Clyde Shelton lives with his wife and daughter in Philadelphia when two burglars break into their home one night. Rupert Ames, who only intended to steal, ties up and gags Clyde, and pleads with Clarence Darby to leave, but Darby silences Ames and stabs Clyde in the stomach before gagging his wife, raping and killing her and their daughter in front of him. Prosecutor Nick Rice is assigned to the case along with District Attorney Jonas Cantrell. Upon learning that the DNA evidence is inconclusive in linking Darby to the crime, Nick is unwilling to risk lowering his high conviction rate and agrees to a plea bargain. Clyde begs Nick not to make a deal with Darby, but he does so anyway, boldly claiming that it is a victory. Darby testifies against Ames, who is convicted of felony murder and is sentenced to death, while Darby pleads guilty to third-degree murder and serves only three years in prison before being released on parole. During a press conference, Darby thanks Nick for helping him and shakes his hand as Clyde watches from afar. Ten years later, Ames expresses remorse for his role in the burglary, but maintains his innocence in the murders. Ames is executed via lethal injection, but the procedure goes awry and he unexpectedly dies screaming and writhing in pain. Nick and Cantrell, who witnessed the botched execution, learn that the drugs were replaced with an anticonvulsant. Meanwhile, Darby is warned by an anonymous caller that the police are coming and instructs him to flee his apartment and take an officer hostage. The officer is revealed to be Clyde in disguise, who intentionally lured Darby into a trap and had the real officer locked inside the trunk of the car. Darby attempts to shoot Clyde, but as he pulls the trigger, he is paralyzed with tetrodotoxin coated spikes hidden inside the handle. Clyde records himself torturing and killing Darby as he is strapped to a table. After Darby's dismembered remains are found inside an abandoned warehouse owned by Clyde, he is arrested as he locks eyes with Nick. During his interrogation, Nick confronts Clyde for mailing a DVD copy of Darby's murder to Nick's daughter Denise. Clyde represents himself at his bail hearing, where Judge Laura Burch, who previously presided over Darby's plea deal, initially grants Clyde bail. When Clyde accuses Judge Burch of being too easily swayed by legal doctrine and willing to release a potential criminal, she holds him in contempt of court and has his bail denied. After Clyde gives his confession, he demands a steak lunch from Del Frisco's and his iPod be delivered to his prison cell at 1:00 p.m. in exchange for the location of Darby's lawyer, Bill Reynolds, who was reported missing by his wife three days earlier. Nick agrees to the deal, but after missing Clyde's deadline, Reynolds is found buried alive with a precisely-timed oxygen device strapped to him. Simultaneously, Clyde stabs his cellmate to death while eating his lunch, forcing him to be moved to solitary confinement. Suspicious of Clyde's skills, Nick and Cantrell meet with Bray, a CIA contact who reveals that Clyde previously worked for the agency and specialized in unorthodox assassinations. Bray warns Nick and Cantrell that the only way to stop Clyde is to kill him. During a meeting, Nick and Cantrell persuade Judge Burch to temporarily suspend Clyde's civil rights. Judge Burch answers her cellphone, but she is killed by an explosive device hidden inside. When Nick confronts Clyde, he explains that the murders are not about revenge, but the failures of the criminal justice system. Clyde tells Nick that he will end the killings by 6:00 a.m. if he is released from prison and all charges against him are dropped. Nick takes precautionary measures instead, moving his entire legal team to an office at the prison to work throughout the night. After Clyde's deadline passes without incident, Nick allows his team to go home. While walking to his car, six attorneys from Cantrell's office, including Nick's assistant, Sarah Lowell, are killed in car bombings. Consequently, Mayor April Henry assigns two security guards to protect both Nick and Cantrell. While leaving Sarah's funeral, Cantrell and the security guards are killed by a weaponized bomb disposal robot armed with automatic target recognition and a missile. Nick prepares to resign when Mayor Henry considers firing him, but she instead promotes him to acting District Attorney and puts the city in lockdown. After Nick learns that Clyde owns a building near the prison, he and Detective Dunnigan discover a tunnel inside that leads to a cache of guns, disguises, and other equipment below the solitary confinement cells, with secret entrances to each cell. Nick realizes that Clyde intentionally sought solitary confinement, allowing him to leave the prison undetected. Clyde arrives disguised as a janitor at City Hall, where Mayor Henry is holding an emergency meeting, and passes through security. Nick and Dunnigan fail to find Clyde, but they discover a suitcase bomb loaded with napalm planted in the room below the meeting. When Clyde returns to his cell and finds Nick waiting for him, Clyde tries to make another deal, but Nick refuses, having finally learned his lesson. Nick unsuccessfully urges Clyde not to activate the bomb before leaving, but he hears the detonator beeping and discovers the bomb hidden underneath his bed. Clyde briefly smiles and sits down, holding and looking at his daughter's handmade bracelet as the bomb explodes. Nick, officially the District Attorney, joins his wife Kelly at Denise's cello recital, having previously failed to do so.

