Mahavir Singh Phogat, a former amateur wrestler trained in the traditional Indian pehlwani style, is a national wrestling champion from Balali, Haryana. Pressured by his father, he abandons his wrestling career to pursue steady employment. Despite his disappointment at being unable to win a medal for India, he vows that his future son will achieve his goal. However, upon having four daughters, he initially resigns himself to the belief that his aspirations will remain unfulfilled. His perspective changes when his eldest daughters, Geeta and Babita, demonstrate exceptional strength by defeating boys who insult them. Recognizing their potential, Mahavir begins training them rigorously in wrestling. As a part of the coaching, he subjects them to gruelling early-morning exercises, enforces short haircuts, and insists on discipline, often drawing criticism from the local community. Initially resentful of their father's harshness, the sisters gradually come to appreciate his dedication and the opportunities he seeks to create for them. Using equipment such as mattresses instead of wrestling mats due to financial constraints, Mahavir teaches them freestyle wrestling, preparing them for competitive tournaments. Geeta emerges as a prodigious talent, winning both junior and senior state and national championships, and eventually enrolls at the National Sports Academy in Patiala to train for the 2010 Commonwealth Games. At the academy, Geeta forms new friendships but begins to deviate from her father's training regimen under the influence of her coach, Pramod Kadam, whose methods differ significantly from Mahavir's. This divergence leads to a series of defeats at the international level. During a visit home, Geeta, in a moment of arrogance, challenges and defeats her exhausted father in a wrestling match. Babita reminds her sister of the importance of respecting Mahavir's guidance, prompting Geeta to reconcile with her father. Meanwhile, Babita wins the national championship and joins Geeta at the academy, supporting her emotionally and reinforcing the bond between the sisters. As the Commonwealth Games approach, Pramod assigns Geeta to compete in the 51 kg weight class instead of her customary 55 kg division. Angered by this decision, Mahavir travels to Patiala with his nephew Omkar and resumes coaching the sisters in secret. The sports authorities, learning of Mahavir's interference, issue a warning but allow the sisters to continue competing, while Mahavir is barred from the academy and the girls' movements are restricted. Undeterred, Mahavir continues to train Geeta remotely, reviewing tapes of her previous matches and providing guidance over the phone. During the Games, Geeta competes in her 55 kg weight category. Despite Pramod's instructions, she follows Mahavir's tactical guidance, progressing the final match. In the gold medal bout, trailing 1-5 in the final session with only nine seconds remaining, Geeta recalls her father's strategies and executes a decisive 5-point move in the closing three seconds, clinching a 5-6 victory and winning the match 2-1. She becomes the first Indian female wrestler to win a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games. Mahavir rejoices with his daughters, overshadowing Pramod's attempts to claim credit, and the sisters' triumph is widely celebrated in the media.

In an alternate reality, circa 1985, the United States of America are under the authoritarian control of President Fremont. Berkeley record store clerk Nick Brady lives modestly with his wife Rachel and their infant son. Nick has been experiencing strange visions and dreams. He confides in Rachel and his best friend, science-fiction writer Philip K. Dick. Nick calls the source of his visions VALIS (Vast Active Living Intelligence System). One recurring symbol that he has been seeing is an ichthys. While he and Phil sit at a table, an orbiting satellite shoots a pink laser directly into Nick's head. He rushes his son to the ER, convinced that he has an inguinal hernia. The skeptical doctor is stunned to find that Nick is right. Nick has subsequent visions that tell him that he should relocate to Los Angeles, where he lands a job at a record label. Philip is visited by two members of FAP (Friends of the American People). They press him for information about Nick's visions. The female FAP agent returns and sleeps with Philip. After their liaison, she pretends to be underage, hoping to coerce him into revealing what Nick is seeing from VALIS. Philip refuses to divulge anything about Nick. Meanwhile, Nick has a dream where a woman is singing. During the dream, someone comments that there is something about her singing that seems subversive. Eventually, the woman turns up at Nick's record label, looking for a clerical job. She introduces herself as Sylvia, and Nick just assumes that she is a singer. Sylvia gradually reveals that she also receives visions from VALIS. She explains that there are several thousand people who receive transmissions from the orbiting satellite, and they are very loosely organized as a secret society. The Russian government blows up the orbiting VALIS satellite, and Sylvia explains that it will take another 100 years for a replacement satellite to arrive. She writes a song with subliminal lyrics about VALIS. Nick forces The Fisher Kings to record the song, despite their total lack of interest in it. When they debut the song at a club, Nick explains to Philip how the subliminal messages are encoded in the recording. FAP arrest Nick and Philip. They waste little time in executing Nick, as well as Sylvia. The film ends with Philip in prison, writing about Nick's VALIS experience. While he is working in a field one day, some teenagers gawk at the prisoners and laugh. Their boombox is playing Sylvia's subliminal song, and Philip realizes that the secret society found a way to get the song out, despite FAP's best efforts.

