"Fast Eddie" Felson is accompanied by his partner, Charlie, at a pool room in a small town. Pretending to be salesmen on their way to a convention, Eddie and Charlie convince onlookers that Eddie is a drunk blowhard, and induce them to bet on Eddie to lose a trick shot. He wins and takes their money. Eddie and Charlie arrive in New York City, where Eddie challenges the legendary player Minnesota Fats to play straight pool for $200 a game at Ames Billiards in Manhattan. After initially falling behind, Eddie surges back to being $1,000 ahead and suggests raising the bet to $1,000 a game. Eddie gets ahead $11,000 and Charlie tries to convince him to quit, but Eddie insists the game will end only when Fats says it is over. Fats agrees to continue after a spectator, the professional gambler Bert Gordon, labels Eddie a "loser". After 25 hours and an entire bottle of bourbon, Eddie is ahead over $18,000, but loses it all along with all but $200 of his original stake. Fats declares the game over. At their hotel later, Eddie leaves a sleeping Charlie without saying goodbye. Eddie stashes his belongings in a locker at a bus terminal, where he meets Sarah Packard, an alcoholic. They begin a relationship and he moves in with her. Charlie finds Eddie at Sarah's apartment and tries to persuade him to go back out on the road. Eddie refuses and Charlie realizes he plans to challenge Fats again. Eddie learns that Charlie had money he could have used to rebound and beat Fats. Eddie dismisses Charlie as a scared old man and tells him to "lay down and die by yourself". Eddie joins a poker game where Bert is playing. Afterward, Bert tells Eddie that he has talent as a pool player but no character. He figures that Eddie will need at least $3,000 to challenge Fats again. Bert calls him a "born loser" but nevertheless offers to stake him in return for 75% of his winnings; Eddie refuses. Eddie goes back to hustling to get the money he needs to play Fats. After hustling a local player at a pool room near the waterfront, Eddie is attacked after winning and his thumbs are broken. After Sarah helps Eddie convalesce, and when he's ready to play, he agrees to Bert's terms, deciding that a "25% slice of something big is better than a 100% slice of nothing". Bert, Eddie and Sarah travel to the Kentucky Derby, where Bert arranges a match for Eddie against a wealthy local socialite named Findley. The game turns out to be three-cushion billiards, not pool. When Eddie loses badly, Bert refuses to keep staking him. Sarah pleads with Eddie to leave with her, saying that the world he is living in and its inhabitants are "perverted, twisted, and crippled"; he refuses. Seeing Eddie's anger, Bert agrees to let the match continue at $1,000 a game. Eddie comes back to win $12,000. He collects his $3,000 share and decides to walk back to the hotel where he discovers that Sarah has committed suicide, because of Bert's sadism. Eddie returns to challenge Fats again, putting up his entire $3,000 stake on a single game. He wins game after game, beating Fats so badly that Fats is forced to quit. Bert demands half of Eddie's winnings and threatens to have him beaten unless he pays. Eddie says he will come back to kill Bert if he survives, shaming Bert into giving up his claim by invoking Sarah's memory. Instead, Bert orders Eddie never to walk into a big-time pool hall again. Eddie and Fats compliment each other as players, and Eddie walks out.

During World War II, Allied POWs who have repeatedly escaped from camps in Germany are moved to a new camp under the command of Luftwaffe Colonel von Luger. He warns the senior prisoner, Group Captain Ramsey, that escapees will be shot. Several POWs unsuccessfully attempt to escape on the first day. Hilts, a notoriously prolific American escapee, finds a blind spot at the fence and gives himself up to the guards without revealing the discovery to them. He is placed in a cell next to Ives in "the cooler", and the two become friends. Squadron Leader Roger Bartlett re-establishes the escape-planning committee from their former camp, and proposes breaking out 250 men to divert Germans away from the front. The POWs work on three tunnels: "Tom", "Dick", and "Harry". Preparations are widespread and elaborate. Welinski and Dickes lead the digging, Sedgwick makes equipment such as picks and air bellows, Ashley-Pitt conceals the excavated dirt in plain sight, while Cavendish surveys the tunnels’ routes and leads a choir to mask the sounds of any escape-related activities. MacDonald gathers intelligence, Griffith sews civilian disguises, Blythe forges documents, and Hendley secures supplies on the black market. Aware that Hilts is planning his own escape, Bartlett asks him to allow himself to be recaptured so he can draw maps of the surrounding area but Hilts refuses. When "Tom" nears completion, Bartlett orders "Dick" and "Harry" sealed off. Meanwhile, Hilts, Hendley, and Goff brew potato moonshine and celebrate the Fourth of July with the camp. However, the guards find "Tom" during the celebration. Ives snaps, climbs the fence, and is shot dead. Hilts, shaken, agrees to Bartlett's proposal, and Bartlett orders "Harry" reopened. Welinski's claustrophobia is triggered after a tunnel collapse, but Dickes offers to guide him. Bartlett objects to Blythe's participation on discovering his progressive myopia but Hendley offers to guide him. On the night of the escape, "Harry" is dug to the surface but the exit has come up 20 feet (6.1 m) short of the woods, increasing the danger of detection. Hilts then uses 30 feet of rope to signal the prisoners to exit the tunnel. The escape is also briefly aided by a fortuitous air raid blackout, which allows more to escape. Dozens flee before Cavendish unintentionally draws suspicion by slipping, and an impatient Griffith rushes, alerting the guards. In all 76 escapees make it through the tunnel. Welinski and Dickes steal a boat and board a ship for Sweden, while Sedgwick heads to France, where the Resistance smuggles him to Spain. The rest are captured: Cavendish is betrayed by a truck driver. Hendley and Blythe crash a stolen plane short of Switzerland when the engine fails; Blythe is shot and Hendley is recaptured. Hilts rides a stolen motorcycle for the Swiss border with soldiers in pursuit who capture him when he fails to jump the cycle over the frontier fence. Ashley-Pitt sacrifices himself when he kills a Gestapo officer before he can expose Bartlett: however, Bartlett and MacDonald are still arrested after another Gestapo officer tricks MacDonald into speaking English while boarding a bus. With Ashley-Pitt and Blythe killed, 48 of the 50 escapees, including Bartlett, MacDonald, and Cavendish, are executed. Ramsey informs Hendley and other returning survivors of the murders, and says that Bartlett's plan to create havoc was a success. Hendley questions whether it was worth the price. Von Luger, ashamed of the murders, is relieved of command. Hilts is returned to the cooler and resumes his solo game of catch.