After the September 11 attacks, Jack Ryan, studying at the London School of Economics, becomes a U.S. Marine officer serving in Afghanistan, until his spine is critically injured while saving two of his fellow Marines when his helicopter is shot down. During a lengthy recovery back in the United States, he meets Cathy Muller, a medical student helping him to recover. Later, Thomas Harper, a veteran CIA official, recruits Jack. Ten years later, Ryan is working on Wall Street covertly for the CIA looking for suspicious financial transactions that indicate terrorist activity, while Muller is now his fiancée. When Russia loses a key vote before the United Nations and the markets do not respond as expected, Ryan discovers that billions of dollars possessed by Russian business interests, most of which belong directly or indirectly to Russian oligarch Viktor Cherevin, have disappeared. Ryan's employer conducts business with one of Cherevin's businesses. When Ryan finds certain accounts inaccessible to him as an auditor, he uses it as a legitimate excuse to visit Moscow and investigate. After narrowly surviving an attempt on his life by an assassin posing as his bodyguard, Ryan contacts the CIA and is surprised that his backup is Harper. During their debrief at Staraya Square, Ryan explains how Cherevin's web of international investments makes the United States vulnerable to complete financial collapse following a staged terrorist attack. The next day, Ryan is met by Katya, who escorts him to Cherevin's office. At their meeting, he is told that the problem company and all its assets have just been sold, preventing an audit. Meanwhile, Muller suspects that Ryan is having an affair and flies to Moscow. Against protocol for unmarried couples, Ryan reveals his CIA employment to her. Improvising the situation, Harper convinces Muller to help them infiltrate Cherevin's offices. Ryan and Muller meet Cherevin at an upscale restaurant across the street from the office. Ryan, who supposedly had too much to drink already before dinner, acts boorish and Muller suggests he "take a walk." Having obtained Cherevin's access card, Ryan enters an office adjacent to Cherevin's, where he downloads crucial files from the computer, while Muller remains with Cherevin distracting him with a variety of topics, including his terminal cirrhosis symptoms. The suspicious computer activity is detected, and guards rush through the building to locate the intruder. Katya is alerted to find Cherevin, who in a rage takes Muller out of the restaurant to return to his office. On the street, they run into Ryan, who apologizes for his behavior and leaves with Muller. Cheverin's men locate and invade the CIA group's base and kidnap Muller; enraged, Ryan follows and rescues her. Ryan and the CIA discover Cherevin has secretly propped up the struggling Chinese and Japanese state economies for years, leaving the U.S. economy vulnerable, as well as using a falsified death certificate to place his son, Aleksandr, in the U.S. as a sleeper agent. Ryan uses his talent for pattern recognition to determine that Aleksandr will execute a terrorist attack on Wall Street. Returning to New York City, he locates and catches up to a fake police response vehicle driven by Aleksandr, and discovers a bomb inside the vehicle. Unable to defuse it, he hijacks the vehicle and crashes it into the East River while jumping out; the bomb detonates, killing Aleksandr. Cherevin's fellow conspirators kill him to cover their tracks. Afterward, Ryan, now married, and Harper are called to the White House to brief the President on their next move.