After fighting organized crime as Deadpool for two years, Wade Wilson fails to kill one of his targets on his anniversary with his girlfriend, Vanessa. That night, after the pair decides to start a family together, the target tracks Wade down and inadvertently kills Vanessa; Wade then kills him in revenge. Six weeks later, Wade is still wallowing in self-hatred. He visits Blind Al, who unsuccessfully attempts to convince him to move on with his life. After a series of suicide attempts, Wade has a vision of Vanessa in the afterlife but remains alive due to his healing abilities. Wade is left with only a Skee-Ball token as an anniversary gift, as final mementos of Vanessa. Colossus recovers Wade's body and takes him to the X-Mansion to recruit him. Wade reluctantly agrees to join the X-Men because he believes Vanessa would have wanted him to. He, Colossus, and Negasonic Teenage Warhead respond to a standoff between authorities and the unstable young mutant Russell Collins at an orphanage owned by the Essex Corporation, labeled a "Mutant Re-education Center". Realizing that Russell has been abused by the orphanage staff, Wade kills one of the staff members before being restrained by Colossus, and both Wade and Russell are arrested. Fitted with power-suppressing collars, they are taken to the Ice Box, an isolated prison for mutant criminals. Meanwhile, Cable, a cybernetically enhanced soldier from the future, travels back in time to kill Russell. Cable storms the Ice Box and attacks Russell. Wade, whose collar breaks in the ensuing melee, attempts to protect Russell. After Cable takes Vanessa's token, Wade forces himself and Russell out of the prison, but not before Russell overhears Wade denying that he cares for the lad. Near death again, Wade has another vision of Vanessa in which she convinces him to help Russell. Deadpool organizes a team he calls X-Force to free Russell from a prison transfer convoy and protect him from Cable. The team launches its assault on the convoy by parachute, but all members die during the landing except for Wade and Domino, whose main superpower she claims to be pure luck. While a fight with Cable distracts them, Russell frees fellow inmate Juggernaut, who agrees to help him kill the abusive orphanage headmaster. Juggernaut destroys the convoy, rips Wade in half, and escapes alongside Russell. While Wade recovers, Cable offers to work with him and Domino to stop Russell from killing the headmaster. Cable explains that in his timeline, after Russell kills the headmaster, he becomes a serial killer who killed Cable's wife and daughter. Wade accepts Cable's offer, on the condition that Cable gives him a chance to change Russell's mind. At the orphanage, however, Deadpool and team are overpowered by Juggernaut, while Russell pursues the headmaster. Colossus, having initially refused to help out, due to Wade's murderous ways, arrives to distract Juggernaut. Wade fails to placate Russell, forcing Cable to shoot at the boy. Wade leaps in front of the bullet while wearing the Ice Box collar and dies, reuniting with Vanessa in the afterlife. His sacrifice dissuades Russell from killing the headmaster and, consequently, saves Cable's family. Cable uses his last charge, reserved for his return trip to his family, to warp back several minutes, strapping Vanessa's token in front of Wade's heart so he survives the bullet. Cable then decides to stay in the present for a while to help improve the world, knowing that his family will be safe in the future. Afterward, the headmaster is run over and killed by Wade's taxi driver friend Dopinder. Later, Negasonic and her girlfriend Yukio repair Cable's time-traveling device for Wade. He uses it to save the lives of Vanessa and X-Force member Peter, as well as to kill both an alternate version of himself confronting Wolverine, and Ryan Reynolds after he finishes reading the screenplay for Green Lantern.

