In 1898, Daniel Plainview finds silver while prospecting in New Mexico but breaks his leg. Dragging himself from the pit, he takes a sample to an assay office and receives a silver and gold claim. In 1902, he discovers oil in California. Following the death of a worker in an accident, Daniel adopts his orphaned son, H.W., in order to pass himself off as a family man to potential investors. In 1911, Daniel is approached by Paul Sunday, a young man who tells him of an oil deposit in Little Boston. Daniel visits the Sundays' property in Little Boston and meets Paul's twin brother Eli, a preacher. Daniel attempts to purchase the farm from the Sundays at a bargain price under the ruse of using it to hunt quail, but his motives are questioned by Eli, who knows the land has oil. In exchange for the property, Eli demands $10,000 for his church. Plainview counters with a $5,000 offer, and an agreement is made and Daniel acquires all the available land in and around the Sunday property, except for the land owned by one holdout, William Bandy. After Daniel reneges on an agreement to let Eli bless the well before drilling begins, a series of misfortunes occur: an accident kills one worker and a gas blowout deafens H.W. and destroys the drilling infrastructure. When Eli publicly demands the money still owed to him, Daniel beats and humiliates him. At the dinner table that night, Eli attacks and berates his father for having trusted Daniel. A man arrives at Daniel's doorstep, claiming to be his half-brother, Henry. Later that night, H.W. sets fire to their shack. Daniel chases, restrains, and then sends H.W. to a school for the deaf in San Francisco. Standard Oil offers to buy out Daniel's local interests, but Daniel refuses and instead strikes a deal with Union Oil to build a pipeline. However, Bandy's ranch remains an impediment. Daniel becomes suspicious of Henry after he fails to recognize a childhood joke and confronts him one night at gunpoint. "Henry" confesses that he was a friend of the real Henry, who died of tuberculosis, and that he had impersonated Henry in the hope that Daniel could give him a job. An enraged Daniel murders him and buries his body. After looking through the real Henry's journal that the imposter Henry had with him revealing that the real Henry was traveling to meet him, Daniel drinks and weeps. The next morning, Daniel is awakened by Bandy, who knows of Daniel's crime and wants him to publicly repent in Eli's church in exchange for an easement to run his pipeline across the ranch. As part of his baptism, Eli humiliates Daniel and coerces him into confessing that he abandoned his child. Later, while the pipeline is being built, H.W. reunites with Daniel and Eli becomes a missionary. In 1927, H.W. marries Paul and Eli's sister Mary. Daniel, now extremely wealthy but an alcoholic, lives alone in a large mansion. H.W. asks his father to dissolve their partnership so that he can move to Mexico with Mary and start his own drilling company. Daniel angrily mocks H.W.'s deafness before revealing his true origins and disowning him as his son. H.W. finally leaves after thanking God he is not related to Daniel. Eli, now a radio preacher, visits a drunken Daniel in the bowling alley in his basement. Eli asks Daniel to partner with the church in drilling Bandy's property. Daniel agrees on the condition that Eli denounce his faith. Once Eli acquiesces, Daniel reveals that he already drained the property of its oil supply by capture and taunts Eli for his misfortune in investments he made when the market crashed. Daniel torments Eli further by telling him a lie about how he gave his brother $10,000 instead and is now a wealthy man. He chases Eli around the alley and bludgeons him to death with a bowling pin. When his butler appears to investigate the commotion, Daniel announces, "I'm finished."

As a war galley sails through a storm, two dragons fight above the clouds, ending in one's death. In the kingdom of Enlad, royal wizard Root proclaims the dragons to be a sign of a loss of balance in the world. The king is dealing with disease sweeping across his kingdom and the disappearance of his son, Prince Arren. For reasons unknown, Arren kills his father, steals his father's sword, and flees the castle. Arren travels through the desert and is rescued from wolves by the archmage Sparrowhawk. They travel to the city of Hort Town, where Arren rescues a young girl named Therru from the slaver Hare, but is later captured himself. His sword is dumped in the sea. Sparrowhawk rescues Arren and takes him to a farm run by Sparrowhawk's oldest friend Tenar, who lives with Therru. Sparrowhawk's intervention against Hare's slave caravan angers Lord Cob, a powerful warlock and the ruler of Hort Town. Sparrowhawk tells Arren that he seeks a way to restore the upset balance. He buys Arren's sword from a merchant and evades capture from Hare whilst learning about Cob's castle. Arren confesses to Therru that he killed his father and feels an unknown presence following him. He is then met by the presence: A mirror image of himself. He flees and falls unconscious after stumbling into a swamp. Cob takes him to the castle, where he manipulates Arren into revealing his "true name", Prince Lebannen, to control him. Hare captures Tenar as bait to lure Sparrowhawk into the castle, leaving Therru tied to a post. However, she later frees herself, and Sparrowhawk gives her Arren's sword. Sparrowhawk breaks into the castle to save Tenar and learns that Cob is causing the world's balance to collapse by opening the door between life and death to gain eternal life. Cob sends Arren out to kill him, but Sparrowhawk frees the prince from Cob's control, only to be captured by Hare. Therru sees the duplicate of Arren and follows him to the castle, where he reveals that he is the light within Arren and tells Therru his true name. Therru learns of Sparrowhawk and Tenar's sunrise execution. She finds Arren, guilty and hopeless, and brings hope back to him, calling him by his true name and confiding in him her own true name, Tehanu. Arren confronts Cob and finally unsheathes his sword, which was sealed with magic throughout the story. He cuts off Cob's staff-holding hand. Unable to use his magic powers, Cob rapidly begins to age. He captures Therru and flees to the highest tower of the castle. The withering dark lord uses the last of his magic to strangle Therru to death. Instead of dying, she reveals her true form as a dragon, possessing everlasting life. Therru then kills Cob and rescues Arren. Sparrowhawk and Tenar leave the castle while Therru and Arren land in a field, where Therru changes back into a human. Arren tells Therru he will leave for home to repent for his crime, but he will come back to see her someday. Arren and Sparrowhawk depart for Enlad, bidding Therru and Tenar goodbye. Therru looks up to see her fellow dragons airborne, indicating that the balance of the world has been restored.