The story begins in 1994. An outstanding student, Shen Chia-yi, is popular among her teachers and classmates. Ko Ching-teng, a mischievous and poor student, claims that he has no interest in her, despite being her classmate since junior high school. When Chia-yi forgets her textbook, Ching-teng gives her his, pretending that he is the one who forgot, and is punished by the teacher. Touched, Chia-yi prepares practice exams for him to encourage him to get better grades, and they grow closer, with Ching-teng's grades gradually improving. Chia-yi stands up for Ching-teng against a teacher and is punished, earning Ching-teng's and his friends' respect. On graduation, Ching-teng enrolls at the National Chiao Tung University. Chia-Yi, who was ill during examinations and performed poorly, only manages to enter the National Taipei University of Education with her mediocre test results. Depressed and upset, she is consoled by Ching-teng, who calls her long-distance almost every night from his university. During the winter holiday season that year, the two go on their first "date", during which Ching-teng asks Chia-yi if she likes him. However, fearing she would say no, he decides that he would rather not hear her answer. Ching-teng later organizes a fight night and invites Chia-yi to watch, hoping to impress her with his strength, but instead she finds it childish and disturbing. This upsets Ching-teng, sparking a quarrel that causes the two to stop speaking. During the years after their split, Ching-teng has no contact with Chia-yi. He qualifies for a graduate research course at Tunghai University, where he begins writing stories online. The two briefly make contact after the 1999 Jiji earthquake, when Ching-teng calls to see if Chia-yi is okay. They both reflect that they were not fated to become a couple. Ching-teng begins writing a web novel inspired by their relationship. Years later, in 2005, Chia-yi calls Ching-teng to tell him that she is getting married. All of their old friends gather at the wedding, reminiscing about their youth and friendships. When they gather to congratulate the bride and groom, the friends demand to kiss the bride, and the groom jokingly responds that they must kiss him the way they would kiss her. Ching-teng surprises everyone by kissing the groom passionately. While doing so, he imagines sharing the kiss with Chia-yi instead, with all of the bittersweet memories of their youth being flashed back.

In 1996, San Jose Mercury News reporter Gary Webb interviews drug dealer Ronny Quail, who is outraged that the government used civil asset forfeiture to keep his house even after he was acquitted. Webb's ensuing article about the abuses of forfeiture garners repeated phone calls from a woman named Coral, whom he agrees to meet when she says she has documents that prove the government sponsored cocaine sales in the U.S. Coral gives Webb a transcript of grand jury testimony (normally kept secret) which was accidentally released to her boyfriend, an accused drug dealer, during discovery. After Webb reveals to the prosecutor in the case that he has the transcript, the government drops the charges against Coral's boyfriend in order to protect their main witness: Oscar Danilo Blandón. After Webb researches Blandón and comes across the pending case of "Freeway" Rick Ross, he is stunned to learn that Blandón is a paid informant. Armed with this knowledge, Ross' attorney elicits from Blandón his sworn testimony outlining the CIA 's alleged involvement in Contra cocaine trafficking—that the CIA actively supported Blandón and his partners’ smuggling of cocaine into the U.S. and used the profits to benefit the Nicaraguan Contras. Webb travels to a prison in Managua and speaks to Blandón's partner, Norwin Meneses, who confirms Oliver North 's involvement in the basic "drugs for guns" scheme to use profits from cocaine trafficking to fund the Contras. In Washington, D.C., Webb tracks down Fred Weil, a National Security Council employee who was an investigator on the Kerry Committee report, which touched on the same issues. Like many other people that Webb speaks to, Weil warns him that the subject may put him in danger. For good measure, federal agents summon Webb to a meeting where they warn him against publishing what he has learned. The paper publishes Webb's story as a three-part series with the title " Dark Alliance "; it is an immediate sensation. Humiliated by being scooped by a regional paper, the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, and The New York Times all dig into Webb's reporting. Webb views their follow-up reporting as being far too deferential to the CIA. Eventually, their reporting turns to Webb himself, including an affair he had while working at The Plain Dealer. Webb is banished to the newspaper's Cupertino bureau to cover mundane local news. However, he continues to work on the story. He is awakened in his motel room one night by John Cullen, who is precisely the kind of CIA source with direct knowledge of the scheme that Webb's reporting needs. Webb's exhilaration at finding Cullen is quickly dampened when the paper reveals its plans to write an open letter calling into question aspects of its "Dark Alliance" reporting. At a Society of Professional Journalists dinner honoring Webb as the Bay Area "Journalist of the Year", he submits his resignation to his editors. An epilogue reveals that in 2004 Gary Webb was found dead in his apartment, shot twice in the head. His death was ruled a suicide.

