Christine. Despite Dennis' objections, Arnie purchases the car. Since Arnie's strict parents refuse to let him keep the car in their driveway, he begins to restore Christine at a local garage owned by the gruff Will Darnell, who offers Arnie a part-time job and access to parts he needs to repair Christine. Soon, Arnie develops a rebellious, arrogant personality, worrying his parents and Dennis. Dennis confronts LeBay, who discloses that his late brother was also obsessed with Christine, his five-year-old niece choked to death in the car, and his sister-in-law and later his brother both committed suicide in it. At night, Dennis breaks into the garage to inspect Christine, but when Christine's radio begins playing 1950s rock and roll music, he flees. Arnie begins a relationship with a new student, Leigh Cabot, who has rejected all her other admirers at school. While playing a football game, Dennis is stunned by the sight of Arnie and Leigh kissing in front of the now fully-restored Christine, causing him to sustain a severe injury that permanently ends his football career. One night, when Arnie and Leigh are attending a drive-in theater, Leigh expresses jealousy over Christine. While alone in the car, Leigh nearly chokes to death on a hamburger, as Christine briefly locks her doors to keep Arnie from coming to her rescue. A nearby theater-goer performs the Heimlich maneuver on Leigh, saving her. Arnie drives Leigh home and she vows to never get into Christine again. Later that night, Buddy and his gang sneak into Darnell's garage and vandalize Christine. Arnie, enraged by the destruction, breaks up with Leigh and physically attacks his father following an argument about Christine's vandalism. The next day, Arnie returns to the garage alone and witnesses Christine repairing herself. Over two evenings, the car kills Buddy and all his gang members, blowing up a gas station in the process. Christine drives away in flames and returns to Darnell's garage, where she crushes him to death against the steering wheel. By morning, Christine is fully repaired when the police find Darnell's body. State Police detective Rudy Junkins questions Arnie about the death of Darnell, Buddy, and his gang members. However, the car's pristine condition and Arnie's alibi convince the detective he was not involved. Leigh and Dennis conclude that Christine is responsible for Arnie's downward spiral. They plan to lure Christine to Darnell's garage and smash her with a bulldozer, but Christine surprises them by emerging from a pile of scrap metal. Leigh flees on foot while Dennis battles Christine with the bulldozer. Arnie is now driving Christine, and in an attempt to run Leigh down, Christine crashes into Darnell's office. Arnie is thrown through the windshield and impaled on a shard of glass. He reaches out to touch Christine's grille one last time, and Christine responds by playing " Pledging My Love " on her radio as Arnie dies. Christine resumes her attack, until Dennis and Leigh corner her and flatten her with the bulldozer. The following day, Dennis, Leigh, and Junkins watch as the remains of Christine are crushed into a cube at a junkyard. Junkins congratulates the pair for stopping Christine, but they regret being unable to save Arnie. The sound of a 1950s rock and roll song spooks them briefly, but it proves to be coming from a boombox carried by a junkyard worker. Unbeknownst to them, Christine's grille twitches slightly.

Fifteen-year-old Billy Casper, growing up in the late 1960s in a poor South Yorkshire community dominated by the local coal mining industry, has little hope in life. He is picked on, both at home by his physically and verbally abusive older half-brother, Jud (who works at the mine), and at school by his schoolmates and abusive teachers. Although he insists that his earlier petty criminal behaviour is behind him, he occasionally steals eggs and milk from milk floats. He has difficulty paying attention in school and is often provoked into tussles with classmates. Billy's father left the family some time ago, and his mother refers to him at one point, while sombrely speaking to her friends about her children and their chances in life, as a "hopeless case". Billy is due to leave school soon, as an "Easter Leaver", without taking any public examinations (and therefore no qualifications); Jud states early in the film that he expects Billy will shortly be joining him at work in the mine, whereas Billy says that he does not know what job he will do, but also says nothing would make him work in the mine. One day, Billy takes a kestrel from a nest on a farm. His interest in learning falconry prompts him to steal a book on the subject from a secondhand book shop, as he is underage and needs adult authorisation for a borrower's card from the public library. As the relationship between Billy and "Kes", the kestrel, improves during the training, so does Billy's outlook and horizons. For the first time in the film, Billy receives praise, from his English teacher after delivering an impromptu talk about training Kes. Jud leaves money and instructions for Billy to place a bet on two horses but after consulting a punter, who tells him the horses are unlikely to win, Billy spends the money on fish and chips and intends to purchase meat for his bird (instead the butcher gives him scrap meat free of charge). The horses win; outraged at losing a payout of more than £10, Jud takes revenge by releasing Billy's kestrel into the wild, but the kestrel flaps towards Jud with her claws and Jud kills the kestrel. Grief-stricken, Billy retrieves the bird's broken body from the waste bin and shows it to Jud and his mother. After an argument, Billy buries the bird on the hillside overlooking the field where he had flown.