A young man named Scat comes up with a new idea for a drink after he drops his drink and swears, calling it 'FUKK'. He goes to Addison Cola Company where he maneuvers a meeting with a formidable marketing executive, Six, by triggering the fire alarm. While mediocre, she tells him that she and her team will polish it before it is presented to the board. During the meeting, the board shows some resistance but Six informs them that Scat is willing to give up trademark provisions for a mere two million. Scat then realizes he has not reserved the trademark and scrambles to the Patent and Trademark Office only to find out that his roommate, Sneaky Pete, stole his idea and registered it earlier that morning. Success befalls Pete as 'FUKK' becomes the highest-selling energy drink in the nation. Embittered, Scat goes back to his ordinary life but is later recruited by Six to help her come up with a new ad campaign after she is booted off the 'FUKK' campaign and relegated to Addy Classics. Instructed to come up with a brilliant idea by Friday (only five days away), Scat moves in with Six and is unable to think of anything until moments before the deadline. After shaking a vending machine in frustration and Six telling him that twelve people have died by being crushed by vending machines, he comes up with the idea of 'Wouldn't you die for a Fukk' advertising a cartoon where people die by being crushed by vending machines because they want the drink so badly. The ad is accepted and aired but a young teenager dies by being crushed by a vending machine and the ad is now considered insensitive and taken off air. Scat and Six attend the funeral and when Scat makes a speech, Six points out that all the mourners are actors that she recognizes from ads. Scat quickly realizes that Sneaky Pete created this fake death to get their ad to fail, and he quickly pulls out the fake body from the coffin and holds it up for all to see. Scat is fired while believing that Six remains at the company. In reality, Six quit when Addison refused to keep Scat, now working at a shoe store. After a brief stint as a rickshaw driver, Scat is hired by a rival company, and Six is also poached. As Scat and Six are being hired Six drops a name tag from her work, possibly revealing a glimpse of her real name (appearing to be Elizabeth), before she quickly covers and retrieves the name tag. The two must come up with a new drink idea and after talking about their attraction for each other, Scat comes up with the 'Average KOK'. He presents this as a drink to the board and also thinks of a different drink just called 'KOK' that they give to celebrities. The normal 'KOK's are numbered up to 100 and each number represents a celebrity and the celebrity deems who can drink their numbered drink. After the frenzy for the drink that they can't have, Scat and the company decide to make the drink go public but not before the suicide of a teenager who killed himself after not being 'cool' enough to drink his lucky number 17's corresponding drink. After confirming that this time the death is real, Scat goes on TV to apologize but ends up pointing out that drink sales have never been higher even after the death and that people, like him, 'have a dream'.Scat walks along watching himself on the TV displays and Six finds him. Scat tells her his real name is 'Michael' and asks for her real name. They kiss, but Six insists that "Six" is her name. Scat says, "It's been a pleasure doing business with you, Six," and walks away.