Mike Weiss, a young Houston lawyer and drug addict, and Paul Danziger, his longtime friend and straitlaced law partner, are the personal injury lawyers behind the law firm Danziger & Weiss. They decide to take on a case involving Vicky Rogers, a local ER nurse, who was pricked by a contaminated needle on the job and contracted HIV. Vicky shows Mike and Paul a safety needle, invented by her family friend, Jeffrey Dancort, which defends against accidental needlesticks by only being used once, and she urges them to help bring the product to hospitals. Vicky later dies from her illness. Mike digs deeper into the case, and discovers no one is willing to buy the needle because of a healthcare/pharmaceutical conspiracy and bribery racket. With the threat of exposure, heavyweight attorneys move in on the defense led by attorney Nathaniel Price. Out of their league and out of money, the mounting pressure of the case pushes the two underdog lawyers and their business to the breaking point. In the meantime, Mike is struggling with his heavy drug usage and his loneliness. He seeks sex therapy as a source of comfort and is consistently in the company of prostitutes. His personal struggles hinder the realization of his professional ambitions, as he misses many of the meetings and investment events, driving a wedge between him and Paul. Mike, Paul, and Dancort gain the support of Senator O'Reilly, not before she gives Mike an ultimatum: get clean. Mike's heavy withdrawal leaves him hospitalized, only adding to the financial burdens of the firm. The momentum of the case seems to come to a standstill: Senator O'Reilly pulls out after United Medical Health Supplies lobbies for her re-election campaign and Paul, with a new baby at home, is not interested in pursuing the case over his family. They meet with Nathaniel Price, and he offers a settlement, the tipping point for the conflict between Mike and Paul. Their conflict comes to a head as Mike argues to take the case to trial and seek justice, while Paul protests there is no feasible way they can continue all the way financially. Mike meets a former employee of Thompson Needle Manufacturers and a friend of Vicky's, who implores him to continue the case on behalf of the lives affected by used needles, which spread AIDS and hepatitis worldwide. Mike meets with Nathaniel Price and pledges he will personally find new clients and hospital employees affected by these unsafe needles across the country. However, the next day, Paul finds Mike dead from an overdose. At the settlement conference, Paul walks in with famous personal injury attorney Mark Lanier, declining the settlement and proclaiming that they will see them in court. The movie's postscript tells the audience that in 2004, Attorney Lanier settled a lawsuit against one of the nation's largest medical supply manufacturers for over $150 million. "As a result, thousands of hospitals throughout the United States now use safety needles."

A demon chases America Chavez and a variant of Stephen Strange in the space between universes while searching for the Book of Vishanti. Strange is killed and Chavez accidentally creates a portal that transports herself and Strange's corpse to Earth-616, where that universe's version of Stephen Strange rescues Chavez from another demon with help from Wong, the Sorcerer Supreme. Chavez explains that the beings are hunting her because she has the power to travel through the multiverse, but is unable to consciously control it. Recognizing witchcraft runes on the demon, Strange consults Wanda Maximoff but soon realizes that she is responsible for the attacks. After acquiring the Darkhold and becoming the Scarlet Witch, Wanda believes that taking Chavez's powers and traveling through the multiverse will allow her to reunite with Billy and Tommy, the children she created during her time in Westview. When Strange refuses to surrender Chavez, Wanda attacks Kamar-Taj and kills many sorcerers. Chavez accidentally transports herself and Strange to Earth-838. Wanda uses the Darkhold to " dreamwalk ", taking control of her Earth-838 counterpart who lives a suburban life with her own Billy and Tommy. After a surviving sorceress, Sara, sacrifices herself to destroy the Darkhold and break the dreamwalk, an enraged Wanda forces Wong to lead her to Mount Wundagore, the source of the Darkhold ' s power, to reestablish the dreamwalk. While searching for help, Strange and Chavez are apprehended by Earth-838's Sorcerer Supreme, Karl Mordo, and brought before the Illuminati, a group consisting of Mordo, Peggy Carter, Blackagar Boltagon, Maria Rambeau, Reed Richards, and Charles Xavier. They explain that through reckless use of their universe's Darkhold in an attempt to defeat Thanos, Earth-838's Strange triggered a universe-destroying " incursion ". After defeating Thanos, the Illuminati executed their Strange to prevent him from causing more harm. Mordo believes that Earth-616's Strange is similarly dangerous, but Wanda reestablishes her dreamwalk at Mount Wundagore and arrives in her Earth-838 counterpart's body before the Illuminati can pass judgment. She brutally kills all the Illuminati except Mordo, whom Strange subdues before fleeing with Chavez. The two escape with help from the Earth-838 version of Strange's ex-fiancé, Christine Palmer, a scientist working with the Illuminati. Strange, Chavez, and Palmer enter the space between universes to find the Book of Vishanti, which is the antithesis of the Darkhold, but Wanda appears and destroys