Married couple Ed (Lee Williams) and Sarah (Pollyanna McIntosh) have decided that they want to get away from their busy, stressful lives in London and move somewhere more peaceful. They believe that they've found the perfect place in a bucolic farmhouse in Scotland; however, their real estate agent Flo (Joanne Mitchell) informs them that the land is the site of a gruesome battle between the English and the Scottish. Despite this knowledge and Flo's chilly story, Ed and Sarah choose to purchase the farmhouse and restore the property. Initially all seems well, but on their first night they hear strange sounds in the nearby area and discover that they are not at all welcome in the area. Later that night while Sarah is downstairs she witnesses the key coming out of the door, implying someone is entering. Quickly, she hides under a table as three men wearing pig masks enter. Sarah moves to a different room and attempts to climb out of the window, breaking a glass and cutting her hand. She later escapes the house and enters the woods. Sarah runs through the woods before finding a car in front of an old farmhouse that holds Ed hostage. Sarah beats in his captor's face and when a second man comes in, she knocks him down, but as more come, she cuts her Achilles heel. She and Ed escape the house. Ed tells her to hide while he distracts them so that she can make a run for the road. Ed knocks one to the ground and escapes, but is later caught in a bear trap. The captor Ed knocked down wanted to kill him, but another captor stops him, mentioning "a plan" they had for Ed and Sarah. Sarah runs into a boy who was at their house earlier and he takes her to the road. Sarah is seen limping as many men surround her. She demands to know where her husband is as they close in on her. The film ends with Sarah and Ed being found in a square in the middle of Manchester, alive. A group of people are having a barbecue at their Scottish home. One of them is the little boy who helped Sarah to the road. He is wearing a pig mask, like the captors, implying that the pig masked captors were the ones that owned the house and wanted the rich couple from London out of their home.

In 1993, Rajakannu and Sengeni, a couple from the Irula tribe, earn a living catching rats and venomous snakes for upper-caste landowners. After Rajakannu is called to remove a snake from a wealthy man's house, jewellery is reported stolen from the residence, and suspicion falls on him. Police raid his home, assault and unlawfully detain the pregnant Sengeni, and arrest Rajakannu's brother Iruttappan, his sister Pachaiammal and his brother-in-law Mosakutty. All are tortured in an attempt to reveal Rajakannu's whereabouts. Sengeni is eventually released, while Rajakannu remains in custody and is tortured into confessing. She is later told that Rajakannu, Iruttappan and Mosakutty have escaped from custody, and the police continue to harass her for information. Mythra, who teaches adults from the Irula community, learns of Chandru, a Communist lawyer known for defending tribal people, and persuades him to help Sengeni. Chandru files a habeas corpus petition and, citing the Rajan case, successfully requests witness examinations. The Solicitor General argues that the three men escaped from custody, relying on police testimony. Suspecting perjury, Chandru seeks an investigation into Sub-Inspector Gurumurthy, head constable Veerasamy and constable Kirubakaran. The case is later taken over by Advocate General Ram Mohan, who maintains that the men fled to Kerala. Varadarajulu, Iruttappan's employer, claims Iruttappan confessed to robbery while in hiding. Chandru discovers that the police had travelled to Kerala to telephone Varadarajulu and that Gurumurthy had impersonated Iruttappan. At Chandru's request, the court appoints Inspector General Perumalsamy to lead the investigation. After weeks of searching, Chandru and Perumalsamy examine records near the Pondicherry border and discover that Rajakannu's unidentified body had been recovered and cremated the day after his supposed escape. Convinced he died in custody, Chandru consults the pathologist who performed the post-mortem at JIPMER. Although the injuries were recorded as consistent with a road accident, Veerasamy privately admits to Ram Mohan that Rajakannu died from torture. Gurumurthy then instructed the officers to claim that all three prisoners had escaped and to stage Rajakannu's death as an accident, while Iruttappan and Mosakutty were transferred to a jail in Kerala. As Chandru, Mythra, Sengeni and the Irular community campaign for justice, Chandru uncovers further evidence of police coercion and misconduct. Mythra locates Iruttappan and Mosakutty in a jail near Dharapuram, where they testify about the torture they suffered and Rajakannu's death. Perumalsamy reveals that the officers accepted bribes from the real thief to conceal the truth. Chandru also presents evidence linking tyre marks and footprints at the scene to the police vehicle and officers involved. After hearing the evidence, the court orders an expedited murder trial against the three policemen and their immediate arrest. It commends Chandru and Perumalsamy for their efforts and awards compensation to the victims and their families. Sengeni later thanks Chandru, who attends the inauguration of her new house, fulfilling Rajakannu's dream of providing her with a home.