The Asgardian Loki encounters the Other, the representative of an extraterrestrial race known as the Chitauri. In exchange for obtaining the Tesseract, a powerful energy source of unknown potential, the Other promises to provide Loki with an army to conquer Earth. Nick Fury, director of the covert agency S.H.I.E.L.D., arrives at a remote research facility where astrophysicist Dr. Erik Selvig is leading a team studying the Tesseract. It suddenly activates and opens a portal, allowing Loki to reach Earth. Loki steals the Tesseract and uses his scepter to enslave Selvig and other agents, including Clint Barton, to aid him. In response, Fury reactivates the " Avengers Initiative ". Agent Natasha Romanoff travels to Kolkata to recruit Dr. Bruce Banner so he can trace the Tesseract through its gamma radiation emissions. Fury approaches Steve Rogers to discuss his knowledge of the Tesseract, and Agent Phil Coulson visits Tony Stark so he can check Selvig's research. Loki is in Stuttgart, where Barton steals iridium needed to stabilize the Tesseract. This leads to a confrontation with Rogers, Stark, and Romanoff that ends with Loki's surrender. While Loki is being escorted to S.H.I.E.L.D., his adoptive brother Thor arrives and frees him, hoping to convince him to abandon his plan and return to Asgard. Stark and Rogers intervene, and Loki is imprisoned in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s flying base, the Helicarrier. The Avengers disagree on how to approach Loki and become argumentative once they realize S.H.I.E.L.D. plans to use the Tesseract to create weapons of mass destruction to use against extraterrestrial threats. During the argument, Loki's agents attack the Helicarrier, and Banner transforms into the Hulk in the chaos. Stark and Rogers restart the damaged engine while Thor attempts to stop the Hulk's rampage. Romanoff subdues Barton, freeing him from Loki's control. Loki escapes after mortally wounding Coulson. Fury uses Coulson's subsequent death to motivate the Avengers to work together as a team. Loki uses the Tesseract and a generator Selvig built to open a portal above Stark Tower in New York City, allowing his Chitauri fleet to invade. Rogers, Stark, Romanoff, Barton, Thor, and the Hulk work together to protect New York from the Chitauri. The Hulk incapacitates Loki while Romanoff learns from Selvig, now freed from Loki's mind control, that Loki's scepter can shut down the generator. Fury's superiors from the World Security Council attempt to end the invasion by launching a nuclear missile at Midtown Manhattan. Stark intercepts the missile and flies it toward the Chitauri fleet through the wormhole. The missile destroys the Chitauri mothership and disables their forces on Earth. Stark becomes unconscious, and his suit loses power, leaving him free falling towards Earth. The Hulk manages to catch him and the Avengers resuscitate him, while Romanoff uses Loki's scepter to close the wormhole. In the aftermath, Thor transports an imprisoned Loki and the Tesseract to Asgard, where Loki will face justice for his crimes. In a mid-credits scene, the Other confers with his master about the failed attack on Earth.

Ishaan is an 8-year-old boy living in Mumbai, who has trouble following school. He is assumed by all to simply hate learning and deemed a troublemaker, and is belittled for it. He has even repeated the 3rd standard due to his academic failures from the previous year. Ishaan's imagination, creativity and talent for art and painting are often disregarded. Ishaan's father, Nandkishore Awasthi, is a successful executive who expects his sons to excel. His mother, Maya, is a homemaker who gave up her career and is frustrated by her inability to educate Ishaan. His elder brother Yohaan is an exemplary student and tennis player in whose shadow Ishaan remains, though he is the most supportive of Ishaan. One day, his parents are called by the principal to discuss his behavior and grades. Due to Ishaan's failures, lack of improvement and rebellious behavior, the principal suggests they look into special schools, but Nandkishore rejects this and sends him to a boarding school despite Maya and Yohaan's protests. Alone there, Ishaan rapidly sinks into a state of fear, anxiety and depression, which is only worsened by the teachers' strict and abusive regime. Ishaan's only friend is Rajan Damodaran, a physically disabled boy who is one of the top students and resides with his family there, as his father is part of the school's board. Ishaan contemplates suicide one day, but Rajan intervenes and stops him. Rajan subsequently informs Ishaan that Mr. Holkar, the boarding school's strict and abusive art teacher, has left and is being replaced by someone else. Ram Shankar Nikumbh, a young, cheerful and optimistic instructor at the Tulips School for young children with developmental disabilities, joins as the boarding school's temporary art teacher the same day, replacing Mr. Holkar. Ram's teaching style is markedly different from Holkar's, and he quickly notes Ishaan's unhappiness after Ishaan fails to draw anything during the class. Ram reviews Ishaan's work and concludes that his academic shortcomings are indicative of dyslexia. Ram then visits Ishaan's house in Mumbai, where he is surprised to discover Ishaan's hidden interest in art. Ram demonstrates to Maya and Yohaan how Ishaan has extreme difficulty in understanding letters and words due to dyslexia and his trouble in sports stems from his poor motor ability (which also applies to his difficulty in tying shoelaces and judging the size, speed and distance of a ball). However, Nandkishore labels it as an intellectual disability (as well as an excuse) and dismisses it as laziness, much to Ram's frustration. Back at school, Ram brings up the topic of dyslexia in a class by offering a list of famous dyslexic people. Ram comforts Ishaan, telling him how he struggled as a child as well. Ram obtains the principal's permission to become Ishaan's tutor. With gradual care, Ram works to improve Ishaan's reading and writing by using remedial techniques developed by dyslexia specialists. Eventually, both Ishaan's demeanor and grades improve. One day, Nandkishore visits the school and tells Ram that he and Maya have read up on dyslexia and understand the condition. Ram mentions that what Ishaan needs more than understanding is that someone loves him. Outside, Nandkishore sees Ishaan attempting to read from a board. With teary eyes, he is unable to face his son and walks away, remorseful. At the end of the school year, Ram organises an arts and crafts contest for the staff and students, judged by artist Lalita Lajmi. Ishaan's work makes him the winner and Ram, who paints Ishaan's portrait, is declared the runner-up. The principal announces that Ram has been hired as the boarding school's permanent art teacher. When Ishaan's parents meet his teachers on the last day of school, they are left speechless by the transformation within their son. Overcome with emotion, Nandkishore thanks Ram. Before leaving, Ishaan runs toward Ram, who lifts him high up in a hug, advising him to come back next year.