Note: The film lacks a conventional narrator, and assumes (or at least benefits from) familiarity with the story of Christ. In Roman Galilee, the local Jewish community lives in poverty. Although the Romans are formally in charge, the Jewish upper class—including King Herod and the Pharisee religious elite—dominates the locals on a day-to-day basis. The pregnant Mary has a troubled relationship with Joseph, who worries she cheated on him. Joseph reconciles with Mary after an angel tells him that God caused Mary's pregnancy. After Mary bears Jesus Christ, the magi visit the baby Jesus. The angel tells the family to flee to Egypt. Herod—who fears a prophecy that Jesus will become king of the Jews —brutally massacres the region's infants. The family return to Judea after Herod dies. Many years later, John the Baptist preaches a brazenly anti-establishment message to the commoners of Galilee. Jesus visits John to be baptized, and God appears to them. Satan offers Jesus wealth and power, but Jesus declines. Jesus recruits a band of disciples. He warns them that "I came not to bring peace, but a sword" and that they will suffer on his behalf. He travels around the country with his disciples, healing the blind, raising the dead, exorcising demons, and proclaiming the arrival of the Kingdom of God and the promised salvation. The film rapidly canvasses his parables and sayings, including the Sermon on the Mount, in a series of montaged monologues. Meanwhile, the new king imprisons John the Baptist before capriciously executing him to impress his stepdaughter. Jesus is generally uncomfortable showing his divine power in public (with the exception of the miracle of the loaves and fishes). He prefers to preach radical messages to working-class crowds and children. The wealthy are alienated by Jesus's socially conscious teachings, the religious elite are threatened by his contempt for their legalism and hypocrisy, and even commoners are concerned with his asceticism. Matthew is wounded when Jesus chooses Peter over him to lead the church, but accepts Jesus's decision. Although the public—which wants to see the supernatural— initially ignores Jesus, he attracts a large following and triumphantly enters Jerusalem to cheering crowds. The Roman army is called in for crowd control and beats several followers of Jesus. After Jesus claims to be the Jews's prophesied Messiah, the chief priests plot to murder him. Judas Iscariot betrays Jesus after Jesus scolds him in front of the other disciples. During the Agony in the Garden, Jesus accepts his fate, which he has long known. The chief priests organize a mob to arrest Jesus. The apostles rise to defend him, but Jesus insists on surrendering peacefully. The chief priests hand Jesus over to the Romans. Fearing a similar fate, Peter denies Jesus three times. After escaping, he breaks down crying. Judas commits suicide after realizing even the priests are disgusted by his treachery. The Roman governor, Pilate, declares Jesus innocent but executes him anyway to placate the chief priests. Mary buries her son. After three days, Jesus rises from the dead and instructs his disciples to spread the gospel throughout the world.