In 2008, a combined task group of People's Liberation Army Special Operations Forces and Chinese police raid a drug smuggling operation in an abandoned chemical facility in southern China. The leader of the smuggling operation, Wu Ji, holds one of his own men hostage while taking cover behind a section of the facility's reinforced wall. Leng Feng, a skilled PLA sniper, ignores orders to stand down and fires three shots at a weak section of the wall, penetrating through and killing Wu Ji. Leng Feng is sent to solitary confinement as punishment, but is approached by Long Xiaoyun, the female commander of the legendary 'Wolf Warriors', an elite unit within the PLA tasked with simulating foreign tactics for the PLA to train against. Long Xiaoyun offers Leng Feng a place in the Wolf Warriors. Meanwhile, in the Philippines, crime lord Min Deng, Wu Ji's older brother, hires ex–US Navy SEAL "Tom Cat" (Scott Adkins) and his group to kill Leng Feng and avenge his brother. The Wolf Warriors participate in a training exercise in a remote and uninhabited forested region on China's southern border. During the exercise, Tom Cat and his mercenaries ambush a Wolf Warrior squad, killing one of Leng Feng's comrades. Subsequently, the PLA and the Wolf Warriors are tasked with hunting down Tom Cat's squad. The combined infantry force move into the forest but are delayed by multiple traps set by Tom Cat and pinned down by sniper fire until Leng Feng manages to kill the shooter. Afterwards, the rest of the PLA force engages Tom Cat's other mercenaries, who stage a fighting retreat but are eventually overwhelmed and killed. Meanwhile, Long Xiaoyun and the other PLA commanders deduce that Ming Deng himself is also in the training area to take possession of a smuggled cache of biotechnology, which could allow the creation of a genetic weapon that could target Chinese people exclusively. Leng Feng eventually catches Tom Cat just before China's southern border. Leng Feng is nearly defeated, but manages to kill Tom Cat with his own knife. Medical personnel claiming to be from a PLA relief force arrive, but Leng Feng recognises the wrist tattoo of a medic and realizes that they are Min Deng's men in PLA uniforms. He attacks them, eventually holding Min Deng at bayonet point on the very edge of the Chinese border. Min Deng's paramilitary force approaches from the other side of the border, but so do the rest of the Wolf Warriors and PLA soldiers. Min Deng's force retreats, leaving him to be arrested.

Jang Kyung-chul, a school bus driver, encounters a woman named Jang Joo-yun and offers to fix her flat tire. After beating her unconscious and bringing her to his house, Kyung-chul methodically dismembers her, unaware of her ring falling into a floor drain. Kyung-chul scatters the body parts into a local river, where it is discovered, prompting the police to conduct a search led by Squad Chief Jang, Joo-yun's father, and Squad Chief Oh. Joo-yun's fiancée, Kim Soo-hyun, an NIS agent, vows to exact revenge on the perpetrator. After learning of the four suspects from Jang (Joo-yun's father), Soo-hyun privately interrogates two of them. The violent encounter (part torture) of the first two suspects absolves them as his wife's killer. But they are not without fault, one suspect turns himself in for killing multiple schoolgirls in fear of Soo-hyun's return and seeks help from the police in the hospital. Upon searching the home of Kyung-chul (the third suspect), Soo-hyun finds Joo-yun's ring which confirms Jang Kyung-chul to be his fiancé's killer. A short time later, Kyung-chul brings a schoolgirl home and begins to rape her. Soo-hyun interrupts and knocks him unconscious. Instead of killing Kyung-chul, Soo-hyun forces him to swallow a GPS tracking transmitter, allowing him to track Kyung-chul's movements and listen to his conversations while also fracturing his left arm. Waking up, Kyung-chul is offered a ride by a taxi, which already carries a passenger. The taxi had a license with a profile picture of the taxi's owner, which Kyung-chul notice is not the one driving this taxi. He has stepped into a hijacked vehicle and the occupants are acting strange. Kyung-chul attacks them seconds before they attack and murders them. Kyung-chul checks the trunk of the taxi and finds a murder victim (presumably the taxi driver) and a bag of fresh clothes. He leaves their bodies on the side of the road, and cleans up in a nearby river. Kyung-chul drives to a clinic to have his wounds looked at. After being treated, Kyung-chul proceeds to rape a nurse. Soo-hyun arrives, subdues him, and slashes his achilles tendon before leaving. At this point, Soo-hyun's intention becomes clear: he wants to torture Kyung-chul as long as possible. Kyung-chul visits the home of his friend Tae-joo, a cannibalistic murderer and meets his girlfriend Se-jung who seems nonchalant about the meeting. After learning of the situation, Tae-joo remarks that his tormentor must be related to one of his victims. Kyung-chul deduces Soo-hyun's identity after recalling that his wedding ring matched that of Joo-yun. Soo-hyun arrives and incapacitates Kyung-chul, Tae-joo, and his girlfriend Se-jung. The next day, Tae-joo and Se-jung, still unconscious, are arrested by the police and sent to the hospital. Soo-hyun and Kyung-chul receive treatment for their wounds, aided by Soo-hyun's trusted subordinate, who helps them evade the cops. Kyung-chul wakes up and overhears Soo-hyun and the subordinate talking about the transmitter. After being released, Kyung-chul steals and uses laxatives to excrete the transmitter, where he plants it on a taxi driver at a truck stop. Soo-hyun enters Tae-joo's hospital room to question him and learns that Kyung-chul is going after Jang (Joo-yun's father) and his other daughter, Jang Se-yun. Enraged by Tae-joo telling him the details of Joo-yun's murder, Soo-hyun rips his mouth open. Kyung-chul arrives at Jang's house, brutally assaults him, and kills Se-yun. Kyung-chul attempts to avoid Soo-hyun's revenge by surrendering himself to the police, but Soo-hyun abducts Kyung-chul in a car before the police can apprehend him. Soo-hyun drives to Kyung-chul's house, where he tortures him, places him under Kyung-chul's makeshift guillotine and leaves him holding a rope between his teeth to keep the blade from falling. Though he mocks Soo-hyun, Kyung-chul begins to panic when he learns that his son and elderly parents, whom he had abandoned some time ago, have arrived and are trying to visit him. As his family opens the door, the guillotine blade is Booby-trapped to fall and beheads Kyung-chul. Listening to the family's anguish through the transmitter which he placed next to Kyung-chul's head, Soo-hyun breaks down and begins crying hysterically as he walks away from the scene.