In 2035, society's dreams are taxed by the government, which has mandated increased surveillance measures upon the general public. Dream Auditor James Preble travels to the countryside home of the elderly Arabella Isadora, an artist who lives alone with her pet tortoise Sugar Baby in the self-titled Strawberry Mansion. Arabella's dreams are stored on a vast library of VHS tapes, which Preble reviews to conduct an audit; at Bella's insistence, he stays in her guest room. In his dreams, he regularly spends his time in a pink room with Buddy, who presents him with commercial products; one such session is interrupted by a younger apparition of Bella. During his audit, Preble begins to fall in love with the younger Bella; he grows closer to her in the real world, and she reveals that the government allows advertisers to transmit ads to a person's dreams. She presents him with homemade headgear designed to hold them off; it successfully defends against Buddy. Sometime later, she dies peacefully and is discovered by Preble. Bella's estranged son Peter Bloom arrives with his wife, Martha, and son, Brian, to handle Bella's affairs. Peter suggests to Preble that he is finished with his audit and may now leave. A suspicious Preble discovers Martha and Brian destroying the VHS tapes mid-audit and declares it a federal offense, angrily informing Peter that he will have to notify his superiors; Peter responds by later knocking him unconscious with a bowling pin. Preble vividly dreams of himself being chased around the house by exaggerated incarnations of the Blooms before he is rescued by the younger Bella. They escape to a small island, where they sustain and entertain themselves for a long time. Eventually, Bella reveals that Peter is the CEO of the country's largest advertisement corporation and that his knowledge of the dream-infiltrating advertisement scheme has placed him in danger. Various incarnations of Buddy appear and Preble wakes up; Peter knocks him out a second time and sets the room on fire; he and the family leave Preble to die. Preble reawakens in his dream as the captain of a ship, helmed by two humanoid sailor rats, Richard and Marcus Rat. For the next seven years, they sail the seas in search of Bella, but the Rats eventually begin to question the mission's viability. As the fire in his room picks up, a giant Blue Demon attacks the ship at sea. Preble's surroundings dissolve around him and he dines with the normal-sized Blue Demon, who is keeping Bella in servitude. After the Demon goes to bed, Preble frees Bella and they escape back to the island. Bella warns him that he cannot stay with her for much longer, as he will soon die from the fire if he does not wake up. At her insistence, Preble turns into a caterpillar and spends the next several centuries traversing the earth, finally arriving at his pink room. He is confronted by a wrathful Buddy, but Bella arrives to help Preble overpower and ultimately vanquish him. Preble and Bella are bid farewell by a sendoff party of all of the dream's characters; an apparition of Peter warmly greets and apologizes to both of them. They float off into space but find themselves disintegrating as Preble's mind continues to feel the fire's heat. Preble awakens and escapes the house, but reenters to retrieve the headgear, Sugar Baby, and a tape. Preble sorrowfully watches Strawberry Mansion burn down. Upon returning home, Preble reminisces on the VHS tape, the contained dream of which shows Bella on a date with a mysterious grass man; Bella eventually brushes off the grass to reveal Preble underneath. The film ends with the two of them walking hand-in-hand to Strawberry Mansion.