Frank Towns is the pilot of a cargo plane flying from Jaghbub to Benghazi in Libya; Lew Moran is the navigator. Passengers include Capt. Harris and Sgt. Watson of the British Army; French physician Dr. Renaud, German aeronautical engineer Heinrich Dorfmann, and oil company accountant Standish. There are also several oil workers, including Trucker Cobb, a foreman suffering from mental fatigue; Ratbags Crow, a cocky Scot; Carlos and his pet monkey; and Gabriele. A sandstorm disables the engines, forcing Towns to crash-land in the Sahara. As the aircraft comes to a stop, two workers are killed and Gabriele's leg is severely injured. The radio is unusable, and they are too far off course to be found by searchers. Aboard the plane is a large quantity of pitted dates, but only enough water for 10 to 15 days if rationed. Captain Harris sets out to find an oasis. When Sgt. Watson feigns an injury to stay behind, Carlos volunteers, leaving his pet monkey with Bellamy. Harris and Towns refuse to allow the mentally-unstable Cobb to go along, but Cobb defiantly follows anyway and dies of exposure. Days later, Harris returns to the crash site alone and barely alive. Sgt. Watson discovers and ignores him, although others find him later. Dorfmann proposes a radical idea to build a new aircraft from the wreckage. The C-82 has twin booms extending rearwards from each engine and connected by the horizontal stabilizer. Dorfmann wants to attach the outer sections of both wings to the left engine and boom, discarding the center fuselage and both inner wing sections. The men will ride atop the wings. Towns and Moran believe that he is either joking or delusional. The argument is complicated by a personality clash between Towns, a proud traditionalist aviator who flew for the Allied Forces during the Second World War, and Dorfmann, a young, arrogant German engineer. Moran struggles to maintain the peace. Towns initially resists Dorfmann's plan, and is incensed when he learns that it anticipates Gabriele's death before the plane is ready to fly. Renaud sways his opinion, saying activity and hope will help sustain the men's morale. Dorfmann supervises the reconstruction, while Towns remains skeptical. The mortally-injured Gabriele dies by suicide, depressing the men; they consider abandoning construction of the new plane. Dorfmann, caught exceeding his water ration, justifies it, saying that only he has been working continuously. He promises to not do it again, but demands everyone work equally hard from then on. Standish dubs the aircraft " Phoenix ", after the mythical bird that is reborn from its own ashes. When a band of Arabs and Berbers camp nearby, Harris and Renaud leave to make contact, while the others remain hidden with the aircraft. The two men are found murdered the next day. In a dramatic clash that begins in a quiet moment, Captain Towns and Moran are stunned to learn details about Dorfmann's career as an airplane designer. Dorfmann readily tells them that he works for a model airplane company designing radio controlled model airplanes. When asked if he ever worked on the "real thing", Dorfmann calmly tells them no and proudly shows Captain Towns the biggest airplane he ever worked on in his company's sales catalog, which has less than a 2m meter wingspan. When Towns and Moran incredulously question how a toy designer believes he can design a real airplane and make it fly, Dorfmann suddenly becomes angry hearing the word "toy" and vehemently exclaims that toy airplanes and the model airplanes he designs are not the same thing. Dorfmann goes on to bitterly explain that the aerodynamic principles of model airplanes are the same as "the real thing", and in fact many model planes require more exacting designs than full-size aircraft because they don't have the advantage of a pilot flying them. With water and time running out, and having no other choice but to die of dehyration or die trying to fly the cobbled together airplane, Towns and Moran forge ahead without telling the others about Dorfmann's credentials even though they suspect Dorfmann is crazy. Phoenix is completed. Only seven starter cartridges are available to ignite the engine. The first four startup attempts are unsuccessful. Over Dorfmann's objections, Towns fires the fifth cartridge with the ignition off to clear the engine's cylinders. The next startup attempt is successful. The men pull Phoenix to a hilltop, and climb onto the wings. When Towns guns the engine, Phoenix slides down the hill and over a lake bed before taking off. After successfully landing at an oasis with a manned oil rig, the men celebrate, and Towns and Dorfmann are reconciled.

In Marseille, a man is shadowing Alain Charnier, who runs a heroin-smuggling syndicate. Charnier's hitman, Pierre Nicoli, murders the man. Charnier plans to smuggle US$ 32 million (equivalent to $ 189 million in 2025) worth of 89% pure heroin into the United States by hiding it in the car of his unsuspecting friend, television personality Henri Devereaux, who is traveling to New York City by ship. In Brooklyn, police detectives Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle dressed as Santa Claus and Buddy "Cloudy" Russo stake out a bar known for drug trafficking. They later go out for drinks at the Copacabana. Popeye observes Salvatore "Sal" Boca and his wife, Angie, entertaining mobsters involved in narcotics. They tail the couple and establish a link between the Bocas and Joel Weinstock, a financier in the narcotics underworld. Popeye learns that a shipment of heroin will arrive soon. The detectives convince their supervisor to wiretap the Bocas' phones. Popeye and Cloudy are joined by federal agents Mulderig and Klein. Devereaux's vehicle arrives in New York City. Boca is in a hurry to make the purchase, but Weinstock urges patience, knowing they are being surveilled. Charnier realizes he is being surveilled as well, identifies Popeye as a detective, and escapes on a departing subway shuttle at Grand Central Station. To evade Popeye, he has Boca meet him in Washington, D.C., where Boca asks for a delay to avoid the police. Charnier wants to conclude the deal quickly. On the flight back to New York City, Nicoli offers to kill Popeye, but Charnier says Popeye would just be replaced by another policeman. Nicoli insists, however, saying they will be back in France before a replacement is assigned. Soon, Nicoli attempts to snipe Popeye in Brooklyn but hits a bystander. Popeye chases Nicoli, who boards an elevated subway train. Popeye shouts to a policeman on the train to catch Nicoli and then