In 2003 New York City, Kim Baker is a struggling television journalist covering low-profile stories. To help her career, she takes a short assignment as a war correspondent in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom, to the disappointment of her boyfriend Chris. Assigned to modest living quarters with other international journalists, Kim befriends noted BBC correspondent Tanya Vanderpoel and lecherous Scottish freelance photographer Iain MacKelpie. She adjusts to her new duties aided by her Afghan " fixer " Fahim Ahmadzai. She elicits frank remarks on camera from soldiers questioning the value of their assignment and puts herself in harm's way to capture combat incidents on video. Marine General Hollanek sees her as an inexperienced nuisance. Despite the danger, Kim stays in Afghanistan for years beyond her original assignment. She catches Chris with another woman during a middle-of-the-night video call, ending their relationship and her sexual flirtation with Iain develops into something more meaningful. Although Afghan Islamic society places restrictive roles on women, she uses her sex to her advantage and gains access to female villagers who have been sabotaging the US-built well because they welcome the daily walk to the river away from the men. She uses her own sexuality to develop Afghan Attorney General Ali Massoud Sadiq as a news source. Fahim, who treated opium addicts before the war, cautions her that danger can be as dangerous as a drug. Despite their mutual friendliness, Kim competes with other journalists for stories and resources from their employers. After three years in Afghanistan, Kim flies to New York to argue for more support from her network's new boss, and discovers Tanya is slated to take over her Afghan assignment. Iain is kidnapped for ransom while covering a developing story he had offered to share with Kim. She returns to Afghanistan and blackmails Ali for information about Iain's whereabouts, impressing on Hollanek the political value of rescuing Iain. The mission is a success, militarily and journalistically but Kim becomes disillusioned with her tentative relationship with Iain and her station. She returns to the United States for good, and looks up a Marine whose on-camera comments to her might have led to his transfer and subsequent loss of his legs to an IED. She tries to apologize to him but he refuses to let her take the blame. Kim takes an on-camera desk job and finds herself interviewing Iain, who will be in New York as part of a new book tour. He invites her to meet him for coffee.