In the Welsh seaside city of Swansea, Oliver Tate is an eccentric, unpopular 15-year-old who is infatuated with his mischievous classmate, Jordana Bevan. After Oliver bullies another female classmate to impress Jordana, she invites him to meet secretly after school, before taking pictures of her and Oliver kissing. Jordana uses the pictures to make her ex-boyfriend Mark jealous, resulting in Oliver being beaten up by Mark at school for refusing to call Jordana a "slut". Jordana becomes Oliver's girlfriend and, after a couple of weeks, they lose their virginity to each other in his bedroom while his parents are out. Oliver begins to suspect that his mother Jill is having an affair with a previous lover, New Age motivational speaker Graham Purvis, who has moved in next door with his girlfriend Kim-Lin. Worried about his parents' marriage, he monitors their sex life by checking the dimmer switch in their bedroom, concluding that they have not had sex for seven months. After spotting Jill in town with Graham and overhearing her talk about him on the phone, Oliver tries to warn his depressed father Lloyd, who dismisses his suspicions. Oliver spies on Jill attending one of Graham's seminars, where Graham tells her that he has broken up with Kim-Lin. As Oliver's relationship with Jordana grows, she reveals that her mother has been diagnosed with a life-threatening brain tumour. At an awkward early Christmas dinner at Jordana's house, Oliver is welcomed by her parents but witnesses her father break down emotionally after a dimmer switch stops working. Despite agreeing to visit Jordana's mother at the hospital the day of her operation, Oliver loses his nerve and temporarily disappears from Jordana's life so he can focus on salvaging his parents' marriage, planning to resume his relationship with Jordana afterwards. On the night of New Year's Eve, Jill goes to the beach with Graham. While searching for Jill on the crowded beach, Oliver is stunned to see Jordana with another boy. He then spies on his mother entering the back of Graham's van and assumes the worst. Enraged, he goes home and takes several of Lloyd's antidepressants before breaking into Graham's house, where he gets drunk and commits minor acts of vandalism. Upon returning home, Graham finds an intoxicated Oliver, Graham later drops Oliver off at his doorstep and leaves. The next morning, Oliver awakes to see that his parents are not angry with him and are reconciling, though Jill admits that she gave Graham a handjob. Jordana breaks up with Oliver via a letter informing him that she is seeing someone else and that her mother's operation was successful; he becomes depressed over the next few months. At school, Oliver is commonly harassed by classmate Chips. Oliver later apologises to Jordana for not visiting her mother at the hospital, hoping she will leave her new boyfriend for him, but she rejects him. Oliver later encounters Jordana on the beach at sunset, learning that she does not actually have a new boyfriend. She declares that Oliver was horrible to her, and he admits that he made a mistake. Together, they walk several inches deep into the sea, smiling at each other as the sun shines at them.

Frank Darbo, a devoutly religious short-order cook, recalls his only two good memories from an otherwise disappointing life: marrying his wife Sarah and pointing a police officer in the direction of a man who snatched a woman's purse. He immortalizes these events in two crayon drawings hung on his wall for inspiration. Sarah, a recovering drug addict, has left him for Jacques, a charismatic strip club owner and drug lord who gets her hooked on drugs again. Frank sinks into depression and has a vision wherein he is touched by the finger of God and meets the Holy Avenger, a superhero from a Christian network TV show who tells Frank that God has chosen him for a very special purpose. Frank believes that God has chosen him to become a superhero and goes to a local comic book store for inspiration. His claim that he is designing a new superhero is met with enthusiastic appreciation from the young store clerk, Libby, and he creates a superhero costume before assuming the identity of the "Crimson Bolt". Lacking superhuman abilities, he deals with injustice in his own way, using a pipe wrench to savagely beat people such as thieves, drug dealers, child molesters, and a man who simply cuts in line at the movies. The Crimson Bolt soon becomes a media sensation, initially viewed as a violent psychopath, but he begins to gain public appreciation after the criminal backgrounds of many of his victims come to light. Frank later attempts to rescue Sarah at Jacques' house, but Jacques' thugs recognize him under the costume and shoot him in the leg as he flees while climbing over a fence. A wounded Frank goes to Libby for help. Libby persuades Frank to let her become the Crimson Bolt's "kid sidekick", calling herself "Boltie" and designing a costume of her own. She proves to be more unhinged than Frank, using her superhero guise to nearly kill a man who possibly vandalized her friend's car, and Frank decides to let her go but changes his mind when she rescues him from some of Jacques' thugs at a gas station. Libby soon becomes enamored with Frank, but he turns down her advances, insisting he is still married. Arguing that the rules are different when they are using their superhero identities, Libby rapes Frank while the two are in costume and later claims to have been suffering from sexsomnia. Frank runs to the bathroom and vomits, encountering a vision of Sarah in the toilet. He decides to rescue her from Jacques once and for all. Armed with guns, pipe bombs, and bulletproof vests, Frank and Libby sneak into Jacques' ranch and kill the first few guards they encounter. Frank is shot in the chest and saved by his bulletproof vest, but Libby is shot in the head and killed. Devastated, Frank furiously slaughters all of Jacques' thugs. Inside, Jacques shoots Frank, but Frank gains the upper hand and stabs Jacques to death as a horrified Sarah watches. Frank takes Sarah home and she stays with him for a few months, which Frank surmises is "out of a sense of obligation" for saving her life. One day, Frank returns home to find Sarah has left him again. This time, she overcomes her addiction and uses her experiences to help others with similar problems. She marries a man named Patrick and has four children. Frank is convinced that her children will change the world for the better. Frank, content and living alone with a pet rabbit, looks at his wall of happy memories. The wall is now covered with pictures of his experiences from his time spent with Libby and pictures of Sarah's children, who call him "Uncle Frank". He gazes at Libby's picture as a tear runs down his cheek.