commandeers a passing car. He gives chase, crashing into several vehicles on the way. Realizing he is being pursued, Nicoli shoots the policeman who tries to intervene and hijacks the train at gunpoint, shooting the conductor while forcing the motorman to drive through the next station. The motorman suffers a heart attack, and the train stop engages before it rear ends another train, hurling Nicoli to the floor. Popeye arrives and sees Nicoli descending from the platform. Nicoli sees Popeye and turns to run, but Popeye shoots him dead. After a long stakeout, Popeye impounds Devereaux's Lincoln. In a police garage, mechanics tear the car apart in a search for drugs, initially coming up empty-handed. Cloudy discovers that the car's weight was recorded at 120 pounds over its standard, implying that the contraband must still be in the car – packages of heroin are finally discovered beneath the rocker panels. The car is reassembled, despite being nearly destroyed, and returned to Devereaux who delivers it to Charnier. Charnier drives to an old factory on Wards Island, where Boca's brother Lou works, to meet Weinstock and deliver the drugs. After Charnier has the rocker panel covers removed, Weinstock's chemist tests one of the bags and confirms its quality. Charnier removes the drugs and hides the money inside the rocker panels of another car purchased at a junk car auction, which he plans to take back to France. Charnier and Sal drive off in the Lincoln, but a large contingent of police led by Popeye blocks their path. The police chase the Lincoln back to the factory, where Boca is killed by Cloudy during a shootout. Most of the other criminals surrender. Charnier escapes into a nearby abandoned bakery with Popeye and Cloudy in pursuit. Popeye sees a shadowy figure in the distance and opens fire too late to heed a warning, killing Mulderig. Undaunted, he tells Cloudy he will get Charnier. He reloads his gun and runs into another room. A single gunshot is heard. Title cards describe various characters' fates: Weinstock was indicted, but his case was dismissed for "lack of proper evidence"; Angie Boca received a suspended sentence for a misdemeanor; Lou Boca received a reduced sentence for conspiracy and possession of narcotics; Devereaux served four years in a federal penitentiary for conspiracy; Charnier was never caught and is believed to be living in France. Popeye and Cloudy were transferred out of the Narcotics Bureau and reassigned.

Three bank robbers – Eddie, Jojo and Sammy - plan what they think is a perfect bank heist. As they exit the bank one of them throws the money in the trunk of what looks like their car but is just identical. Dejected, the leader of the crew, Eddie, muses that the human factor is what goes wrong with his plans and that what he needs is robots – something that he can control and that will follow orders exactly. The three part ways, and Eddie is left to come up with his next plan. Eddie finds his inspiration as he watches some Doberman Pinschers chase off a couple of boys who were chasing some boys who were trying to rob a junkyard. He poses as a journalist doing a story about trained military dogs, and he convinces an Air Force dog handler named Barney to work with him in a dog training business. At the same time, Eddie reconnects with Jojo and Sammy to come up with a plan to rob a payroll from a bank, including building a replica of the bank. When Barney is discharged from the Air Force, he comes to work with Eddie and is surprised when Eddie has Dobermans for Barney to train instead of German Shepherds, which is what Barney is accustomed to training. Barney, unaware that Eddie is planning to use the dogs in his heist, reluctantly agrees to train the six Dobermans, to which Eddie bestows the names of famous bank robbers (Dillinger, Bonnie, Clyde, Pretty Boy Floyd, Baby Face Nelson and Ma Barker). They are accompanied by a bulldog that Eddie names J. Edgar, after J. Edgar Hoover. As Barney trains the dogs, he becomes suspicious and figures out the bank robbery plot on his own. Barney confronts Eddie, who tells Barney that he is free to leave and not to worry about the dogs. Eddie reveals that if Barney leaves, he’ll kill the dogs. Barney has also become close with Eddie’s girlfriend, June, and she convinces Barney to stay and finish the job. Eddie outlines the specifics of the plan to Barney, which, if successful, will net the crew $600,000 if all of the dogs come back successfully. For his part Barney wants half of the take, but he agrees to a one-fourth share after some convincing by Sammy. June is left out of the arrangement but gets a promise from Eddie to receive $15,000 out of his share. June realizes that Eddie sees her as disposable, and she and Barney get even closer behind Eddie’s back. On the day of the bank robbery, all six dogs do exactly what they are trained to do and enter the bank one at a time, lying down and waiting for the command to start the robbery. Dillinger is the last to enter and carries the note giving the instructions to the tellers. Just before he’s supposed to blow the dog whistles corresponding to each dog, Barney has second thoughts (because June, looking for a bigger share, tells him the dogs will be killed afterwards to get rid of evidence) and leaves the command post across the street. Eddie and June are left to finish the operation and blow the whistles. While Sammy and Jojo head back to the training ranch, sprinkling dirt from the ranch along the way as a sort of trail of breadcrumbs, June picks up where Barney left off. The operation goes off exactly as planned, and the dogs collect the money and head home. One of the Dobermans is hit by a car, and another dog collects that dog’s saddlebag and continues on its way. Another dog is distracted by a white Husky in a backyard and stops to make friends with it. Eddie connects with Sammy and Jojo at the ranch, but June goes to a different spot and blows the whistles again, giving the command to the dogs to attack the bank robbers. She blows the whistles again, and the dogs collect the bags of money and run to June’s location, where she hopes to get the money, but the dogs will not let her have it. They're not robots—only Barney had any feeling for them, so they feel no connection to anyone else. She tries to get the whistles to signal to the dogs one more time, but J. Edgar takes the whistles and runs off as the Dobermans follow him. June runs after the dogs but can’t catch them. As June watches, J. Edgar and the five remaining Dobermans run into a valley carrying the bags of money.