it. She then takes over Chavez's mind and uses her powers to send Strange and Palmer to an incursion-destroyed universe. Strange defeats the destroyed universe's Strange, who has been corrupted by his Darkhold, and then uses that Darkhold to dreamwalk into the body of his deceased counterpart on Earth-616. With Wong's help, Strange saves Chavez from Wanda and encourages Chavez to use her abilities. Chavez transports Wanda to Earth-838, where she sees Billy and Tommy fearfully recoiling from her while crying for their real mother. Realizing her errors, Wanda relents and uses her powers to bring down Mount Wundagore, simultaneously destroying all copies of the Darkhold throughout the multiverse and sacrificing herself in the process. Chavez returns Strange and Palmer to their respective universes. Some time later, Kamar-Taj is under repair and the surviving sorcerers, joined by Chavez, continue training. Strange develops a third eye as a result of using the Darkhold and dreamwalking into a corpse. In a mid-credits scene, Strange is approached by a sorceress who warns that his actions have triggered an incursion that he must help repair. Strange follows her into the Dark Dimension.

A man with a terminal illness has his body frozen in cryostasis and becomes the first man to be resuscitated from cryonics seventy years later in the year 2084.His on-and-off-again girlfriend is by his side as he commits suicide in order to be cryopreserved. Being an accomplished artist with a design firm under his wing, he cannot stand the randomness of his throat cancer and decides to "go" under his own volition and control. After his "resurrection" under project "Lazarus", by a company with its own agenda, he starts to question mortality and matters of soul, as well as life as a transition of matter and energy. After realizing that he only valued his own life under the threat of his imminent death, unable to cope with his new life, he decides to commit suicide. Alas, the film ends with the realization that is something he's not allowed to do.

In the future, a totalitarian government will employ a force known as Firemen to seek out and destroy all literature. They can search anyone, anywhere, at any time, and burn any books they find. One of the firemen, Guy Montag, meets one of his neighbors, Clarisse, a young school teacher who may be on the government's radar due to her unorthodox views. The two discuss his job, and she asks whether he ever reads the books he burns. Curious, he begins to hide books in his house and read them, starting with Charles Dickens's David Copperfield. This leads to conflict with his wife, Linda, who is more concerned with being popular enough to be a member of The Family, an interactive television programme that refers to its viewers as "cousins". At the house of an illegal book collector, the fire captain, Beatty, talks with Montag at length about how books make people unhappy and make them want to think that they are better than others, which is considered anti-social. The book collector, an old woman who was seen with Clarisse a few times during Montag's rides to and from work, refuses to leave her house, opting instead to burn herself and the house so that she can die with her books. Returning home that day, Montag tries to tell Linda and her friends about the woman who martyred herself in the name of books and confronts them about knowing anything about what's going on in the world, calling them "zombies" and telling them that they're just "killing time" instead of living life. Disturbed over Montag's behavior, Linda's friends try to leave, but Montag stops them by forcing them to sit and listen to him read a passage from the novel David Copperfield. Montag reads a highly abridged excerpt from chapter 48, beginning with the words "There can be no disparity in marriage like unsuitability of mind and purpose" which describe Dora's death. During the reading, one of Linda's friends breaks down crying, aware of the feelings she repressed over the years, while Linda's other friends leave in disgust over Montag's alleged cruelty and the "sick" content of the novel. That night, Montag dreams of Clarisse as the book collector who killed herself. The same night, Clarisse's house is raided, but she escapes through a trapdoor in the roof, thanks to her uncle. Montag breaks into Beatty's office, looking for information about the missing Clarisse, and is caught but not punished. Montag meets with Clarisse and helps her break back into her house to destroy papers that would bring the Firemen to others like her. She tells him of the "book people", a hidden sect of people who flout the law, each of whom has memorised a book to keep it alive. Later, Montag tells Beatty that he is resigning but is persuaded to go on one more call, which turns out to be Montag's own house. Linda leaves the house, telling Montag that she couldn't live with his book obsession and leaves him to be punished by the Firemen. Angrily, he destroys the bedroom and television before setting fire to the books. Beatty lectures him about the books and pulls a last book from Montag's coat, for which Montag kills him with the flamethrower. He escapes and finds the book people, including Clarisse, where he views his "capture" on television, staged to keep the masses entertained and because the government doesn't want it to be known that he is alive. Montag selects a book to memorise, Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Edgar Allan Poe, and becomes one of the book people.