Living in her rundown van while travelling around America, homeless teenager Tallulah and her boyfriend Nico survive the streets by stealing credit cards. When Nico decides it is time to go home to his mother, Tallulah expresses her dismay and argues with Nico about how she will not change her lifestyle. Tallulah is devastated to discover the next morning that Nico has left without saying goodbye. Desperate to be with him again, Tallulah drives to New York City, where Nico's mother, Margo, lives and finds her at her apartment. After informing Tallulah that she has not seen Nico in two years, Margo tells Tallulah to leave. With nowhere else to go, Tallulah steals from guests at a nearby hotel, only for the strange natured and intoxicated mother, Carolyn, to mistake Tallulah as housekeeping staff. To Tallulah's confusion, Carolyn lets her child wander around naked and play with dangerous objects and admits that she is not invested in being a mother. Carolyn leaves her toddler, Maddison (Maddy), in Tallulah's care, while she goes on a date with a man who is not her husband. Tallulah bonds with the young Maddy, bathing her and playing games, before a devastated Carolyn arrives back at the hotel, distraught that the man did not want her. After Carolyn drunkenly passes out, Tallulah prepares to leave, but impulsively decides to take a crying Maddy back to her van to spend the night until further notice. When Tallulah returns to the hotel with Maddy, she flees upon seeing the police, summoned by a panicked Carolyn, and goes to Margo's apartment. After Tallulah claims that the child is Nico's and that she is Margo's granddaughter, "Maggie," Margo reluctantly agrees to let them stay for one night. Unknown to Tallulah, Margo is struggling with her own marital problems after her ex-husband Stephen has left her for a man, Andreas, and is pressing Margo to finalize their divorce. While Tallulah and Maddy stay with Margo, the three of them bond; Tallulah reveals her fears of forming relationships and Margo admits to having trouble letting go. However, Tallulah becomes increasingly aware that the authorities are looking for her and Maddy. Meanwhile, a distressed Carolyn is questioned by a social worker, who notes that Carolyn has only expressed concern for herself so far instead of her missing child. Frustrated with their questioning, Carolyn leaves the hotel to distract herself and discovers that her husband has cancelled all her credit cards, much to her fury. During a lunch with Stephen and Andreas, Margo defends Tallulah when Stephen begins to aggressively question Tallulah's relationships with Nico and Maddy. Margo lashes out at Stephen about their marriage and the deceit involved, pointing out that when all their friends supported Stephen, Margo had been left alone to reconcile the changes in her life and losing the family she loved. On their way back to Margo's apartment, Tallulah and Carolyn notice one another as the latter goes by in a cab. Just before Carolyn catches up to them, Tallulah narrowly escapes with Maddy and Margo via the subway. When Margo demands to know why Tallulah ran, an argument ensues and Tallulah runs off with a feverish Maddy to a pier that Nico had once told Tallulah was his favorite place. Nico arrives, having finally returned to his mother in New York City. Taking Maddy to the hospital, Nico devises a plan to allow Tallulah to escape. At Margo's apartment, Carolyn and the police arrive after a tip from Stephen and Andreas, who recognized Tallulah from a newspaper article reporting Maddy's abduction. Carolyn admits to Margo that she did not want to be a mother and feels no maternal instinct, despite loving her daughter; Margo comforts her. At a subway station, Tallulah calls Margo to apologize for involving her, and the police trace the call. Tallulah tries to get on the subway in order to flee, but instead returns to Maddy and Nico at the hospital. The police, Carolyn, and Margo arrive at the hospital, where an emotional Tallulah accuses Carolyn of not wanting Maddy. After a tearful Carolyn tells her that she does want her child, Tallulah reluctantly hands Maddy back to her and is arrested by the police. As Tallulah is taken away, Margo promises to help her however she can. When Detective Richards facetiously asks Tallulah if she has a habit of taking children into protective custody, Tallulah says nothing and smiles ruefully. Some time later, Margo wanders through Central Park before lying in the grass, recalling her conversation with Tallulah about letting go. Margo starts floating away happily, but then appears frightened and grabs a tree branch.