A well-organized gang hijacks an armored car, breaking in and stealing some currency engraving plates while ignoring the actual money. One of the hijackers delivers the plates to Vince Ricardo on the roof of a disused building. Meanwhile, the daughter of mild-mannered Manhattan dentist Sheldon "Shelly" Kornpett and the son of businessman Vince Ricardo are engaged to be married. At an introductory dinner in which Shelly meets his new in-law, he finds Vince suspicious; during the dinner, Vince tells a crazy story of a nine-month "consulting" trip to 1954 Guatemala. He excuses himself to make a phone call and hides one set of engraving plates in the basement. Later that night, Shelly pleads with his daughter not to marry into the Ricardo clan, but he is talked into giving the marriage a chance. The following day, Vince appears at Shelly's office and asks for help with breaking into his office safe. Shelly reluctantly agrees. As he retrieves a black bag from Vince's office in an old Herald Square office building, he's surprised by two armed hit men. After a chase and shootout, Vince explains that he has worked for the CIA since the Eisenhower administration and robbed the United States Mint of engraving plates to crack a worldwide inflation plot hatched in Central America. He mentions he robbed the U.S. Mint on his own; the CIA had turned him down, deeming the caper too risky. Vince further upsets Shelly by mentioning he left an engraving plate in the basement of Shelly's house the previous night. During the wedding preparations, Mrs. Kornpett discovers the engraving plates and brings them to her bank, where she is informed by the U.S. Treasury Department that they were stolen. Shelly arrives home to find Treasury officials there and speeds away, leading to a car chase through suburban New Jersey. Vince tells Shelly he wants him to accompany him to Scranton, Pennsylvania, and the ordeal will be cleared up by the time they return. At a small airport near Lodi, New Jersey, Vince and Shelly board a small jet. Vince co-captains the plane, speaking fluent Chinese with the two-person crew. To Shelly's consternation, he notices they are flying over the Atlantic Ocean. Vince assures Shelly they are going to Scranton but need to stop in Tijata, a small island south of Honduras. When they arrive, Vince is supposed to meet a corrupt member of the country's legislature, General Jesus Braunschweiger. When they land, Jesus is shot and killed. Vince and Shelly fall under sniper fire, escape, and drive into town. At their hotel, Vince contacts the mastermind of the inflation plot, General Garcia. Shelly calls the United States Embassy and is told by Barry Lutz, the CIA agent-in-charge, that Vince is a madman who was mentally discharged from the agency. Leaving the hotel, Vince hails a taxi driven by one of the airport snipers. Shelly chases, leaping onto the roof of the car. Vince takes control of the car, crashing into a fruit market. Vince and Shelly reach the general's estate. The insane general gives them $20 million for the plates, awards them medals, and marches them in front of a firing squad. Vince stalls for time until hundreds of CIA agents, led by Lutz, overwhelm the army and take Garcia into custody. Lutz reveals that Vince was telling the truth. However, Vince retires, as he has had enough. He gives Lutz the $10 million he had agreed to deliver from the general. Vince and Shelly take off with five million dollars each, giving their children a wedding gift of a million dollars each.