In an Indian village, Buldeo, an elderly storyteller, is paid by a visiting British memsahib to tell a story of his youth. As a younger man, he recalls his village being attacked by Shere Khan the rogue Bengal tiger. The attack leads to the death of a man and the loss of the man's child. The child is adopted by grey wolves in the jungle and grows to be the wild youth Mowgli. Twelve years after, Mowgli is captured by the villagers and taken in by his mother Messua, despite Buldeo's prejudice towards him for being from the jungle. He learns to speak and tries to imitate the ways of humans, and becomes friendly with Buldeo's daughter, Mahala. When Mowgli and Mahala explore the jungle, they discover a hidden chamber in a ruined palace, containing fabulous wealth. Warned by an aged cobra that the wealth brings death, they leave, but Mahala takes one coin as a memento. When Buldeo sees the coin, he resolves to follow Mowgli to the site of the treasure. Mowgli fights and uses a jambiya knife to kill Shere Khan, with some last minute help from Kaa, the Indian python. As he is skinning the body, Buldeo arrives. He threatens Mowgli with his hunting rifle to take him to the treasure, but is attacked by Mowgli's friend Bagheera, the black panther. Buldeo becomes convinced that Bagheera is Mowgli himself, shape-shifted into panther form. He tells the villagers that Mowgli is a witch, as is his mother. Mowgli is chained up and threatened with death, but escapes with his mother's help. However, she and another villager who tries to defend her are tied up and threatened to be burned for witchcraft. Mowgli is followed by the greedy Buldeo and two friends, a pandit and a barber, to the lost city. They find the treasure and leave for the village with as much as they can carry. When they stop for the night, the priest tries to steal the treasure and murders the barber when the barber wakes up. The priest tells Buldeo that the barber had attacked him and that he had killed in self-defense, but Buldeo knows better. The next day, the priest attacks Buldeo while his back is turned, but Buldeo knocks him into the swamp where he is killed by a mugger crocodile. Mowgli tells Bagheera and Grey Brother to chase Buldeo from the jungle, and Buldeo flees for his life, jettisoning the treasure. His pride wounded, a half-crazed Buldeo tries to murder Mowgli and destroy the jungle by starting a forest fire. The wind turns and the fire threatens the village. The villagers flee, but Mowgli's mother and her defender are trapped. Mowgli brings the local elephants including their leader Hathi who help free the captives and rescue the jungle animals from the fire. He is invited to follow them to a new life downriver, but chooses to stay and protect the jungle. The scene returns to the present day, with the elderly Buldeo admitting that the jungle defeated his youthful dreams and destroyed his reputation. When asked how he escaped from the fire and what became of Mowgli and his daughter, Buldeo says that is another story.