Slacker David Wong recalls confronting a zombie skinhead he beheaded a year earlier and wonders if an axe that had its handle and head replaced over time is still the same axe. In the present day, he meets with a reporter, Arnie Blondestone, to recount the supernatural events that plagued the small, undisclosed city he lives in. Some time ago, David is at a party with his friend John, with acquaintances Fred Chu, Justin White, and Amy Sullivan, who has had a hand amputated. David learns that Amy's dog, Bark Lee, has gone missing after biting Robert Marley, a drug dealer who pretends to be Jamaican. The dealer claims to have powers and knows things about David that he shouldn't. As he leaves the party, David sees Bark next to his car. John calls Dave, demanding he come over at once. At John's apartment, David, oblivious to a bizarre creature only John can see, finds a syringe containing a black-colored drug, John tells David that the drug, "Soy Sauce", given to him by Marley, grants inhuman knowledge when taken, along with dumping the user in alternate dimensions and timestreams, as demonstrated by a past version of John calling present Dave. As they drive off, David accidentally stabs himself with the syringe, propelling him through alternate dimensions. Returning to the present, a strange man, Roger North, appears in the backseat. Roger puts a strange creature down David's shirt and tells him to drive. David uses the cigarette lighter to burn off the creature. He stops the car and threatens Roger, who disappears. Detective Lawrence Appleton questions the two at a police station. Appleton reveals that John and Justin White were the only survivors of a drug-fueled afterparty thrown by Robert Marley. Everyone else either disappeared or suffered grisly, bizarre deaths. In the present, an incredulous Arnie tries to leave, but Dave convinces him to stay after showing him a strange monster in his car that can't be easily seen. During questioning by the cops, John dies for unknown reasons. While one of the interrogators leaves to investigate John's death, John telepathically contacts Dave. John helps Dave realize the other cop in the room is a ghost and helps him escape from the police station. Dave is then guided to Marley's house. Marley's Soy Sauce knocks Dave unconscious. He wakes up to see Appleton preparing to burn down the trailer, who tells him John's body disappeared and that the Soy Sauce is letting in some kind of evil force. Appleton shoots David, who survives by time-traveling and tampering with the round he was shot with. Bark, controlled by John, drives David's car through the wall, allowing him to escape. Justin White, possessed, appears in David's apartment and subdues him. Dave tries to kill him but he's infected. Justin kidnaps David, Fred, Amy, Bark, and John and takes them to an abandoned mall, hoping to use a ghostly door inside to travel to another dimension. John manipulates White into going outside, where Appleton kills him. Appleton then explodes into a swarm of demonic insects who then possess Fred, whom David reluctantly kills. Amy opens the ghost door with her phantom limb, allowing John and Dave passage. There they meet North and Albert Marconi, celebrity psychic and exorcist. They reveal the source of the strange happenings is Korrok, an eldritch biological supercomputer who has turned into a genocidal god who wants to travel to new dimensions and conquer them. Marconi gives David and John an LSD-laced C4 explosive to incapacitate Korrok. The duo steps through a portal to an alternate Earth. Disciples of Korrok greet them as "chosen ones" and present a brutal totalitarian society, where dissenters are maimed by Korrok's monsters. The duo are brought before Korrok, who plans to devour them, absorb their knowledge of dimensional travel, and conquer their dimension. John tries to activate the bomb but fumbles. Bark Lee, who followed the two, grabs the bomb and flings himself into Korrok, sacrificing himself to destroy Korrok. Upon escaping, David and John meet Marconi and learn that Bark was meant to defeat Korrok all along. After biting a Soy Sauce-addled Marley, it linked him to Marconi and North. Amy becomes David's girlfriend. With Marconi's help, David and John become exorcists and demon hunters. In the present, Arnie decides to publish the story. Dave realizes he perceives Arnie differently than how he really looks, and the two find the real Arnie decapitated in the trunk of his car, who was killed after first contacting Dave. Dave tells Arnie that Dave's mind projected his current shape. Arnie tries to deny this but soon vanishes into thin air. Later, John and Dave play basketball and inadvertently throw their ball into a post-apocalyptic dimension. After going in after it, a paramilitary organization informs them they are chosen ones who will restore the world, but an annoyed John and Dave walk off.

In late 2010, Matt Ryder is an A&R representative at a Manhattan record label who is in danger of losing his job after his company's biggest client signs with another label. He is estranged from his father Ben, a famous photographer. Ben's assistant and nurse Zooey informs Matt that Ben is terminally ill with liver cancer. Though they have not spoken in over ten years, Ben has requested that Matt drive him to Dwayne's Photo in Parsons, Kansas, the last shop that develops Kodachrome film. Ben has several rolls he wants to have processed before he dies, and time is short as even Dwayne's Photo will soon stop operating because Kodak is no longer making the dyes. Ben's manager Larry persuades Matt to make the trip by arranging a meeting between Matt and the Spare Sevens, a band he has been trying to sign. Matt, Ben and Zooey start the journey, and Ben insists on taking backroads so he can take photos and enjoy the scenery. In Ohio, the group visits Ben's brother Dean and Dean's wife Sarah, who were Matt's surrogate parents following his