Having escaped from Central America with his comrades Drew Blakeley, Derek Godwin, Michel-Claude, Terry, and Richard, mercenary Jamie Shannon gets an offer from Endean, a British businessman working for a tycoon. Endean's company is interested in "certain resources" in the small African nation of Zangaro, which is run by the brutal dictator, President Kimba. Shannon goes on a reconnaissance mission to Zangaro's capital of Clarence and meets British documentary film maker Alan North, who fills him in on the political situation in Zangaro. Shannon's activities arouse the suspicions of the police (especially a suspected dalliance with Gabrielle Dexter, a woman who turns out to be one of Kimba's mistresses), and he is arrested, severely beaten and imprisoned. His wounds are treated by Dr. Okoye, a physician and prisoner who was formerly a moderate political leader. North agitates for Shannon's release, and two days later he is deported. When Shannon tells Endean that there is no chance of a coup, Endean offers him $100,000 to overthrow Kimba by invading Zangaro with a mercenary army. Endean's employer intends to install a puppet government led by Colonel Bobi, Kimba's greedy former ally, allowing Endean's employer to exploit the country's newly discovered platinum resources, an agreement guaranteed by Colonel Bobi. Shannon refuses the offer and instead proposes to his estranged girlfriend Jessie that they start a new life in the Western U.S. When she refuses his proposal, he accepts Endean's contract on condition that he will have control of the military operation. Provided with a million dollars for expenses, Shannon contacts some of his associates from Central America and they meet in London to plan the invasion. The group illegally procures a supply of Uzi submachine guns, ammunition, rocket launchers, mines, and other weapons from arms dealers. North encounters Shannon by chance in London and suspects him of being a CIA agent. Shannon asks Drew to scare North away without hurting him, but North is killed by a hitman hired by Endean to follow Shannon and his crew. Drew captures the assassin, and when a furious Shannon learns that Endean had sent the hitman but that the hitman had killed North on his own initiative, he kills the assassin in turn and leaves the body at Endean's house during a dinner party held for Colonel Bobi. To transport the group and equipment to the coast of Zangaro, Shannon hires a small freighter and crew. At sea, the team is joined by a force of Zangaran exiles trained as soldiers by a former mercenary colleague. Once ashore in a night attack, the mercenaries and their troops use their array of weapons to attack the military garrison where Kimba lives. Drew bursts into a shack in the barracks' courtyard and finds only a young woman with a baby; when he turns to leave without harming them, she shoots him in the back with a pistol. After the mercenaries storm the burning, bullet-scarred ruins of the garrison, Shannon blasts his way into Kimba's mansion. There he finds Kimba stuffing packs of bills into a briefcase; when a whimpering Kimba offers Shannon some of the money to spare his life, Shannon kills him. The following morning, Endean arrives by helicopter with Colonel Bobi and they enter the presidential residence, where they find Shannon and Dr. Okoye awaiting their overdue arrival. Shannon introduces Dr. Okoye as Zangaro's new president, who tells Colonel Bobi that he is under arrest, and when Endean protests ("This whole country's bought and paid for!"), Shannon tells him, "You're going to have to buy it all over again," and silences him by shooting Bobi. Shannon, Derek, and Michel load Drew's body onto a Land Rover, in line with the toast they drank on planning the operation "Everyone comes home". The film concludes with the mercenaries driving through the deserted streets of Clarence until they are out of frame.

Three years after the destruction of the Death Star, the Imperial fleet, led by Darth Vader, dispatches probe droids across the galaxy in search of the Rebel Alliance. One probe locates the Rebel base on the ice planet Hoth. A wampa captures Luke Skywalker before he can investigate the probe crash site, but he escapes by using the Force to retrieve his lightsaber and wound the beast. Before Luke succumbs to hypothermia, the Force spirit of his deceased mentor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, instructs him to go to the swamp planet Dagobah to train as a Jedi Knight under Jedi Master Yoda. Han Solo discovers Luke and insulates him against the weather inside a tauntaun carcass until they are rescued the next morning. Alerted to the Rebels' location, the Empire launches a large-scale attack using AT-AT walkers, forcing the Rebels to evacuate the base. Han, Princess Leia, C-3PO and Chewbacca escape aboard the Millennium Falcon, but the ship's hyperdrive malfunctions. They hide in an asteroid field, where Han and Leia grow closer amid the tension. Vader summons several bounty hunters, including Boba Fett, to find the Falcon. Evading the Imperial fleet, Han's group travels to the floating Cloud City on the gas planet Bespin, which is governed by his old friend Lando Calrissian. Fett tracks them there, and Vader forces Lando to surrender the group to the Empire, knowing Luke will come to their aid. Meanwhile, Luke travels with R2-D2 in his X-wing fighter to Dagobah, where he crash-lands. He meets Yoda, a diminutive creature who reluctantly accepts him as his Jedi apprentice after conferring with Obi-Wan's spirit. Yoda trains Luke to master the light side of the Force and resist negative emotions that will seduce him to the dark side, as they did Vader. Luke struggles to control his anger and impulsiveness and fails to comprehend the nature and power of the Force until he witnesses Yoda using it to levitate the X-wing from the swamp. Luke has a premonition of Han and Leia suffering, and, despite protestations from Obi-Wan and Yoda, he abandons his training to rescue them. Although Obi-Wan believes Luke is their only hope, Yoda asserts that "there is another." Leia confesses her love for Han before Vader freezes him in carbonite to test whether the process will safely imprison Luke. Han survives and is given to Fett, who intends to collect the bounty on Han from Jabba the Hutt. Lando frees Leia and Chewbacca, but they are too late to stop Fett's escape. The group fights its way back to the Falcon and flees the city. Luke arrives and engages Vader in a lightsaber duel over the city's central air shaft. Vader defeats Luke, severing his right hand and separating him from his lightsaber. He urges Luke to embrace the dark side and help him destroy his master, the Emperor, so they may rule the galaxy together. Luke refuses, citing Obi-Wan's claim that Vader killed his father, which prompts Vader to reveal that he is Luke's father. Distraught, Luke plunges down the air shaft and is ejected beneath the floating city, where he dangles from an antenna. He reaches out through the Force to Leia, and the Falcon returns to rescue him. They are pursued by TIE fighters and Vader's Star Destroyer, but manage to escape after R2-D2 repairs the Falcon ' s hyperdrive. After the group joins the Rebel fleet, Luke's missing hand is replaced by a robotic prosthesis. He, Leia, C-3PO, and R2-D2 observe as Lando and Chewbacca depart on the Falcon to find Han.