The United States and the Soviet Union have both developed technology that can miniaturize matter by shrinking individual atoms, but only for one hour. A scientist, Dr. Jan Benes, working behind the Iron Curtain, has figured out how to make the process work indefinitely. With the help of American intelligence agents, including agent Charles Grant, he escapes to the Western world and arrives in New York City, but an attempted assassination leaves him comatose with a blood clot in his brain that no surgery can remove from the outside. To save his life, Grant, United States Navy submariner Captain Bill Owens, medical chief and circulatory specialist Dr. Michaels, surgeon Dr. Peter Duval, and his assistant Cora Peterson are placed aboard a Navy ichthyology submarine at the Combined Miniature Deterrent Forces (CMDF) facilities. The submarine, named Proteus, is then miniaturized to "about the size of a microbe", and injected into Benes' body. The team has 60 minutes to get to the clot, remove it, and exit Benes' body; if they do not get out in time, the Proteus and its crew will begin reverting to their normal size, which will either place them under attack from Benes' immune system or kill Benes himself. The crew faces many obstacles during the mission. An undetected arteriovenous fistula forces them to detour through the heart, where cardiac arrest must be induced to reduce turbulence that would be strong enough to destroy the Proteus. The crew faces an unexplained loss of oxygen and must replenish their supply in the lungs. They notice "rocks" that are actually carbon particles from smoke. Grant finds the surgical laser needed to destroy the clot was damaged from the turbulence in the heart, as it was not fastened down as it had been before: this and his safety line snapping loose while the crew was refilling their air supply lead Grant to suspect a saboteur is on the mission. The crew must cannibalize their wireless radio to repair the laser, cutting off all communication and guidance from the outside, although because the submarine is nuclear-powered, surgeons and technicians outside Benes's body can still track their movements via a radioactive tracer, allowing General Alan Carter and Colonel Donald Reid, the officers in charge of CMDF, to figure out the crew's strategies as they make their way through the body. The sub enters the lymphatic system, but the reticular fibers start to interfere. This forces the crew to pass through the inner ear, requiring all outside personnel to make no noise to prevent destructive shocks, but while the crew is removing reticular fibers clogging the submarine's vents and making the engines overheat, a fallen surgical tool causes the crew to be thrown about and Peterson to be nearly killed by antibodies, but they are able to reboard the submarine in time. By the time they finally reach the clot, the crew has only six minutes remaining to operate and then exit the body. Before the mission, Grant had been briefed that Duval was the prime suspect as a potential surgical assassin, but as the mission progresses, he instead begins to suspect Michaels. During the surgery, Michaels knocks out Owens and takes control of the Proteus while the rest of the crew is outside for the operation. As Duval finishes removing the clot with the laser, Michaels tries to crash the submarine into the same area of Benes' brain to kill him. Grant fires the laser at the ship, causing it to veer away and crash, and Michaels to get trapped in the wreckage with the controls pinning him to the seat, which attracts the attention of white blood cells. While Grant saves Owens from the Proteus, Michaels is killed when a white blood cell consumes the ship. The remaining crew quickly swims to one of Benes' eyes and escapes through a tear duct seconds before returning to normal size.

In 2018, Jonathan E. is the team captain and veteran star of the Houston Rollerball team. Mr. Bartholomew, chairman of the Energy Corporation — one of a series of corporations that now govern society — and team sponsor, offers Jonathan a lavish retirement package if he will announce his retirement during an upcoming television special detailing his career. Jonathan refuses, and requests to see his former wife Ella, who had been taken from him some years earlier by a corporate executive who wanted her for himself. Jonathan goes to a library, where he finds that all books have been digitized and edited to suit the corporations, and are now stored on supercomputers at large protected corporate locations. Jonathan's friend and former coach Cletus, now an Energy executive, warns him that the Executive Committee is afraid of him, though he cannot find out why. Rollerball soon degrades into senseless violence as the rules are changed to force Jonathan out. The semi-final match between Houston and Tokyo is played with no penalties and limited substitutions in the hope Jonathan will be injured and forced out. The brutality of the match kills several players on both teams and leaves Jonathan's best friend and teammate Moonpie brain-dead, though Houston wins the game. In a teleconference, the Executive Committee decides that the final match will be played with no penalties, no substitutions, and no time limit in the hope that Jonathan will be killed during the game. Jonathan's popularity and longevity as a player threaten the underlying agenda of Rollerball: to demonstrate the futility of individualism. Jonathan makes his way to Geneva to access the world's repository of all human knowledge, a central supercomputer known as "Zero," only to find its memory corrupted. Afterwards, Jonathan receives a visit from his former wife Ella, who has been sent to convince him to retire and to make it clear that the coming game will be "to the death". Jonathan realizes his wife's visit was set up by the Executives, and erases a long-cherished movie of the two of them, stating, "I just wanted you on my side". Jonathan decides that despite the dangers, he will play in the championship game against New York. The final match devolves into a brutal gladiatorial fight. Jonathan is soon the only Houston player left on the track, while a skater and a biker remain from New York. After a violent struggle in front of Mr. Bartholomew's box, Jonathan kills the skater and takes the ball. The biker charges, and Jonathan knocks him off the bike and pins him down. Refusing to kill his fallen opponent, Jonathan gets to his feet and makes his way to the goal, slamming the ball home and scoring the game's only point. Jonathan then takes a victory lap as the crowd chants his name, first softly, then slowly rising to a roar while Mr. Bartholomew hastily exits the stands.