In 1979, Deputy Sheriff Jack Lamb of Lillian, Ohio and his 14-year-old son Joe mourn the death of wife and mother Elizabeth in a workplace accident. Jack blames Elizabeth's co-worker Louis Dainard for the accident, as Dainard had a hangover, resulting in Elizabeth having to cover his shift. Joe clings to his mom's memory in the form of a locket. Four months later, Joe's friend Charles is making a zombie movie for a Super 8 film competition. He enlists Joe's help along with friends Preston, Martin, and Cary, as well as Dainard's daughter, Alice. Though their fathers are opposed to their friendship, Joe and Alice become close. One night while they film at a train depot, a pickup truck rams an approaching train head-on, derailing it (which they capture on film) and destroying the depot. After being scattered by the fiery chaos, the kids regroup and find crates of strange white cubes amid the wreckage, and discover the truck driver to be their biology teacher Dr. Woodward. Gravely injured, he warns them at gunpoint to forget what they have seen. They flee, as a convoy from the local Air Force base, led by Col. Nelec, arrives. Nelec finds an empty Super 8 film box. In the following days the town experiences strange events: dogs run away, several townspeople go missing, the electrical power fluctuates, and electronic items are stolen. Jack approaches Nelec, but Nelec arrests him. Nelec orders flamethrowers to start a wildfire as an excuse to evacuate the residents to the base. Watching their footage, Joe and Charles notice a large creature escaping the train. In a military hospital, Nelec questions Woodward about the creature. After Woodward rebukes him, Nelec has him killed with a lethal injection. Louis and Alice get into a fight and she attempts to flee on her bike, Louis chases after her in a car but gets into an accident, as Alice is fleeing, the creature abducts her. Louis, while in recovery from his car accident, tells Joe the creature has abducted Alice. Joe, Charles, Martin, and Cary persuade Jen, Charles's older sister, to flirt with Donny so he can get them into town to rescue Alice. Breaking into Dr. Woodward's trailer, they learn of his work as a former government researcher. In 1963, the Air Force captured a crash-landing alien. Its spacecraft, composed of the white cubes, allowed it to shape-shift. While being experimented on, the alien established a psychic connection with Woodward, convincing him to help it escape Earth. His effort was sabotaged by Nelec who discredited, and discharged Woodward. Nelec captures the kids, but the alien kills Nelec and his airmen, allowing them to escape. Jack escapes and agrees with Louis to put aside their differences to save their kids. The military attacks the alien, but their hardware goes haywire in its presence, resulting in significant collateral damage. Joe and Cary find a massive tunnel system under the town. The missing townsfolk, including Alice, are hanging unconscious from the ceiling of a cavern. Here, the alien is creating a device, constructed from the missing electronics, and attached to the base of the water tower. Using firecrackers as a distraction, Joe frees Alice and the others. The alien grabs Joe, who quietly speaks to it, convincing that it could "still live" while bad things happen. Establishing an emotional connection between the two of them, the alien realizes that not all humans are as bad as Nelec and spares him, allowing them to return to the surface. Everyone watches as metal objects from the town are pulled to the top of the tower by an unknown force. The white cubes reassemble to create a spaceship and, as the alien enters it, Elizabeth's locket is drawn toward the tower. Joe lets it go, completing the ship. As the ship rises into space, he takes Alice's hand. The short film the children were making in Super 8 runs at the end of the movie beside the credit roll. In it, Charles's character asks for his short film "The Case" to be picked for a local film festival before being attacked by a zombie played by Alice.

In LaGrange, Ohio, construction worker Curtis LaForche has apocalyptic dreams and visual and auditory hallucinations of rain "like fresh motor oil," swarms of menacing black birds, and being harmed by people close to him. He hides all of this from his wife, Samantha, and their deaf daughter, Hannah. He instead channels his anxieties into a compulsive obsession to improve and enlarge a storm shelter in his backyard; however, his increasingly strange behavior – including a tendency to cut ties with anyone in his life that has harmed him only in his dreams – strains his relationship with his family, friends, employer, and the close-knit town. He also puts his job in jeopardy as he borrows heavy equipment from the company for personal use to build his shelter. To deal with his increased insomnia and apocalyptic visions, Curtis sees a counselor at a free clinic, with whom he talks about his family's psychological history. His mother, Sarah, has paranoid schizophrenia that surfaced in her at about the same age that Curtis is now. He's worried that he may also have the disorder. In order to have the remodeled storm shelter completed, Curtis gets a home improvement loan he can't afford to start building the shelter – all without telling his wife. Samantha becomes angry when she discovers the project. After Curtis takes more than the prescribed dose of a sedative and has a seizure, Samantha calls an ambulance. He recovers, then finally explains the truth to her, including his dreams. Curtis is increasingly absent from work, causing tension with his boss, as he and Samantha make preparations for the cochlear implant surgery for Hannah in six weeks' time. Having been informed of the borrowed work equipment, Curtis's boss fires him and gives him only two weeks' worth of medical insurance benefits, after placing Dewart, the close friend and coworker whom Curtis asked to help him start construction of the shelter, on two weeks' unpaid administrative leave. Curtis buys gas masks for his family and extends his previous employer's health insurance policy for a few extra weeks. After he finds out that his counselor at the free clinic has suddenly transferred and been replaced with a new one, he walks out. Tensions linger between Curtis and Samantha over the loss of his job at such a crucial time for their family. Samantha gets Curtis to see an actual psychiatrist and demands that they attend a social function so she can restore some sense of normalcy to their strained, increasingly isolated life. At a Lions Club community gathering, a bitter Dewart, who has been spreading gossip that Curtis is crazy, is angrily provoked and punches him. Enraged, Curtis knocks Dewart to the floor, overturns a table, and unleashes a frightening verbal tirade upon everyone present. He prophetically shouts that a devastating storm is coming, insisting that none of them are prepared. Later, a tornado warning sends him and his family into the shelter. After they awaken, Curtis reluctantly removes his gas mask, prompted by Samantha. They go to open the shelter doors, but he still hears a storm outside. His wife implores him, insisting that there's no storm and that he needs to open the door. After a tense standoff, Curtis throws open the doors into the blinding sun; a strong but bearable storm has passed, and neighbors are cleaning up broken tree limbs and other yard debris as power company trucks restore electricity along the street. A psychiatrist advises the couple to go through with their planned, annual beach vacation but that Curtis will need to get psychiatric care in a facility away from his family upon their return. At Myrtle Beach, while Curtis is building sandcastles with Hannah, she signs the word "storm.” As Samantha exits their beach house, the thick, oily rain that Curtis spoke of begins to fall, staining her outstretched hand. Samantha looks up to a bigger version of the ominous storm clouds Curtis had seen, massing over the ocean; multiple waterspouts reach down to the ocean's surface, and the tide pulls back as a tsunami looms in the distance. Samantha and Curtis exchange glances as Samantha whispers "okay.”