Seth Brundle, a brilliant but eccentric scientist, meets Veronica "Ronnie" Quaife, a science journalist, at a press event. He takes her back to his home and laboratory and shows her his invention: a set of "telepods" that allows instantaneous teleportation between them. Seth convinces Ronnie to keep the invention secret in exchange for exclusive rights to the story, and she documents his work. Although the telepods can transport inanimate objects, they mutilate live tissue, as demonstrated when a baboon is turned inside-out during an experiment. Seth and Ronnie begin a romantic relationship. Their first sexual encounter inspires Seth to reprogram the telepod to understand the makeup of living tissue. After he successfully teleports a second baboon, Ronnie hurriedly leaves to confront her editor Stathis Borans about his threat, spurred by his jealousy of Seth, to publish the story without her consent. Embittered and convinced she is rekindling her relationship with Stathis, Seth teleports himself alone, unaware that a housefly has slipped inside the transmitter pod with him. He emerges from the receiving pod seemingly normal. Seth and Ronnie later reconcile. Seth starts to exhibit increased strength, stamina, and sexual potency, which he attributes to the teleportation "purifying" his body. Ronnie grows concerned about Seth's changing personality and the strange, bristly hairs growing from a wound on his back. Seth becomes arrogant and violent, insisting that the teleportation process is beneficial, and tries to force Ronnie to undergo teleportation. When she refuses, he abandons her, goes to a bar and partakes in an arm-wrestling match, where he leaves his opponent with a compound fracture. He brings a woman named Tawny back to his warehouse to have intercourse. When Seth tries to coerce her into teleporting, Ronnie stops him and Seth throws her out as well. When his fingernails begin falling off, Seth realizes something is wrong. He reviews the telepod's computer and discovers that there was a fly in the pod with him. The computer, confused by the presence of two lifeforms, fused him with the fly at the molecular-genetic level. Seth continues to deteriorate, losing body parts and becoming less human in appearance. After several weeks, he reconnects with Ronnie and says he is becoming a hybrid of human and insect he nicknamed "Brundlefly." He has begun vomiting digestive enzymes onto his food to dissolve it and gained the ability to cling to walls and ceilings. He also realizes that he is losing his human reason and compassion, driven by primitive impulses he cannot control. Seth installs a fusion program into the telepod computer, planning to dilute the fly genes in his body with human DNA. Ronnie learns that she is pregnant by Seth, but does not know if the conception occurred before or after Seth's genes were corrupted. She worries that the child will not be human, and has a nightmare of giving birth to a giant maggot. She visits Brundle in order to break the news to him, but he warns her that he will harm her if she continues to visit. Terribly upset, she has Stathis persuade a doctor to perform an abortion in the middle of the night. Having overheard their conversation, Seth abducts Ronnie and begs her to carry the child to term, since it may be the last remnant of his humanity. Stathis breaks into Seth's lab with a shotgun, but Seth incapacitates him with his corrosive vomit. Seth reveals his desperate plan to Ronnie: he will use the telepods to fuse himself and her, together with their unborn child, into one entity. As Seth drags her into one of the telepods, she accidentally rips off his jaw, triggering his final transformation into an insectoid-human "Brundlefly" creature, shedding his decayed human skin. Brundlefly traps Ronnie inside the first telepod and enters the other, planning to use the prototype pod as the receiver of the combination of pods 1 and 2. The wounded Stathis uses his shotgun to sever the cables connecting Ronnie's telepod to the computer, allowing Ronnie to escape. The damage causes telepod 2 to malfunction and Brundlefly attempts to smash his way through the door, only for the pod to activate just as he is stepping out, fusing the creature to a piece of the door and other components. The prototype pod receives the Brundlefly/Telepod fusion successfully; as the door opens, the resulting creature falls out of the door and to the ground. He crawls to Ronnie and silently requests for her to end his misery by aiming Stathis' shotgun barrel, which she had picked up, at his own head. She eventually, and tearfully, shoots and kills him, falling to her knees in despair.