After performing an autopsy, pathologist Francis B. Gröss tells the viewer that he is interested in the transitional periods of life and death thanks to a recurring dream. At the same time, his experience as a pathologist has desensitized him to grotesque deaths. He has compiled footage to understand the many "faces of death." Footage is played of various deaths, including a man killed by an alligator, which Gröss calls a "violent retaliation from a creature who has suffered continued abuse from mankind". Gröss next narrates over recordings of assassinations, stating that humans are the only species to kill for greed. Assassin François Jordan is interviewed and admits that he kills solely for payment, not for political or social value. If there were a case on which he had thoughts, he would immediately, but respectfully, decline the mission. Gröss introduces another type of killer, "the one who kills for no apparent reason." A gunfight ensues between a SWAT team and an armed murderer. During the gunfight, the SWAT team throws tear gas into the house of the murderer, who is later shot, after which the team enters the killer's house to find his family stabbed to death; Gröss questions whether the man's actions were caused by society. As criminal Larry DeSilva is executed by electric chair, Gröss questions "if two wrongs make a right." Gröss visits the Los Angeles County coroner's office, where Dr. Thomas Noguchi is embalming multiple corpses after their autopsies. One cadaver is a horrifically bloated drowned woman; the other is a decapitated man whose skin is peeled off his skull for examination. Gröss asks Noguchi for his thoughts on his own embalming process after he dies, to which he replies: "life is purely a transitory state." One man, Samuel Berkowitz, has his body subjected to cryopreservation after death; his bodily fluids are replaced with a liquid with a low freezing point, then he is stored in a freezer to preserve his body for future science to revive him. The "theater of preservation" transitions to a brief discussion on suicide with footage of a woman jumping from a building; Gröss admits this was "a face of death he wishes never to face again." The next segment displays war and atrocities in history, including the Holocaust. Footage of German forces slaughtering enemy forces is shown, as they were becoming more desperate in the latter years of the war. The segment ends with footage of Nazis being obliterated in battle and symbols of Nazism destroyed, with Gröss saying that Hitler "lost control not only of his army but of his mind." Footage of animals dying due to litter and pollution is shown, followed by sick children in impoverished villages. Nature is examined with footage of a search party finding a body in a cave, a drowned man recovered at a beach, and footage of a bear mauling irresponsible campers. More of the "horrific nature of man" is examined with footage of a venomous snake cult in Louisville, Kentucky, killing a handler and a cannibalistic cult eating a cadaver stolen from a morgue before partaking in an orgy. Footage of several more tragic accidents is shown, culminating in a scene of a person attempting a parachute jump but dying after the parachute fails to open correctly. Gröss disputes the notion that this death was quick and painless, as he would have been conscious and aware of the entire fall to the ground. The segment ends with a section on PSA Flight 182 and its grisly aftermath, featuring photographs of the accident, excerpts of audio from air traffic control, and footage of scattered body parts and destroyed houses at the crash site in San Diego. Numerous witnesses are seen, including horrified people from the neighborhood and disgusted first responders. Gröss states the neighborhood smells like "rotting bodies and jet fuel" and that a mutilated body with only its torso and right hand "is the worst face of death." Gröss introduces his next topic, the role of supernatural forces in death. He meets with architect Joseph Binder, whose wife and son both died under tragic circumstances. Binder confides to the viewer that he believes his family remains as ghosts in his house, attempting to communicate with him. To verify this, Gröss enlists the services of parapsychologists. The team takes photographs of footprints and two apparitions. Binder communicates with his family's spirits through a medium, seemingly confirming the existence of life after death. After studying Binder's case, Gröss concludes that "when we die, it isn't the end" as "the soul in each of us remains a traveler forever." Gröss questions whether death is "the end of the beginning or the beginning of the end" and leaves the footage he has shown to the viewer's interpretation. The film ends with peaceful music, footage of a baby's birth, and photos of the child and its mother being together and happy.