mother's death. Zooey and Matt bond over Matt's old music collection, and later a drunk Matt leans in to kiss her, but falls off the bed. He sleeps on the floor, and they share stories of their failed marriages. The next morning, Zooey is awakened by Ben, who has fallen in the bathroom and needs help to stand. Ben irritates Dean and Sarah at breakfast by mentioning that he and Sarah once had a sexual relationship. Sarah explains that it was before she and Dean dated, which does little to assuage Dean's anger. In Chicago, Matt makes his pitch to the Spare Sevens, and follows his father's advice not to tell the band how great they are, but to point out what they are doing wrong and why they need Matt to fix it. Lead singer Jasper and the other members admire Matt's nerve and begin to agree to the outlines of a deal, but start to mock Ben when he accidentally urinates on himself. Though it will probably cost him his job, Matt tells them he does not respect them and leaves the meeting to check on his father. At their hotel, Ben expresses disappointment that Matt did not close the deal. Zooey points out that Matt made a career-ending decision to defend his father, which leads to Ben firing her. Zooey joins Matt at a bar, where he receives several texts from his boss confirming that he has been fired. They continue to drink, then spend the night together. The next morning, Zooey says she regrets spending the night with Matt and returns to New York. Matt receives no answer at Ben's door and has hotel staff open it. Ben is unconscious on the floor, and Matt rushes him to the hospital. The doctor tells Matt that Ben's cancer can no longer be treated, he cannot travel, and he should be placed in hospice care. That night, Ben struggles to load film into a camera, eliciting Matt's help. Through tears, Ben tells Matt that he does not expect forgiveness for his shortcomings as a father, but that he loves him. Matt and Ben embrace. The next day, Matt and Ben leave the hospital to finish the trip to Parsons, which will require driving nonstop overnight to make it to the photo lab in time. They drop off Ben's film at Dwayne's, where Ben is recognized by several patrons, most of whom are well-known photographers. Several ask to have photos taken with Ben, giving Matt insight into his father's influence and legacy. In their hotel room, Ben is cleaning his camera when he dies. Larry arrives to make funeral arrangements and Dwayne delivers the developed photos. Matt offers them to Larry, but Larry refuses, saying Ben's wish was for Matt to curate them for a showing. At Ben's home, Matt loads the photo slides into a projector and is surprised to see dozens of pictures of himself as a boy, many with his deceased mother, and some with his father. Zooey arrives and asks if he would like company, then they stand together as they view Ben's slides.

During the winter on the Wind River Indian Reservation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Agent Cory Lambert discovers the frozen body of 18-year-old Natalie Hanson of the Northern Arapaho tribe. FBI special agent Jane Banner arrives to investigate the possible homicide. Banner learns from Natalie's father, Martin, that his daughter was dating a new boyfriend whose name he does not know. Natalie's autopsy shows signs of blunt trauma and rape and confirms Lambert's deduction that Natalie died from pulmonary hemorrhage caused by inhaling subzero air. The medical examiner refuses to classify the death as a homicide, so Banner cannot get additional help from her supervisors. Lambert is informed by Natalie's brother Chip that Natalie's boyfriend is Matt Rayburn, a security guard at a nearby oil-drilling site. Lambert and Banner soon find Matt's naked, mutilated body in the snow. Lambert reveals to Banner that his 16-year-old daughter Emily, Natalie's best friend, died in a similar manner to Natalie three years earlier, and the case remains unsolved. Banner, tribal police Chief Ben Shoyo, and other law enforcement officers visit the drilling site, where Curtis, the security supervisor, and several security guards meet them. They claim Matt left a few days prior, following an argument with Natalie. One guard mentions they heard about Natalie's body being found, and Banner states that Natalie's name has not been released to the public. The guards claim they learned it by monitoring a police scanner. One of Banner's team notices the guards slowly surrounding them and draws his weapon. The confrontation quickly escalates into an armed standoff, which Banner defuses. In a flashback, Matt's drunken colleagues barge into his trailer while he is in bed with Natalie. Matt is provoked to violence, and the other guards continue the attack while one guard, Pete, rapes Natalie. Matt is beaten to death, but his attempt to fight back allows Natalie to try to escape by running cross-country to the mobile home where her brother lives. In the present, Lambert traces the tracks from where Matt's corpse was found back to the drilling camp. As Banner and the others approach Pete's trailer, Lambert radios a warning to Shoyo. Pete responds to a veiled warning from Curtis by firing a shotgun through the door, wounding Banner. A gunfight ensues, and Shoyo and the other officers are killed. As the remaining guards prepare to execute Banner, Lambert kills four with his rifle. A wounded Pete flees on foot, but Lambert apprehends him. At Gannett Peak, Lambert forces Pete to confess before offering him the same chance Natalie had: try to stay alive by running to a distant road barefoot and wearing lightweight clothing. Pete runs but quickly succumbs as his lungs give out from the frigid air. Lambert visits Banner in the hospital and praises her toughness. He visits with Martin and they share grief over the deaths of their daughters. A title card reads, " While missing person statistics are compiled for every other demographic, none exist for Native American women. "