In prehistoric times, a meteor crashed into Earth and killed all the dinosaurs. In the present day, industrialist John Greystoke funds an expedition to Uganda to locate the meteor and harness its energy. Aided by scientist James Porter, the expedition is a failure and John decides to leave with his wife and their son John Jr. While flying over a semi-active volcano, the Greystokes' helicopter's instruments go haywire. Forced to land on the meteor, John explores a cave and discovers glowing rock formations. Using his pickaxe, John collects a sample, only to cause a chain reaction that awakens the volcano. While trying to escape, their helicopter crashes, with only John Jr. surviving. The boy is discovered by the Mountain gorilla Kala, who recently lost her child. Adopted into the troop, John chooses to be called "Tarzan," a name he made up meaning "Ape with no fur." Tarzan grows up learning the ways of the animals. After the Greystokes' disappearance, Dr. James Porter funds his expeditions by acting as a jungle guide for wealthy tourists. During a routine safari, a client wanders away from the group, attracting the attention of a cassowary. Dr. Porter's daughter Jane saves him by putting herself in danger, as she is bitten by a viper. Infatuated with the girl, Tarzan carries Jane to a shelter and cures her. The next day, she returns to her father's camp with only vague memories of the night before. Confused by exposure to humans after so long, Tarzan decides to leave his gorilla family. He wanders to the site of the helicopter crash, finds the meteor stone his father took, and builds a shelter. Years later, Tublat, the apes' abusive leader, noses around Tarzan's shelter and accidentally activates the helicopter's emergency beacon. The transmission is received by Greystoke Energies. William Clayton, the current CEO, knowing what John senior was looking for, sees a chance to make money. He promises Jane, who now works for a conservation group, to fund her organization if she accompanies him to Africa to speak with her father. In Africa, Jane is disgusted by Clayton's greed. She leaves the party, wanders into the jungle, and finds Tarzan, now a man. Astounded, he brings her to his refuge. As a mark of love, Tarzan chips off a piece of the meteor rock and gives it to her. The rest of the group tracks Jane down there, where Clayton is shocked to find the Greystoke heir alive. Seeing him as a threat to his power, Clayton starts to shoot. The couple flees and is forced to enter a valley affected by the meteor, which causes unique mutations in the local flora and fauna, turning them into monsters. Surviving many dangers, the couple reaches the meteor, where Tarzan recognizes his father's long-abandoned pickaxe. Jane realizes Tarzan's true identity as John's son. Tarzan returns to his ape tribe, where he introduces Jane to Kala and challenges Tublat for the right to lead. In the ensuing fight, Tarzan defeats Tublat and exiles him from the troop. That night, Jane and Tarzan admit to their love. Meanwhile, Clayton transforms Dr. Porter's base into an armed base filled with mercenaries. A conflict later ensues between the couple and Clayton's men. Kala runs in to protect Tarzan and Jane, getting shot in the process. Tarzan is attacked from behind and locked in a cage. Aided by his gorilla friends, he escapes, moves Kala into the jungle, and treats her wound, determined to get his revenge. Clayton moves his resources to the meteor and rigs it with explosives. Tied up there and left to die, Jane and her father are rescued by Tarzan. Dr. Porter decides to stay behind and try to stop the blasting. In the ensuing battle, Tarzan summons his animal friends with a scream, the meteor awakens the volcano and the mountain begins to give way. While Clayton and his crew fall to their demise, Jane and Tarzan escape. The couple reunites with Tarzan's family and vows to protect the forest. Meanwhile, Dr. Porter climbs up the cliff where he has gotten a piece of the meteor.