About 10,000 years ago, peaceful aliens from the planet Antarea established an outpost on Earth, on Atlantis. When Atlantis sank, 20 aliens were left behind, kept alive in rock-like cocoons at the bottom of the ocean. A group of Antareans have returned to collect them. Disguising themselves as humans, they rent a house with a swimming pool and charge the water with "life force" to give the cocooned Antareans energy to survive the trip home. They charter a boat, the Manta III, from a local captain named Jack, who helps them retrieve the cocoons. Jack spies on Kitty, a beautiful woman from the team who chartered his boat, while she undresses in her cabin, and discovers that she is an alien. After the aliens reveal themselves to him and explain what is going on, he decides to help them. Next door to the house the Antareans are renting is a retirement home. Three of its residents—Ben, Arthur, and Joe—often trespass to swim in the pool. They absorb some of the life force, making them feel younger and stronger. Caught in the act, they are permitted to use the pool by the Antarean leader, Walter, on the condition that they do not touch the cocoons or tell anybody else about it. Kitty and Jack grow closer and decide to have sex in the pool. Since she cannot do so in the human manner, she introduces him to the Antarean equivalent, in which she shares her life force energy with him. The other retirement home residents become suspicious after witnessing Mary, Ben's wife, climb a tree. Their friend Bernie mindlessly reveals the secret to the other residents, who rush to the pool to swim. When Walter finds them damaging one of the cocoons, he ejects them from the property. The Antareans open the damaged cocoon, and the creature inside shares his last moments with Walter. That evening, Bernie finds that his wife Rose has stopped breathing and carries her body to the pool to heal her, only to be informed by Walter that the pool no longer works due to the other residents draining the life force in the rush to make themselves young. Walter explains that the cocoons cannot survive the trip back to Antarea but will be able to survive on Earth. With the help of Jack, Ben, Arthur, and Joe, the Antareans return the cocoons to the sea. The Antareans offer to take residents of the retirement home to Antarea, where they will never grow older and never die. Most of them accept the offer, but Bernie chooses to remain on Earth. Upon leaving, Ben tells his grandson David that he and Mary are leaving for good. As the residents are leaving, David's mother, Susan, finds out about their destination and drives to the retirement home, where they find the majority of the rooms vacant and contact local authorities. While the police are searching for the residents in the dark, David notices Jack's boat being started, with the Antareans and the retirement residents aboard. He runs toward it, and as the Manta III pulls away from the dock, leaps across the gap, clings to its side, and is pulled aboard by Ben. The boat is chased by the Coast Guard, so David says goodbye to Ben and Mary before jumping into the sea. The Coast Guard boats stop to pick him up, giving the others a chance to get away. A thick, mysterious fog appears suddenly, stranding the Coast Guard boats and causing the Manta III to disappear from their radar, so they call off the chase. As the Antarean ship appears overhead, Walter pays Jack for his services and his boat. Jack embraces Kitty for the last time, and they kiss. He then says farewell to everyone before jumping into an inflatable life raft as the Manta III rises into the Antarean vessel. Jack watches as it disappears inside the ship and departs. Back on land, a memorial service is held on a beach for the missing residents. During the sermon, David looks toward the sky and smiles.

Joe Bonham, a young American soldier during World War I, awakens in a hospital bed after being hit by an artillery shell. He has lost his eyes, ears, mouth, nose, and limbs, but remains conscious and able to reason, rendering him a prisoner in his own body. As he drifts between reality and fantasy, he remembers his old life with his Christian Science family and his girlfriend Kareen. He also forms a bond of sorts with a young nurse who senses his plight, although the doctors think he is in a vegetative state. Eventually, Joe communicates with his doctors by banging his head against his pillow in Morse code, spelling out "help" to show he is conscious. He is asked what he wants, and requests for the United States Army to put him in a glass coffin in a freak show as a demonstration of the horrors of war. When told that this is against regulations, he responds by repeatedly begging to be euthanized. Joe ultimately realizes that the U.S. Army will not grant either wish, and will likely leave him in a state of living death. His sympathetic nurse attempts to euthanize him by clamping his breathing tube, but her supervisor stops her before Joe can succumb. In the end, Joe is left alone in his bed in a utility room at the hospital, weakly repeating to himself, " S.O.S. Help me."