Bull McCabe, an Irish farmer, dumps a dead donkey in a lake. It transpires that McCabe's son, Tadhg, killed the donkey after discovering it had broken into the field the family has rented for generations. The donkey's owner blames Bull McCabe for the death and demands "blood money". McCabe has a deep attachment to the rented field, which his family has cultivated and improved, from barren to now very productive, over a number of generations. The field's owner is a widow who, around the time of the 10th anniversary of the death of her husband, decides to sell the field. She decides to sell the field by public auction rather than to McCabe directly. Unbeknownst to McCabe, Tadhg has been harassing the widow for years, causing her to believe that McCabe is behind the harassment in order to force her into a sale. On hearing there will be an auction McCabe goes to the village pub and announces that nobody would dare bid against him for "his" field. McCabe has constant doubts about Tadhg's ability to safeguard the field. His older son, Seamie, died by suicide when he was 13. McCabe blames himself for the death, as he told Seamie the field could only support one family, and that Tadhg would have to emigrate when he grew up. McCabe and his wife have not spoken in the 18 years since the death. Peter, an American whose ancestors are from the area, arrives in the village. He has plans to build a hydro-electric plant in the area and quarry stone for new roads. Central to his plans is McCabe's field. At the auction Peter repeatedly out-bids McCabe, forcing the price up to 80 pounds, 30 pounds more than what McCabe can afford. Seeing the bidding war the widow stops the auction and insists there would be a new auction, with a reserve price of 100 pounds. Knowing he cannot outbid Peter and seeing his cattle thrown off the field, McCabe goes to the rectory to confront Peter, and the parish priest who has been supporting him. McCabe now discovers Tadhg's actions, expelling him from the meeting, and goes on to explain his deep attachment to the field. This includes the death of his mother while saving hay. Peter refuses to back down from his plans. In a desperate last attempt McCabe and Tadhg confront Peter at a waterfall he has just purchased, the night before the second auction. When Tadhg fails to defeat Peter in a fight, McCabe himself intervenes and beats both men in a rage. Peter is killed, and upon realising this, McCabe has a mental break. He confuses Peter with his dead son Seamie. Tadhg flees to the Irish Traveller woman he has fallen for. He tells her he has killed Peter, and they make plans to run off together. McCabe's acolyte Bird O'Donnell bids on behalf of McCabe and secures the field for 101 pounds at the second auction, unopposed. A Traveller boy spots the dead donkey floating in the lake and a crane is brought in to recover it. It inadvertently recovers the corpse of Peter. At the same time Tadhg comes home to tell his father he is leaving with the Traveller and says he never wanted the field. The Parish priest arrives to confront McCabe about the discovery of Peter. Having lost his son and with the corpse discovered, McCabe goes insane and herds his cattle to the cliffs. Bird informs Tadhg that his father has gone mad. Tadhg rushes to stop his father but gets driven over the cliff by the herd of cattle and killed. Further maddened with grief, McCabe attempts to drive the waves back from his dead son, while Tadhg's mother and the Traveller sob on the clifftop.

Gil Renard is a troubled baseball fan whose favorite team, the San Francisco Giants, have just signed a $40 million contract with his favorite player, Bobby Rayburn. His ex-wife Ellen obtains a restraining order after arguing with the short-tempered Gil over his neglect of their child, and Gil is fired from his job as a knife salesman after viciously insulting a prospective customer. An embittered Gil begins obsessing over Rayburn. When Rayburn suffers a chest injury during a game and his performance slumps, Gil antagonizes fans who jeer him. Rayburn has also been in conflict with teammate Juan Primo over who gets to keep the number 11 place. Gil, thinking Primo is to blame for Rayburn's performance, confronts him in a hotel sauna in an attempt to persuade him to let Rayburn have the number. Primo reveals his shoulder, branded with the number 11, and refuses. This leads to a struggle in which Gil fatally stabs Primo. After feeling guilty about Primo's death, Rayburn starts playing well again. Thinking Rayburn does not acknowledge his fans, Gil goes to his beach house and saves his son Sean from drowning. He persuades Rayburn to play a game of catch on the beach. Rayburn states he stopped caring about the game after Primo's death because he felt there were more important things in life. He also tells Gil he has lost respect for the fans, remarking on their fickle nature. An angered Gil nearly hits Rayburn with a fastball and launches into a diatribe. Rayburn is disturbed, especially when Gil takes off his jacket to reveal Rayburn's uniform underneath and asks if he is happy Primo is no longer around. Rayburn soon discovers Gil has kidnapped Sean and has left a piece of branded flesh from Primo's shoulder in the freezer. Driven insane by his idol's disrespect, Gil attempts to emotionally manipulate Sean into seeing him as his real father. He drives to see an old friend, Coop. Coop tries to help Sean escape, revealing that Gil lied about having played professional ball; his only experience was a brief stint in Little League. Gil beats Coop to death with a baseball bat and takes Sean to a baseball field, hiding him there. Gil contacts Rayburn to make one demand: hit a home run in the upcoming game and dedicate it to Gil, or he will kill his son. With the police on alert, Gil enters Candlestick Park in the midst of an on-and-off thunderstorm. Rayburn struggles with his emotions while at bat. After several pitches, he hits the ball deep into the outfield but not over the fence. Rayburn then attempts to score an inside-the-park home run. He is called out, although he is obviously safe. Rayburn argues with the umpire, who turns out to be Gil in disguise. Rayburn knocks Gil to the ground. Dozens of cops and Giants players swarm onto the field and confront Gil. Despite warnings from the police, Gil goes into an exaggerated pitching motion with a knife in hand. Rayburn asks Gil where Sean is, but Gil nonchalantly says he is in the "big stadium in the sky". Gil is fatally shot as he is about to throw the knife. Police discover Sean at the Little League field, named the "Stadium in the Sky", where Gil once played in his childhood. They uncover his obsession with Rayburn as hundreds of newspaper clippings adorn his hideout. A picture on the wall shows Gil in his past glory, playing Little League baseball and winning a championship game.