To relieve his boredom, Emperor Ming the Merciless of the planet Mongo begins Earth 's destruction by remotely causing natural disasters. On Earth, football star Gregory "Flash" Gordon boards a small plane and meets travel agent Dale Arden. Mid-flight, the cockpit is hit by a meteor and the pilots die. Flash takes control and manages to crash land into a greenhouse owned by former NASA scientist, Dr. Hans Zarkov. Zarkov believes that the disasters are being caused by extraterrestrials pushing the Moon towards Earth. He has secretly constructed a spacecraft to investigate the attacks. Unable to do it alone, Zarkov lures Flash and Dale aboard. He flies with them to Mongo, where they are captured by Ming's troops. After looking at the trio, Ming is smitten with Dale and orders Flash executed. At the last minute, Ming's daughter, Princess Aura, saves Flash, with whom she fell in love at first sight. While they escape, Zarkov is brainwashed by Klytus, the head of the secret police. Aura and Flash flee to Arboria, kingdom of Prince Barin. Locked in Ming's bedchamber, Dale escapes, and Zarkov is sent to intercept her. However, Zarkov reveals he resisted the brainwashing, and escapes Mingo City with Dale. They are quickly captured by Prince Vultan 's hawkmen and taken to Sky City. Aura and Flash arrive at Arboria. Aura asks the Prince to keep Flash safe. A distrustful Barin, in love with Aura, agrees not to kill Flash, but then forces him to play a deadly game of chance. With the odds stacked against him, Flash uses this opportunity to escape. Barin follows him, and they are both captured by the hawkmen. Aura returns and is taken prisoner and tortured by Klytus and General Kala for her treason. Meanwhile, Ming prepares his wedding to Dale. Flash and Barin are taken to Sky City, where Flash and Dale are briefly reunited. Flash is forced to fight Barin in a death match. However, Flash instead saves Barin's life, causing Barin to join him. Klytus arrives, and Flash and Barin kill him. Knowing this will bring retribution, Vultan and the hawkmen evacuate, leaving Barin, Flash, Dale and Zarkov behind. Ming's ship arrives and captures Barin, Zarkov and Dale. Impressed with Flash, Ming offers him lordship over Earth in exchange for loyalty. Flash refuses and Ming gives the order to destroy Vultan's kingdom along with Flash. Finding a rocket cycle, Flash escapes before Sky City is destroyed. Flash contacts Vultan, and they plot an attack on Mingo City. To defend the city, General Kala dispatches the war rocket Ajax, which is quickly seized by the hawkmen. Meanwhile, Princess Aura overpowers her guard and frees Barin and Zarkov from the execution chamber. Flash and the hawkmen attack Mingo City in Ajax and Kala activates the defenses as Ming's and Dale's wedding begins. Mingo City's lightning field can only be penetrated by flying Ajax into it at a suicidal speed. Flash volunteers to stay at the helm to ensure success and enable the hawkmen to invade the city. Barin and Zarkov enter the control room and confront Kala. In the ensuing fight, Barin shoots and kills her. After fighting through Ming's guards, Barin also manages to deactivate the lightning field before Ajax hits it. Flash flies the rocket ship into the city's wedding hall and impales Ming. Flash offers to spare his life if he stops the attack on Earth. Ming refuses and attempts to use his power ring on Flash, but it falters and nothing happens. He then aims the ring at himself and is seemingly vaporized by its remaining power. A victory celebration ensues. Barin and Aura become the new leaders in Ming's place. Barin names Vultan the general of their armies. Flash, Dale and Zarkov discuss returning to Earth. Zarkov says he does not know how they will get back, but they will try. Meanwhile, Ming's ring is picked up by an unseen person. Ming's evil laugh is heard closely after.